So…I’ve been increasingly struggling to run the latest games, as the age of my 6 years old desktop is starting to show, and Starfield denying my GPU just pissed me. I know it’s a bug and I can probably play it, but it’s outright the minimum for this game, and so I’d like a refresh of the worst, or should I consider a full new desktop? I know the GPU is starting to show its age, but not sure the CPU is salvageable or you’d advice a new one… Here’s a quick short summary of the computer:
-Mobo Gygabite Z170 K3 -CPU i7 6700 -2x8GB DDR4 2133 -MSI Nvidia 1070 8GB -SSD 1TB on the SATA port (I believe I can install an m.2 instead) -EVGA G2 750W
My questions…I believe these days an AMD card would be cheaper than an Nvidia, correct? What would be an equivalent to a 3070, or a 4070? More importantly…are they bigger in size (would it fit)? Do they take more power than my 1070 (will it roast my power supply?). Power would be a bit important, as I’d rather not replace all the wiring for the power supply, and electricity is becoming kinda pricey these days… I’m basically considering upgrading GPU and RAM, and considering if this would be a good upgrade or the CPU would then be a bottleneck (hence just throw it all and go for a full new desktop…I’d rather not).
Thanks!
In your situation I would probably buy an AMD 7700x with 32gb of DDR5 6000, and if you can get them where you live, an AMD 6950XT (they’re really cheap here right now, equivalent to about a 3080ti-3090). Make sure to get a decent NVME SSD too.
So…basically throw everything out?
Unfortunately. The i7-6700 is like 8 years old now, and yeah not really that great for anything but basic tasks or playing old school games. Even if you get a modern GPU, you’ll be held back by the CPU. And in case you decide to upgrade to Windows 11/12 in the future (say once Microsoft ends support for Win10), you will need to upgrade your CPU and therefore everything else. Might as well do the upgrade now and switch to AMD for both CPU/GPU as it’ll work out cheaper, and AMD is a better option for gaming anyway.
Yes, buying any DDR4 components would just mean your upgrade is going to be obsolete really really soon.
You are saving money by buying current Gen components instead of last Gen components. Trying to salvage anything from your current build will just result in you needing to build a new rig again in a few years instead of 8-10 years from now.
a 4 core CPU isn’t going to cut it in 2023 anymore, and anything new that you’d want to upgrade to is going to be bottlenecked by that 1070. You could of course look at used parts if your budget is tight, there are a lot of used (ex-miner likely) GPUs out there that could tickle your fancy and I bet there are plenty of people selling their 8+ core Intel / AMD + DDR4 + motherboard as well to upgrade to DDR5