is this a bad time to get a card?

[Head1985]

Plenty of recommendations for the 1070 coming in but I could see so much of its potential wasted by a cpu bottleneck here. Modern games are really starting to show the limitations of i5s, especially given the IPC disadvantage of Sandy vs Skylake. I'd take an upgrade to a 2600k and a 1060/480 over just slapping in a 1070 and hoping the 2500k doesn't choke it.

If you have $400 to spend I'd seriously consider continuing to save for an entirely new system rather than putting it into an older one.

Yep 2500k is bottleneck in new games.Even 2500k at 4.8ghz its slower than skylake at 3ghz
https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...astered-gpu-perf.2491354/page-3#post-38603452
i recommend you first upgrade PC(CPU/MB/RAM) and then look at new GPU.By that time new better cards can be already out(vega/pascal refresh)

 

[Insomniator]

Yep 2500k is bottleneck in new games.Even 2500k at 4.8ghz its slower than skylake at 3ghz
https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...astered-gpu-perf.2491354/page-3#post-38603452
i recommend you first upgrade PC(CPU/MB/RAM) and then look at new GPU.By that time new better cards can be already out(vega/pascal refresh)

Is there more than one example of a 2500k at 4.5 choking a 1070+ besides a remastered console game?

 

[Headfoot]

I'd get a 1070 and do a full rebuild the next time you want to upgrade in 2-4 years.

 

[nurturedhate]

Is there more than one example of a 2500k at 4.5 choking a 1070+ besides a remastered console game?

Plenty, and there's even BF1 multiplayer where an i5 4670k at 4.5k bottlenecks a 1070. As great a cpu as the 2500k was it is nearly 6 years old at this point.

 

[Bacon1]

Trying to keep a high end GPU for many years is a bad idea. You are much better off buying 2nd or 3rd "best" cards (ignore titan and other massively crazy priced ones) and keeping it for 2 years max. You'll save a lot of money and have a better experience.

Look at a 780 TI now vs current cards, it's not even on the map, yet cost $700 just 3 years ago!

Buying a 1070 if you get it at a great deal can be worth it, but I'd honestly recommend 1060 or 470/480 for now and then upgrade when the newer cards release next year or year after. You'll save a lot and can get the newer, more efficient, faster tech more often.

 

[happy medium]

Look at a 780 TI now

Why,? the Kepler architecture (gtx680/780) is 4.5 years old now, and not supported.
Maxwell architecture is next , its will be 3 years old on February 18. less than 3 months from now.
I expect when Pascal refresh/Volta is released late next year, Maxwell will be over 3 1/2 years old and will be phased out also.

Say the gtx1080ti is released in February, the Pascal architecture is almost a year old already by then. And Maxwell is three years old.!

Just because Nvidia does not do things like AMD , does not mean its wrong.

I think consoles are holding AMD PC gpu's back. They are on basically the same architecture since the 7970.

Is it a good time to buy a high end card? I'd say yes for the next few months, but after a few months time the next level of cards will be too close.
I think that Navi and Volta (2018) will be the true next gen architecture, I think Pascal and Vega are just refreshes of Maxwell and Fury.

 

[Head1985]

Is there more than one example of a 2500k at 4.5 choking a 1070+ besides a remastered console game?

Its vs 4.8Ghz and all games are console ports.

 

[Bacon1]

Why,?

Because of everything I listed in my post?

Buying high end cards every 5 years is a bad use of money. You can buy mid range / 3rd tier cards for much less more often and have better results over that 5 year span.

 

[happy medium]

You can buy mid range / 3rd tier cards

I agree,
I do that with gpu's and cpu's.
I buy what I need.

 

[poofyhairguy]

A five year old i7 CPU is at worst 25% slower than a current i7 at the same speeds.

A five year old flagship GPU is less than half as slow as a current flagship GPU.

There is a complete mismatch between the two.

 

[Bacon1]

A five year old flagship GPU is less than half as slow as a current flagship GPU.

Yep, thats why good CPU / Monitor will last you a long long time while a high end GPU will only last a year or two. Mostly because optimization is completely missing on games for at least a few months.

I mean PS4 Pro WD2 compared to PC is sad

https://youtu.be/JkT_fQTofOU

PC Optimization is just missing and instead you have to upgrade your GPU to get the perf you should have had.

 

[tential]

Yep, thats why good CPU / Monitor will last you a long long time while a high end GPU will only last a year or two. Mostly because optimization is completely missing on games for at least a few months.

I mean PS4 Pro WD2 compared to PC is sad

https://youtu.be/JkT_fQTofOU

PC Optimization is just missing and instead you have to upgrade your GPU to get the perf you should have had.

I'm seriously debating getting Scorpio and a PS4 and giving up on PC gaming for awhile. The performance difference between PC and the new 4k capable consoles when it comes to output image iq is hard for me to tell the difference.

 

[SlickR12345]

I'm seriously debating getting Scorpio and a PS4 and giving up on PC gaming for awhile. The performance difference between PC and the new 4k capable consoles when it comes to output image iq is hard for me to tell the difference.

Troll? Are you serious? The new ps4 pro can't even display 1080p properly with higher settings than the original one.

All this 4k talk is just pure bullshit. They upscale 1080p to 4k and make the image look worse. upscaling is the worst thing you can do for image quality, its pure marketing bullshit. I'd rather play on 720p then upscaled 4k, the image quality is that bad when upscaling.

And many games do look significantly better on PC, if anything just the draw distance and more pedestrians in open world games is worth it.

 

[Rifter]

Troll? Are you serious? The new ps4 pro can't even display 1080p properly with higher settings than the original one.

All this 4k talk is just pure bullshit. They upscale 1080p to 4k and make the image look worse. upscaling is the worst thing you can do for image quality, its pure marketing bullshit. I'd rather play on 720p then upscaled 4k, the image quality is that bad when upscaling.

And many games do look significantly better on PC, if anything just the draw distance and more pedestrians in open world games is worth it.

Draw distance especially, Gotta love it when you are ripping around in GTA and have other vehicle appearing so close to you that you dont even have time to avoid a collision.

 

[tential]

Troll? Are you serious? The new ps4 pro can't even display 1080p properly with higher settings than the original one.

All this 4k talk is just pure bullshit. They upscale 1080p to 4k and make the image look worse. upscaling is the worst thing you can do for image quality, its pure marketing bullshit. I'd rather play on 720p then upscaled 4k, the image quality is that bad when upscaling.

And many games do look significantly better on PC, if anything just the draw distance and more pedestrians in open world games is worth it.

Many games were rendered in 1080p already on the PS4. They are obviously not rendered 4K/60 fps, but they are rendered above 1080p, and even those on 1080p screens see increased detail. There are TONS of threads about the upgrades and res bumps in games that are getting patched over on neogaf.

That's like your opinion on the 720p... I'd much rather play at a resolution above 1080p upscaled to 4k then 720p native. Do you have a 4k display?

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm seriously debating getting Scorpio and a PS4 and giving up on PC gaming for awhile. The performance difference between PC and the new 4k capable consoles when it comes to output image iq is hard for me to tell the difference.

I feel you, the reasons for PC gaming decrease by the day. Where is Star Citizen to finally give PC gamers something to brag about?

One thing PC gaming did do is get me to expect discount games via an online store at least once a year, so I hope Scorpio kicks ass because I feel like I can't go back to Sony's idea of a deal.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Personally I think a 2500k is too old to be running with a 1070. Could perhaps get a 3770k and a 1070 if he can stretch the budget a bit.

If he has no plans to upgrade the system for a couple more years than I'd go for a 1060 6GB.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Personally I think a 2500k is too old to be running with a 1070. Could perhaps get a 3770k and a 1070 if he can stretch the budget a bit.

If he has no plans to upgrade the system for a couple more years than I'd go for a 1060 6GB.

The 1060s are a good deal. Here is a 6GB one for $235 (minus another $25 with an AMEX):

https://m.newegg.com/Product/index?..._-cables-_-na-_-na&itemnumber=N82E16814125901

$215 with AMEX for a card I think is better than a 980 is a great value for gaming. It's hard to justify $100+ more for a 1070 for 1080p.

 

[ddogg]

I was in this same boat 6 months ago. The 2500k is great but it's starting to show it's age after all these years, so I decided to jump to the 6700k. I still have my old 780s so I'm hoping the 1080Ti is priced right to make the jump.

 

[Gromit57]

I've been trying to go AMD (for better colors)

AMD has better colors?

 

[whm1974]

I was in this same boat 6 months ago. The 2500k is great but it's starting to show it's age after all these years, so I decided to jump to the 6700k. I still have my old 780s so I'm hoping the 1080Ti is priced right to make the jump.

The 1080Ti will be an arm and leg, just get the 1070 which is still way better then the 780.

 

[PontiacGTX]

If you can hbuya cheap placeholder liek a RX 470 and later buy a Vega GPU, but if you dont want to wait then get a GTX 1070 or R9 Fury (X)

 

[Headfoot]

2500k will bottleneck a 1070, but not that bad, you'd still see quite a bit more performance out of a 1070 vs a 1060. Plus, you can run SSAA/VSR to bottleneck it at the GPU so I still vote get a 1070 as the last card for the platform before a rebuild.

 

[magomago]

AMD has better colors?

absolutely, you haven't noticed this?

 

[magomago]

What is the difference between 1070 SC ACX 3.0 and the SC ACX 3.0 "Black Edition".

Its an almost 40 dollar price difference...

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce...8&qid=1481003225&sr=8-1&keywords=gtx1070&th=1