Question Worth upgrading from GTX1070 to RTX3070 on Z170 board w/ i7-6700K?

dc4517

Member
Nov 9, 2010
61
2
71
Post title pretty much asks the question. My current PC is a i7-6700K on Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 5 board with a Gigabyte GTX1070 GPU. I would probably see performance gains with a RTX3070. But is the CPU and motherboard so old that the limitations outweigh the gains? I just don't feel like spending $2K+ on building another rig. PSU is 650W and have 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB NVMe SSD.
 

dc4517

Member
Nov 9, 2010
61
2
71
What reaolution do you game? And which games?

Ah, yes, forgot to mention this. 1440 monitor. Recently finished Witcher 3. Currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn. In both cases, I made adjustments downward in quality to get smoother gameplay. Would love to see them at max quality settings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DAPUNISHER

dc4517

Member
Nov 9, 2010
61
2
71
Also, this post came up because I saw Nvidia's 3070 card on Best Buy at $499 MSRP. Sold out now. But that data point indicates to me that prices are more reasonable. Willing to spend $500-600 for a solid 3070 card.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VirtualLarry

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
18,193
4,674
136
Ah, yes, forgot to mention this. 1440 monitor. Recently finished Witcher 3. Currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn. In both cases, I made adjustments downward in quality to get smoother gameplay. Would love to see them at max quality settings.
Definitely go for the upgrade.
 

Golgatha

Lifer
Jul 18, 2003
12,639
1,481
126
You'd still see a big performance boost with just a GPU upgrade. All you need is about $250 for a 5600 or 5600x with a new motherboard to have state of the art though. On top of the GPU purchase of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VirtualLarry

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
18,193
4,674
136
So you don't believe my i7 and current board would be big bottlenecks?
Just crank up the video settings, then the GPU will always be the bottleneck, but it might play as a slideshow :p

Yes it will limit you in certain scenarios, and you will not reach as high frame rates as if you had a newer CPU. If the video card prices hadn’t gone bonkers I would have bought a 3080 for my X99 setup, but I also play at the double resolution.
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
3,364
1,118
106
I upgraded laptops from a 9750H / GTX1650 to a 12700H / RTX3060 and it's very noticeable in what the GPU is doing.

Laptops are a bit of a package deal but, going from the 1070 to 3070 will be noticeable. CPU isn't really going to be the deciding factor since the GPU handles the grunt work for gaming.
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
3,364
1,118
106
PSU is 650W and have 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB NVMe SSD.
Take the inventory of your existing system and put it into pcpartpicker to make sure you have enough power for the GPU + system. PSU upgrade is cheap for 850W ~$100 w/ a 10 year warranty through EVGA.
 

Golgatha

Lifer
Jul 18, 2003
12,639
1,481
126
Take the inventory of your existing system and put it into pcpartpicker to make sure you have enough power for the GPU + system. PSU upgrade is cheap for 850W ~$100 w/ a 10 year warranty through EVGA.

The recommended PSU for a 3070 is 650w and his eVGA G2 is a solid unit. If he goes with a 65w 5600/5600x, there will be plenty of power for the GPU.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AnitaPeterson