Upgrading my PC, GPU questions

[Conger88]

Hi, I was looking for some help on buying a new Graphics card, considering the 16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080.
But I was wondering is this even going to be compatible with my current spec? Also my power supply is only 650W.

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K -
GPU: Nvidia GTX 980-Ti -
SSD: Corsair MP600 PRO 2TB
RAM: Kingston KF3600C18D4/32GX 2x31.5GB -
MBD: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING

So in order to upgrade my graphics card would I need to buy a new power supply (1000W?), new CPU potenitally? And is my motherboard even compatible?
Any help would be great.
Thanks
C

 

[neeyik]

It probably is compatible, even with the original power supply — yes the 4080 can use up to 320W but the rest of the PC isn’t going to be using anywhere near 330W. However, considering the price of the 4080, you could possibly get a system upgrade and a decent GPU for the same price as that one graphics card. Depending on what you’re planning to use the 4080 for, your current system may be a significant limitation.

Edit: Here's an example of a full system upgrade that's pretty much same price as an RTX 4080 (UK values):

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/4Wb8YN

And the Radeon RX 6900 XT is absolutely no slouch.

 

[Conger88]

It probably is compatible, even with the original power supply — yes the 4080 can use up to 320W but the rest of the PC isn’t going to be using anywhere near 330W. However, considering the price of the 4080, you could possibly get a system upgrade and a decent GPU for the same price as that one graphics card. Depending on what you’re planning to use the 4080 for, your current system may be a significant limitation.

Edit: Here's an example of a full system upgrade that's pretty much same price as an RTX 4080 (UK values):

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/4Wb8YN

And the Radeon RX 6900 XT is absolutely no slouch.

Hi @neeyik Thanks for the feedback! I was just googling last night and saw that my motherboard would be compatible because it has 16pin. I think I would prefer to upgrade what I have rather purchase a new system, but I understand what you mean!

I currently have the coolmaster haf x tower which is really big and would prefer not to have another case lying around. So I was thinking maybe for now I will buy GFX card and power supply 1000W to be safe? 900 + 200 then gradually maybe upgrade the motherboard and cpu after that? When you say my current system may be a significant limitation. Do you mean I wouldn't be getting max fps in games or what limitations would I notice?

Thanks again
C.

 

[neeyik]

So I was thinking maybe for now I will buy GFX card and power supply 1000W to be safe? 900 + 200 then gradually maybe upgrade the motherboard and cpu after that? When you say my current system may be a significant limitation. Do you mean I wouldn't be getting max fps in games or what limitations would I notice?

Piecemeal upgrading is a perfectly decent approach and is done by many folks (myself included), as the hassle of doing a full system swap can be quite off-putting and costly. So getting a new GPU, along with a better PSU, is fine.

The GTX 980 Ti is nearly 8 years old so even a basic mid-range card from the current or previous generation of GPUs will easily out-perform it. I used to have a pair of GTX 980 Tis in SLI, on an i7-4970K setup, before replacing them with a single Titan X Pascal card. That died and so got switched to an RTX 2080 Super (and eventually with a system update to an i7-9700K) before changing that card to an RTX 4070 Ti.

Here's a collection of 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra test runs comparing those setups:

Result

www.3dmark.com

Note how there's little difference in any of the individual tests between the i7-4790K + 980 Ti SLI system and the i7-9700K + 2080 Super, bar the Physics Test (which has always been a bit of an iffy CPU test). That's because the rest of the tests are limited by the performance of the GPU, and for the workload in Fire Strike, one 2080 Super is the same as two 980 Tis. But then look at how much better the 4070 Ti is -- more than double the performance.

So, getting a new GPU (and £900 will easily net you an awesome card) will give you a huge boost, but only if the games or applications in question are completely limited by the graphics card. Playing Half-Life 2 at low settings and 1080p will barely change, if at all, whereas Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p, max settings will be utterly transformed.

 

[Conger88]

Piecemeal upgrading is a perfectly decent approach and is done by many folks (myself included), as the hassle of doing a full system swap can be quite off-putting and costly. So getting a new GPU, along with a better PSU, is fine.

The GTX 980 Ti is nearly 8 years old so even a basic mid-range card from the current or previous generation of GPUs will easily out-perform it. I used to have a pair of GTX 980 Tis in SLI, on an i7-4970K setup, before replacing them with a single Titan X Pascal card. That died and so got switched to an RTX 2080 Super (and eventually with a system update to an i7-9700K) before changing that card to an RTX 4070 Ti.

Here's a collection of 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra test runs comparing those setups:

Result

www.3dmark.com

Note how there's little difference in any of the individual tests between the i7-4790K + 980 Ti SLI system and the i7-9700K + 2080 Super, bar the Physics Test (which has always been a bit of an iffy CPU test). That's because the rest of the tests are limited by the performance of the GPU, and for the workload in Fire Strike, one 2080 Super is the same as two 980 Tis. But then look at how much better the 4070 Ti is -- more than double the performance.

So, getting a new GPU (and £900 will easily net you an awesome card) will give you a huge boost, but only if the games or applications in question are completely limited by the graphics card. Playing Half-Life 2 at low settings and 1080p will barely change, if at all, whereas Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p, max settings will be utterly transformed.

@neeyik Sounds brilliant! So I can take it that my current setup CPU/Motherboard will still handle it. I have a 2k Asus Rog Monitor as well. Should make things nice. Thanks for the detailed help!

 

[neeyik]

While the following tests were done on a Radeon RX 5700 XT, you can see how well it pairs with a heavily overclocked i7-6700K:

Pay close attention to the 1% and 0.1% Low figures indicated in the top left-hand corner of each game -- these are typically constrained by the CPU+system. Those are unlikely to improve a faster GPU.