GTX 980/i7 & TS2015

[Mr395008]

Hello,

In the next few weeks I'll be giving my 2 year old PC a bit of an upgrade.

Current specs:
Intel Core i5 3.20GHz 6MB L3
Gigabyte GA-Z77P-D3 Socket 1155 HDMI 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Seagate 1TB Barracuda 3.5" SATA-III Hard Drive - 7200RPM 64MB
Corsair CX 500W
EVGA GTX 650 Ti SuperSuperClocked 2GB GDDR5
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x 8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 RAM

Specs I'm looking at:
Intel Core i7 4GHz 8MB L3
MSI Z97 Gaming 3 Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard
Samsung SAM 850 Pro 512GB (SSD)
Corsair Builder Series CXM 750W Modular 80
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Superclocked
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x 8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 RAM (Possibly add another 16GB)

I'm just curious if anyone has any experience with i7/GTX980 with TS2015?
I'm basically wanting to future proof my PC as much as I possibly can. Ideally I'd want this upgrade to survive the next TSXXXX and beyond. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mr395008

[secludedsfx]

I use a 980ti myself and love it (The 980 is in an interesting place price wise now as it's only about £100 more to get something which packs quite a bit more of a punch).

Also make sure you have a good enough cooling solution for the 4790k as it runs quite hot generally.

[gptech]

Nice specs, but is the drop in storage space worth it?
I'd be tempted to have 2 drives fitted, use an SSD for Windows (meaning it can be smaller, hence cheaper) and a big conventional drive for programs (reuse the existing one?).
I wouldn't bother with an extra 16GB of RAM, unless you're running programs that can/will make use of any extra, nor would I concentrate on the outdated concept of "future proofing"--it's never really existed other than as a retailers marketing tool (you're probably old enough to remember everybody wanting a 386/486DX to be "future proofed", only to find Intel moved the goal posts and everything since has basically been based on the SX architecture). It's likely that your present machine would "survive the next TSXXXX and beyond", this upgrade just makes it a bit more likely.

[lenfish]

On the future-proofing front just be aware, if you're not already, that the next generation "Skylake" Intel processors have just been released. I'm currently running a 4790K with a Asus 980 GTX card and it seems a good combination, although the nature of TS2015 means it can bring even the most powerful system to its knees!

Regards,

Len

[Mr395008]

Nice specs, but is the drop in storage space worth it?
I'd be tempted to have 2 drives fitted, use an SSD for Windows (meaning it can be smaller, hence cheaper) and a big conventional drive for programs (reuse the existing one?).
I wouldn't bother with an extra 16GB of RAM, unless you're running programs that can/will make use of any extra, nor would I concentrate on the outdated concept of "future proofing"--it's never really existed other than as a retailers marketing tool (you're probably old enough to remember everybody wanting a 386/486DX to be "future proofed", only to find Intel moved the goal posts and everything since has basically been based on the SX architecture). It's likely that your present machine would "survive the next TSXXXX and beyond", this upgrade just makes it a bit more likely.

Storage space isn't an issue for me, I currently use about 230gb of my current hard drive. The PC is just mainly for TS, MacBook Pro covers everything else.
I don't think I'd need anything more than 16GB of RAM, just thought whilst I was doing an upgrade I'd go for it.

[Mr395008]

On the future-proofing front just be aware, if you're not already, that the next generation "Skylake" Intel processors have just been released. I'm currently running a 4790K with a Asus 980 GTX card and it seems a good combination, although the nature of TS2015 means it can bring even the most powerful system to its knees!

Regards,

Len

I wasn't Len, thanks for that. I'll do some reading

[Trev123]

Glad I didn't buy a 980. They are about $400 NZ dearer than my 960. Much more than I was prepared to pay for a graphics card. I'm happy with my 960.

[peterfhayes]

Running the rig at 4GHZ would possibly "bottleneck" (or not utilize the card optimally), any of the GTX 980's.
If you have a large monitor or several or a 4K job then just make sure you buy a card with enough VRAM.
A GTX960/970 with 4GB VRAM would suit that PC at 4GHz.
pH

[gptech]

The 980 is in an interesting place price wise now as it's only about £100 more.......

That's only if £100 is something you class as 'small change'. Many UKTS members will be pushing the boat out to afford something along the lines of a 960, so £100 on top of that isn't realistic.
And of course that £100 pound difference may be between the dearest *lesser* card and the cheapest 980. Just out of interest what cards were you comparing?

For the purposes of solely playing TS, a 980 could be classed as being slightly OTT---there are many posts in here indicating that a 970 runs the game just as well, with a 960 not being 'left behind' when running at PC resolutions; it's only when pushed over multiple monitors or on huge monitors that a 960 starts to struggle.

Nowt to do with this thread of course as 395008 can obviously afford to upgrade his machine after 2 years but we shouldn't give others the impression that you need to spend a fortune in order to enjoy the game.

I'm happy with my 960.

I'm running one too with no problems, but apart from being able to use 2x2 SSAA instead of 1x2 or 2x1 it doesn't perform significantly better when playing than my old 550Ti: yes I get slightly higher frame rates but I need to turn the FPS counter on to know that and I'd rather be playing than monitoring.

EDIT: Just read Peter's post, and he basically said what I've just said but with less waffle

[secludedsfx]

I was more going on about since the 980ti has came out it has a better price per performance ratio than the 980, best card for price to performance is the 970 though.

[felix47]

Regarding CPU - while "Skylake" is indeed latest and greatest (also price wise), "Haswell refresh" is not far behind in terms of performance - and given its higher default turbo speed (4,4 Ghz with 4790K vs. 4,2 with 6700K) is often even slightly faster than "Skylake". The same rule applies even for overclocked chips, of course - "Haswell refresh" can really hold its own against "Skylake".
Another interesting option might be the recently released "Broadwell" CPU i7 5775C. While its raw speeds are "nothing to write home about", it has few unique features - it has approx. 30% lower consumption compared to both "Haswell refresh" and "Skylake" and it has huge L4 cache (courtesy of integrated Iris Pro), which actually helps it to pull ahead both its brothers in a lot of tasks.
No free lunch though, this baby is not exactly a "stellar overclocker" (quite the opposite, in fact ) - and of course, we simply do not know, if the benefits of having L4 cache translate to better RW/TS performance in real world (on the other hand, "Broadwell" might just be the right CPU for secondary -or tertiary- computer, with its fairly powerful IGP and low power consumption).

What I am trying to say?
Even without "Broadwell", you really can't go wrong with either "Haswell refresh" or "Skylake" - personally, if I was shopping for a new CPU today, right now I would probably go for "Haswell refresh" -or "Broadwell"-, as this platform is widely available and its quirks are well known.
But if I was to buy something new within next 3 - 6 months, I would be (and I am, in fact) aiming at the "Skylake".

[mearle73]

I've just upgraded to a skylake 6600k running at 4.6ghz water cooled,16 meg ddr4 running at 2800,gtx 980ti also under water, got this connected to a 40" 4k curved Samsung,railworks looks good.Also only used ssd`s in computer,kept a 3.0 usb ice box connected for old type hard drive storage.

[ttjph]

Interesting to see that the Broadwell chips come with a Socket 1150 option (the 'C' suffix) - good for upgrading on current motherboards!

Single-thread performance from this review looks very respectable but not quite world-beating, sitting between a 4790K and a 4690K, so probably around 2300 Passmark:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1028-int ... page3.html
Multi-thread performance (for TS:UE) similarly looks to fall between those two i7s, depending on the exact benchmark.

[Mr395008]

So I've been doing some research and I'm starting to think the i7 I wanted isn't needed, maybe thinking of getting i5 3.5ghz and getting GTX970 instead. Decisions Decisions!

[Rockdoc2174]

I have an i5 4690K and an MSI GTX970 on an MSI Z97 motherboard and it more than copes with TS.

Keith