Mini 1070Ti and compatibility

[Allan O'D]

Hello all,

I am starting to slowly upgrade my PC Specialist rig which has faithfully served me well for 4.5 years without issue..

Currently, my GPU is still performing well enough although time waits for no man or rig and I do think it's one of the most important issues to address, the problem I have or potentially might have is the CPU bottle-necking the card and so preventing it from performing proprely or as it was intended.

my current build is:

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® Z97M-PLUS: m-ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6.0, XFIRE
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Monitor Qnix 2710 picture perfect.
Case CORSAIR 230T COMPACT GAMING CASE

Card which after some reading is best bang for buck currently I intend on changing to is the Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Mini 8 GB. my budget is £400.00, less if possible.

Hopefully some well versed individuals here will either confirm or allay my fears.

i should add that PC Partpicker has already shown there are no incompatibilities so Mobo, power and case should be ok, it's just will i get the best out of the card using my current CPU?

feel free to chip in thoughts, experiences etc, all welcome.

thanks for reading this and hopefully you can help me

Best,
Allan.

 

[Oussebon]

The CPU will be fine in almost all games.

The RTX 2060 is probably a better buy than the 1070 ti. It performs a little better overall, is available cheaper, and has Nvidia's RTX features.

 

[Allan O'D]

Hello Oussebon,

thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated - I was not aware the 2060 was well spec'd enough to provide 1440p gaming at a reasonable level.
My hardcore gaming is well behind me now and i abhor pvp and the salt in the various communities so my gaming is now ARPG, witcher 3 and MMO type genre games.
My main aim is for games to perform at 50-60 at high settings on my Qnix 2710 which i can overclock up to 90Hz comfortably. I'm not hugely bothered about overclocking the screen but i would like to get the most out of my
screen without bursting budget.

cheers,
Allan.

 

[Oussebon]

I was not aware the 2060 was well spec'd enough to provide 1440p gaming at a reasonable level.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_RTX_2060_Gaming_Pro_OC/28.html

That 2060's £335 with optional free delivery on a couple of sites. Although there are others to choose from.

Certain MMOs may prefer an upgraded CPU, but depending on the titles and settings you play, and how you find the experience, it may well not be essential. You're absolutely fine to proceed with the GPU purchase now, and then subsequently assess performance in games to decide if you want to upgrade the CPU. Even if you decide you think you do want to upgrade the CPU for X CPU-bound MMO, you may decide to wait for the summer and Zen 2 anyway.

Witcher 3 is unlikely to care about your CPU at all, even in something like Novigrad.

 

[Allan O'D]

View attachment 12692
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_RTX_2060_Gaming_Pro_OC/28.html

That 2060's £335 with optional free delivery on a couple of sites. Although there are others to choose from.

Certain MMOs may prefer an upgraded CPU, but depending on the titles and settings you play, and how you find the experience, it may well not be essential. You're absolutely fine to proceed with the GPU purchase now, and then subsequently assess performance in games to decide if you want to upgrade the CPU. Even if you decide you think you do want to upgrade the CPU for X CPU-bound MMO, you may decide to wait for the summer and Zen 2 anyway.

Witcher 3 is unlikely to care about your CPU at all, even in something like Novigrad.

great info thanks, i'll change focus to the 2060 which the newer features will provide a little more longevity as well. the prices on the 2060 seem great, and if I can squeeze 50-60 frames at high settings on my 1440p then I can't ask for much more, certainly for the cost. I have a huge steam librabry most of which i haven't played (like most people I imagine) so I look forward to the new lease of life the GPU will afford games.

Best,
Allan.

 

[Oussebon]

I have a huge steam librabry most of which i haven't played (like most people I imagine)

I hear you.

I really want to make the jump to 4k but the hardware market there has been really stagnant since the launch of the 1080 ti in 2017.

I have a big, big backlog to clear out, which I'm currently itching to do.

Am considering getting a 2060 and a 1440p freesync monitor for £200-400 depending on the model for £600-700 to rattle through my library until we can get a bit more performance per £ for 4k. But a 4k GPU + monitor would be 'only' twice as much, and £700 on a stopgap is a lot of money. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Allan O'D]

I really want to make the jump to 4k

Are games and choice really at the stage of being plentiful at 4k res? AFAIK the last time i checked PC Gamer mag, there were precious few games available to play without donating an organ to afford playing and the development of 4k optionable gaming was not moving at pace..

wouldn't you need a 2080 or 1080ti, titan territory to get 4k gaming at 60 frames and on high/ultra settings? my knowledge is very limited right enough as i'm a dad now and my budget doesn't get put towards tech any more

in any case, i might splurge on 4k gamiing but i'm years and years from that, and tbh when I am, it might well be the costs are not as sky high as they seem to be. in saying that If you look long and hard enough, and know the right people you might just be able to pull off a deal.

 

[Oussebon]

wouldn't you need a 2080 or 1080ti, titan territory to get 4k gaming at 60 frames and on high/ultra settings?

Yeah. A gsync / adaptive refresh rate monitor would smooth out FPS drops too making solid 60 much less of an issue too.

£650+ for a 2080 and currently £800 for a 32" 4k gsync IPS monitor. It's periodically on sale for around £650, which is ok when you think what it is. But it's the GPU pricing that has me unconvinced. £650 for somethat's that's 'okay' but really not much better than the 1080 ti that came out in 2017 for similar pricing just feels like too much.

There are also a lot of slightly older titles that will run very happily at 4k even on lesser hardware. Something like Shadow of Mordor for example: https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-review,26.html

Older titles still like ME3 probably need UI mods and texture mods to get the most out of them, but these are available.