Graphic Card Recommendation for Total Noob

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

Here is an updated part list:

-Link-

 

What you need to keep from your old PC:

-Old fans (combine them with 2 Free Fractal 140mm fans)

-Corsair PSU

-1TB HDD

-Windows license key

-DVD-RW (optional)

 

Return your GTX 960 and put those money towards new card.

 

For 1070$ you get: higher tier graphic card (1070 is in top 3 Nvidia GPUs for gaming), high quality 250GB Samsung SSD, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a very nice PC case (looks simple, stylish, reduces noise and is optimal for all types of cooling systems).

[Signette]

Great advices about PC build, but something I would do is keep 960 GTX with Core i5 CPU which doesn't go over 4 GHz, and I'm pretty sure OP won't bother with overclocking hardware... After prolonged usage, you'll have to replace thermal grease, and if you going for OC, grease must be pretty good quality and applied correctly, which isn't someone new in computer hardware will just pick up.

This REALLY depends on how long 960 GTX was in use with this setup, because cheap PSU along with being exposed to high temps might shorten it's lifespan. You can get away with 960 GTX just fine for now, if you don't have giant screen and not huge fan of 4k gaming that is.

 

In case of best parts, those are Core i7 on newest architecture and GTX 1080 Ti, everything else is not worth to spend money on IMO.

Also I don't have very big experience in SSDs, but I heard they have pretty short lifespan (depending on usage of course) so, you must really understand for what purpose you may want it. Slightly shorter loading times won't give you huge edge unless you aren't in competitive MP games...

 

And considering Win8+ difficulty with DX9 games, first time I hear something like this... As far as I know, DX9 games often come on x32, so high RAM usage is out of the question, that if we put aside the fact that they also have issues with multi threading and big mods that would require that much are very rare, so I'm not sure this gonna be any problem.

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

Great advices about PC build, but something I would do is keep 960 GTX with Core i5 CPU which doesn't go over 4 GHz, and I'm pretty sure OP won't bother with overclocking hardware... After prolonged usage, you'll have to replace thermal grease, and if you going for OC, grease must be pretty good quality and applied correctly, which isn't someone new in computer hardware will just pick up.

This REALLY depends on how long 960 GTX was in use with this setup, because cheap PSU along with being exposed to high temps might shorten it's lifespan. You can get away with 960 GTX just fine for now, if you don't have giant screen and not huge fan of 4k gaming that is.

 

In case of best parts, those are Core i7 on newest architecture and GTX 1080 Ti, everything else is not worth to spend money on IMO.

Also I don't have very big experience in SSDs, but I heard they have pretty short lifespan (depending on usage of course) so, you must really understand for what purpose you may want it. Slightly shorter loading times won't give you huge edge unless you aren't in competitive MP games...

 

And considering Win8+ difficulty with DX9 games, first time I hear something like this... As far as I know, DX9 games often come on x32, so high RAM usage is out of the question, that if we put aside the fact that they also have issues with multi threading and big mods that would require that much are very rare, so I'm not sure this gonna be any problem.

 

Your info is a bit outdated.

 

Since Skylake, Intel started using better thermal paste inside the chipsets. It's thanks to that we can overclock it to 4.5GHz+ on air. You won't have the same problems you had with previous generation due to heat reduction.

 

The i5 almost always gets released as 3.5GHz model. i7 has stock 4.0GHz clocks, but costs additional 140$. i5-6600k cost only 10$ more than the basic version. Paying 224$ instead of 215$ won't really impact you.

 

The ASUS Z170A motherboard can auto overcklock your CPU. People who overcklock every day couldn't get better and more stable results when OCing by hand then when using the included ASUS software. It launches from the desktop and you won't even have to go into bios. It's combined together with fan profiles and temp sensors, so you don't have to worry about anything.

 

Gtx 1060 beats 960 hands down. Even 1060 has problems with keeping constant 60fps @1080p in many games. It all boils down to what you are willing to sacrifice. Your money or performance.

 

GTX 1080 TI wasn't even announced yet. Gtx 1080 is somewhere in the middle between new Titan X and 1070. Not worth the extra money, unless you really need to sqeeze few fps more. $ to performance ratio is a lot better for 1070. This model will last next few years unlike the old 960.

 

Lifespan of SSDs was increased with new drivers. Average user will get 12 years out of decent one like Samsung EVO 840. To kill it within 3 years you would have to move 500GB every day. Samsung has covered such users with their PRO series for photographers and photoshop professionals.

 

Loading the game, all programs and Windows, saving your work in Photoshop/Gimp/etc twice as fast saves your time. My loading times in Skyrim (modded) on HDD were around 1m20sec. With SSD it's only 40sec. In Skyrim you have loading screens on every single door. Do you know how frustrating it was? Besides that when the game loads uGrids in open spaces HDD might cause stutter when you move enough to force the game to load next grid area.

 

Windows 8/10 has a bug in the programming. It was aknowledged by Microsoft staff, but they never cared about fixing it. It has nothing to do with 32bit limitation. Your VRAM (not RAM) will get cut down to 4GB even if you have 6 / 8 / 12GB card.

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/1263324/gpu-memory-allocation-limit-on-directx9-windows-8

Edited September 16, 2016 by BlackRoseOfThorns

[TheMastersSon]

I agree with every bit of that.

 

The 4GB VRAM limitation was reported in April 2015. Is there still no fix from Microsoft for Win 8 or 10? We're on 7 here so no idea about later versions.

 

It sounds way too serious for them to get away with ignoring for this long. Millions of video cards with more than 4GB are being shipped today.

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

I agree with every bit of that.

 

The 4GB VRAM limitation was reported in April 2015. Is there still no fix from Microsoft for Win 8 or 10? We're on 7 here so no idea about later versions.

 

It sounds way too serious for them to get away with ignoring for this long. Millions of video cards with more than 4GB are being shipped today.

 

Microsoft just wants DX9 to go away. DX12 is the selling point of Win10 and they want to shorten lifespan of previous versions, so they won't have to overcome user resisting to upgrade. Companies were throwing money at Microsoft to keep Win XP alive for a bit longer. However Microsoft doesn't want to support operating system they can't sell well anymore. That's why this whole sneaky force Win 10 upgrade circus started. You get free upgrade, but they sell your private data to marketing agencies unless you know how to defend yourself against it. Microsoft is as bad as freeware developers right now.

Someone will make Win10 4k gaming benchmark with DX9 and 12 and then they will post miraculous DX12 improvements over stuttering 4GB VRAM DX9.

 

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention. Devil's Canyon also has better thermal compound and heat spreading. It's basically an upgraded i7 4770k. Mine sits at ~65C with all cores utilized under heavy load. That's not bad for 4.5GHz on air. It would run slightly hotter in synthetic benchmark. Maybe at some point I will get 360mm rad to see what it can really do :tongue:

I'm still laughing at it's current online value, when I got mine for 230€ just before all the prices skyrocketed to about 340€.

[TheMastersSon]

Microsoft can wish DX9 to "go away" all it wants, it's still required for 80+% of installed PC games on our planet. I'm amazed they (and Nvidia et al) have avoided class action on this, e.g. is any indication made in video card advertising about the VRAM limit under Windows 8/10 etc?

 

If this is part of MS's larger campaign to gut PCs for any purpose other than buying artificially cheap crap from China, they're in for some very rude surprises in the next few years from our government and the market. It's good to be the king, until the uprising. :smile:

 

EDIT: Several forums claimed Bethesda was or is considering a "Skyrim - Special Edition" (just an updated executable) that would be 64-bit and ported to DX11. Apparently the job is either trivial or something close to it, so I hope they include Oblivion and even Morrowind releases for the same purpose. It would be a nice payback imo to their long-term customer base.

Edited September 16, 2016 by TheMastersSon

[Signette]

@BlackRoseOfThorns

Thanks, learned lots of new stuff in one post, heh.

 

Considering Core i5, I still have an old model 3.10 GHz, grease was moldered when I checked, and as I kept up with boards, it's usually was a good idea to change it every 6 moths or so even when not overclocking. Good to hear it changed at last.

 

Surely 1060 is way better than 960, as you said yourself, it will only keep up for a few years tops. GTX 1080 Ti will keep for much longer, and yes, getting 1080 (non Ti) is a bad idea. But then again, there are some poorly optimized games where people struggle even with top hardware, but good ones can be carried with 960 on acceptable settings in 1080p, well, whatever one considers acceptable...