[CaptainNitro]

I'm not really sure where to post this...

I have £230 to spend on either a new CPU or a new GPU. If I were to get a new cpu, it'd be a 4690k. The gpu would be a 970 that I've spotted for £230. My current psu is a CX430 and my current gpu/cpu is an i3 and GTX660. I'd be getting both upgrades later on. I play all recent AAA games. I'm thinking of getting an 4690k and a 390 later down the line. If I was to get a 970, how much of a limiting factor would the 4(3.5)GB of VRAM be? I'm gonna be heavily nodding Skyrim and Fallout 4. As of now, my 660's 2GB vram is maxed out by Skyrim.

Sorry for no paragraphs and the half assed grammar, I'm on mobile.

 

[ronnin426850]

There is a pretty good Skyrim modding thread here on OCN, and 970 is a popular card, you can ask people there about their mods and performance with that GPU

http://www.overclock.net/t/1165090/your-best-skyrim-awesome-pictures

 

[CaptainNitro]

Thanks, I'll check it out! Is it alright if I keep my thread up regarding whether I should get a new cpu or gpu?

 

[bmgjet]

GPU will make the biggest difference gaming wise. But your going to be dam close to the limit of that PSU being only 430W.
If I was youd id be getting a better PSU first then keep saving for a few more weeks and get new CPU/GPU when prices drop with the official announcement of next gens stuff.

 

[CaptainNitro]

Really? I thought I'd be okay, the 970s really efficient in power. Looks like I just underestimated how much power it would take to power the PC.

 

[AcEsSalvation]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmgjet

GPU will make the biggest difference gaming wise. But your going to be dam close to the limit of that PSU being only 430W.
If I was youd id be getting a better PSU first then keep saving for a few more weeks and get new CPU/GPU when prices drop with the official announcement of next gens stuff.

CX430 is enough for a 980Ti + 4.8GHz i7 with ~100W left to spare. Only thing is it isn't a great unit. It could easily do it, but I'd rather have a better PSU

CaptainNitro, when it comes to my experience with Skyrim mods, a stock i5 and a 680 (which trades blows with 960) is enough to hold a steady 60FPS with all of my mods I use. I've got texture replacers for pretty much everything including 4096x4096 (4k) texture pack. Only thing I do not use is ENB (not even sure what it actually is, I think shaders...). Very rarely will it get above 80% on Skyrim.

FO4 is another story. Both my CPU and GPU struggle with it during the limited time I was able to play it. I never held a steady 60, but I was trying everything maxed out to 100%. After dropping godrays a bit (I didn't notice a thing in game) my FPS stayed above 55FPS, but I noticed no tearing or any stutter fortunately. A little more tweaking, and I could have head my steady 60FPS, but like I said - I had no graphics issues so it wasn't really needed.
Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainNitro

Really? I thought I'd be okay, the 970s really efficient in power. Looks like I just underestimated how much power it would take to power the PC.

EDIT: You posted this before I could reply. A 960 is a 120W card. NVidia designed them to pull 120W max by design. Even then, a 250W power draw card with a heavily overclocked i7 can run on a 400W unit.
EDIT2: A 970 is designed to use 145W

 

[CaptainNitro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcEsSalvation

CX430 is enough for a 980Ti + 4.8GHz i7 with ~100W left to spare. Only thing is it isn't a great unit. It could easily do it, but I'd rather have a better PSU

CaptainNitro, when it comes to my experience with Skyrim mods, a stock i5 and a 680 (which trades blows with 960) is enough to hold a steady 60FPS with all of my mods I use. I've got texture replacers for pretty much everything including 4096x4096 (4k) texture pack. Only thing I do not use is ENB (not even sure what it actually is, I think shaders...). Very rarely will it get above 80% on Skyrim.

FO4 is another story. Both my CPU and GPU struggle with it during the limited time I was able to play it. I never held a steady 60, but I was trying everything maxed out to 100%. After dropping godrays a bit (I didn't notice a thing in game) my FPS stayed above 55FPS, but I noticed no tearing or any stutter fortunately. A little more tweaking, and I could have head my steady 60FPS, but like I said - I had no graphics issues so it wasn't really needed.
EDIT: You posted this before I could reply. A 960 is a 120W card. NVidia designed them to pull 120W max by design. Even then, a 250W power draw card with a heavily overclocked i7 can run on a 400W unit.

In the future, I'll be buying an EVGA G2 650W. ENB is a lighting mod that's whores GPU power, I run that and a shot loada texture mods. As long as I can play FO4 at 45+ fps, ultra, I'll be happy. I'll be getting whatever I don't get in the future.

 

[bmgjet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainNitro

Really? I thought I'd be okay, the 970s really efficient in power. Looks like I just underestimated how much power it would take to power the PC.

Yeah it would run it. But you also said " I'm thinking of getting an 4690k and a 390 later down the line."
The 390 is no where near as efficient, When I was running a I5 4690k and 290X at the start of the year (basically the same card) I was getting 540W pulled from the wall with my Antec 620W during BF4 game play.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcEsSalvation

CX430 is enough for a 980Ti + 4.8GHz i7 with ~100W left to spare. Only thing is it isn't a great unit. It could easily do it, but I'd rather have a better PSU

How did you come to that, When I upgraded to my current setup 5820K @ 4.4ghz and 980ti @ 1480mhz I was getting hard shut off since would get spikes of 750W from the wall, But would sit around 660W most the time in BF4. Less demanding games it only sees 500s from the wall.

 

[AcEsSalvation]

I don't know what clocks different GPUs come at stock, but 1480 sounds like a massive overclock.

EDIT: If you are getting a 750W unit failing on you with a single GPU, you either have the rig massively overclocked, or it wasn't the PSU dying out, it was the circuit failing.

 

[iinversion]

CX430W also only has 388W on the 12V rail.

At most I would keep the 980 Ti + CPU stock. You could very easily hit that with any sort of OC on either.

 

[PontiacGTX]

If you plan to mod skyrim try to get a r9 390/290x 8GB and a quality 450w/550w psu

 

[CaptainNitro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PontiacGTX

If you plan to mod skyrim try to get a r9 390/290x 8GB and a quality 450w/550w psu

I can't afford an R9 390 and a psu :/ .

 

[PontiacGTX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainNitro

I can't afford an R9 390 and a psu :/ .

will you add many mods to skyrim or just some? the 970 had/has a problem past 3.5GB but the the i3 might be a bottleneck for some games and a midrange card

Some other choices are a GTX 780 6GB or GTX Titan(both around the sane power consumption of a 390 but less vram and are slower)

 

[AcEsSalvation]

It does really depend on what all you do with Skyrim, but like I said using texture replacers I use top off at around 2.4GB of VRAM. Might be different with different shaders and such

 

[ronnin426850]

On a 280X, Skyrim runs fine with Texture and Model replacements, but falls short when I try ENB. ENB is more than just lighting mod, it's a whole new set of shaders that allow for AA, DoF, MB, Bloom, HDR, and many many other effects.
Heavily modded Skyrim with ENB can easily fill 4Gb vRAM and cry for more.

 

[CaptainNitro]

Moving away from Skyrim, how bad of a bottleneck would it be in recent AAA games? Battlefront, Fallout, Battlefield 4, etc. Should I just get a new GPU and run with the bottleneck until a get a new cpu in a couple of months?

 

[ronnin426850]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainNitro

Should I just get a new GPU and run with the bottleneck until a get a new cpu in a couple of months?

That's what I did

It's a good plan, it will get you running with semi-decent performance, without having to sell your kidneys.