Looking for advice on a 4k PC.

[ryasim386]

HI,

I currently have the following spec PC:

Case	PCS ENIGMA 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-7600K (3.8GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard	ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GB, Wi-Fi - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card	6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive	250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive	1TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 3.5" SSHD - UP TO 5X FASTER THAN HDD!
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply	CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste	ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking	10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options	MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System	Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language	United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media	Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve

I'm looking to upgrade to a 4K PC which will last me around 3-5 years. Unfortunately it doesn't look like upgrading my current PC is a possibility, so I have a budget of around £1800 for a brand new machine. Preferably anything below this would be nice.

Any help would be appreciated.,

 

[Oussebon]

You could add a 2080 Super to your existing system. Probably want to replace the PSU? But that's simple enough to do.

You'll mostly be GPU bound in games anyway, so while the 4-core 4-thread 7600k isn't ideal, it's probably fine.

I'm inclined to say upgrade the GPU, see how you get on, and if you find you are CPU bound you can always buy a new system without a GPU and slot in your newly acquired GPU.

What 4k monitor are you gaming on?

 

[ryasim386]

Thanks Oussebon.

At this stage I haven't picked out a Monitor, ideally i would want 4k gaming at 144hz, although I haven't got a screen yet and need to do some research.

I hadn't thought of the option of upgrading my current system as my RAM and Processor seemed outdated and with the current motherboard, i would need to upgrade it anyway, so was hoping to do everything in one go. I can then put my current system in my front room so i can use it on my TV for basic streaming ect.

Ideally a new build seems most logical to me and id prefer not to mess around with trial and error on the old system and then have to buy something new anyway.

Ive been looking at the 2080 TI, but not sure if that overkill or whether my budget isnt realistic.

Any help / direction would be really helpful as i feel a bit lost with the next steps.

 

[Oussebon]

4k 144hz gaming monitors start at ~£800-900 and very quickly go to £1200-1500 with some around £2000 or more.

An RTX 2080 ti would be essential and even that doesn't have the brawn to deliver high framerates at 4k in modern titles at very high settings. The 2080 ti itself is £1000 or so.

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,817.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/vHmE4rxaBb/

What are you gaming on at the moment? 1080p 60hz?

Perhaps 1440p 144hz would be a more realistic upgrade path? RTX 2070 Super is generously more than enough for 1440p high refresh gaming and the monitors are plentiful at the £400-£500 range.

Which would be sub £1800 for the system and the monitor.

 

[ryasim386]

Ok, seems I've got giddy with the 4k gaming. First question; How long are we from 4k gaming being the standard?

I guess what im doing is trying to future proof my self for the next 5 years of PC gaming. over the next year or so i will be having children and PC upgrades will be the last thing on my mind. I currently game at 1080p 60hz (2x samsung monitors).

So if i was to go to 1440p 144hz, would this keep me going for the next 5 years and be the best bang for buck... your comment;

"An RTX 2080 ti would be essential and even that doesn't have the brawn to deliver high framerates at 4k in modern titles at very high settings"

has kinda put me off somewhat, as that seems to be a lot of money for something that isnt really capable of that next gen gaming that i would be expecting?

If i was to go with 1440p 144hz, would you suggest just upgrading the GPU in my current system or going with a new one (with the expectation this would keep going for around 5 years).

 

[robin h 25]

"An RTX 2080 ti would be essential and even that doesn't have the brawn to deliver high framerates at 4k in modern titles at very high settings"

has kinda put me off somewhat, as that seems to be a lot of money for something that isnt really capable of that next gen gaming that i would be expecting?

I myself have been Gaming at 4K for just over 3 years, Gaming at 4K is not cheap, The first time i ever played at 4K from having seen and played at 1080p, it blew my socks off🌬🧦,

A 2080 Ti is capable of next gen gaming, but you will be sacrificing High Frame rate's for the best image Resolution you can get,
I like to think that there's usually two groups of people when it come to Gaming,
Those who prefer High Frame rates and those who prefer High Resolution, There is a middle ground of the two and that at 1440p,
I myself fall under the High Resolution group, as to why i game at 4K.

 

[Oussebon]

Ok, seems I've got giddy with the 4k gaming. First question; How long are we from 4k gaming being the standard?

The standard? Years. Maybe even the end of the decade for it to be truly mainstream in PC gaming.

You can buy cheap 4k 60hz monitors now for £200, but my question is other that for console gaming, why? 4k is meant to be a top end, premium experience, not just a number you technically achieve, so what was the point?

Also modern GPUs struggle to hit 4k 60fps consistently which means you want a monitor with adaptive sync, in real terms gsync since Freesync monitors at 4k only have a 40-60hz adaptive sync window. Those are £400-£800

Without competition in the RTX 2080 neck of the woods, Nvidia can continue to charge what they want for top tier GPUs, which is why if the GTX 1080 ti was, say, £650 towards the end of its career, the 2080 ti came in at over £1000. And competition won't instantly shrink GPU prices back to what the old -80 ti standard price was either, since why would AMD or Intel with their new gens of GPU (Intel is launching consumer GPUs in the next year or two) sell a product for £600 if it's been proven to sell at £900. It will take time. If Intel and AMD are even able to compete at that level.

That's time and a lot of 'ifs'.

TVs and new gens of console will start pushing us towards 4k before PC gaming does, and PC gaming will probably end up taking time to catch up. But even with 4k TVs, there's not not overwhelming quantities of 4k content. Many streaming services still aren't at 1080p. For a lot of people with 4k TVs (normal punters versus the tech enthusiast crowds you find on online forums), I suspect the TV does a lot of upscaling versus playing native 4k content.

1440p provides a huge upgrade over 1080p, allows for high framerates at reasonably affordable prices, and still isn't even entirely mainstream, since many people who bought hardware in the last few years are still on 1080p and aren't looking to upgrade.

It wasn't until 2019 I would say that 1440p became the near-default recommendation on this forum for mid-tier gaming builds.

And I say this as someone who really wants to play modded Skyrim at 4k and have my mind blown. I can't wait for the day that I don't need a £1000 GPU for it and that there is a reasonable level of choice monitors.

That's the other thing - for 4k gaming outside of the £200-£400 freesync monitor crew you've got about 4 monitor options sub £1000. All by Acer.

Whereas you can't move for 1440p 144hz options in the £400-500/£600 range. And there's a good dose of cheaper ones too.

that seems to be a lot of money for something that isnt really capable of that next gen gaming that i would be expecting?

That depends on your expectation, but reading between the lines of what you've said, yes, I think that's a fair summary.

If i was to go with 1440p 144hz, would you suggest just upgrading the GPU in my current system or going with a new one (with the expectation this would keep going for around 5 years).

There's actually a stronger argument for upgrading the rest of your system at 1440p. 1) you have the money to do so and 2) you are going to run into more situations where you are CPU rather than GPU limited.

If you play at 4k very high settings on an i5 7600k and an RTX 2080 ti, your performance will periodically suck because of the CPU, but mostly when it sucks it will be because the GPU.

If you play 1440p on a 7600k and an RTX 2070 Super (say) when your performance drops, it will probably be dropping hard because of the CPU.

Take a mid-range R5 3600 versus your 7600k. Look at the gaming benchmarks in the article showing CPU performance at 1080p and 1440p

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Review: Best All-Round Value CPU

The successor to our favorite best value CPU, the Ryzen 5 3600 is AMD's new $200 6-core, 12-thread processor. The chip clocks between 3.6 GHz and 4.2...

www.techspot.com

Now, this is benchmarked with an RTX 2080 ti, so what you'd see with a 2070 Super is less difference in average framerate. But if you look at the 1% low values - the values that represent framerate drops and stuttery gameplay, those aren't so good on a 7600k.

So yes, to avoid a CPU bottleneck hampering the experience your GPU should be able to deliver in modern titles, an upgrade at 1440p is well worth considering.

 

[Oussebon]

A 2080 Ti is capable of next gen gaming,

Though that does depend on the game and the settings:

 

[robin h 25]

Though that does depend on the game and the settings:

True,
Depending how well a game runs, I always play around with the setting to try and get the best image i can, while trying to stay on or above 60fps.

 

[Oussebon]

Actually I hadn't even looked at the PC case in the opening post!

I think any high end GPU probably wants a new case, and if getting a better PSU too, and if there is a legitimate use for the old CPU (being repurposed to a home theatre PC) I think a new system does make a lot of sense here. Regardless of the specifics of 4k or 1440p gaming.

 

[ryasim386]

Actually I hadn't even looked at the PC case in the opening post!

I think any high end GPU probably wants a new case, and if getting a better PSU too, and if there is a legitimate use for the old CPU (being repurposed to a home theatre PC) I think a new system does make a lot of sense here. Regardless of the specifics of 4k or 1440p gaming.

Your input has been super helpful tbh I think I was a bit naive in my expectations of a system at £1800. I think realistically upgrading to 1440p gaming is my best approach, although I want it to be pretty, getting both a high frame rate and a good resolution with my price; this is a good compromise.

SO if I'm realistic with my budget would you suggest the build above but with the 2070 Super?

 

[Oussebon]

I would

For monitors, there are some options here: for 1440p 144hz:

Gaming Monitors Guide

The monitor is probably the most important component in any gaming build – it defines how you experience games and the hardware the PC should have. Overlooking the monitor can be the single biggest bottleneck to your gaming experience. With recent monitor and graphics card launches, and wider...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Or for 1440p ultrawide even:

Gaming Monitors Guide

The monitor is probably the most important component in any gaming build – it defines how you experience games and the hardware the PC should have. Overlooking the monitor can be the single biggest bottleneck to your gaming experience. With recent monitor and graphics card launches, and wider...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

A 2080 Super might be preferable for 1440p ultrawide, though a 2070 Super will still do admirably. But that's still cheaper than a 2080 ti and the monitors are typically a lot cheaper than high end 4k monitors. Not saying you should get one, but it's a big purchase so you may as well explore all the options even if just to rule them out Or perhaps you might like the idea of a really wide screen.

 

[ryasim386]

Oh god... ill have a read over your posts and see what I think... I'm leaning towards a normal size screen due to desk space / wanting to run dual monitors.

Will dual monitors throw a spanner in the works ?

 

[Oussebon]

Not at all.

The requirements on the PC's hardware of running a 2nd monitor with the desktop / browsers / netflix etc on is pretty trivial (I assume we're not talking about niche games that run on 2 monitors at the same time). The GPU will have more than enough outputs.

And you don't need your 2nd monitor to be the same model as the main gaming one (you don't need a 144hz adaptive sync monitor for youtube) so any old monitor will do.

 

[ryasim386]

Not at all.

The requirements on the PC's hardware of running a 2nd monitor with the desktop / browsers / netflix etc on is pretty trivial (I assume we're not talking about niche games that run on 2 monitors at the same time). The GPU will have more than enough outputs.

And you don't need your 2nd monitor to be the same model as the main gaming one (you don't need a 144hz adaptive sync monitor for youtube) so any old monitor will do.

Thank you so much for your help. I'm going to look for a screen, I may run it by you but i imagine I'll probably go off your recommendations in the thread above.

I'll be good using my 1080p screen as a second screen until I upgrade at a later date ?

 

[Oussebon]

I'll be good using my 1080p screen as a second screen until I upgrade at a later date ?

That'll be fine

 

[ryasim386]

So I think I've picked a monitor; Acer Predator XB271HUbmiprz

 

[SpyderTracks]

So I think I've picked a monitor; Acer Predator XB271HUbmiprz

It's a good screen, but expensive.

 

[Oussebon]

One thing to be aware of is that it's gsync, which means that you'll be locked to Nvidia GPUs in the future if you want to use its adaptive sync feature - so no AMD or forthcoming Intel options. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker for a range of reasons, but it's worth being aware of.

 

[ryasim386]

One thing to be aware of is that it's gsync, which means that you'll be locked to Nvidia GPUs in the future if you want to use its adaptive sync feature - so no AMD or forthcoming Intel options. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker for a range of reasons, but it's worth being aware of.

My thinking is this will be my set up for the next 5 years of gaming... at which point that monitor will move to my second monitor and I'll upgrade to a new monitor with the new PC, much the same as I'm doing now.

Your monitor thread was extremely informative so I was aware this would be the case and I'm pretty sure I'm happy with that as it stands.