PC Upgrade Help

Hey there, I currently have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 in my PC with an Intel i7-3770 CPU (3.40Hz) and 16gb of RAM. My Monitors are the HDMI ASUS VE278 and a Samsung SMBX 2450L. I am looking to upgrade to a new GPU, and am looking for recommendations for Shadowlands.

Additionally, I’ve been a bit hesitant because I am afraid the GPU won’t be as plug and play as I want it to be. So I guess I am wondering how I can upgrade my GPU without unintentially requiring additional hardware to support it.

Thanks so much in advance :slight_smile:

With the current GPU Im guessing you have a 700w+ psu. So you were good for about any new video card like a RTX 3070/3080. IF the performance is what Nvidia claims it to be. Of course how much you want to spend on a new card is something else as well.

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I’m looking to keep my budget at or below ~800 CAD (So 600 USD).

what is your PSU rated for? 3080 might be bottlenecked by the 3770

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I don’t know if “might” is the correct word

Tried to look up those displays without much success, but what similar products showed were 1080p/60hz displays.

If we’re sticking with that, and you want to stay within 600usd…

You are looking at a Ryzen 5 3600, B550 motherboard, 16gb ddr4, and a 1660 super/5600xt.

3070 3080 won’t make a difference with those displays.

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Would upgrading my monitor and my GPU also be an option, or would I still need to upgrade my motherboard, RAM, and CPU?

It’s a vicious circle.

If you upgrade your displays to something high refresh and a fast GPU, your CPU won’t keep up.

If you upgrade your GPU alone, your CPU and displays won’t keep up.

If you upgrade your CPU/MB/RAM alone, your GPU and displays won’t keep up.

I looked under the hood, and like first reply guy said, it is 700w. Not sure what you’re asking, my apologies, but i have the stats if there is other information you’d need to help me out?

That’s what I feared. So given my specs, you’d recommend the loadout you described as a balanced, upgraded system in 1080p?

What’s the PSU make and model? If you are planning to keep the intel 3770 for another year then I would not go past the rtx 2060 or AMD 5600 in terms of performance

It’s a Sparkle Power 80+ Green 700 (SPI700GHN)

I would personally do a system upgrade first

I would.

Potentially you could get by with a minor GPU upgrade like a 1660 Super alone - but you’ll still encounter low-performance scenarios (independent of GPU) in WoW since it’s particularly CPU bound when fps drops.

What I’m saying is that if you presently can get 60fps out in the world on your current GPU, upgrading to a faster GPU won’t make it better, since when your FPS drops, it is (usually) dropping because of your CPU, not your GPU.

Typically, my FPS fluctuates from 100-60 depending on the business of the game. I run on 3-5 recommended setting loadouts depending on what I’m doing

If your displays are 60hz, you’re not really getting any benefit above that rate (not counting input latency).

If you upgrade your GPU alone, you might be able to increase some of the settings and keep your frame rate, but my point is when performance dives in WoW its usually in raids, pvp, areas with lots of players. And in those scenarios CPU is what’s holding you back.

That said no CPU currently will max out a high end-GPU in those scenarios anyway, so it’s just a measure of how much better you can get above bad.

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Sparkle power was an old in house brand for FSP. Your PSU is getting long in the tooth but FSP can build solid units. I would look for a replacement soon rather then later.

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I see okay! That’s super insightful :slight_smile:

I don’t play much besides WoW and league these days, and will likely be shelling out money for next gen console rather than suping my PC up to where it can handle next gen games anyways. I’ll look farther into your load out recommendation, thank you very much!

If you just play WoW and LoL, you could do:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/XRCGWb

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($144.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($126.99 @ PC-Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB GAMING Video Card ($323.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($114.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $780.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-09 17:53 EDT-0400

You’d be able to play WoW and LOL very well. The PSU should last for a while, and getting a 144hz display would still benefit that GPU.

You’d be able to upgrade to one more generation of CPU if you wanted, and also the PSU should handle most GPUs.

You can easily power that system with the cx550 if it’s cheaper. Doubtful you break 225w gaming with those parts.

Yes, that was just “future proofing” in case priorities change.