Do I need to upgrade my system?

[Raspii]

Hi, I have been saving hundreds of pounds and looking to spend a little, on PC parts? I do not know. My current rig seems to be decent, recently though I have been having problems on some games like Metro Redux, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Far Cry 4 with FPS performance. I always have to downgrade and tweak with the settings to get a good performance, I can't run them at max settings and that is frustrating me.

I can't seem to play at 30 FPS so I try my best to achieve 60 FPS in every game that I play, anything below that I seem to get headaches. Yet I can play on the PS4 on 30 FPS and be fine. Strange I know. What bugs me the most is I spent loads on a system that can't seem to cope well on some games at the highest settings.

My Rig is as follows.

GPU: AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB Memory
CPU: Intel Core I7-3770 3.40 GHZ
RAM: 16 GB 2x8GB 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UP4
Power-Supply: XFX 900W
SSD: 250GB Samsung

All of the above are on stock settings, I do not have a clue about overclocking.

Playing at 1440P with the U27 Dell monitor.

Is it time for an upgrade? and if so what upgrades would be best? I don't have a minimum or a maximum limit on expenditure. Of course the cheaper overall the better.

 

[PP Mguire]

The problem being is your resolution. You don't have enough graphics horsepower to properly push 1440p.

 

[Raspii]

A friend of mine thinks I could do with a CPU upgrade which would mean a new CPU, motherboard and RAM. If I was to go down that road and upgrade multiple parts I would probably need some suggestions.

What would I need on the graphics card front? When I bought the R9 290 last year to replace the 7970 which was part of the existing build (died) it was still a new card.

As much as I like the PC, I know very little about hardware, in the past I just targeted whatever the newest product was at the time (within budget) hopefully this time if I do need the required upgrades I can be much more sensible with the way I go about things. That is partially why I signed up to a techy forum.

In the near future I'm looking to venture into Youtube or Twitch so a strong system is a must. Hopefully not too pricey for good performance in that sort of thing.

 

[Dauntae]

your CPU is fine, But to properly run 1440 at 60 frames your going to need more GPU power, You'll either need to get a higher priced GPU or crossfire what you have, at 1080 you should have no issues on most games but at 1440 it's going to struggle and you'll get low FPS.

 

[Raspii]

your CPU is fine, But to properly run 1440 at 60 frames your going to need more GPU power, You'll either need to get a higher priced GPU or crossfire what you have, at 1080 you should have no issues on most games but at 1440 it's going to struggle and you'll get low FPS.

Should I get another R9 290 to go alongside the one I have currently or buy a singular R9 290X 8192MB card?

 

[PP Mguire]

290x isn't that much better. If you want to buy a newer card for that res I suggest a 980 or just wait until new cards from either camp.

 

[Raspii]

290x isn't that much better. If you want to buy a newer card for that res I suggest a 980 or just wait until new cards from either camp.

Will I see a big enough gain to justify the £500 price? I could definitely not afford 2 980's in SLI anytime soon if I'm left disappointed with only a minimal performance gain.

I wish I understood everything about hardware :/. Read so many different threads about 970 SLI, 780TI SLI, 980, Radeon 290 Crossfire and I still don't have a clue what is meant to be the best as a single card or as an SLI setup.

Recording and playing games with max graphics at 1440P with 60 FPS on just about any game including high intensity multiplayer servers is all I want. Price is definitely an issue though if I threw £500 at the NVIDIA 980 and didn't see much of an improvement based on the one card.

 

[PP Mguire]

With what you want realistically it's pony up the cash for high end dual cards or wait until more affordable powerful cards hit the market. 1440p is an enthusiast resolution and as of right now we don't have any single GPU solutions that can properly take on that resolution without a lot of cash being tossed at GPUs. Your best bet would be SLI 970s.

 

[XGC Forsakend]

Is 1440p really a necessity? Would buying a 1080p monitor be an option to avoid down scaling or anything of that sort? Would definitely be cheaper than buying 2 980's.

 

[Dauntae]

Yes that would work, My 970 maxes all the games I've put in and get 60 FPS min in most things, real busy areas in BF4 with a Tom of people there can cause a few dips but still great frame rates.