Seriously considering to upgrade my 660ti to a 970 gtx 4GB. To get the full potential of it, should I need to upgrade my CPU as well?

 

I'm not that tech-savy, so I wouldn't what else info is needed to give an adequate answer. I just dont' want to shell out for a new GPU, and then not exploiting its full potential because I didn't upgrade the CPU as well...

 

Currently the CPU and 660ti is running off a ASUS P8Z68-V LX, Socket-1155 mobo... Not sure if the 970 will fit on that mobo though...

 

Thx for any thoughts!

 

Mas

I doubt it....  I'm about to find out.  I'm only at 4Ghz because my darn 2500K OC keeps dying (the whole thing is dying slowly), but I just ordered a GTX 970.

 

In P3D with unlimited fps my GPU usage is maxed out.  (GTX 570).  Either way I also bought the card for XP10 - where my 1.2GB vram was NOT cutting it.

Ryan - thx! Do let me know how you find the 970...I was also thinking about giving xp10 a go once I upgrade..

 

Mas

Im watching this thread, I have a 2500k as well OC to 4.7Ghz with a 560ti and wouldnt mind getting the 970.

 

I asked a similar question over at the ROG forums and if you do upgrade the CPU you will probably need water cooling as well, so its a big upgrade

 

It is the new Devil's Canyon CPU from Intel....an updated version of the 4770K. To get the best from these CPUs and certainly to be able to overclock them decent cooling is needed unfortunately. They are not like your 2500K. The best thing would be a closed loop cooler like the Corsair H105...or on air a Noctua NH-D15 if it fits in your case and over RAM

Hey Zoran - great input.

 

I actually have the Noctua NH-U9B right now - don't know how that is compared to the D15... Anyways, I think I'll go about it in small steps, like Ryan - get the GPU and see how it works, and if the CPU is slowing the whole thing down, well... Money is for spending I guess... Can't wait to get the 970 fired up on a 50" HD tv though ;)

 

Mas

Going from a 660ti to a 970 you will see a small increase in smoothness, especially if you are running into bad weather and/or using 3 monitors. 

Just dont expect too much so your not disappointed. Now for other games, huge difference. Sorry not what you wanted to hear. Good news is it will fit on the P8Z68 as long as you have room in your case, as its a long card. check first.

 

Your CPU will be fine. I was running a 2600K @ 4.8 with a 560/660/770 and now 970. 

Going from a 660ti to a 970 you will see a small increase in smoothness, especially if you are running into bad weather and/or using 3 monitors. 

Just dont expect too much so your not disappointed. Now for other games, huge difference. Sorry not what you wanted to hear. Good news is it will fit on the P8Z68 as long as you have room in your case, as its a long card. check first.

 

Your CPU will be fine. I was running a 2600K @ 4.8 with a 560/660/770 and now 970. 

Ken - thx.

 

Actually this is exactly the conditions my 660ti really struggles, so this is good news somehow;) 

 

Also really great news on the CPU and MOBO - i'll get the ruler out and do some measurements - thx again!

 

Mas

My predictions for the new 970

 

FSX : not much difference - maybe load textures faster, no black VC's

 

P3D : ability to run more stuff like shadows and lighting stuff, hopefully slight perf increase

 

XP10: ability to increase texture resolution (I'm at normal and everything is blurry), if I set high my GPU usage pegs out

 

Also I boght 8 more GB of ram - hoping to alleviate the almost 8 GB that I use with my browser tabs , photoshop and P3D open - also XP10 UHD scenery should work now

Sounds reasonable Ryan - more shadows and a steady autogen with no popping is what I'm looking for - at reasonable settings that is... I find that if I crank up texture res and mesh res along with 30.000 cloud shadows, whole squares of autogen and textures pop up at short distance...

 

The other day I let P3D rebuild a cfg and just went along with the settings it provided (ok I added cloud shadows and vegetation cast shadows and DSR 1.5) and I actually liked what I saw counting also the increase in performance..

 

Just for the fun of it; what card are we looking at to really se a step up in performance? The 980? Or what is the top dog atm?

 

Mas

I went from a 680 to a 780 (similar performance to a 970), and the difference in smoothness was huge.  I have since swapped the 780 to a 970 and it's even better.  You will be more than pleased with it

I went from a 680 to a 780 (similar performance to a 970), and the difference in smoothness was huge.  I have since swapped the 780 to a 970 and it's even better.  You will be more than pleased with it

That's nice to hear. I can see you run a newer and faster CPU than me. Just curious - did you have the same CPU (and overclocked) when you went from 680 to the 780?

 

Mas

I was running a 2600k @ 4.5ghz

Ok - very similar to mine then - that makes a pretty good indication if what to expect - thx!

Was looking at the 780ti which on paper should outperform the 970 slightly and only costs about 30 bucks more or so...? Anyone had a look at this also...?

 

Mas

My predictions for the new 970

 

FSX : not much difference - maybe load textures faster, no black VC's

 

P3D : ability to run more stuff like shadows and lighting stuff, hopefully slight perf increase

 

XP10: ability to increase texture resolution (I'm at normal and everything is blurry), if I set high my GPU usage pegs out

 

This is a complety true. I just tested FSX and XP10 with a new gtx 970.

GTX 970 only improve XP10 performance. Looks great.

My settings in XP10:

 

I have same results in FSX (ATI5870 and GTX970), blaaahhh!!!