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[Gamer79]

My son gave me his old ibuypower phantom nzxt phantom 240 system. The specs are as follows:

The system is 7 years old and able to play most games on high at 60fps. Looking to see if I can breath some more life into this old baby

i7-4790k processor
16gb G.Skillz ripjaw X series 2133 DDR3 Memory
GTX970 graphics card
500 GB SSD
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI mobo
540watt PSU

So from the research I have done here are my conclusions and pc experts please feel free to correct me if I am wrong:
-Thats about the best processor for this board. For my research I couldn't find a better compatible
-Memory is about the limit for the board
-Graphics card is long in the tooth. I currently purchased a GT 1660 Ti to upgrade the unit. I considered the RTX 2060 but read the cpu would bottleneck it
-I plan on getting a 1.4 m.2 nvme drive to put in the unit

Anything else I can do to upgrade this bad boy? Thx for any advice

 

[Gamer79]

bump

 

[JackSparr0w]

A 2060 will absolutely not get bottlenecked by your CPU. In fact I would go for a GTX 3060 or AMD 6700.

 

[Wildebeest]

For games where the framerate is struggling, it is normally the graphics card that limits you, but they are also not cheap at all to upgrade. You might want to check the age of your PSU because they have about a four year lifespan and if they start going, your system will not be stable in gaming, which draws more power than other tasks.

 

[Warnen]

 

[Chastten]

Thats about it.

According to the website that Mobo also supports 5th gen CPU's but thats honestly not really worth it at this point. Just upgrade the GPU and add some storage and enjoy it for 2-3 more years.

 

[JackSparr0w]

For games where the framerate is struggling, it is normally the graphics card that limits you, but they are also not cheap at all to upgrade. You might want to check the age of your PSU because they have about a four year lifespan and if they start going, your system will not be stable in gaming, which draws more power than other tasks.

LOL what? I've had PSUs that lasted for more than 10 years and still going strong.

 

[Wildebeest]

LOL what? I've had PSUs that lasted for more than 10 years and still going strong.

Depends on how heavily they are used for their rating, quality of components, and so on.

 

[STARSBarry]

It would have been mid range when he got it new so yeah it's pretty dated now...

Throwing in lower end cards like the 2060 I don't see a problem with that other than the fact the prices for lower end cards are still stupid at over £400 there like £300 at a stretch.

 

[BlackTron]

Thats about it.

According to the website that Mobo also supports 5th gen CPU's but thats honestly not really worth it at this point. Just upgrade the GPU and add some storage and enjoy it for 2-3 more years.

He's right. There's no reason to take that CPU out of the mobo ever again, it's stuck in there for the long haul now. A better graphics card will help you a lot, that's about it.

Concerning the power supply. I've never had one go on me, even after 10 years, but I've scored broken computers for myself where all that had to be changed in the end was a dead PSU. You're not adding some insane beastly graphics card so I don't think I'd be that worried about it supporting your system.

 

[Gamer79]

Thx for advice. I scored a 1660ti OC'd on ebay in good condition from a good seller for $140. I kept being told by other so called "experts" the 2060 would be heavily bottle necked from the cpu.

Just looking to play at 1440p 60 due to most of my gaming library will be emulators and PC game pass. Happy to read that the 1660ti supports ray tracing as well.

 

[PhoenixTank]

Happy to read that the 1660ti supports ray tracing as well.

It doesn't, sadly. Turing architecture like the 20 series, but not fully fledged Turing with ray tracing.
I was going to suggest a CPU OC, but it seems for that chip you'd maybe get 300MHz extra out of it, which probably isn't worthwhile.

 

[ArtHands]

A 2060 will absolutely not get bottlenecked by your CPU. In fact I would go for a GTX 3060 or AMD 6700.

Dude has a 540 W psu and you recommend a 3060

 

[Gamer79]

It doesn't, sadly. Turing architecture like the 20 series, but not fully fledged Turing with ray tracing.
I was going to suggest a CPU OC, but it seems for that chip you'd maybe get 300MHz extra out of it, which probably isn't worthwhile.

Odd if true because on this product page they advertise it. This is the card I am getting:

https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti-VENTUS-XS-6G-OC

 

[PhoenixTank]

Odd if true because on this product page they advertise it. This is the card I am getting:

https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti-VENTUS-XS-6G-OC

I've skimmed but unless they are serving up a different page for you than me, no results for the word ray, nor RTX.
GTX (Legacy Raster only) vs RTX (Ray tracing) is how they segmented the market when this was released.

Dude has a 540 W psu and you recommend a 3060

That setup would be just about within spec as far as I can tell. Nvidia themselves recommend a 550W for a 3060 and the small print for that is taking into account a 10900K on the CPU side.

 

[Gamer79]

I've skimmed but unless they are serving up a different page for you than me, no results for the word ray, nor RTX.
GTX (Legacy Raster only) vs RTX (Ray tracing) is how they segmented the market when this was released.

That setup would be just about within spec as far as I can tell. Nvidia themselves recommend a 550W for a 3060 and the small print for that is taking into account a 10900K on the CPU side.

One of the first specs it also Mentions it near the bottom
NVIDIA G-SYNC™ and HDR

• Get smooth, tear-free gameplay at refresh rates up to 240 Hz, plus HDR, and more. This is the ultimate gaming display and the go-to equipment for enthusiast gamers

 

[Jayjayhd34]

One of the first specs it also Mentions it near the bottom
NVIDIA G-SYNC™ and HDR

• Get smooth, tear-free gameplay at refresh rates up to 240 Hz, plus HDR, and more. This is the ultimate gaming display and the go-to equipment for enthusiast gamers

You'll be limited to 8bit hdr because it doesnt have hdmi 2.1.

 

[PhoenixTank]

One of the first specs it also Mentions it near the bottom
NVIDIA G-SYNC™ and HDR

• Get smooth, tear-free gameplay at refresh rates up to 240 Hz, plus HDR, and more. This is the ultimate gaming display and the go-to equipment for enthusiast gamers

Which part of that do you think relates to Ray tracing? Gsync is VRR and lovely to have. HDR is all about larger peaks and troughs with regard to highlights and shadows on supported monitors.

 

[CeeJay]

Honestly I would consider just biting the bullet and getting a new mobo and CPU that your other components should still work with and then slowly upgrading that. If you spend money on this current system then you are just throwing money at it to push the problems down the road a tiny bit and when you do upgrade the mobo those new components you just bought will need replacing fairly soon after. If you can play everything you want at 60fps currently then you got some time left in this one.

Better to be on the floor of what the mobo can handle than spend money on one that is near the ceiling as it is.

 

[K.N.W.]

Since your pc is still capable enough for gaming, I would suggest waiting for 1-2 year and saving money in the meantime, so that you easily can buy components which compare to and beat the new consoles. If you succeed in that, you'll have a machine that lasts 5-7 years for the second time in a row.

If you are eager to upgrade soon, I must admit that your only option might be changing MB, CPU, RAM and GPU, because a beefier GPU would require a new CPU (and thus also MB and RAM), but prices are still pretty high if you want to tackle next gen consoles. The only quick upgrades i would suggest at the moment are a fast SSD, faster load time are very noticeable, and you'll feel the upgrade in every penny. and selling your gtx 970 and 1660ti to buy a 2060, just to get a taste of RTX and DLSS. I don't sugest overspending right now, you can double down on your luck and buy a very durable machine at an affordable price if you wait a bit longer.

 

[HTK]

Build a new PC.