Wondering if I should call it good or go ahead with an upgrade?

[wagex]

that cpu isnt going to hurt games hardly at all for quite some time, just upgrade the gpu and worry about the rest in a few years when you cpu is a real problem.

 

[caddi daddi]

and on the psu being a 500w unit.
lets look at the numbers.
my 980 at full load pulls around 180 watts, lets call it 200 ad to that the draw of the rest of the system, call that around 150 watts, that's 350 watts add a little clock and it's 200, so 400 watts.
if it's a quality piece it should be good. the only way I would replace it is if I was doing a new build.
with the 970's, I pull about 160 watts per card, that's 320 just for the cards, add the 150 for the system and I have no margin.

 

[wingman99]

Caddi you need to buy a Kill-A-Watt meter there Accuracy is 0.2% . I bet your system only pulls from the wall 330w even with overclocking and PSU 20% efficiency.

 

[caddi daddi]

I'll have to try to remember to bring one home and refresh my memory.

 

[caddi daddi]

ok, have my rig rigged with a single 980, 4790k, all default except that ht is disabled.
looping heaven and running p95 also I get around 375 on the kill-o-watt.

 

[EarthDog]

That is an absolute worst case scenario, what you did there...well sans disabling HT. Enabling HT will show more power used.

Typical gaming loads are less. Assuming 90% efficiency (80% efficiency is so 2000 ), that puts you around 340W.

 

[Vishera]

that cpu isnt going to hurt games hardly at all for quite some time, just upgrade the gpu and worry about the rest in a few years when you cpu is a real problem.

The i7 or my current i5?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

The i7 or my current i5?

Either.

 

[EarthDog]

For a regular gaming load, check out the front page for a gtx 970 review.. we use 4790k there.

I peaked at 292W at the wall, so around 260W actual.

 

[caddi daddi]

ye, that just shows he has plenty of overhead left with the single 980 and a 500 watt psu, so if it's not to old he can just use that with no worries.

 

[wingman99]

ok, have my rig rigged with a single 980, 4790k, all default except that ht is disabled.
looping heaven and running p95 also I get around 375 on the kill-o-watt.

That seems like a lot, did you have just the PC plugged in to the kill-o-watt?

 

[Vishera]

Okay so should I upgrade the CPU or not? If it's not necessary then I don't want to end up doing it and pointlessly spending money. If I don't buy the i7, that's just all the sooner that I can buy the 980. Also, PSU is from....uh, I bought it in May of either 2013 or 2014. So, roughly 2 or 3 years old? It seems more like 2014 though.

 

[wingman99]

All you need is a good GPU for now, then save up for a full system upgrade in 2 years.

 

[caddi daddi]

i'd go gpu first.
that was just the psu plugged into the kill-a-watt.