Graphics card options in current climate

[Ellay]

Upgrading, and taking 1 step at a time. I am using an i7-3770k and a 32 gb of DDR3. While upgrading an entire setup these would need to go but looking at benchmarks, an i5-8600 isn't "That" much faster than my old I7 overall.

So I'm looking at dropping a decent amount on a Graphics card and seeing where that gets me for performance, and then down the road upgrade the whole thing.

I currently use a 660 TI and saw an amazing deal on an RTX 580 4gb for $120, but it's only a 89% gain in performance.
If I went with a 1070, were looking at 219% performance gain
and a RTX 2070 is 260% performance gain. It's currently listed at $500.

Does going for the beast RTX 2070 just make the most sense since it should have the longest lifespan to be "current"?
and how long should I wait or should I for a price drop?

The end goal is to be able to 5 box in WoW smoothly and 4 box in Final Fantasy 14 smoothly.
Both games on my current setup used to run fine, but after graphics changes due to lighting and shaodws being a requirement, it just stutters. FFX14 literally freezes up and thats the one I'm most concerned with.

[MiRai]

Upgrading, and taking 1 step at a time. I am using an i7-3770k and a 32 gb of DDR3. While upgrading an entire setup these would need to go but looking at benchmarks, an i5-8600 isn't "That" much faster than my old I7 overall.
Based on what benchmarks?

The i5 8600 should be a ~30% increase in single-threaded performance, and a ~50% increase in multi-threaded performance—simply because it's better architecture and has more cores.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/intel_core_i5_8600_processor_(65w)_review,7.html

However, you can spend almost the same amount of money on an AMD 2700X and get, arguably, even better performance when it comes to multitasking. Obviously, a full system upgrade comes at an increased cost and I don't know what the budget is, but here's a quick build to give you an idea - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mQzbD2

You could always get a super cheapo motherboard, but I personally hate doing that because, in my opinion, you shouldn't really cut corners when it comes to electronics if you expect efficiency over a longer lifespan. I would also like to put a 240/280mm AIO cooler on that chip, but that is more money and requires that your case has a place to mount it.


Does going for the beast RTX 2070 just make the most sense since it should have the longest lifespan to be "current"?
I would say yes.


and how long should I wait or should I for a price drop?
The 2070 is about two months old, and so I doubt there are many (if any) deals on a new GPU, but while it's the better choice of the two GPUs you listed, that 3770K CPU is going to, undoubtedly, hold it back.

[Ellay]

I've always stuck with Intel/Nvidia, is AMD/Radeon more of an option these days to you?
Also thank you for the detailed response back.

[MiRai]

I've always stuck with Intel/Nvidia, is AMD/Radeon more of an option these days to you?
For now, and as long as the budget allows for it, I'd still stick with nVidia when it comes to GPUs because they offer the best performance.

However, AMD is offering really good multi-threaded performance for much less money than Intel, and, if the rumors are true, AMD is about to, at the very least, catch up to Intel in terms of single-threaded performance, if not overtake them entirely with their 7nm chips in early 2019, while Intel continues to milk their almost 3 year-old 14nm process.

To be fair, if you're going to spend top dollar, then Intel is still going to give you the best performance available in the 8C-16C range, but it's not a consumer friendly price:performance ratio (neither is nVidia right now, though). For example, in the area of 8C/16T chips, the i9-9900K will provide you 20-25% more performance, in limited situations, over a 2700X, but the 9900K costs $570 and the 2700X costs $330. So, you're paying 73% more money for, at best, 25% more horsepower (mostly in single-threaded performance).

[Ellay]

Got the RTX 2070, the good news is I'm not wasting any $ going for this route. When I do upgrade the rest of the pieces I can just throw this on there.