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So my trusty 7970 graphics card has shat itself, any attempt to take it out of the 300mhz idle phase and game causes a rapid temp spike, 100% fan usage, then safety shutdown(and it's not the cooler - dust free and solid contact), so I'm considering an upgrade sooner than I'd planned. I've not been keeping up with PC hardware over the last couple of years, so I'm a touch confused and not sure if my conclusion is right:

Regarding CPUs, from what I can tell, I would be better off buying a closed-loop water cooler and overclocking my existing i5 3570K plus buying one of the new GTX1080s than I would doing a full-system upgrade with a new CPU/mobo/RAM buy and a 1070, since it doesn't appear the performance increase in most games on the newer gen CPUs is worth it over OC'd Ivy Bridge given the expense of a decent unlocked Skylake. Am I missing anything important or does that sound about right?

 Yodhrin wrote:
So my trusty 7970 graphics card has shat itself, any attempt to take it out of the 300mhz idle phase and game causes a rapid temp spike, 100% fan usage, then safety shutdown(and it's not the cooler - dust free and solid contact), so I'm considering an upgrade sooner than I'd planned. I've not been keeping up with PC hardware over the last couple of years, so I'm a touch confused and not sure if my conclusion is right:

Regarding CPUs, from what I can tell, I would be better off buying a closed-loop water cooler and overclocking my existing i5 3570K plus buying one of the new GTX1080s than I would doing a full-system upgrade with a new CPU/mobo/RAM buy and a 1070, since it doesn't appear the performance increase in most games on the newer gen CPUs is worth it over OC'd Ivy Bridge given the expense of a decent unlocked Skylake. Am I missing anything important or does that sound about right?

Truly an OC'd i5 of almost any make can/will handle whatever you throw at it - i7's are nice, don't get me wrong, but unless you're noticing a distinct performance issue (or you just like having the best of the best), you should be good. The 1080 is going to be the best bang for your buck for awhile I imagine, and if your board can support it, I'd say go for it.

P.S. Not sure if you'd decided on a close loop system for your CPU yet, but the H100 (I think that's the model, might be H101) is a fantastic unit and stupidly easy to maintain and install.

Actually, yeah that sounds about right to me. You'll get much more of a boost in performance getting the 1080 than you would getting a better cpu.

If you're happy setting up water cooling and overclocking your cpu, I'd think that will keep you going for the foreseeable future.
Then if you find it starts to struggle one day, you can reuse the waterblock and 1080.

Note that I'm not an expert, and this is an internet forum for modelling/miniatures, and I only have an i5 3350P and GTX960.

I\ was looking at the NZXT X61 Kraken, the ludicrously oversized case I bought(always read the specs carefully folks ) with my last major rebuild can easily accommodate it.

Can I ask how much RAM you have currently? As far as processors go, I have an i7 and the only difference I have really noticed, in terms of performance, is when I'm editing in Adobe Premiere. For gaming purposes it's not any better than my old i5.

8 gigs of Corsair 1600mhz DDR3, I've been thinking about bumping that up(my mobo can handle up to 32 at up to 3000) but it's never made a peep until a couple of really recent games and DDR3 was ludicrously pricey last time I looked at it.

That's enough, but it wouldn't hurt to go up a little if you can get a good price. In my opinion, 8 gb is the current minimum for a gaming rig.

You should be able to get another 4 gb for less than 30£.