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nataku17

nataku17

nataku17

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14 Sep 2010
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Wales
i just can't decide what to do lol

with the new ATI gfx cards and new intel CPUs comming soon i feel i should wait a few months but at the same time my computer is getting pretty old now and is having a hard time playing some of the new games (mostly FFXIV)

it's only a:
Core 2 Duo E6600
8800GTX
3gb DDR2 (one of my sticks died recently)
and some other random stuff

been looking at getting either an i5 system or maybe an i7 but i just don't know if it's worth waiting or not so thought i would ask for the opinion fo you guys ^^
 
by the time you get what you have been "waiting" for the new best thing will be on the horizon... if you have the money to do it now an i5 or i7 system will still cope well for a few years to come.
 
As what you have is still decent, and new stuff is very close, I say skip this gen and get the new goodies.

Or still wait for the new stuff, but then just buy i5/i7 ati5xxx when it's all gone down in price ;)
 
What kind of score you getting on the FFXIV bench on low (1280x720)? Also, check CPU usage against GPU usage when benching.

For the bench on low, my Q6600 (basically Quad version of the E6600) at 3.0GHz's CPU usage during the benech is minimum around 35%, average 52-58%, max 68-72%. So I would imagine your E6600 would be holding back quite a bit, more so if it is at stock speed 2.4GHz. The GPU usuage for my 9800GTX+ is around 90%~...but never reached 99% (8800GTX is may be around 5-10% slower than my overclocked 9800GTX+. My score on low is around 3400.

So for you system, I think you need to sort out the CPU as greater priority than the graphic card
 
i havn't run the FFXIV benchmark but my CPU usage with the game running is up about 95% and sometimes peaks up to 99% to 100%. i have the game running at the lowest - medium settings, not sure how my GPU is holding up but when playing i get random massive FPS drops where the game goes from playable to a slideshow.

i don't mind waiting if it will be worth it (not sure if anyone really knows if it will yet though) as i have a Dell XPS 16 laptop which runs FFXIV slightly more stable than my pc though seems to have a lower overall fps which i am sure is due to the ATI 4670,

edit: just added a little
 
I would wait personally. At least when you buy the new hardware you can be confident that there will be no significant changes for a few years. Take for example the early adopters of i7-920. To date they still have a very good system.

When the new hardware is released and if its not very good - you'll be able to benefit from the fall in prices of the "older generation" cpu/gpu.
 
One thing you could consider doing...

Try getting a 2nd hand Q6600 for £70-£80, use it till your next upgrade. And by the time you do a full system upgrade (or in 2-3 years time), you should still be able to sell the Q6600 for £50-£60, so basically you are "renting" the Q6600 for use at the cost of just £20, which in my opinion isn't too bad at all.
And judging from what you say, I'm suspecting the times you are hitting 100% CPU usage is in fact OVER 100%, which should be the main cause of the quick drop in frame rate. Like I said, the 8800GTX should be only around 5-10% slower than my overclocked 9800GTX+, and as I mentioned before the GPU usage during my bench on low it was only around max at 80% ish to 90% ish.

How about in game during area which your frame rate drop like flies...compare the CPU usage against the GPU usage (you can use MSI Afterburner setting to display GPU usage on screen). If during the low frame rate places the CPU is at 100% usage, yet the GPU usage is not close to 100%, that it is a clear case of CPU holding back the 8800GTX.
 
Id just buy a 2nd hand quad, mid range card at around £120 and get your ram upto 4gb.
No point in doing a complete upgrade untill they release new games consoles.
 
Kezmo said:
No point in doing a complete upgrade untill they release new games consoles.
Click to expand...

Thats the stupidest statement Ive read in a while, was gonna go into a mini rant/explanation but cant even be bothered

The trouble with dropping in a quad and new gfx card is it depends if his mobo supports cpu, psu is enough for gfx card, as I said before you'll be for ever waiting for next big thing, if youre happy to just go for it
 
I'm on a similar spec myself but it's approaching 3 years old and I definitely want a new one.

Q6600, 8800GTX, Abit IP35-Pro, 2GB Ram (had 4GB but was faulty).
 
Wardie said:
I'm on a similar spec myself but it's approaching 3 years old and I definitely want a new one.

Q6600, 8800GTX, Abit IP35-Pro, 2GB Ram (had 4GB but was faulty).
Click to expand...
There's a different between 'want' and 'need' though. If your Q6600 was overclocked to decent clock speed, it will still totally keep up with a graphic card like GTX480. You'd always see greater performance boost upgrading graphic card than CPU (i.e. Spending the £350 on a GTX480 instead of a new system and sticking with the old GFX card), unless the CPU was a slower dual-core at 3.0GHz or less rather than the ones at 3.8GHz~4.0GHz+.
 
I'm going to get a new PC regardless, i'm just trying to understand if there's something right around the corner that is worth waiting for, and how long that is?
 
Ahh that really is quite far away, was hoping to get a new machine this year.

Might think about just OC'ing then and throwing a couple of new fans in until then.
 
Bear in mind that the first iteration of any new hardware or software will generally be buggy and/or less efficient. It's best to wait for the revised versions that are released a bit later - The Q6600 being a good example as the later G0 stepping ran cooler and was more power efficient.
 
I'm in the same boat,
Q6600, EVGA 8800GTX, iP35. Along the way I picked up 2x2gb DDR3 1333 ram. Was a nice upgrade for £60ish. Then got a custom cooler for £22, and about to OC the Q6600 G0 up to 3.2Ghz+

First ever OC, but I'm hoping it should last out til after Christmas when I can afford to splash out and pass my current system down the family.

Would appreciate any help with the OC here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18191179

S
 
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