brand new build or just new GPU?

yoink

yoink

yoink

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Joined
23 Mar 2011
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25
Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my system. I currently have:

Motherboard: Asus P5B deluxe
RAM: 2GB GeIL PC2-6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Q6600 @ 3.0 Ghz
GPU: BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB
PSU: Akasa 500W
Monitor: 1920x1080 Samsung
OS: Windows 7, 64bit

While I can still play most games with high gfx settings, the frame rate occasionally suffers. Basically, would my CPU or RAM be a significant bottleneck if I upgraded my GPU (GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 1024MB)? Would it be wiser to just upgrade everything at once, or is there still plenty of life left in my motherboard/cpu/RAM? I'd like to be able to play all games with high gfx settings at decent frame rates.

Thanks a lot
 
A 3ghz Q6600 is WAY WAY beyond the 8800gts in that rig in terms of where your bottleneck is. So from that rig a new gpu first and foremost, and frankly a good cooler, another 3-400Mhz and the Q6600 has some life in it yet.

The only issue really is a few games these days often have one "big" thread which can be limited by single core speed, a lot of games are actually pretty nicely multithreaded, for instance Assasins Creed Brotherhood is currently using some 60% of my quad core 4Ghz Phenom 2, and frankly this game is a cpu hog, but its nicely split between all four cores and considering the 60% load, so I wouldn't really expect it to be a problem on a 3Ghz Q6600, honestly this is one of the most CPU intensive games I've played to date, most games don't load my quad core to 60%.

I'd spend whatever you can to upgrade the GPU now, and in the future if and when you need it, you can think about upgrading the rest of your rig, but frankly I wouldn't be surprised to see a overclocked Q6600 last, well, until the next generation of consoles are released in terms of game cpu requirement.

Another 2gb of ram wouldn't hurt either, maybe look at what ddr2 you can pick up second hand, couple 1gb sticks should be easy to find. A good cooler for a better cpu overclock(and less noise if you're currently on the stock cooler) will last ages and would almost certainly fit any mobo/cpu you upgrade to so is a good investment.
 
Just upgraded from a G92 gts to a 6950 and cpu not holding it back too much going by heaven bench anyway :)
Would be better if you could get the cpu up to 3.4/3.6 if possible.
Going sandybridge next week so will see what difference a faster cpu really makes.
 
Thanks a lot for the replies... Think I'll just upgrade my GPU and add a couple more GB of RAM. I currently have a Tuniq Tower cooler on my CPU, not sure how much higher I can OC it, i'll investigate!

One more question, is my 500W PSU still enough?

Cheers.
 
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