Will I be wasting my money.....?

McGray

McGray

McGray

Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2008
Posts
6,070
Hey all.

It's been about 4 years since I built my rig and bar GPU upgrades nothing has been changed.

Still running Q9550, 4gb DDR2 RAM. GPU is GTX460.

I've got a bit of cash at the moment and am considering upgrading to i7, 8gb DDR3 & SSD with an eye to changing the GPU in the summer.

Thing is there's nothing really that my current setup struggles with. Every game I play runs fine and I don't use the PC for anything but gaming, internet and listening to music.

If I don't spend the money on an upgrade now I will probably blow it on something else so in my mind it's now or wait until next year really.

Question is, would I just be wasting money on an upgrade that I don't need?

Opinions?
 
if your current does what you want without problem, then I'd wait, orrrr put aside maybe half (or all if you can) of your cash for a few months time and maybe revisit the idea then? :)
 
A 580 on Q9550 would be a massive bottleneck on most games.

If I were you I'd get a i5-2500k upgrade (or wait for the Ivy bridge 3570K).

Any decent graphics card upgrade on the Q9550 would be wasted imo as the GTX460 is already a little bit bottlenecked.
 
A GTX 580 on a Q9550 @ 3ghz+ will not be bottlenecked a lot a Q9550 at 3.5ghz + will show almost zero bottleneck with most games. A 580 and a SSD is what you want to update on that system and maybe a better CPU cooler so you can overclock the CPU. Most games are GPU bottlenecked these days not CPu and very few show a lot of gains from going to really high overclocks on the CPU.
 
If it is playing everything fine I would just go for the ssd, it will make your pc feel far faster and wait until Ivy for a cpu upgrade and HD 7000/Kepler for a gpu upgrade if you need them..
 
Purgatory said:
A GTX 580 on a Q9550 @ 3ghz+ will not be bottlenecked a lot a Q9550 at 3.5ghz + will show almost zero bottleneck with most games. A 580 and a SSD is what you want to update on that system and maybe a better CPU cooler so you can overclock the CPU. Most games are GPU bottlenecked these days not CPu and very few show a lot of gains from going to really high overclocks on the CPU.
Click to expand...

Most games are GPU bottlenecked running on an i5/7 system, not an old socket 775 system.

My 5870 was bottlenecked on an E8400 @ 4.0 GHz. Which for games that only use up to 2 cores is faster than the Q9550. Running a 580 on it would be a waste.

Ideally you need to upgrade both, but CPU before GPU.
 
Yes you will be wasting your money. I also use a 775 system and it does all I need it too, thats work and gaming. I think about upgrading cpu/gpu often, but I know its just for the sake of it. The last time I wanted to upgrade I decided I don't need it and bought a reasonable quality driving wheel and pedals instead.

Like others have said you can look for other ways to enhance you system, ssd, decent keyboard, gaming headset, accessories that improve your gaming experience, and so on. Most if not all the above work out cheaper then a cpu/gpu upgrade you don't need. I'm aware you might already have all the accessories you need its just food for thought.

When the time comes that an upgrade is a must you will have better/improved components to choose from.
 
McGray said:
Thing is there's nothing really that my current setup struggles with. Every game I play runs fine and I don't use the PC for anything but gaming, internet and listening to music.
Click to expand...

Given this, I can't see much point in upgrading at the moment. Could treat yourself to some nice new decent peripherals or a holiday. I think the bottleneck even with a GTX580 will be very minimal at 3.6GHz if any. If you do want to spend the money on internal components I'd say a high end graphics card such GTX580 and/or SSD now then CPU/MOBO/RAM later, perhaps Ivy Bridge? Remember that your current high end 775 CPU will be sought after for quite a while yet so the resale value won't take a significant hit even 12 months from now.
 
I'd get an SSD because I personally can't see the Revo-drives coming down in price anytime soon which IMO is the next step for HD technology.

I'd wait, the way things are moving by the end of this year we'll probably have a good idea of what's after Ivy Bridge and if it's worth an upgrade. I think your rig should hold out till then.
 
Id wait for the new CPU's to come out in a very short time and if you feel the need then get one of those ivybridges. I cant comment on SSD because i've never used one,but your 3.6Ghz CPU and that graphics card sound pretty awesome to me even though the CPU is not the newest its still quad core and fast so only upgrade if you really feel that your games are stuttering too much for your liking or you want to max out your games graphics. Dont get an i7 its not needed in games at all. Like the guy said above the longer you hold out the cheaper things will get.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom