What will enchance my gaming experience the most?

[Kiada]

Budget: £230-ish.

Current Setup:

Asus P8H61-MX
Pentium Dual-Core G630 2.7ghz
Radeon HD 6850
8GB Ram
650w PSU
Windows 7

Currently it runs pretty much any game I throw at it @ 1920x1080, high-ish graphics (Skyrim, BF3, ME3 etc.). Ideally though I'd love to play every game flawlessly on the highest eye-candy graphics settings (single monitor)! That's the aim anyways...

As the games run alright at the moment with the G630, I'm unsure if upgrading the processors the right decision.

Option #1) Purchase another 6000 series graphics card, a crossfire mobo and a new PSU.

Option #2) Return the HD 6850, buy a GTX 560 ti and an i5-2500k.

Am I right in thinking Option #1 will deliver the graphics goodness better than Option #2?

Which would you do?

 

[Adam_101]

Hey, imo I'd probably stretch to a 2500k + a gelid cooler which will improve performance, then in a couple months go for a newer card IF you need to.

Going for the 2500k OR perhaps a newer IB cpu which is out soon would be a good idea, plus gives you a chance to save up more cash .

 

[Blue160]

A G630's going to become a fairly major bottleneck with a crossfire setup. You'd want to upgrade to a faster quad core before going down that route.

Edit: With a H61 chipset you can't overclock so no point in a 'k' chip unless you upgrade the motherboard.

 

[beejjacobs]

Perhaps this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x evga geforce gtx 480 1536mb gddr5 pci-express graphics card (015-p3-1480-kr) £179.99
1 x intel core i3-2120 3.30ghz (sandybridge) socket lga1155 processor - retail £93.59
total : £284.98 (includes shipping : £9.50).



and sell your 6850. assuming you don't mind a noisy gpu, and your psu is decent. (make/model?)

in bf3 and such, dual core is still enough:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html
and the 480 is a very nice GPU

Comparison:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291?vs=309

Someone might say the i3 will 'bottleneck' the 480, but it's pretty fast so I would think its okay.

 

[olivier renault]

Perhaps this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x evga geforce gtx 480 1536mb gddr5 pci-express graphics card (015-p3-1480-kr) £179.99
1 x intel core i3-2120 3.30ghz (sandybridge) socket lga1155 processor - retail £93.59
total : £284.98 (includes shipping : £9.50).



and sell your 6850. assuming you don't mind a noisy gpu, and your psu is decent. (make/model?)

in bf3 and such, dual core is still enough:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html
and the 480 is a very nice GPU

Comparison:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291?vs=309

Someone might say the i3 will 'bottleneck' the 480, but it's pretty fast so I would think its okay.

Depends on the PSU. the 480 is a monster.

 

[Kiada]

Thanks for all the info!

The budget is a bit misleading to be honest. I have an RMA for my HD 6850 as it's only a week old, so I can return it for the full £115 refund - so my budget is more like £345.

Providing my PSU is sufficient - (it appears to be a gold CIT 650w, though it has both 6 pin and a 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors) - I should be looking at a GTX 480 and an i5-2500? I think a 3.3ghz quad core should be sufficient without the need to overclock, but if I can I'll grab a 2500k anyways in case I upgrade the mobo in the future.

Does that sound about right?

 

[stulid]

Thanks for all the info!

The budget is a bit misleading to be honest. I have an RMA for my HD 6850 as it's only a week old, so I can return it for the full £115 refund - so my budget is more like £345.

Providing my PSU is sufficient - (it appears to be a gold CIT 650w, though it has both 6 pin and a 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors) - I should be looking at a GTX 480 and an i5-2500? I think a 3.3ghz quad core should be sufficient without the need to overclock, but if I can I'll grab a 2500k anyways in case I upgrade the mobo in the future.

Does that sound about right?

The PSU is poor, never use a low quality unreliable PSU,
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-cost-psu-pc-power-supply,2862.html
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=123


You will certainly be wanting a better/trusted PSU for an animal like a GTX480.


Get this,

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (015-P3-1480-KR) £179.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
Total : £261.97 (includes shipping : £10.00).




Dont bother with the CPU upgrade to a i3 its not that much of an improvement (closest comparison) - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=289

 

[beejjacobs]

I'm afraid that PSU looks terrible.... Never skimp on a PSU - especially with a powerful GPU! You need a quality brand, as well as just a high wattage. This would do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (015-P3-1480-KR) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £175.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £422.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).




or


YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (015-P3-1480-KR) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £93.59
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £340.56 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 

[Cult_X]

would it be possible to get an i3, new motherboard and another 6850 to run crossfire. They scale extremely well apparently. Plus OC has them on offer atm

 

[stulid]

would it be possible to get an i3, new motherboard and another 6850 to run crossfire. They scale extremely well apparently. Plus OC has them on offer atm

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £93.59
1 x OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
Total : £354.55 (includes shipping : £10.00).




• Cheapest board that does symmetrical Crossfire/SLI and has Lucid+Quicksync.
• PSU is made by Seasonic

-----------------------------------

But going to a i3 is silly, a i5 2500K minimum,


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2550K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
Total : £434.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).