Decisions, decisions

Hood

Hood

Hood

Associate
Joined
22 Nov 2010
Posts
33
Hi all,

currently running a Spec Ops bundle from 2010 being...

i7 950 @ 4.3
6Gb RAM
Asus X58 Sabertooth mobo
Gainward Phantom 580 GTX 3Gb
Asus Xonar D2X
Dell 24" monitor at 1920 x 1200
W7 64 Home premium thingy

The pc is mostly used for gaming, playing IL2 Cliffs of Dover, BF3 and in the future I'll be playing BF4, IL2 Battle over Stalingrad and Star Citizen. If it lives up to the hype I'll be using an Oculus Rift HD kit. FPS-wise I seem fine at present though I don't know what BF4 will bring. I won't be using more than 1 monitor.

I have several options. What I really want is an i7 4770k, Z87 Sabertooth, 16Gb RAM and a 780 GTX. Add in a cooler and an extra SSD and that's £1,350 or so.

Or I could just get the CPU, mobo and RAM plus cooler at £600, or I could just get the 780 GTX at about £530.

Setting aside the WANT urge for shiny kit, I cannot decide if I should:

1. Go down the core components upgrade and get a better graphics card later on. Will this get more out of a 580 or will the GPU then be the bottleneck?

2. Go for a better graphics card now, and upgrade core components in a year or so. Will my CPU be a bottleneck? Will any new games be CPU intensive over GPU? Will the i7 950 at 4.3 just run anything for ever?

3. Go for everything (nuff said though there may be the sneaky feeling that it's money wasted), or

4. Just do nothing until an upgrade is absolutely necessary (but without the WANT urge satisfied).

Funding any of the options should be ok, though to replace everything I'd really have to be certain about bang for buck.

Opinions please!

Hood
 
if you do CPU or GPU only there will be a bottleneck, but that said if you get a full kit there will always be a bottleneck of some sort.

16gb of ram is not needed 8gb is over kill 4gb is minimum so you could save a little there.
also if the system is just gaming an i7 is not needed ever.
and the gtx 780 is out gunned in most games by the 7990 at a lower cost.

What ram are you using right now
 
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I'm also thinking about relative super-proofing for the next 3 years or so. I could go down to 8Gb Ram as 16Gb does seem OTT (though Star Citizen has a recommended spec with 8Gb, so maybe....) and add another 8Gb as required, if ever.

I don't really understand why the i5 would be better. Maybe from a price/performance viewpoint but I like the idea of HT with the 4770k as in the background I'm running several other bits of software eg VOIP comms, Track IR, a Thrustmaster profile etc.

I could also go 770GTX over the 780? I'm only ever going to be at 1920x1200 but there is the uncertainty over OR. For example, at the end of next year I could be playing DCS WWII with OR and that might be a killer. Or Star Citizen with OR etc. Using Crysis 3 as an example everything is at medium to get playable FPS.

I'm definitely an Nvidia person and totally ignoring logic re 7970. I was also fed up last time getting a 470 1.5Gb card that didn't cut it in IL2 Cliffs of Dover, trying a 580 1.5Gb card then seeing a big jump with a 3Gb card - logic says that the 1.5Gb card should have been easily enough but it wasn't. If the 770 then it'd be a 4Gb version.

I could I suppose go:

i5 4370k
Z87 Sabertooth (I love my original)
770 4Gb
8Gb RAM

This'd be about £900 with a cooler chucked in. But for "only" an extra £300 I could have the i7 and 780.

Hood
 
the new Sabertooth's are over priced but its down to your choice.

i5 is better then i7 on a lot of things because the HT on the i7 only works if the other cores and not fully powered, and most things only recognize max of 4 core's and the HT is core 5 to 8. That said as time go's on more thing will want more than 4 cores so again i guess its down to your choice.

End of the day if you have the cash for a max system do it.
 
P4Clock said:
the new Sabertooth's are over priced but its down to your choice.
Click to expand...

Agreed, you can get beter for less money IMO.


P4Clock said:
i5 is better then i7 on a lot of things because the HT on the i7 only works if the other cores and not fully powered, and most things only recognize max of 4 core's and the HT is core 5 to 8. That said as time go's on more thing will want more than 4 cores so again i guess its down to your choice.
Click to expand...

"The i5 is better" isn't the right statement...

Really the i7 offers very little for gaming over the i5.. When game start to ultilise HT then the i7 will be a massively valid option but it is common to suggest the i5 unless you need HT or are going for 2 or 3 High-end GPU's.

If you can afford the i7, you should get it... If it means sacrificing on graphics or other area, the i5 will be fine!
 
OnlyMe said:
Daft question to posters above please, why would a 7990 or 780GTX be held back by the X58 system?

Just curious because I am currently running a [email protected] and a 680GTX.
Click to expand...

because they are.... lol

the new cards run faster then your CPU so it holds them back, there no other way to say it.
and if you had a max'ed out Ivybridge-E it would be held back by the GFX then in a year or 2 as GFX get better it would change to the GFX been held back by cpu.
 
P4Clock said:
because they are.... lol

the new cards run faster then your CPU so it holds them back, there no other way to say it.
and if you had a max'ed out Ivybridge-E it would be held back by the GFX then in a year or 2 as GFX get better it would change to the GFX been held back by cpu.
Click to expand...

Well OK, IB is faster clock for clock than good old Bloomfield, that's true. But I hear the IBs don't overclock well so... IB-E is another matter, is OCUK doing a bundle on them yet? If so I'd better go check them out.

I was hoping someone was going to talk about PCIe versions, memory controllers, max bandwidths and stuff, and give me a damn good reason for a nice upgrade :)
 
EDIT: This answers OnlyMe, not the OP.
I thought OnlyMe was the OP to this, why not make your own thread?!

It all depends how much you really want to spend.
For your needs an i5-4670k will do the job nicely paired with a 7950/7970/770 or next gen AMD card.

If you really want to splash out, but not sure why you'd actually need to:
You could go down the 2011 socket route, which offers PCI 3.0 support but then that's only really worth it if you have multiple gpu's, again adding to the price.

Haswell clock decent enough, they get hot due to what's under the lid, de-lid and you can remove this issue, Ivybridge/Sandy's were better for overclocking.

It all comes down to how much you want to spend, and if it's actually worth it in the end.

@Hood: Yes, it will hold the card back, any reason why you want the 780 so bad compared to what other options are there?
 
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ThaReaperGuy said:
@Hood: Yes, it will hold the card back, any reason why you want the 780 so bad compared to what other options are there?
Click to expand...

1. It's very shiny and I want it!

2. I've got the next crop of games in sight and want to be ready when they come out. Most intensive is likely to be BF4 in the short term.

3. Something else might suit but lead to an earlier upgrade than I'd want.

It might be that I don't HAVE to upgrade for a year or so. I know that, but my wallet doesn't listen to my brain all the time.

Hood
 
Hood said:
Would the i7 950 at 4.3 bottleneck the 780?

Hood
Click to expand...

Yes it will hold it back, BUT you need to forget about bottlenecks as something will always hold back a system there is not one the planet that not hold back in some way. what you need to ask your self is will it do what you need it to.

i think an i7 950 and a 780/770 would be fine. but a full system upgrade would be better, just make shower it is an upgrade. there is no point spends a load on cpu, mobo and ram then getting a budget gfx and that save the other way.
 
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