Do I need a New Machine? Or will an upgrade keep me alive?

GiraffePencils · 13 Nov 2013 at 16:49

Hello all.

I have been watching my PC's ability to take games in it's stride slowly fade for a while now and I'm not sure if I've left an upgrade too late to keep me going or if I need to build a new PC from scratch.

Right now I have:
i7 920 (at 4.0Ghz)
6Gb Cosair Dominator (3 * 2Gb)
GTX 560Ti (stock clock)

I was looking at maybe getting another 560, and more ram But I feel that might be throwing money at a dying system and I might be better finding a home for her and getting a new PC.

And I was wondering if anyone could advise me one way or the other?

Doomedspeed · 13 Nov 2013 at 16:57

The 920's are still good, especially with that overclock.. This should last you another year or so atleast.

What res are you playing at? I assume this is a gaming rig?

If so, i would invest in a new GPU.. You don't need more RAM really.

You got a budget in mind?

ExRayTed · 13 Nov 2013 at 16:59

More ram - possibly another 2gb would do but 6gb is still a reasonably healthy amount. In regards to the graphics side of things a better GPU would help more than another 560. Look at the 7850 / R 270 range. They're good mid-range cards that won't be hampered too much by the ageing cpu.

GiraffePencils · 13 Nov 2013 at 17:03

Res is 1080p
single monitor (there is 2 but one's a 19" I use to help while coding)

Budget is really dependent on how long it'll last, year or so upgrade I'd want to keep it sub 500
If I could get something that would carry forward to a newer rig and not get throttled by my current build I'd stretch.

I was thinking dual GPU might keep me going for relatively cheap but can't say I found much info on how well the 560Ti does.

Idleman · 13 Nov 2013 at 17:06

I would look at selling your 560 and pick up a second hand 670 or 7950, the cheaper alternative. I`ve just gone from Sli MSI TFII560ti(1GB) to an MSI TFIV OC Power Edition and the difference is amazing.

GiraffePencils · 13 Nov 2013 at 17:08

ExRayTed said:
More ram - possibly another 2gb would do but 6gb is still a reasonably healthy amount. In regards to the graphics side of things a better GPU would help more than another 560. Look at the 7850 / R 270 range. They're good mid-range cards that won't be hampered too much by the ageing cpu.

As far as I know with my current MoBo and CPU i'm using triple channel ram so can't add another 2Gb without buying a whole new kit (pls correct me if I'm wrong)

Mid range GPU upgrade is possible, but if I end up getting a new PC a year-2 down the line I'd rather have started saving now

Devrij · 13 Nov 2013 at 17:17

GiraffePencils said:
As far as I know with my current MoBo and CPU i'm using triple channel ram so can't add another 2Gb without buying a whole new kit (pls correct me if I'm wrong)

Mid range GPU upgrade is possible, but if I end up getting a new PC a year-2 down the line I'd rather have started saving now

Correct, you're better off keeping trip channel going with 6GB.

I suggest either a) SLI the 560, if your PSU is up for it, for short term gain on minimal budget

b) get what you can for the 560 and upgrade to a new card, leaving you the option to xfire that further down the line, potentially on your next build. Costs more, but has better longevity as a payoff.

Performance between 560 SLI and a 770 is reasonably close, with a 770 edging it by a good 10-15% from a quick google.

Personally I'd go for a new single card, start saving for your next overhaul for a year or so's time, then get ready to pop your second card for xfire/SLI in the next 6-12 months from there.

Doomedspeed · 13 Nov 2013 at 17:28

Devrij said:
Correct, you're better off keeping trip channel going with 6GB.

I suggest either a) SLI the 560, if your PSU is up for it, for short term gain on minimal budget

b) get what you can for the 560 and upgrade to a new card, leaving you the option to xfire that further down the line, potentially on your next build. Costs more, but has better longevity as a payoff.

Performance between 560 SLI and a 770 is reasonably close, with a 770 edging it by a good 10-15% from a quick google.

Personally I'd go for a new single card, start saving for your next overhaul for a year or so's time, then get ready to pop your second card for xfire/SLI in the next 6-12 months from there.

Good idea..

920 + GTX 770 rig now. Skylake and 770 SLI later..

jamiehavok · 13 Nov 2013 at 19:21

shove in a better gfx card and you'll be ok for a bit longer imo. i haven't played a game that uses more than a bit over 4 gigs of ram yet, so thats ok, and the i7 at 4ghz is still more than any game needs. (heck my mate plays the supposedly very cpu heavy bf4 on a Pentium dual core and a 6950 and still manages 1080p high!)
my 6950 card is very similar performance to your 560ti and yeah im going to get a r9 290 when the custom cooled ones come out and i think ill be set!

ExRayTed said:
More ram - possibly another 2gb would do but 6gb is still a reasonably healthy amount. In regards to the graphics side of things a better GPU would help more than another 560. Look at the 7850 / R 270 range. They're good mid-range cards that won't be hampered too much by the ageing cpu.

i don't think the 7850 or 270 is much of an upgrade from a 560ti, i'd be looking at a gtx 770 or a r9 280x as a minimum. I dont think the i7 920 oc will cause a major bottleneck with the vast majority of games by any single gpu.

GiraffePencils · 14 Nov 2013 at 13:14

Hmm
Thanks all, this is all really good stuff to think about..
I have a separate budget, which was going towards aesthetics mainly (I like to keep it separate, you can always go too far one way and ruin the other

)

If I was to go to the GPU only route, grabbed myself a 290(x or no x, not sure) and stuck a water block on it to get rid of the noise (watercooling counts as aesthetics) would my system keep up with it enough to make it worth it? or would I leave myself with a ton of GPU I can't make use of?

Main reasoning is a WC 290 would fit very nicely in a future build, and I'd suspected my build couldn't keep up enough to justify it.

David Bisset · 14 Nov 2013 at 13:27

Your CPU won't bottleneck it too badly in most things - varies by task of course. I'd say that'd be a cracking choice both for now and for future upgrades. A 920 @ 4GHz is still a solid CPU!

I'm with jamiehavok in saying I'd not bother with a 7850 or 270 (even though I've got a 7850 and love it) as it's not a big step up, a 7950 would be minimum for me, 7970 (or 280x, same...) better, 290 top if the budget is there. If you don't want to spend that much though I'm sure a 7970 would serve you very well anyway.
For me the GTX 770 is slightly too expensive compared with the 280x/7970 but if you like nVidia it's a decent option at a similar level.

If you're not in a rush you could wait a little and see how Mantle fares, might make a difference.

GiraffePencils · 14 Nov 2013 at 14:38

Waiting for Mantle to pan out sounds good, it's in theory a strong API, but whether it works/gets used is another thing.

770/780 seems expensive too and from what I've read the only thing you can fault the 290 for is their inability to cool it, which a nice water block should fix (Still waiting on a good group of reviews though)