Am I CPU limiting myself?

[matt_fsr]

OK, so it's been a little while since my last upgrade which was from a C2D setup to a i3 540 3.06Ghz , which is quite happy pottering along at 4.4Ghz under air.

My question is, am I likely to be CPU limiting myself for anything?? The PC is primarily a gaming rig, I've no great interest in performance for other tasks at all.

Also, would I be limiting myself if I upgraded from my existing GTX460 768Mb card? I'm normally an nVidia fan, but it seems like ATi have the best bang-for-buck in the ~£200 gfx sector, which is normally where I tend to spend monies.

Advice pls?

 

[Dirtyganker]

If you're not noticing any performance issues then no point in spending any more money. Unfortunately the socket on your board is now defunct and so there isn't an obvious 'quick fix' by way of another CPU unless it's 2nd hand, but to be honest if it ain't broke no point in fixing it. If you were looking for another CPU then you'd be needing a new motherboard too.

You're only limited to what you can do if you can see things being slower and taking longer to complete than you'd like, and if it's not an issue then your particular cpu isn't bad at all. The sandbridge equivalent is noticeable faster, but thats not really what you're asking.

I had the same CPU running my HTPC for ages and the only reason I upgraded was that a friend wanted a cheap PC and so I threw one together with that CPU and board, moved an i5-750 into my HTPC chassis and then upgraded the gaming rig that the i5 came out of. Otherwise, I would still be running it now.

Agreed, for the moment the £200 gfx market is probably dominated by the AMD products and, depending on what you play and the resolutions you use I think you'd notice the difference from your GT460. Spend a bit more - say £80 - and you'd be into something like a GTX670 and the difference is eye-watering, but I couldn't say if you'd really notice your i3 being a real bottleneck then.

You could take the view that if you're thinking of an upgrade of both CPU and gfx that it might be better to shift your current rig and start again, but I don't know without knowing more about what you want to get from your gaming rig and what kind of games you play, and what your overal budget is.

 

[matt_fsr]

Very tempted on slapping this in my PC, while its on offer.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-054-HS

Games I play, and have still to play are:

Total War; NTW with Darthmod and Shogun 2 (+expansion) still to play.
Metro 2033 still to play.
Skyrim - with mods and HD textures.
Payday: The Heist and Killing Floor, though these are less demanding.

Also going to be looking at Company of Heroes 2 and Rome Total War 2 when they're out.

 

[Stanith]

An old thread, but I thought I should reply as I had the EXACT same spec machine as yourself (overclocked i3 550 + GTX 460).

Unfortunately mine was struggling with Team Fortress 2 (very cpu intensive, and would crash in multicore mode for some reason) and in Battlefield 3. This wasn't great as I wanted a 120hz monitor, so high frame rates ideally!

In the end I found an i5 750 on ebay which fits this motherboard (you could also look for an i5 760, i7 860, i7 870, i7 875K or i7 880). Also bought a GTX 670...and now everything flies. Touch wood TF2 hasn't crashed yet in multicore mode either. I think some things just demand a quad core nowadays! I haven't even overclocked the i5 yet either (though I plan to once I sort out my cooling, temps a bit high atm).