Best gfx for E8600 @ 4.33 ghz

[hippie]

Hey guys, with battlefield 3 looming i am thinking about spiceing up my rig a bit.

Currently have a gtx280 running alongside my E8600 which is overclocked to 4.33 ghz.

I am not sure how best to improve this. A gtx 560 seems like an obvious choice, but will it be much better than the 280?

A 580 would be over kill for my processor?


I am not going to have enough room for sli/x-fire.

 

[rajravat]

You would be cpu limited if you went for a gtx 580, a gtx 560ti seems like a good choice, what resolution do you game at?

check out these benchmarks from the alpha, gtx280 doesnt do too badly, but it seems like a quad core is pretty much a must with BF3:

http://gamegpu.ru/Action-/-FPS-/-TPS/Battlefield-3-Alpha-test-GPU.html

 

[hippie]

This is exactly what i was thinking, maybey stick a core 2 quad in there with a 560. But with that sort of money i could get an i5 bundle.

 

[mickyflinn]

I5 Motherboard. memory and processer will cost about approx £250 + or - depending on spec. Add a gtx 560 into your budget that will will be at least another £140.

 

[iostream]

I think an extra couple cores would help you out a lot, BC2 was heavily multi-threaded as it is. Also correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe all of BF3's audio will be processed by your CPU, regardless if you have a dedicated sound card..

 

[area512003]

I would change your spec to a newer CPU/Mobo etc.

I have an EVGA 560ti with my [email protected] and from the scores in benchmarking it is still bottlenecking

 

[subbytna]

edit

 

[fowler002]

I5 Motherboard. memory and processer will cost about approx £250 + or - depending on spec. Add a gtx 560 into your budget that will will be at least another £140.

maybe if you went for the chepo options, do it properly you're looking at £300+.

something like:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-290-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

if you want a bit of future proffing with the mb then http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990 as that'll allow you to upgrade to pci-e3.0 graphics card(would need to upgrade to ivy bridge cpu also as sandy bridge doesn't have the controller for pci-e3.0) without having to change motherboards.

if you want to oc the cpu(why go for a k series if you don't oc) then need a better cooler than the stock intel one) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=

might be worth hanging on and seeing what the new nvidia and amd cards bring before getting a 560ti or what not.

btw what psu do you have?

 

[Nymins]

I would get a quad of some description, but tbh, upgrading to another LGA775 processor would seem like a bit of a waste to me. I'd save and go for an i5-2500k or if you can wait, see what Bulldozer has to offer.

A high-end GPU will be bottlenecked by your current CPU. I use an Athlon II X4 640 @ 3.6GHz, which is a quad core CPU, but with my new Radeon 6950 (unlocked to 6970), the CPU is holding it back in games that are more CPU intensive. Games that should be solid 60fps often drop to the 40's, with Afterburner showing only around 50% GPU usage, so the CPU is to blame.

I'm on the verge of going to the 2500k myself, so I would look into it too.