GFX card and Ram upgrade

Boo_hoo

Boo_hoo

Boo_hoo

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Dublin
I built this PC 4 years ago from OCUK and I am thinking about doing some upgrades. Specifically a new Graphics card, possibly more ram & and overclocking to 4GHz.

I was thinking of spending around €400 on the Gfx card.
I'm not a huge gamer. The game I play most would be Diablo 3. My GTX470 can struggle with a lot happening on the screen.
I will be playing on a 24" 1080p screen but might upgrade to a 27" 1440p.
I have a preference for Nvidia(found their drivers more reliable) and if possible to have 3 screens connected at once to it TV+22" just for throwing videos/browser up on would be great(not a deal breaker)

My ram is triple channel and I don't think OCUK even stock triple anymore. My usage hovers around 5GB when gaming and I wouldn't mind a bit more head room. I have heard though that having max ram 24GB, can interfere with overclocking.

My 850W PSU fried a while back and I replaced it with the OCZ 500W(I got impatient waiting on the rma). Will I need to upgrade this along with the other parts?



My current specs are:

  • CPU - Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz
  • MOBO - Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
  • RAM - Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Low Latency Triple Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
  • PSU - OCZ OCZ500MXSP-UK ModXstream Pro 500W ATX Power Supply
  • GFX - Gainward GeForce GTX 470 "Golden Golden Sample GOOD Edition" 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
  • Case - CM Storm Scout Gaming Case - Black(Max GPU/PCI Card Length 270mm / 10.63 in)
  • SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5 inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive
  • Cooler - Prolimatech Megahalems Rev C CPU Cooler
 
No need to spend 400euro on GPU for 1080p, a 970 is perfect right now. Save the money for your next upgrade.

Maybe just buy three single sticks of ram at the same time if you can't get a matched triple channel kit? Will 12gb not be enough?

970 uses similar/less power than a 470 so you shouldn't need to upgrade. I run my spec overclocked (cpu and gpu) on 450w.
 
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6GB should be okay for gaming still, I only just see around 6-7gb usage while gaming so I don't think you'll see a bottleneck there
As others said, replace the GPU with a 970 etc
Also clock that CPU!! Use that nice heatsink + fan and clock it so you get some nice boosts for basically free (you do have a fan on the cooler right?)
 
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With a nice over clock the 950 should keep up with modern games I think? Especially if paired with nice gfx
 
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ED209 said:
is the x5650 worth the upgrade? I have a I7 950 @ 3.2ghz and mainly use it for gaming.

the x5650 clock speed is 2.66ghz with 6 cores and 12 threads and my I7 is 4 cores and 8 threads
Click to expand...

Check out the dedicated thread on the cpu forum. There are plenty of before and after benchmark results.
 
Right, so I went with your recommendations.

I bought from OC

  • GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infinity Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive**
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-TG
(I was kind of annoyed that the day after I bought the Galax it dropped another £5 which sucks(for me))

The GTX 970 is sweet and I have been enjoying lots of Far Cry 4. The card is much more compact than my GTX 470 and fits in nicely. The GPU temps while playing FC4 are around 55C. The CPU temps are 50C~.

I also had a Corsair H60 cooler lying around so I installed that. I liked the Megahalem but the H60 takes up much less space. My ambient temp is 36C~ and under stress(prime95) 59C~.

I know I have to leave the thermal compound to bond for a few days but are these temps acceptable if I were considering overclocking to 4GHz?

I do have a bid in on an x5650 on ebay atm. They seem to be selling around €85(incl. ship)
 
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