GPU really more important?

Soldato
Joined
10 Aug 2006
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5,207
For the last few months, I have been going back and fourth trying to decide which would be the best way to upgrade.

For example, I contemplated upgrading:

existing CPU to a quad such as the Q6600.
replace my 8800 GTX with a 460.
Do a complete system upgrade via AMD route, such as the Phenom II.
Do a complete system upgrade via Intel route, such as the i5 760.

But I'm actually wondering if just upgrading the GPU or CPU would be enough. The problems I have with games at present, are when more objects are on screen at once - such as the horde in L4D2, and lots of players and particles in TF2. I noticed the same thing in other games outside the source engine, such as in MW2 and GTA IV - the more on screen and the more my fps dipped really low and the game felt all laggy.

So I want to figure out if there is a cost effective solution to all this, instead of forking out on a whole new system that may be unnecessary to achieve what I want in games.

I'm just a bit perplexed as to which is more important in my case; CPU or GPU or both? This is because I often here how more important GPU's are these days, it left me wondering if simply shoving in a ATI 6870 would do the job.

My CPU is also limited to 2.4ghz at the moment, while I sort out my case cooling.
 
If I were you I'd do things in this order til you get the performance you need/want
1) slot in new gpu
2) sort out case cooling
3) drop in a c2q eg q6600
 
I'd need a new PSU for a GTX 470 unfortunately, as that would be stretching my PSU a bit more than I am willing to risk. An ATI 5850 has definitely crossed my mind, as it's still slightly faster than the GTX 460 but I am not sure that the performance it gives is really worth £20-40 more.

The ATI 6870 is one that keeps crossing my mind right now, as it can be on par with a GTX 470 in some benchmarks and sometimes faster, plus drawing less power and heat, but again more expensive.

Q6600 still is on the cards but I am in two minds about it. On one hand it has appealing overclocking potential and on the other I am concerned about the heat and power draw from one that is overclocked, even within a new case. I am a bit paranoid about heat and power at the moment as I've had heat issues with my current case, and I want to make sure that I don't cause anything to that effect again. The other thing is my PSU only being 450w and I am can't help but wonder how this will cope with an overclocked quad and something like a 6870 - even though the 6870 still has a relatively low power draw.

So for the cost of having to replace the PSU, a new case, new gfx, new cpu, it makes me feel that I may as well stretch a bit further for an i5 setup or similar.

Anyway, still not entirely sure what I want to do, so I'll let you all analyse that and help me decide.:o:p
 
I would say buy a new gfx to replace your 8800 gtx. I would say (maybe not in your case) there is sometimes not much point getting quadfire 5970's if you have a pentium 4 as the bottleneck will be the processor. But going to something like 460 or 5870 or 6780 maybe a good choice.
 
GTA IV is a game that likes lots of cores and lots of video card power and VRAM. I think it's best to go a GPU upgrade if you want to keep costs down. As it will help in GTA IV and most other games as well.

I remember reading a blog post (or something like that) of someone running a heavily overclocked i3 and 5850 on a 300W (or so) Seasonic. I read a review yesterday (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4002/amd-radeon-hd-6850-overclocking-roundup-asus-xfx-msi) showing a 6580 being overclocked to the same speeds as a 6870, with an aggressive OC, a more modest one would bring the 6580 into line with the performance of a 5850 in most cases, while consuming less energy, producing less heat and making less noise.
 
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