Help with upgrading old PC.

Talbot6832 · 23 Apr 2014 at 10:27

Current PC:

Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775)
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.67Ghz E6700
Nvidia GTX 260
4GB (I've forgotten what it was, don't have desktop with me).

The whole thing is fairly ancient (got it back in early 2007) and games released now are not performing at an acceptable level (notably AC Black Flag and Planetside 2). Would I gain any kind of performance boost with said games if I stuck a new supported CPU on, etc? Or would it be more prudent to simply buy a new modern motherboard, etc?

I'm not asking for super duper FPS at astronomical resolutions with very single graphical bell and whistle turned on in the game menu, just something that would make newer games runs at 40+ FPS at medium settings or something.

AC Black Flag being a case in point. The game wouldn't break 25fps even with every single setting turned to off or low (although that might have had something to do with optimization).

gt_junkie · 23 Apr 2014 at 10:31

I'd probably go for a new GPU since you'll likely need to upgrade that anyway.

From experience a higher end 4** or 5** series GPU will increase performance by almost 30% and a higher end 6** series GPU would pretty much double that all day long. Since they're older they'd also be quite an affordable upgrade too.

Try that first... if performance improves a lot then you're sorted, if not then perhaps install a supported Quad core chip in that board.

Beyond that it would be an architecture upgrade which would include CPU, mobo and probably ram (assume your board uses DDR2 rather than DDR3) which could end up quite pricy.

Talbot6832 · 23 Apr 2014 at 10:42

Okay thanks.

I was always under the impression my weak CPU would be bottle-necking the GPU? Which would mean getting a newer generation of GPU might not get me anywhere FPS wise?

Been out the loop for a while unfortunately because everything was running fine until the lag of Black Flag arrived.

Idleman · 23 Apr 2014 at 10:45

Pretty much what gt junkie said.

A Q6600 GO or higher quad core Cpu. Another 4GB of ram, assuming you have a 64bit OS.

Quartz · 23 Apr 2014 at 10:55

I had that CPU and got an enormous boost from upgrading the GPU. I forget what I had before (it's a couple of years ago now), but I upgraded to a Geforce 660 Ti. OCUK have a special offer on now for a Geforce 750 Ti for £104 and the Radeon R7 265 is slightly cheaper. Legit Reviews say that the R7 265 is the better card at that price point at stock clocks but the 750 Ti is the better card if you overclock.

Something you can do to help you decide is to run Task Manager on your second monitor and check the CPU usage. If you're getting 100% CPU usage on any core then you're CPU-limited. Also, run FRAPS or another utility which measures VRAM usage. Modern games make heavy use of VRAM and you may be limited here too.