Intel Q6600 @ 3.6 ghz, time for upgrade?

[HotRabbit]

Hi, may I ask for some upgrade advice?

I have an Intel Q6600 @3.6 ghz, Abit IP-35 PRO, 4 gb DDR2, SSDD, Radeon HD 5870.

I use this to play games like Skyrim, Far Cry3, The Witcher 2, Dragon Age: Origins on maximum settings with a bit of AA and for image manipulation. A heavily modded Skyrim is beginning to show signs of lag. Photoshop slows down after a while. Dragging large PDF’s around the screen is sluggish.

I have my eye on an AMD FX6300 (overclocked) @4.6 ghz, MSI 990FXA-GD65, 8 gb DD3 and to keep my SSDD and video card. I’m thinking that by upgrading the platform I can provide further opportunities in the future with regards to either another second hand Radeon HD 5870 for crossfire, or a new video card altogether, and some additional memory.

As I can see image manipulation only increasing, and I’m looking at The Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, etc, the question is, would I benefit from the above upgrade to help smooth things out? Or would the performance gain be not worth it and so save the money and look at getting an entire new system in another year or so?

Any thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks for helping.

 

[HotRabbit]

My PSU is rated around the 650w mark? More than enough to power my Radeon anyway as it was purchased specifically for it. I can't afford a new GPU on top of the CPU, ram and mobo. It's either one or the other and I can't justify buying a new GPU and putting it into an older platform...

 

[HotRabbit]

Enermax.

 

[HotRabbit]

Not convinced about buying a new GPU when the one I have can still render Direct X 11 albeit perhaps not at blistering speeds. Would it smooth things out considerably? I get a stutter in games every now and then as though the video memory is running out and the card off loading onto system ram and CPU.

I should add my resolution is 1920 x 1080, nothing fancy like monster wrap-around-o-vision.

 

[HotRabbit]

I'm factoring in the resale value of any of my previous components. Budget is tight. If it's all too borderline, I may not upgrade anything just yet.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, really helps.

 

[HotRabbit]

...is there something I can run/test to help? You can then use that to help you decide if you want to go new CPU now, or get a graphics card even more powerful than mine to keep you going for a while longer.

Thanks but I'm looking ahead to The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition and a few of the better games released this year. All speculative at the moment.

 

[HotRabbit]

Oh! Well that's quite telling then isn't it!

I'm surprised you couldn't play it at least with medium settings well?

So you think this is completely down to the Q6600? What speed are you running it at?

At the moment, I can play Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, Rage, Skyrim, The Witcher 2, etc at maximum settings with 2xAA at adequate frame rates.

 

[HotRabbit]

So why is your experience so different to Antony101, who has a superior graphics card too? - "I played Far Cry 3 with a Q6600 and a MSI GTX 670 Power Edition, it managed but ran quiet badly."

Probably the biggest improvement I noticed to performance was installing two solid state drives; one for the OS and swap file, the other for games. Loading times are minimal. That's why I'm thinking that my trusty Radeon HD 5870 still has life in it and could offer more if it has more room to breathe in an updated CPU/mobo/ram combination.

 

[HotRabbit]

Is there any reason why your after AMD instead of Intel, or is Intel just not in the budget?

EDIT: I'd also recommend avoiding Crossfire/SLI, I've done it in past thinking it would be cheaper getting an extra 560TI instead of a whole new card and ended up buying a 680 a few weeks after getting my second 560TI. It's noisy, hot and very unreliable with new games.

I've read good things about the FX6300, especially as I'm thinking of overclocking it to around 4.5 ghz. I'm also hoping frequency and number of cores increase will give good performance in applications other than games. And it's at a good price at the moment.

I also have reservations about Crossfire/SLI. Maybe I should eliminate that feature to reduce the cost of a new mobo? Put the funds towards a GPU/CPU/mobo/ram upgrade. But then it's getting expensive...

 

[HotRabbit]

Fair enough, but that doesn't explain the black and white difference between the comments of "I can play Far Cry 3 at maximum settings with 2xAA at adequate frame rates" and "I played Far Cry 3 with a Q6600 and a MSI GTX 670 Power Edition, it managed but ran quiet badly."

They give very different views of performance, especially given the latter is even with a superior graphics card to the former

It is a bit odd. Maybe there's other things to consider in our systems? Maybe different people's perception of 'adequate frame rates' differs? All I can say was my experience was okay for me.

 

[HotRabbit]

CPU upgrade, motherboard and 8 Gb of RAM and keep your 5870 for now and the SSD, Your Q6600 is bottlenecking your 5870 as it is, I had a Q9650 @ 4Ghz and that was bottlenecking a 5870.

I would get yourself a second hand i7 2600k or i5 2500k, 2600k will be anywhere from £100-£115 or a 2500k from £85-£95. Then buy a new motherboard and RAM. I don't gamble on second hand motherboards unless I buy on here from the members market from the good guys I can trust, so don't buy second hand motherboards from ebay they will most likely have some fault and that's why some are passing them on there and hoping you don't notice the fault.

A second hand CPU either works or doesn't, simple as that really.

RAM I would only buy again from the guys here on the members market if second hand and make sure the RAM has a warranty, most come with life time warranty.


If you take this route you will have a much better system than the one you mention, the games will run nicer and photoshop will fly and be as smooth as silk.

Sounds like great advice, thank you very much, really appreciated.