Caporegime
Gone from q6600to 2500k cost me maybe 150to make the move as i sold my old kit on. Still have a gtx 460 but i won't upgrade that for 6-12 months now. The cpu and mobo will do fine for another 2 years i would have thought.
Is there any point in upgrading anymore?
- Thread starter Explosivo
- Start date
Soldato
good saves me a shed load of cash,can remember the days of constant upgrades and its not something I would want to go too!
Soldato
Most of what I've bought and played over the last 12 months or so with the exception Of The Witcher 2 seems to have been a console port, (Skyrim, Metro 2033, AC Brotherhood, Rage, SC Conviction, Liberty City Stories, Alan Wake, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Crysis 2 etc). Still running a Q6600 @3.5, been running this same cpu, mobo and ram since 2007!
The only system parts I've upgraded in that time are the GPU and hard drives + a few tweaks to WC'ing setup. System still copes admirably with most new titles @1920x1200 with most of the bells and whistles activated. Poor optimisation on a couple of those mentioned though, I seem to get very low framerate dips on Conviction at times.
Will probably wait and see how the new Intel cpus perform and are priced before making any upgrade descison, I think if you are running multi-monitor or a 30inch 1600/1440p display then your upgrade needs possibly become more urgent, 1200p and below still seems to cope very well on previous gen hardware.
The only system parts I've upgraded in that time are the GPU and hard drives + a few tweaks to WC'ing setup. System still copes admirably with most new titles @1920x1200 with most of the bells and whistles activated. Poor optimisation on a couple of those mentioned though, I seem to get very low framerate dips on Conviction at times.Will probably wait and see how the new Intel cpus perform and are priced before making any upgrade descison, I think if you are running multi-monitor or a 30inch 1600/1440p display then your upgrade needs possibly become more urgent, 1200p and below still seems to cope very well on previous gen hardware.
What? I think PC games have never been cheaper what with all the sales on and cheap downloadable versions.
I cant remember the last time I paid over £10 for a pc game. I just wait a few months after release for everything now and pick it up for a third of the price or wait till its like fiver as a download somewhere.
Ok there might be an exception for a game i really like but even then, if you shop around you never have to pay more than £25 for a new release.
Associate
I think my next upgrade will be to a new Imac once they are released this year. The 2011 Imac is more than capable of playng any PC game (according to Youtube), so I'll assume the 2012 model will be only better.
My current PC is 2009 ish, but still plays everything including skyrim
My current PC is 2009 ish, but still plays everything including skyrim
Soldato
The only upgrade i'll be doing is a mobo and CPU and i'll be leaving it for a few years and i'm even debating that upgrade now since my current PC can play everything at 1080p maxed out with no fuss.
Absolutely no point in upgrading anymore as nothing really tasks computers these days due to pretty much everything being a console port.
Good thing though as i'll be saving a load of cash!
Absolutely no point in upgrading anymore as nothing really tasks computers these days due to pretty much everything being a console port.
Good thing though as i'll be saving a load of cash!
It completely depends on your setup and what your desired IQ settings are......I personally like to play at the highest settings available...I play at 1900x1200 and some of the more demanding titles Batman AC, BF3, The Witcher 2 etc are taxing my graphics card, so I've ordered a GTX680 through my work...foc 
If you happy with scaling down to medium or play at lower res, then there is no need.
If you happy with scaling down to medium or play at lower res, then there is no need.
This is a good thing. 90% of the advances tech brings us are cosmetic - the problem is devs playing it safe and trying to appeal to the masses with eye candy. I'd be happy playing games that look like BF3 for the next 5 years if we could get some decent gameplay.
Agreed, there is hardly any point upgrading. I’ve got a Dell Studio XPs laptop which as recently been upgraded with a 500GB HD only as I need more disk space, other then this nothing else would need changing for me to play a vast majority of PC games.
4GB of ram, an ATI 5650 1GB GPU and an i5 would seem fairly sparse considering whats now out there, but yet this enabled me to play the Darkness II and Mass Effect 3 recently at pretty much high details 1080p. Heck even Skyrim with HD texture pack and ATI performance DLL enabled me to play at high at 1080p which was rather surprising..
Batman Arkham City ran at 1600 x 900 high at 30fps, which lets face it, is up their with the consoles – if not better….
My desktop doesn’t get much use, another story lol so my laptop which I feel is rather weak comparable to other machines and what you can buy does do a really good job of playing games…
Have to admit, its totally unheard of me to not upgrade. I'm amazed I'm not looking over the Dell website or some review site eyeing up my next laptop purchase as I'm pretty much a 100% laptop gamer nowadays. Few years back I'd always plonk around £500 - £600 a year on yearly updates. Heck I purchased my laptop back in 2010 thinking it'd last maybe a year and here we are two years on - still using it, still playing new release games... Good in a way I guess - saved me some money upgrading..
4GB of ram, an ATI 5650 1GB GPU and an i5 would seem fairly sparse considering whats now out there, but yet this enabled me to play the Darkness II and Mass Effect 3 recently at pretty much high details 1080p. Heck even Skyrim with HD texture pack and ATI performance DLL enabled me to play at high at 1080p which was rather surprising..
Batman Arkham City ran at 1600 x 900 high at 30fps, which lets face it, is up their with the consoles – if not better….
My desktop doesn’t get much use, another story lol so my laptop which I feel is rather weak comparable to other machines and what you can buy does do a really good job of playing games…
Have to admit, its totally unheard of me to not upgrade. I'm amazed I'm not looking over the Dell website or some review site eyeing up my next laptop purchase as I'm pretty much a 100% laptop gamer nowadays. Few years back I'd always plonk around £500 - £600 a year on yearly updates. Heck I purchased my laptop back in 2010 thinking it'd last maybe a year and here we are two years on - still using it, still playing new release games... Good in a way I guess - saved me some money upgrading..
Still have the Ahtlon II X4 640 with 4GB of RAM and a 5750 and to be honest I'm only upgrading because I haven't in nearly 3 years. The reality is that my sysem is pretty much fine but sometimes it's fun just to upgrade for the heck of it 
Permabanned
If you even contemplate upgrading that, then you have problems a upgrade won't cure.I dont think i see the point anymore
got a Phenom x6, 16gb ram, 2gb 6970.
Soldato
Currently running a Q6600 G0, not overclocked, and 4GB of RAM, and a P5B mobo. Used that spec since I got it 4 years ago, upgrading from an 8600GTS to a 275GTX 2 years ago. Been absolutely fine since, and probably will still be fine for a year or two yet. Smooth enough for me to play BF3 and Skyrim, and other recent games, so I see no point in upgrading just yet. When I do, it'll probably be to take advantage of (slightly) cheaper than launch IvyBridges, and finally get DDR3 RAM and SSDs.
Caporegime
I'm on an X3350 @ 3.7GHz and It never gets pushed. HD 5870 is still more than enough also at 1080p
Just your graphics card really, the majority of processing power for games comes from your gfx card, you could leave all the parts in your rig unchanged for ages and just keep updating your gfx card every couple years, or less or whenever your wallet permits it.
Permabanned
Well not at stock CPU speeds you can't. Even a Q6600 @ 3.0ghz will bottleneck a 6950. If you kept upgrading a GPU with stock CPU speeds it would bottleneck.
I did a big upgrade last year from a E8400 and a GTX295 to a i5k and water-cooled 580`s in SLI. There has been nothing it cant run at max really with a decent frame rate.
The only thing that would tempt me to upgrade now is ARMA 3 and to be fair that's probably going to be a GTX 980 to max that out going on past arma experiences so a good few years left in the current system i would have thought.
The only thing that would tempt me to upgrade now is ARMA 3 and to be fair that's probably going to be a GTX 980 to max that out going on past arma experiences so a good few years left in the current system i would have thought.
Associate
I've got a GTX 670 coming from here on monday, and then I think thats it for a good few years for me. I'm on a 470 at the moment and tbh that handles everything I throw at it fine, it's being put in my brothers new computer in the next week or two though so I'm treating myself to a shiny new card which looks like a big leap in performance.
I think the best upgrade I've done recently is getting two ssd's in raid, they make so much difference, not just in games. I regret not upgrading to them sooner tbh.
I think the best upgrade I've done recently is getting two ssd's in raid, they make so much difference, not just in games. I regret not upgrading to them sooner tbh.
Soldato
Don't try and heap the the blame on game developers because you splashed too much money on a system you don't need.
I mean what did you really think you were going to do with 16Gb or ram?
Amazing graphics does not always = great game, also just because it doesn't bring a pricey system to it's knees does not mean it's graphics aren't good enough.
There really should be a test you have to take before you can buy computer components, something along the lines of "Do you actually know what this does and why you are buying it"?
I mean what did you really think you were going to do with 16Gb or ram?
Amazing graphics does not always = great game, also just because it doesn't bring a pricey system to it's knees does not mean it's graphics aren't good enough.
There really should be a test you have to take before you can buy computer components, something along the lines of "Do you actually know what this does and why you are buying it"?
Last edited: