minimal upgrade options p8p67 Pro & 2500k ?

boomish

boomish

boomish

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I recently read this article on extracting a bit more life from a 2500k, as I really can't afford any major upgrades and my future machine is more than likely to be a big Hackintosh upgrade, I wondered if anyone has some advice on getting the fastest FPS gaming out of my ageing system.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...it-finally-time-to-upgrade-your-core-i5-2500k

My OC rig I bought many years ago is still going well but some new games have left it lacking in FPS, so I've added a few parts in recent months, not sure if they were a waste of money or not.:)
old system-
i5 2500k | 4GB Gskill RipJawX | Asus P8P67 Pro
| HIS Radeon 6950 | Antec 902 case |H70 Cooler

I've replaced the GPU with a R9 280 , and the CPU with a 3570k, ( I wish I had seen this article before hand) I use the Asus auto tune to get a stable 4.3 and tweaked the GPU with MSI after burner to get a few more FPS from the 280.

I've not changing any voltage or serious OC but after seeing the video in the article it looks like I could get quite a bit more if I upped the RAM to 2133 & poss changing the graphics card!
If so what Ram would help?
Article mentions the 3570k isn't a worth upgrade but an i7 3770k might be?
Would a GTX 970 be worth it?

Appreciate any thoughts or comments on getting a bit more time and speed out of the system.
Thanks
 
I'd just get a 970 (I did when I was in the same boat as you).

Bear in mind that the settings used in that article are stupidly high end and the games are CPU intensive. Just knock down a few settings and be happy.
 
Nice one Rik yea I don't need to go extreme but it's a good indicator whats possible. Wow you have you 2500k at 4.9!!! yikes.
The higher clock RAM not worth it then? it is quite cheap now.
Look like a 970 then , any particular ones you recommend? I'll start googling anyway..

Thanks again for the quick reply..
 
OCing or changing ram isn't going to do too much performance wise - adding another 8GB will however help quite a lot. Maybe even grab a cheap 16gb set somewhere if you can.

3570k should have plenty of life in it and 280 is still decent.

The CPU at around 4ghz mark will be fine so if you want to see any extra performance it will be only from more RAM or even better GPU - depending on what you want to play (don't upgrade for the sake of upgrading).

Also, good SSD if you haven't got one yet (big enough to keep your games on SSD rather than just OS).
 
Thanks Phoenix , yea 8 gig min is def in the cards , dunno why I got 4 back then, if I'm getting Ram any particular that will work well in a P8p67 Pro, I've been looking at Corsair Vengance 2133 but then there is a few models and different cas timing's . Asus recommend RAM is out of date as is the Corsair site for the motherboard. Can I just pick a decent prices 2133 ram, the article does show it helps the CPU OC.
Thanks again for any advice been building my own systems for years but not really an serious overclocker.
Got an SSD yep :)
 
boomish said:
The higher clock RAM not worth it then? it is quite cheap now.
Click to expand...

IIRC they tested with a Titan X at 1080p, which is a very un-GPU-bound situation. Your 280 is a lot less powerful so shouldn't be so dependent on memory. If it's cheap then you could get it for fun though.
 
I think its only your ram thats the problem TBH as 4 gb is just not enough anymore. 8gb should be enough, but it maybe worth spending a little more for 16gb however, if you ever upgrade your mb/cpu in future you may not be able to use the ram as everything is moving onto ddr4 (Just something to bare in mind). I would not worry about timing/brand too much, just pick the cheapest that suits your needs.

A 280 is still a fairly capable card and certainly wouldn't recommend spending £250+ on a 970 at this point in time due to the coming gpus releases and also because of the odd vram setup (3.5+5) that could become an issue in future (not so much atm though) aswell as the AMD 390's generally out classing them for a little less and will not have vram issues. Hopefully there will be a price drop when the new gpus hit so hold your cash ;)

You could probably OC the 3570k a bit further manually too if you want a little more grunt on the CPU side. They are supposed to be good clockers.
 
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Once again thanks for the replies joeyjojo, Scurburg, cool I'll grab 8/16 gb of 2133 there isn't a huge difference to the 1600, I should have saved the money on the 3570 but I have it now so I'll give OC a try, god I love this forum.

Next PC will be a big jump, well as big as I can make it, maybe a Xeon etc as the simple Hackintosh build I did last year for my daughter has worked so well, I could replace my ageing 8 core Mac Pro and my PC for a single machine:) just got to make this one last a bit more.
 
Yep, I wouldn't bother with swapping 280 unless it starts to really struggle with what you need it for (anything that lowering details a bit is not going to sort it).

Just get the extra RAM and you should be sorted :).
 
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