New CPU/mobo or GPU

madindehead · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:19

Hey guys,

I am looking at upgrading either my CPU or GPU this month. I play all my games at 1920x1200 resolution, and I like to play on the highest settings I can.

Running the Unigine benchmark, I got the following results:

These seem quite bad, compared to other results I found online. I also feel like in WoW raids, I am getting some fps problems.

Now, I'm going to upgrade the other part in a month or so probably (as long as nothing comes along).

But I'm looking at either a GTX 970 upgrade (around £300) or a i5-4690K bundle (also around £300).

Right now, what is the best option?

stulid · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:21

Best option is to add a fat cooler.

Overclock the CPU you have.

Swap the GFX card for the 970 etc.

RJC · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:21

I would try a GPU upgrade for the time being and see how you get on.

Can you up your overclock to 4ghz?

madindehead · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:31

stulid said:
Best option is to add a fat cooler.

Overclock the CPU you have.

Swap the GFX card for the 970 etc.

RJC said:
I would try a GPU upgrade for the time being and see how you get on.

Can you up your overclock to 4ghz?

The CPU is on water stulid

And sadly because it's an i7-920 running 12GB of RAM, I had some stability issues at 4GHz. I might try and push it again, as I didn't do much voltage tweaking last time. But it was a known issue with 920s. Perhaps it was worse with 6 sticks of RAM, and I only run 3, so I might give it another try.

I'll swap the 670 for the 970 then. Seems like the best option. Just tried from Metro: Last Light, and the CPU load was around 25% the entire time, GPU load totally capped at 99%

RJC · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:35

I had only 6gb on mine over 3 slots, managed 4ghz - been quite a while now since I sold it.

madindehead · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:36

RJC said:
I had only 6gb on mine over 3 slots, managed 4ghz - been quite a while now since I sold it.

Yeah, I used to run it at 4GHz with 3 slots when I had 6GB of RAM. So I maybe just need to tweak it a bit for stability.

setter · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:39

Might just need a bump on qpi/vtt voltage with 12gb of ram, iirc with 3x4gb i needed 1.32 on qpi at 4.2ghz. Might need a touch more if you're running with 6x2gb.

madindehead · 26 Jan 2015 at 21:54

Ah cool, thanks

I'll give that a go and see how it sits. But you both think the GTX 970 would be the best bet for now, with the CPU at 4GHz?

stulid · 26 Jan 2015 at 22:01

It is the best option.

madindehead · 26 Jan 2015 at 22:48

Cool. I'll get on that

BluD · 26 Jan 2015 at 23:02

Im surprised your having problems with a 670 in wow, if i remember correctly they were the equivalent of a hd 7950. I think wow does like a really fast cpu though, if i drop my cpu speed to 3ghz i lose a lot more FPS than i do dropping my GPU speed or even losing a GPU.

madindehead · 27 Jan 2015 at 09:16

I clocked the CPU up a bit to 4GHz again, and it seemed fine. But given my graphics weren't set all that high, I was slightly worried by it. I think it was made worse that we did a weird tactic on Butcher, which meant we were all balled up. The FPS tends to really suffer then. I tried a few other games last night, and for the settings I want, it seemed to struggle quite a bit.

CPU load with WoW running wasn't all that high either.