Performance anxiety...

Alex R

Alex R

Alex R

Associate
Joined
1 Jun 2005
Posts
532
Hi,

I haven't been on these forums for ages (since Jan 2012 apparently:eek:). That's probably because I managed to curb my PC upgrade addiction. However, I'm now suffering performance anxieties. Because I have been completely out of the loop on PC developments in the last 18 months I now know nothing. Least of all whether my system is worth upgrading.

I have :

CPU = Intel core 2 Extreme QX9650 - runs at 3 GHz
GPU = Radeon HD5870
Mb = Gigbyte EP45-EXTREME
Mem = 4 gig
HD = SSD for OS + a normal one for data
Screen = 1680*1050

I use it mainly for interwebbing and gaming. The main reason I'm wondering about performance is Rome 2 Total War coming out - still addicted to them.

So, am I missing out on a great deal? Or, does my PC still cut a bit of the mustard?

Words of wisdom gratefully received.
 
Think your cpu would struggle with Rome 2 as it's quite cpu intensive. You'd want to be upgrading your cpu and mobo to maybe an i5 ivy or haswell.
 
Hi Alex ,

You still cut mustard , but id say you could do with a upgrade if your going to be seriously using the pc in the future especially for gaming and these newer demanding releases. 4GB memory is very low now days as well.

Do you actually have a budget ? or just ideas at this stage.

McstylisT
 
Cheers guys. Mcstylist, just ideas at the moment, I just really don't know what mileage I'll get with newer components for my usage at that res.
 
It's a sad thing to see a thousand pound X range cpu at stock speeds. The cheap route is to get that back to 4ghz, the board is specified with that in mind.

Otherwise, modern computers are quicker, particularly at multithreaded workloads, but not by vast amounts.
 
If you're decide to go the Ivy route, Id recommend the 3570k and asrock extreme4. Very good board that allows sli in the future, if you get that far.
 
JonJ678 said:
It's a sad thing to see a thousand pound X range cpu at stock speeds. The cheap route is to get that back to 4ghz, the board is specified with that in mind.
Click to expand...
Actually 3ghz was a typo (copy and paste) it is at 3.6 (9*400).

Won the CPU in a raffle at an event organised by Antec :D
 
Alex R said:
Actually 3ghz was a typo (copy and paste) it is at 3.6 (9*400).

Won the CPU in a raffle at an event organised by Antec :D
Click to expand...

That is a nice touch , cant argue with that mate. :D :D :eek:

I would just suggest you grab some more ram but with buying new DDR2 prices quite high i can not justify the recommendation to you.
For now just see what you can get out of that CPU. The higher the better. Keep an eye out for some ram too (check MM if eligible).

Only other alternative is slowly get a budget together for a new build.
 
That's better - 3.6 is likely to be optimal in terms of volts/performance. Good man :)

I suppose your choices are to stay put, change to the current mid range haswell kit or move to ivy bridge extreme in a couple of weeks. Cheap, medium, expensive. Slow, medium, fast.

Conventional wisdom on here is to ignore the high end X79 systems and get the cheaper Haswell kit. Whether that's good advice is situation dependent - if you're happy on P45 you probably don't need the high end version, but you may still want it
 
Save your money, wait for Rome 2 to show up. It will most likely require a beefy CPU, but which one... Then check out hardware that best match your favorite games (FX vs i5 vs i7, £200 graphics card punch-out). Maybe even your current setup will be good enough for you.

It does mean you will be one week, to two weeks late for playing the game. So you can take a gamble to get in early, depending on your budget, but Haswell i5 / i7 would be a good guess. The AMD chips require some finer tuning for best performance, and developers rarely bother. This mentality change with the next gen consoles.
 
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