• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Platform upgrade or GPU

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

Soldato
Joined
18 May 2010
Posts
23,650
Location
London
Thinking I might upgrade my cpu, mobo and ram when the next Intel chips get released. This would mean keeping the 5870 probably at least for another year after purchasing the above.

Would a new cpu, mobo and ram get more out of my 5870?

For instance, Im currently playing Skyrim on High as although Ultra was playable, it did lag a little. BF3, I could play Ultra as well (with no MSAA) but stuck to High for fps.

Current spec in sig.

Is anyone currently running a 2500k with a 5870 and seen an increase in performance?

Strangely currently playing Alice Madness returns and it is a tiny bit laggy here and there, but totally playable. Probably the physx which I dont seem to be able to turn off, lowest it goes is low...
 
Last edited:
It depends on the game. For BF3 you'll be GPU bound. Skyrim however scales with cpu clock frequency (not so much on the number of threads).

What resolution do you play at?
 
Skyrim rarely drops below 60 fps on Ultra 1080p (I think I have v-sync on :). At work atm so can't check.

My 2600k would effectively be the same as a 2500k for gaming purposes, clocked at the same speeds. HD 5870 1GB is stock.

Not got BF3.
 
The new intel platform will be pci express 3. all current gpus are pci express 2. so i would do your cpu motherboard 1st. then go for a pci ex 3 gpu when they are released next year
 
Sasahara said:
I disagree, his CPU is already bottlenecking the HD 5870 for most games.
A 2500k would be up to twice speed of his current CPU.
Click to expand...

Well that's odd because I have a Q9550 and don't really feel it is holding my GTX480 back much.

Although I am soon upgrading to a 2500K platform for the hell of it :D
 
Sasahara said:
I disagree, his CPU is already bottlenecking the HD 5870 for most games.
A 2500k would be up to twice speed of his current CPU.
Click to expand...

That's over stating it a little though I reckon the op could prob sell that CPU, board and ram for near the cost of an I5 2500k, board and Ram ... so could be a minimal cost upgrade.

AD
 
JasonKnights said:
The new intel platform will be pci express 3. all current gpus are pci express 2. so i would do your cpu motherboard 1st. then go for a pci ex 3 gpu when they are released next year
Click to expand...

Yea I was thinking a platform upgrade is what Id do next. But if an IB cpu etc.. didnt get anything more out of my 5870 then was it worth it..?
 
So yeah, in short it depends on the game as to whether you'll be CPU bound or not. So as mentioned previously, in BF3 for example, even a GTX580 can't allow a CPU faster than a Core i3-2120 (and probably less, there's a suspicion here of literally just four cores!) to spread it's wings. And then there's the difference between your 5870 and GTX580.

Skyrim on the other hand is a different story. As always, depends on the game.
 
My advice to make games better for now is to buy a second hand gpu intill your ready for a hole system swap. no point buying an expensive gpu only to be out of date . the new gtx600 series come out the 1st quater of 2012 which will be pci express 3 (10 times quicker than 2.0)
 
Better GPU isn't going to help if games don't use 4 cores...

As much as we hate it...game developers will keep on releasing games that use less than 4 cores, possibly due to lazy console porting. This is precisely the reason why I myself is upgrading to 2500K soon, as even my 5850 get bottlenecked in games ALL THE TIME.
 
Ideally if BD had turned out better, I would have jumped on that, as I didnt want to upgrade a 4 core cpu only to replace it with another 4 core cpu....

I understand the logic tho, it doesnt matter how many cores it has, its how it performs that matters.

Its just my heart wanted an 8 core cpu... :(

What where AMD thinking! They should have withheld BD, done some more internal developement on it, and in the mean time, refreshed the current Phenom 2 range.
 
Found the move from Q9650(4ghz) to i2500k(stock) a very worthwhile upgrade. Graphics card was (& remains) a 470 (clocked at 480 speeds).

I cannot, I'm afraid, give you direct comparisons in any games - they all played ok before the upgrade and after BUT everything felt smoother and quicker AND I consider it one of the best upgrades I've ever made.

Ringing endorsement of the move here.(now clocked at 4.2 and quicker/smoother yet).Partic. when you factor in what the 'old' tech. sold for (and hopefully still would for you)

I grant you this is hardly an objective review but I have no regrets about the upgrade:) unlike some of the gpu 'upgrades' that I've made.:(

n.b. If you really want an 8 core wait until..... ?..... or 4/4 i2600k ?

Forgot to mention move from DDr2 to DDr3 at same time - Maybe this provided part of the boost?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom