Rig spec needed to run 2560 x 1440 gaming

rounj02

rounj02

rounj02

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Hi guys,

looking to upgrade my current CPU/MOBO/GPU/MEM for xmas.

Question i have is will a AMD Piledriver FX-8 8320 3.50GHz and a HD 7950 3GB be enough to game on a DGM 27" monitor @ 2560 x 1440 res?

Or would i need to be looking at i5/i7 chip with x2 7970's?

I wont be going mental on this this machine and will play games every so often but wanted to know if this would play FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & MOH Warfighter etc.

Cheers
James
 
On a 60Hz monitor I would say for those games, as long as you'd overclocked that 8320 to 4.5GHz+ (ideally 4.8GHz) it should be fine since they should be heavily-threaded (except may be Sleeping Dogs).

The bottleneck would only become much more apparent is if you were using a 120Hz monitor instead.

If you were planning on playing the lighter threaded CPU demanding games like mmos, RTS etc in future, then you might need to considering upgrading the CPU...but for now for those games you mentioned it should be fine.
 
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They will run 'ok', but not on max detail. IMO you need to go crossfire/sli to get the best out of that res. Whilst piledriver is an improvement over bulldozer I would still recommend and Intel based build for what you have in mind.
 
Clav said:
They will run 'ok', but not on max detail. IMO you need to go crossfire/sli to get the best out of that res. Whilst piledriver is an improvement over bulldozer I would still recommend and Intel based build for what you have in mind.
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Graphic max detail is graphic dependent, not CPU.

All having a faster CPU does is improving GPU usage (if it's not at 99%) which lead to increase frame rate.

rounj02 said:
Cheers for the replies guys, if i was to go down the Intel route would a i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) cut it?
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I would think for your usage, rather than upgrading to CF7970 together with an Intel upgrade at the same time...what I think the sensible thing to do is upgrade to only the CF7970 first, and then try it out in the games your play and check the GPU usage to see if they dip a lot of stay at 99% most of the time. If the GPUs usage are far from 99% majority of the time, THEN you could think about upgrading to Intel...and then you can think about whether to go the i5 3570K/i7 3770K, or even if wait for Intel's next gen.
 
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Marine-RX179 said:
Graphic max detail is graphic dependent, not CPU.

All having a faster CPU does is improving GPU usage (if it's not at 99%) which lead to increase frame rate.
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I agree, I wasn't trying to suggest that. I meant that at that res crossfire/sli would be better than a single card to get the most out of current and future games. And also for primarily a gaming rig I would recommend an Intel build over an AMD one.
 
Clav said:
I agree, I wasn't trying to suggest that. I meant that at that res crossfire/sli would be better than a single card to get the most out of current and future games. And also for primarily a gaming rig I would recommend an Intel build over an AMD one.
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If the OP already has the 8320 then there's no harm trying the CF7970 on it first before deciding to upgrade to Intel or not. If it is a new build from scratch, I would agree with going Intel all the way...but the OP seem to already have the PD system.

I need to confirm since his wording for his 2nd sentence is quite confusing...

OP do you mean you already currently own the AMD 8320 system?
 
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rounj02 said:
May need to re think the setup then due to my budget...hmmmm.
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Well the thread has been moved to general. Just post what you have now, and what your budget is and I'm sure someone can come up with a decent spec.
 
Sorry, no currently on a intel Q9550 2.8Ghz/8GB of 1600 ddr3 so it would be from scratch, starting to wonder is 2560 x 1440 res gaming system is going to cost me too much. to be honest.

Will ask a stupid question, is that res really worth it over 1080p / 120hz?

Reason i selected the AMD in the first place is because i can get the Piledriver 8320 / Asus Crosshair V Formula Z / and 16 GB of ram for £280 off a mate.
 
Sorry, no currently on a intel Q9550 2.8Ghz/8GB of 1600 ddr3 so it would be from scratch, starting to wonder is 2560 x 1440 res gaming system is going to cost me too much. to be honest.

Will ask a stupid question, is that res really worth it over 1080p / 120hz?

Reason i selected the AMD in the first place is because i can get the Piledriver 8320 / Asus Crosshair V Formula Z / and 16 GB of ram for £280 off a mate.
 
rounj02 said:
Sorry, no currently on a intel Q9550 2.8Ghz/8GB of 1600 ddr3 so it would be from scratch, starting to wonder is 2560 x 1440 res gaming system is going to cost me too much. to be honest.

Will ask a stupid question, is that res really worth it over 1080p / 120hz?

Reason i selected the AMD in the first place is because i can get the Piledriver 8320 / Asus Crosshair V Formula Z / and 16 GB of ram for £280 off a mate.
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It's not a great deal imo. For £280 you can get a brand new 3570K + mobo and just reuse your current ram. As well as that the Q9550 and your other s775 kit still has good resale value, you should factor that price into the budget.

I have one of the Hazro 27" (which is basically the same as the DGM) screens and it is amazingly good. Do you already have the monitor?

Like I said above if you post up a budget and what you have already and need someone will be able to put up a spec for you.
 
rounj02 said:
Sorry, no currently on a intel Q9550 2.8Ghz/8GB of 1600 ddr3 so it would be from scratch, starting to wonder is 2560 x 1440 res gaming system is going to cost me too much. to be honest.

Will ask a stupid question, is that res really worth it over 1080p / 120hz?

Reason i selected the AMD in the first place is because i can get the Piledriver 8320 / Asus Crosshair V Formula Z / and 16 GB of ram for £280 off a mate.
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Right that clear things up.

In that case, forget about the AMD, just go for the Intel together with the CF7970.

As for 1920 res 120Hz vs 2560 res 60Hz...it's depend on your preference really. 2560 res would make games look better, but 120Hz would give some advantage on competitive gaming such as fast paced onine FPS.

I myself bought a Samsung SyncMaster SA770 23" 120Hz 3D monitor off B-grade last week (for only £169.99), but since I play mainly mmos, even my overclock i5 struggle to keep the frame rate up there at around 100fps and will dip to 30-60fps when sieging in Guild Wars 2, so I think 2560 res 60Hz would have more suited for me than 120Hz :D

But I get to watch movies in both native 3D and 2D-3D conversion, so I ain't complaining and I would honestly say I love this monitor :)

The only real issue with 120Hz monitor is that even the current fastest CPU can't keep the minimum frame rate at 120Hz at all time, unlike 60fps. So you could say CPU is "bottlenecking" 120Hz monitor performance in some games.

So to put it simply again...if you are a huge fan or FPS games and it's pretty much all your play, then 120Hz would be better choice; but if you are more of an all-rounder who play bit of everything of different genre, then going for 2560 for better image quality with a consistent 60fps is probably a better choice.
 
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No I don't have the DGM 27" yet waiting for it to drop to £300 / £320 again, if I am going to play games on my machine it's mostly going to be first person to be honest.

Nice to hear from anyone using these high res monitors for fps.

Due to having an Xbox already I wanted to see what farcry 3 and some of the latest titles looked like on a pc, Do admit I have missed pc gaming.

Cheers for all the replies guys, didn't want to go ahead with an upgrade and be disappointed or just fall short when it's built.
 
Can anyone recommend me a good mobo for a 3570K please?

Not purchased a mobo for a while, loads to choose from.

I normally go with Asus, but any help appreciated guys.
 
rounj02 said:
Can anyone recommend me a good mobo for a 3570K please?

Not purchased a mobo for a while, loads to choose from.

I normally go with Asus, but any help appreciated guys.
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I would recommend the Gigabyte Z77X-UP4, as its VRM design allow the same overclock as other boards in the price range but at a much lower voltage (on average most boards require 1.37-1.38v vcore for overclocking to 4.7GHz which result in a very toasty temp, but that Gigabyte can manage that overclock at 4.7GHz with just 1.30v on the vcore, and shave something like 7-8C off the temp).
 
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