Hey, I have been thinking about a GPU upgrade for months now and have almost pulled the trigger on more than one occasion.
My current spec:
ASRock Z68 Pro3 (new upgrade)
I5-2500k @stock (new upgrade)
8gb DDR3 (new upgrade)
1TB Samsung Spinpoint 7200rpm 32mb cache (new upgrade)
1gb 5770
550w unbranded PSU
The pc was originally a mesh built one (never again) but I recently upgraded the mobo, CPU and Ram as well as getting a new HDD (old one was slowww) and putting it all into a new case (coolermaster elite 430).
I have a 1080p monitor and game at this resolution. Whilst the 5770 had served me well, it was starting to really struggle with more visually demanding games with my old setup (AM2+ mobo, 550BE, 4GB DDR2). I upgraded the components listed above (minus the HDD which has only just arrived and yet to be installed) and gaming performance has gone through the roof.
People talk constantly about needing this or that to max games out at reasonable FPS but I am currently playing Deus EX: HR with everything on max settings (inc AA, DX11, tesselation- everything) at a solid 30fps. Obviously this isn't a demanding game, but performance in Crysis has improved hugely also and I can play at 30fps with everything maxed other than AA which is at 4x.
The witcher 2 runs with just about everything maxed other than the obvious setting at a solid 20-25fps.
The point is I was surprised how much upgrading the rest of the components would increase performance as people always say with gaming the GPU is the most important part. Now I am sure that this is true, but looking at the performance I am getting is a significant upgrade really necessary? I want to be able to play Witcher 2 at 30fps+ with everything maxed (minus ubersampling of course) as well as BF3 and Skyrim.
Obviously the 5770 will not quite achieve this. I have been looking into cards like a 6950 2gb or even a 570, then decided to wait until the 7000 series cards later this year or early next but I am wondering if the expense and wait will be worth it? OCUK are selling a 6870 for £120 and if I get, say, 60-70 for my 5770 I am paying 50 quid for a significant upgrade that, with my other components, will surely enable me to max the above games.
Advice on the upgrade is greatly appreciated, and also interested to hear peoples thoughts on what I perceive to be peoples exaggeration of how much GPU power you need to run the latest games at the highest settings.
My current spec:
ASRock Z68 Pro3 (new upgrade)
I5-2500k @stock (new upgrade)
8gb DDR3 (new upgrade)
1TB Samsung Spinpoint 7200rpm 32mb cache (new upgrade)
1gb 5770
550w unbranded PSU
The pc was originally a mesh built one (never again) but I recently upgraded the mobo, CPU and Ram as well as getting a new HDD (old one was slowww) and putting it all into a new case (coolermaster elite 430).
I have a 1080p monitor and game at this resolution. Whilst the 5770 had served me well, it was starting to really struggle with more visually demanding games with my old setup (AM2+ mobo, 550BE, 4GB DDR2). I upgraded the components listed above (minus the HDD which has only just arrived and yet to be installed) and gaming performance has gone through the roof.
People talk constantly about needing this or that to max games out at reasonable FPS but I am currently playing Deus EX: HR with everything on max settings (inc AA, DX11, tesselation- everything) at a solid 30fps. Obviously this isn't a demanding game, but performance in Crysis has improved hugely also and I can play at 30fps with everything maxed other than AA which is at 4x.
The witcher 2 runs with just about everything maxed other than the obvious setting at a solid 20-25fps.
The point is I was surprised how much upgrading the rest of the components would increase performance as people always say with gaming the GPU is the most important part. Now I am sure that this is true, but looking at the performance I am getting is a significant upgrade really necessary? I want to be able to play Witcher 2 at 30fps+ with everything maxed (minus ubersampling of course) as well as BF3 and Skyrim.
Obviously the 5770 will not quite achieve this. I have been looking into cards like a 6950 2gb or even a 570, then decided to wait until the 7000 series cards later this year or early next but I am wondering if the expense and wait will be worth it? OCUK are selling a 6870 for £120 and if I get, say, 60-70 for my 5770 I am paying 50 quid for a significant upgrade that, with my other components, will surely enable me to max the above games.
Advice on the upgrade is greatly appreciated, and also interested to hear peoples thoughts on what I perceive to be peoples exaggeration of how much GPU power you need to run the latest games at the highest settings.