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To wait would be best?

Vinno

Vinno

Vinno

Associate
Joined
11 May 2010
Posts
1,644
Hello all.

I am on the brink of buying a new CPU/RAM/Mobo and I'm toying with the idea of a new GFX card. However, with the new AMDs round the corner I really should wait right?

Please tell me I need to wait. lol. I really dont want to waste my money.

I'm always one to want to play games at the max settings, and the recent releases of BF3 and Skyrim are the first time I cant do that. So its time for a change.

I'm thinking of getting an i5 2500k cpu, motherboard and ram are undecided so far.

My current gfx card is a HIS 5850 Turbo. The max I could push to budget wise would be a GTX570.

Its not really worth upgrading just yet is it? I mean, I can run Skyrim and BF3 at nearly the max settings, but its very unpredictable and choppy giving me an unpleasent experience. So those games are on the back burner for a bit whilst I re-live the GTA series :)

Ummm.. so yeh. Thats all I wanted to know really chaps! :) Upgrade now, or wait?

Thanks!
 
Oh sorry, I thought it was in my sig. Derrrrp.

At the moment,

Core 2 Duo e6850
4GB OCZ Reaper DDR2
Asus P5QL-E
Radeon 5850

Running a 24" monitor @ 1920x1200.
 
I'd get a second hand quad core for £60-70, 8GB RAM while it's cheap, and a £150-200 card (6950?) to see you through until you want to push the boat out with a proper upgrade. That should sort your game issues out for a good while, without having to make any big decisions.

:edit: Sorry I'll explain why I've said this. You're most likely getting more issues from these newer games due to not having a quad core. As far as I'm aware both of those tend to run choppy at the higher settings unless you have a quad core, regardless of the graphics card it's running on.
 
Thanks for the reply Zefan,

that seems like sound advice, although I am a bit reluctant to be spend over £200 on what is in effect a stop gap upgrade.

Money isnt really the issue at hand, I can afford to get the i5 etc AND a 6950 right now should that be the best thing to do. I'm just a bit worried that the 7000 series will comeout in a couple of months time and make my purchase look a bit foolish.

Is my 5850 not good enough to get decent frame rates out of Skyrim and BF3 at high/max settings?
 
Zefan said:
I'd get a second hand quad core for £60-70, 8GB RAM while it's cheap, and a £150-200 card (6950?) to see you through until you want to push the boat out with a proper upgrade. That should sort your game issues out for a good while, without having to make any big decisions.

:edit: Sorry I'll explain why I've said this. You're most likely getting more issues from these newer games due to not having a quad core. As far as I'm aware both of those tend to run choppy at the higher settings unless you have a quad core, regardless of the graphics card it's running on.
Click to expand...

+1 from me, very good advice that :) to the OP do you mind not being able to play the latest games at maxium detail AND at 60 fps? With this upgrade you wont be able to play games like Battlefield 3 on Ultra settings.
 
Thats the only problem I have with that advice. It seems like a lot of money to spend for an upgrade isn't going to give me a substantial boost over what I have now? Or will it?

Is it a totally bad choice to upgrade to an i5 and then wait on the graphics card? Or maybe try to get hold of another 5850 to tide me over?
 
I meant upgrade the cpu, motherboard, ram AND get another 5850 to xfire it. I need to start explaining myself better :)
 
IvyBridge, Southern Islands and Kepler will all be arriving next year, so if you're prepared to wait for the graphics card then personally I'd wait for everything else too. At that point you'll either be able to pick up the new range of kit, or the current range at a heavily discount price. Either way its win-win.
 
overclock your 5850 and if that doesn't give you the FPS you need turn down some settings, if that still doesn't work do something else, earn brownies points with your girlfriend so when the new cards do come out you can plays for hours and hours without interruption!!!
 
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Well you lot have successfully changed my mind. I think I'll hold off on the new motherboard etc. I'll have a look and see if I can pick up a new cpu 2nd hand for a decent price and wait until the new tech comes out.

I bought the full GTA series on Steam the other day so I'm sure that'll keep me going for a while :)
 
Drop the graphics on BF3 and Skyrim and wait for 7000 series. What res are you playing at? My 5850 handles BF3 and Skyrim with no problems whatsoever on High settings.
 
I'm playing games at 1920x1200. To be honest I played some of the BF3 campaign with everything on ultra with my current hardware and it runs "decently". Multiplayer is a totaly lag-fest though unless I turn all the settings down.

Skyrim was the same, runs kind of ok on ultra/high. But yeh, I want a seemless experience.
 
Vinno said:
I'm playing games at 1920x1200. To be honest I played some of the BF3 campaign with everything on ultra with my current hardware and it runs "decently". Multiplayer is a totaly lag-fest though unless I turn all the settings down.

Skyrim was the same, runs kind of ok on ultra/high. But yeh, I want a seemless experience.
Click to expand...

your cpu is holding you back in bf3 multiplayer.

i cann high @ 1920x1080 with 2x msaa with hbao and get 40-60 fps with a gtx460

i can do ultra and its not a lagfest but only 30fps, on the 64player servers on ultra the game will easily use over 1gb of video memory and you get stutter everytime it needs a texture thats not cached if you only have a 1gb card
 
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