Upgrade advice please

EviltheCat

EviltheCat

EviltheCat

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Joined
28 May 2008
Posts
132
I would be grateful for some advice with upgrading my system please...

I assembled the computer in around 2012 and have been very happy with it playing games at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Recently I have started playing Battlefield 1 and would like to improve the smoothness and details in the game using my current monitor and resolution.

Any advice would be welcome on how best to get the game running better. Would I be able to get away with upgrading the graphics card to something like a 1060 6gb? Or would it be better considering upgrading some additional components? My limit for spending would be £600 - £700 to hopefully get another 3 or 4 years of gaming.

The details of my system are below:
BenQ XL2410T Monitor
Intel i5-3570K processor & Megahelms cooler
MSI Z77A-G43 motherboard
2 x 4GB Samsung DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
AMD Radeon 7800 2048 MB graphics card
Corsair Force 3 128GB SSD & Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD
ASUS Xonar D1 audio
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Any advice would be very welcome, if you need and more details then please let me know.

Thanks very much
 
Spend what you can on a GFX card such as a GTX1070 which is capable of playing games smoothly even at 1440p res.

Is your cpu overclocked? what case+psu do you have?
 
Thanks very much for the reply

The case is a Xigmatek Midgard II Gaming Tower Case - Black.

The CPU was overclocked, it was a bundle from OCUK:

"Krypton Z77 665i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle

Although now, Windows states it is running at 3.40 GHz, I'm not sure if maybe it has reset when updating operating system?

My PSU is slightly older, a 580W Tagan modular one.

With the above, do you think it is best just stick with a GFX card such as the 1070?

Thanks very much
 
The GPU will be either a 7850 or 7870 (i.e. 7800 series).

Yes, a 1060 6GB or RX 480 8GB will be a decent upgrade. Overclock the CPU as well.

No real need to upgrade anything else just now, maybe a larger SSD for your favourite games to reduce loading times and help with reads in a few games where HDDs struggle a bit (for example games where you teleport to another map, SSDs can do it much quicker, because it involves in-game loading).

Which PSU does your system have?

EDIT: Didn't see you'd already posted, Stulid.
 
To start,

1) Ignore what windows says, download CPU-Z and see what the core speed is in that (try running something else such as cinebench while watching the core speed in case Speedstep is ON).

2) The PSU is old and I personally would get a nice new 550W one from EVGA/Superflower etc.

3) Then sort a new GFX card.


4)
Maximum graphics card length 295mm (410mm with HDD cage removed)
Click to expand...
so it will take long cards, you can find the dimensions of a gfx card by look at the manufacturer website.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I have tried the Cinebench and CPU-Z and it looks as though the processor is running at 3.4 GHz and increased to 3.6 GHz during Cinebench CPU test.

Good point on the PSU, I seem to remember the cables were also a stretch to fit on the end of the current graphics card which I believe is a 7850.

Thanks again.
 
So if its not hitting 4.4GHZ try going into the motherboard BIOS and seeing if there is a saved profile for the 4.4GHz overclock, set it if it is there and save+exit.
 
Thanks Stulid and Danny75,

I had a look and could not see a preset saved so I have turned the multiplier up to 44 and so far all seems to have worked. Hopefully I have not missed something critical.

CPU-Z now states 4.4 MHz and the CPU test on Cinebench increased from 477 to 564.

I might test it now with some Battlefield and then have a look for a new PSU and GFX card and maybe run my choices past you?

Thanks for the help
 
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