Upgrade for Witcher 2?
- Thread starter Liggs
- Start date
Ah well the best performance for price right now is Sandy Bridge, and looks like it will be for the next few months seeing as Bull Dozer has been delayed until August-September reportedly.
The next best would be going for AMD Phenom II X4 955BE which will be a similar price for the CPU and board as the cost of just the i5 CPU but then that will be coming to the end of it's life cycle soon when Bull Dozer does get released, and Sandy Bridge beats it hands down in any competition.
Here are some Sandy Bridge gaming benchmarks which are pretty impressive, and then when you realise that's only at stock and you still have an extra 50% increase to get out of it as well, you can see why it's the best.
The next best would be going for AMD Phenom II X4 955BE which will be a similar price for the CPU and board as the cost of just the i5 CPU but then that will be coming to the end of it's life cycle soon when Bull Dozer does get released, and Sandy Bridge beats it hands down in any competition.
Here are some Sandy Bridge gaming benchmarks which are pretty impressive, and then when you realise that's only at stock and you still have an extra 50% increase to get out of it as well, you can see why it's the best.
Soldato
- Joined
- 1 Apr 2009
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- 9,952
i5 2500K, C45, and a 5850 (really good card for the money). You already have the RAM, so that total would be £400. YOu could save going OEM, but retail has 3 year warranty and a retail cooler (which you don;t need if your CPU is compatible with 1155).
Well, the CPU is priced at its peak, the motherboard is unlikely to get more expensive, and same thing for hte 5850, or you will get a better card in the range anyway. So you might as well wait. If you need a PSU (you will need a good 500W+), grab a Antec 620W now. They are on offer, are incredibly good value, and will power any single GPU rig, up to even crossfire 6950's. Although you have replacements available in the price range (XFX 550W).
Well, the CPU is priced at its peak, the motherboard is unlikely to get more expensive, and same thing for hte 5850, or you will get a better card in the range anyway. So you might as well wait. If you need a PSU (you will need a good 500W+), grab a Antec 620W now. They are on offer, are incredibly good value, and will power any single GPU rig, up to even crossfire 6950's. Although you have replacements available in the price range (XFX 550W).
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Associate
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- 3 Oct 2007
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- 795
Honestly, I would say the graphics card is the most likely bottleneck, get a new one and see if you're happy with the performance (though it may not get you to Ultra).
If you're still not satisfied then look at replacing the CPU, motherboard, and memory, with your already purchased gfx card.
If you are happy then you've not wasted cash on components that you didn't need. Plus, in the future if you aren't happy with performance it is likely that the components available then are faster and/or cheaper and make your money go further.
It's an approach that has worked for me so far, and I'm still running a Q6600 quite happily. and if you get free delivery there really is no reason to splurge all at once to save costs.
If you're still not satisfied then look at replacing the CPU, motherboard, and memory, with your already purchased gfx card.
If you are happy then you've not wasted cash on components that you didn't need. Plus, in the future if you aren't happy with performance it is likely that the components available then are faster and/or cheaper and make your money go further.
It's an approach that has worked for me so far, and I'm still running a Q6600 quite happily. and if you get free delivery there really is no reason to splurge all at once to save costs.
So maybe for now I should just splurge out on a super powerful graphics card (for future proofing purposes). It may get bottlenecked a bit by my CPU, but it'll most likely be some improvement and I can always upgrade my motherboard and CPU later on in the year.
Sound sensible?
Sound sensible?
Associate
- Joined
- 3 Oct 2007
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- 795
The most important questions that we don't have answers to are:
What PSU do you have?
What Resolution do you play at?
If your PSU is no-named junk then you need to cost in a new one, no question.
If you game on a 19" 1024x768 monitor, then there is no reason to get a £300 gfx card without a new monitor.
In my opinion, yes, this is the most sensible way to approach it. I tend to leapfrog my upgrades in this way.
How 'super powerful' you go is reliant on the questions above, and if you feel SLI/XFire might be an option later.
I'm not as familiar with the latest tech as others, so this is really just my advice on how I buy rather than what to buy.