Upgrade ideas please

grimm

grimm

grimm

Soldato
Joined
14 Dec 2009
Posts
3,605
I have a pc mainly for gaming use which consists of an i7 920, 6gb RAM and a Radeon 5870. I don't really want to have two graphics cards and I don't really want to mess about with an SSD.

I suppose what I'm asking would be is it worth getting a new graphics card or would the CPU just bottleneck it anyway? And do you think it's worth getting more RAM? Maybe get both a CPU and graphics card?

I could just leave it alone as it does run most things without problem at the moment, just thinking about summer games like Diablo 3...
 
I'd not bother getting a CPU for a dead platform, if you haven't got your 920 clocked, then clock it up. Mine was perfectly comfortable with a 6970 (well 6950 unlocked shaders and clocked beyond 6970). Doubling up to 12GB of RAM wouldn't be a bad idea seeing as RAM is cheap at the moment.

Not quite sure why you class an SSD as "messing about", but if you're adamant you don't want one, then GPU and RAM would be where my money went.

Either that or clock up, live with what you have, and save for an upgrade to either X79 or Z77, as by the time you've had chance to save, Ivy Bridge/Ivy Bridge E might be out.

I've just "upgraded" from a X58, i7 920, 12GB RAM, HD 6970 to a X79, i7-3820, 32GB RAM and a 2nd 6970, and other than my benchmark scores going up, it's not "that" different.
 
What games/software is your system struggling with? I doubt your 920 would struggle with much. Is the current system overclocked?

I have an overclocked Q6600 with the same card. It's only been recently I've noticed a slight lag in DeusEx:HR but other than that it's perfectly playable at 1920 in most games i have.

If you are considering an upgrade, then maybe 560ti or a 570 depending on your budget and these shouldn't be restricted by the CPU. However, overclocking the 920 is simple should you require the extra processing.

I totally disagree with you on the SSD. I guarantee the SSD will be the most worth while upgrade you have ever bought. Granted it's a pain to reload windows but boot times and general system performance if notably faster and responsive.
 
Will echo what has been said... ther's little messing about with an SSD other than reinstalling Windows to it. Hardly takes much time you just sit there and watch. :)

Definitely the best upgrade you could get there for general system performance.
 
Yeh my CPU has the smallest overclock on it from what I remember so I can do some more work with that.

From the sounds of it SSD, GFX card and RAM upgrades are the way to go.

The SSD issue is just that I cba to install all my software again and back up all my Steam games (as I have loads of them :D), also would need one of the large ish SSDs to fit all the stuff I'd want on there simultaneously which adds considerably to the cost.

Thanks guys.
 
Yeah would go with new GPU and perhaps RAM, although I wouldn't have thought many games would make use of 12GB of RAM? although I may be wrong. As stulid has mentioned, an overclocked i7 920 won't be holding you back or bottlenecking even high end cards. If you game at 1080p or 1200p I would probably go with a 7950 and overclock it. Performance when overclocked will match a stock GTX680 and a 7970.
 
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