upgrade my motherboard... or add a graphic card..

adamknox · 7 Aug 2010 at 20:33

As you can see from my sig i have a AMD 955 o'ced to 3.8 and 5870.

Just out of intrest if i was to upgrade (to get more out of games) which would i see the most benifit from? i have £400 spare at mo.. (my g/f wants us to start saving september.. so im spending out on random stuff before the deadline.. lol) and it had passed my mind to get a few new upgrades just to max out the higher end games in the near future..

Op 1: an intel 920 i7 and oc it to 4ghz (with a newish motherboard and stay with the ddr3 duel channle ram till the price of triple channle drops a bit))

Op 2: get a 2nd 5870 and run them in Xfire..

Which would i see the most from from them options? and an estimated fps if u could.
nothing angers me more than playing a game and the fps dropping below 40 The reason im thinking of upgrading is some of the games just around the corner like DC online, star wars online and crysis 2
Im kind of leaning towards the 5870 xfire but ive read SO many reviews saying that the 955 nm how overclocked it is still holds back 2 x 5870. Sooo.. any ideas?

95thrifles · 7 Aug 2010 at 21:30

hide the £400 in a separate bank ac and save it for beer money ;-)

adamknox · 7 Aug 2010 at 21:31

95thrifles said:
hide the £400 in a separate bank ac and save it for beer money

i dont drink

... but i could save it for Mcdonalds milkshake money tho

St0tteh0 · 7 Aug 2010 at 21:35

adamknox said:
i dont drink

WHAT?!?!. on a more serious note though id just get another 5870.

1LANCS · 7 Aug 2010 at 21:37

Tough choice, unless you have a monster monitor and high resolution, one 5870 is probably going to be enough. Unless you do a lot of video encoding i wouldnt go for an x6 so Core i7 and mobo might be a good choice.

adamknox · 7 Aug 2010 at 22:49

1LANCS said:
Tough choice, unless you have a monster monitor and high resolution, one 5870 is probably going to be enough. Unless you do a lot of video encoding i wouldnt go for an x6 so Core i7 and mobo might be a good choice.

well i have 1920x1200 Monitor

so its not the biggest res.

batchelord · 7 Aug 2010 at 22:52

adamknox · 7 Aug 2010 at 23:21

batchelord said:
SSD?

I did think of them..but for the price and you dont really get that much fps improvment compared to a 2nd gpu or a faster processor.

Fallen god · 8 Aug 2010 at 00:49

adamknox said:
I did think of them..but for the price and you dont really get that much fps improvment compared to a 2nd gpu or a faster processor.

Man just save your money till you see a need for more fps and at that time you could get a lot more of your money.

honosuseri · 8 Aug 2010 at 00:54

Eyefinity? Couple of extra screens (may need the active adapter though) can be had for that budget

adamknox · 8 Aug 2010 at 09:38

honosuseri said:
Eyefinity? Couple of extra screens (may need the active adapter though) can be had for that budget

i had thought of that too

But that would mean a huge drop in fps lol nothing angers me more than playing a game and the fps dropping below 40 :mad:

The reason im thinking of upgrading is some of the games just around the corner like DC online, star wars online and crysis 2

honosuseri · 8 Aug 2010 at 11:36

Well yes, you may have to sacrifice graphics quality but I can highly recommend a multi screen setup. It has advantages outside of gaming, hell even my gf admits it's a good idea and wants an extra screen for her rig.

With the new ati cards due soon(ish) seems silly to get a card now when the prices will fall. It's not as if you a building a new rig and need a gfx card. If you had the screens you could upgrade the gfx card later on or add another, by then eyefinity will be out of its infancy and the drivers will be far better.

Just a thought.

adamknox · 8 Aug 2010 at 12:10

honosuseri said:
Well yes, you may have to sacrifice graphics quality but I can highly recommend a multi screen setup. It has advantages outside of gaming, hell even my gf admits it's a good idea and wants an extra screen for her rig.

With the new ati cards due soon(ish) seems silly to get a card now when the prices will fall. It's not as if you a building a new rig and need a gfx card. If you had the screens you could upgrade the gfx card later on or add another, by then eyefinity will be out of its infancy and the drivers will be far better.

Just a thought.

that is true... and hopefully by then you can crossfire eyefinity.. Hmm like i say above tho. nothing ruins a game more for me than fps dropping below 40. I stopped playing such games as AOC, champions online, crysis and GTA 4 for them reasons. Sounds stupid lol but i hate lowering settings as well. Games like champions online look like a ps2 game on medium settings with no AA

Strepsils · 8 Aug 2010 at 13:14

I would say a 2nd gpu and run them x fire check that your power supply is enough though

R088ieS86 · 8 Aug 2010 at 13:20

Hide it and slowly add say a cheeky £20/£30 a month to it. she won't notice that! then when the new boards and cpus come out early 2011 have a look at them!

i doubt your rig really struggles with anything does it?

honosuseri · 8 Aug 2010 at 14:06

Trouble is if you switch to intel now the socket is changing for the new cpus. I'd stick with AMD, some people are doubting that the new cpus will still use the AM3 socket but seeing as some AM2+ mobos will take AM3 cpus it's a fair bet they will.

I still say that more screens is a better investment now (will still use them way after the GPU is considered "passed it"). The 5870 is a good card, if you can get another cheaper once the new gpus are released so much the better.

I'm sure if you "tinkered" with the graphics settings in the games you could find a setting that suited ;p