Upgrade Option

jamesy

jamesy

jamesy

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Joined
25 Oct 2007
Posts
149
Location
Derby
Well I feel the urge to upgrade either my CPU or Graphis Card.
In your expert opinions:D what would be the best option?

HD4850 512mb x2 > HD5850 1028mb

Or my trusty E2200 @ 3.2 > ?

I use my rig purely for gaming, @ 1920x1200 which my current rig runs quite well, but with some of the newer games I'm starting to notice some frame rate issues.

My spec:
Akasa Eclipse
Asus Maximus Formula
G.Skill PK Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5
E2200 @ 3.2
Xigmatek HDT-S1283
Corsair HX520 Modular
Sapphire Ati HD 4850 512mb x2 Crossfire
Samsung SpinPoint 500GB
28" Hanns G
Vista 64 (to be replaced with Windows 7)


I would like to keep the cost around the £150 mark.

Thanks
 
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I would try to get a secondhand Q6600 for around £50 and overclock this and then get an HD5830 when it comes out this month.

The other alternative is to get another HD4850 512MB secondhand for under £60.

Edit!!

You have a pair of HD4850 512MB graphics cards??

If you do then I would get a better CPU.

I would look to get a secondhand Q9550 if you can get one for around £100 to £140.

The next option would be a secondhand Q6600 as I mentioned earlier.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I would look to get a secondhand Q9550 if you can get one for around £100 to £140.

The next option would be a secondhand Q6600 as I mentioned earlier.
Click to expand...


Do you think that my CPU is causing a bottleneck and restricting my GPU's.
Would upgrading my CPU give me a bigger performance increase, than upgrading my GPU?
 
Two 4850's won't be far off my two 5770's in performance, and there isn't anything I can't run maxed out at 1920x1200.

Get the quad-core.
 
jamesy said:
Do you think that my CPU is causing a bottleneck and restricting my GPU's.
Would upgrading my CPU give me a bigger performance increase, than upgrading my GPU?
Click to expand...

If you have a pair of HD4850 512MB cards get a quad core.

Even if you "only" have one HD4850 I would get another one and a cheaper quad core.

A quad core clocked at 3GHZ+ would mean that on the CPU side you should fine for another few years IMHO.

TBH,a secondhand Q6600 and a secondhand HD4850 512MB should not cost you more than £100 to £125 hopefully!
 
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Cheers for the help.
Looks like A Q6600 (and hopefully get it over 3GHZ) or preferably a Q9550. I can always add a new graphics card in the near future.
 
jamesy said:
Btw. Why has no one mentioned a dual core cpu as an upgrade?
Click to expand...

Games are moving towards better use of triple and quad cores.

Gaming consoles tend to have processors with weak single threaded performance but strong multithreaded performance.Since many games engines are cross platform it would make sense for them to be able to make as much use of the processing power of a console which is limited compared to most modern gaming PCs.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Games are moving towards better use of triple and quad cores.

Gaming consoles tend to have processors with weak single threaded performance but strong multithreaded performance.Since many games engines are cross platform it would make sense for them to be able to make as much use of the processing power of a console which is limited compared to most modern gaming PCs.
Click to expand...


Ah, about time :)
So the long debate of dual v's quad has ended :D
 
A fast dual core will still do the job as most of the market is still on single and dual core processors. Hence the debate is still alive!!

However many games have better framerates on a quad core such as many RTS games and even an FPS like Far Cry 2.

If you can get a cheap Q6600 or Q9550 I would think that you would not be needing to upgrade your computer(outside of the graphics card) for quite a while longer!! :)
 
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