Upgrade quandary. Need some advice.

Superjeep4x4 · 11 Oct 2008 at 16:02

In the next month or so I am looking to upgrade a few items in the rig I have listed in my sig and I am not sure what to start with. I am going to buy a 22"lcd for a bigger rez as the 19" I have now is only 1440x but I am kinda stuck on a second upgrade between the CPU or vid card. My GT is still a good card and honestly I do not play games like Crysis as I am mostly a MMO player but I do play first person shooters every now and again.

I am just not sure at the 1680x rez I would really need anything more than my Gt and while I like it to look good I am not looking for bleeding edge graphics as my main concern is that while looking pretty good it simply plays smooth. I do not need 200 fps I just want it stedy and smooth.

My 2180 has been a pretty good budget chip but I am really stuck wondering if moving to a E7200 or even a E8xxx would help out with the added cache and probably a better OC increase. 3.4-3.6 is really all I am looking for.

I do not have a ton of cash to spend and I just upgraded my ram so with the new monitor I will be getting any help would be great on the CPU/GPU choices as I am stuck in this endless cycle of not knowing what to do. This minute I am leaning towards a CPU upgrade and maybe waiting till the spring for a new GPU but now I am wondering if it is worth it unless I do go for a E8xxx with the double cache of the E7200.

Thanks in advance.

fobose · 11 Oct 2008 at 16:50

Get a new monitor and dont bother with a CPU or GPU upgrade. I run crysis warhead quite happilly on my spec (slower CPU than yours) with the "mainstream" settings at 1680x1050.

Kearney_1988 · 11 Oct 2008 at 16:51

well ill let you know that my Gt handles everything apart from crysis on full at that res no problems

pastymuncher · 11 Oct 2008 at 20:15

fobose said:
Get a new monitor and dont bother with a CPU or GPU upgrade. I run crysis warhead quite happilly on my spec (slower CPU than yours) with the "mainstream" settings at 1680x1050.

Maybe so, but yours has 4x the cache of a E2180. From some testing i have done it's the cache that counts a lot in games. Crysis is gpu dependant anyway. Overclocking the cpu in it will only boost the minimum fps and not have an effect on max and average fps.

Superjeep4x4 · 11 Oct 2008 at 21:33

Ya thats what I was thinking after reading the great benches you did. Do you think the Cache on the E7200 would be plenty or should I just bite the bullet and get a E8xxx series? I like the price of the E7200 and I am not sure if spending the extra $50ish is worth it although the E8xxx does have double the cache.

I mostly game so I am just trying to round out my comp. I figure waiting till spring or early summer there should be a new card or five out and atlest a price break maybe on the ones out now if I need it.

decto · 12 Oct 2008 at 00:57

I'd save your cash, you can play near anything other than Crysis easily... and if you did 2want to play crisis knock the res down a touch, you'll barely notice the detail loss.

You won't notice a difference in gaming by changing the CPU unless you benchmark it as an E2180 @ 3.2 is pretty good. The only option would be better graphics... but see how you go with the new monitor and only upgrade if you can't get acceptable performance .

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