Upgrade - Which route to take?

C4Chicken

C4Chicken

C4Chicken

Associate
Joined
19 Apr 2012
Posts
7
Hi Folks

Just looking to update my system to make the game play a little more satisfactory to the old eyes.

I have approx £400 to spend of the wifes money that she borrowed from me in the first place.

I currently run 3 x 22" @ 5040x1050 (which i am more than happy with)
Runnig a Q9550 @ 3.4Ghz with an ATI 5850 1Gb.

i was toying with the idea of updating my gfx card to something like the 7970 or GTX 680. I dont like crossfire or Sli ....like to keep it simple (like me)

Then i thought that maybe the money would be better spent on motherboard and processor and memory.
I have looked at benchmarks comparing my cpu to the likes of SB and IB and i know that there is an increase in performance, but would the MB+CPU+Mem be of more performance increase than a gfx card?
Would the processor i have run ok with the newer 7970 or 680 without being a huge bottleneck?
Most benchmarks for the gfx cards are done using the latest motherboards which will possibly change the performance that i would see using my existing one.

I mainly use this machine for games like BF3 and also use it for Photoshop as well.
Rather have the performance based on games rather than Photoshop.

Your thoughts and opinions on how to spend the wifes money are most welcome.....
 
 
Interesting.... thanks another approach i guess to consider.
I probably should have mentioned that i have a Antec Kuhler H2O 620 ...so that's £22 off the bill :)
 
Simply upgrading the graphics card would produce a bottleneck as the CPU would be lagging behind.

I'd suggest a 2500k/RAM/7850 upgrade aswell.
 
C4Chicken said:
I probably should have mentioned that i have a Antec Kuhler H2O 620 ...so that's £22 off the bill :)
Click to expand...

It sure is.

I would think about upgrading it all if you can. Just throwing a GTX 680 or 7970 in your current system will bottleneck. This way you get improved CPU performance (photoshop) as well as better graphics. Win, win?
 
Ok well..... thanks for the advise, I suppose i'll hold off and save a little more and just go the whole way.
It would make more sense to do the whole lot.
By that time things may be a little less and get even more bang for bucks!

Thanks again :)
 
C4Chicken said:
Ok well..... thanks for the advise, I suppose i'll hold off and save a little more and just go the whole way.
It would make more sense to do the whole lot.
By that time things may be a little less and get even more bang for bucks!

Thanks again :)
Click to expand...

I'd say perhaps look out for the daily deals and if you see one that has a good saving on, then perhaps get that and one of the other items (to offset postage).

Could be an idea! But then buying them piece by piece can get annoying...you just want to have all of it once one bit turns up!
 
Sounds like a plan...
now thinking with what has been said that i will probably spend the money on a bundle or daily deals for MB CPU RAM and use my 5850 till i can save enough for a new card....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom