What can my motherboard handle?

[coopsjc21]

Hi,
I have an Asus P5Q Pro Turbo Intel P45 (Socket 775) DDR2 PCI-Express motherboard, looking to up the graphics to something a bit better than the current Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Glaciator+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express card.

What sort of thing do you reckon it can handle? I'm on a bit of a budet but want something worthwhile, i.e. Battlefield 4 worthwhile.

E8400
4gb DDR2 Corsair ram (going to get another 4 though)
samsung 256gb SSD

Thank you,
Pete

 

[Tonester0011]

Your CPU wont be able to handle BF4, regardless of card used. So hard to recommend a card based on that.

 

[coopsjc21]

Your CPU wont be able to handle BF4, regardless of card used. So hard to recommend a card based on that.

Oh ok, thank you. Looks like I may be doing a rebuild then! :/

In that case.. what CPU can my motherboard handle, and following a successful upgrade what graphics card would you go for?

I was looking at this one.. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-197-MS

 

[Tonester0011]

Well, the easiest upgrade would get a Q6600 and overclock it, cost you £35-40. Will give a notiable upgrade, paired with one of these (you'll be massively CPU bound still, but they're cheap and much better than the 650ti you posted) should give at least playable framerates...probably!

None of the CPU benchmarks seem to use a C2Q for BF4, and they all use UQ settings.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £119.99
Total : £129.89 (includes shipping : £8.25).

 

[coopsjc21]

I heard BF4 won't be all that different to BF3 in term of sys requirements, BF3 runs fine on my current system, although I probably have everything on low!

Is there much difference in the Q6600 and E8400 without overclocking?

 

[Deceptor]

Main diff is 4 cores, and BF does appear to utilise more cores when available. That said I think the money would be better saved towards a full core upgrade (mobo/cpu/ram).

 

[Tonester0011]

Should give you an idea how much more demanding it is on the CPU.

 

[coopsjc21]

Main diff is 4 cores, and BF does appear to utilise more cores when available. That said I think the money would be better saved towards a full core upgrade (mobo/cpu/ram).

I think this is what I'm edging towards, although I may get some ram for now and look at a new build in the new year.