What do I upgrade now?

Michael_10

Michael_10

Michael_10

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Hi everyone, I have been upgrading my computer for the last 6 months, and just a few weeks ago I got a new graphics card, a 5770. I was just looking for some advice on what people think would be the next best upgrade? So far I have

A Phenom II B50 @ 3.4ghz
An Asus M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
4gb of DDR3 ram
A HD 5770 at 960/1350
500gb WD Caviar Blue
OCZ Fatal1ty 550W
A Sony Optiarc 22x DVD Writer
Windows 7 Home Premium
A 17" 1024x1280 Viewsonic monitor

Enclosed in a Mesh Matrix 64 case!

I was thinking about the monitor but I would like to play Crysis 2 and I'm worried that if I start going to higher resolutions I'm going to see a performance hit when playing games.
 
screen first. 17'' is pretty small by today's standards.

The 5770 will struggle with Crysis on 1080p though. I'm playing with a 9800GTX+ and a 24'' 1920 x 1200 with L4D2 / TF2 / BF2 / MW2 no problem, if that's any consolation (although Battlefield 2 is not on full high settings).

Big upgrade coming :)
 
I wouldn't recommend going higher than 1680x1050 (22") with a 5770 if intending to play the latest games with eye-candy. Besides its a good resolution, the sweetspot in terms of desktop real estate and performance I think. Further down the line you can add another 5770 and it'll run crysis 2, for the console game it will be, with relative ease.



- Ordokai
 
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Michael_10 said:
At 1920x1080 I don't think the 5770 performs that well?
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I wouldn't worry too much on anything sub-Crysis, but after all, that game is intended to make you..well cry.
The screen real estate and difference will be astronomical.

Although the above poster does suggest a perfectly valid option, chances are if you're used to a 17" monitor, 22" will suit you fine, I made the jump from 17" to 24" but had to factor in the xbox side of things too, so this may make me a little biased!
 
Michael_10 said:
The board has a x16 and x4 PCIE 2.0 slot, what about crossfire 5770?
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Crossfire 5770 would be good, if I recall correctly xfire 5770 just about matches a single 5850 (will check this), so running at that higher step up res wise will really not be an issue.

I'd get the screen first, see how it handles the res, if it cant cope on the settings you desire then drop them until you get the 2nd 5770, i'd take the bigger screen/res over a few eye candy perks any day of the week.
 
A 5770 crossfire is a very potent setup, sitting quite firmly between the 5850 and the 5870 in terms of performance. (was closer to the 5850 near launch but scaling has improved)

Furthermore with a little luck overclocked xfire 5770s can confidently surpass stock 5870 even. In short, arguably the best bang-for-buck this gen and definitely a respectable upgrade path.



- Ordokai
 
What about the x16 slot and the x4 slot? HOw much of an impact would that make? And I take it my PSU could handle it?

WIth regards to the 1680x1050 monitor, any suggestions people?
 
Well, a single 5770 is unlikely to draw more then 110 watts and not that much more even overclocked so I would say you can handle a 5770 crossfire, albeit without a comfortable safety margin. However it would be wise to wait for a second opinion on this. Can anyone confirm ?

As far as the PCIe lanes go, there's some debate over this but the performance hit will be, in all likelihood, rather small. Certainly not enough to discourage crossfire. Here is a thread solely devoted to this very question, you might like to read through some of the more insightful posts over there.



- Ordokai
 
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if you want to max crysis 2 out i would think abouther 5770 if not then a bigger monitor is always nice xD
 
I think I'll save up towards that LG monitor I posted, and then see how the 5770 performs at 1680x1050 with Crysis/Crysis 2 and then add in another 5770 if I feel it is necessary, sound good?
 
FiCtioN75 said:
Are there any other benefits with an SSD upgrade other than a quick windows boot? and maybe opening firefox etc quicker?
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Better responsiveness in general. Faster transfer/read speeds and, by extension, better loading times in games assuming they're installed on said drive. Performance gains in applications due to the same. In addition to :


* better physical durability
* lower power consumption
* lack of noise
* no fragmentation performance loss
* consistent read/write speeds
* negligible heat output

etc.


- Ordokai
 
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