What would you upgrade in my system?

StevieP

StevieP

StevieP

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My specs are in my sig and I'm looking at the possibility of getting a 27" or 28" monitor - possibly a 4K panel and I was wondering what the weak point was in my specs for gaming at a higher resolution? (I currently game at 1920x1080)

I know I can overclock my CPU but I've never been that comfortable with overclocking so for the purposes of this, assume I'd be running everything at stock!

Thanks for any pointers....

**** - should have been posted in General hardware, not GD!! - could a mod move this please??
 
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Ok that's weird. Your spec is almost exactly the same as my old spec, only difference is the PSU. I upgraded from a 670 to a 780 and saw a good increase in FPS. I also went to a Ultrawide 29" monitor, 2560x1080 and still got an FPS boost too!
 
Your processor is fine for gaming. Your GPU is what's going to be holding you back. 2GB vram will limit you in some games, and besides that the 670 doesn't have the grunt to push high frame rates with some new titles with the eye candy turned all the way up. I'd upgrade the 670 if I were you.
 
My MSI P67A-GD65 needed a bios update to take my new gfx card (gtx 970).
I can help a bit with that, as I struggled with mine for ages.
 
Yeah I second getting a 970, I recently upgrading to one from a 570 and the difference is epic to say the least......

As Lemin said, make sure you flash your bios to the latest version as like him I had a nightmare with my card initially thinking it was duff.
 
Thanks for all of the replies guys!

So in summary we think that the GPU is going to be primary stumbling block to gaming at 1440p (I think I'll kick my 4K dream into touch for the time being!) and the clear choices appear to be either the R9 290 or the GTX970.

So now, and forgive me if this should now become a new thread in the graphics card section, I could do with understanding the difference between these:

MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (the one recommended above)

and

Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (the cheapest R9 290 on OCUK)

As far as I can see from the specs, the cheaper Powercolour card has a higher "core" (1040MHz as opposed to 1020MHz), the memory runs at a higher speed (5400MHz as opposed to 5000MHz) and the only spec that is higher on the MSI card is the "Stream Processors" at 2816 rather than 2560 on the Powercolour - can someone educate me as to what differences these mean in real-world gaming? (ie. why is it worth the extra £52 for the MSI?)

And on top of all this, having read a little about the whole R9 290 vs GTX970 argument, the GTX970 seems to be generally regarded as "better" and from what I've read, is also less power-hungry!
That said, the cheapest GTX970 is the Inno3D GeForce GTX 970 OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - same question, is it worth the extra £££??

Thanks for any continued help guys....
 
I'm no expert but my understanding is Nvidia, like Intel are a leap and bound ahead of their mutual competitor in their respective markets... And it's only if you're planning on mining for bit coins or some other crypto currency that you should consider the AMD card over the Nvidia.

Me personally I would go for the best Nvidia card you can get... either a 970 or if you can push your budget a 980.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-010-GX

This is the one I've got and I'm super happy with it...
 
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Lemin said:
970 may not be the best choice if he's getting a 27" or 28" monitor.
Click to expand...

Why?

Vidar said:
I'm no expert but my understanding is Nvidia, like Intel are a leap and bound ahead of their mutual competitor in their respective markets... And it's only if you're planning on mining for bit coins or some other crypto currency that you should consider the AMD card over the Nvidia.

Me personally I would go for the best Nvidia card you can get... either a 970 or if you can push your budget a 980.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-010-GX

This is the one I've got and I'm super happy with it...
Click to expand...

Same question as my post above tbh - I know it's only a tenner or so more than the Inno3D one I linked to but is it worth the extra?
 
Vidar said:
I'm no expert but my understanding is Nvidia, like Intel are a leap and bound ahead of their mutual competitor in their respective markets...
Click to expand...

Not true :)

Very little difference between a 970 and 290x except power usage and heat...and the 290x has 4Gb of ram instead of 3.5 GB :)

New amd cards due out in a few months so if you can hang on it might be worth it.
 
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