Will this cheap upgrade do the trick?

larry31

larry31

larry31

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Norwich
Hi there

I haven't gamed on my pc for about a year or so, but just lately have really got the bug back. Playing a lot of guildwars 2 and would like to play tomb raider and bioshock.

My Current spec (3 yr old):

Intel core i3 530 2.93Ghz @ 4.00ghz
gigabyte h55M DDR3 mobo
4gb corsair xm3s 1600mhz ddr3
Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
WD Caviar Green 1TB SATA III 6GB/s Internal Hard Drive(new)
corsair TX 650w PSU

At the moment my pc still runs everything i am playing fine, but with the current deals on atm i am quite tempted to get these:

-HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £155.99
-Avexir MPower Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CRR) £40.00

Do you think there will be a big performance boost? Good enough to run games on a good setting for the next couple of years? How long do you think it will be before i need to get a new mobo/cpu?

Cheers!
 
I would recommend a new CPU & Motherboard, but the setup you have, with the proposed parts, may keep you going for a little longer.
 
I would recommend:

i3 -
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34096M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
Total : £249.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



i5 -

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34096M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
Total : £336.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
jimithebear said:
IMO, your current overclocked i3 should be okay for now. I'd also forgo the RAM upgrade and use the money saved on getting a slighter faster GPU nearer the £200 mark.

Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7870 OC Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games

Already overclocked and comes with a 3 year warranty.
Click to expand...

There is one of these also:

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (GX-100-GI) £129.95
Total : £140.75 (includes shipping : £9.00).

 
At 100 posts you would get free P&P so it's worth talking through your options for sure :)

I'd be tempted to go with.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7870 XT rev2.0 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £209.99
Total : £220.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).



This 7870XT is closely related to the 7950. Slightly less VRAM but if you overclock you'll be talking 7950 performance for less dosh and you still cop the games.

The 5850 is on par with the 6870. As you say it still does ok so someone on a budget will happily buy that off you. Once you sell that you can use the cash to get some more RAM ;)
 
If you could get near 7950 performance overclocking that 7870 XT, that would be seriously tasty. :D

I'm not entirely convinced though about acquiring more RAM? Windows 7 can happily run on 1GB leaving 3GBs for your game (assuming you've got a 64bit OS?).

I would suggest verifying first what your current RAM utilisation is whilst gaming? Adding additional RAM would only increase headroom, performance would remain unchanged unless already at the limit?

After the GPU, I personally would be more interested in getting a SSD? Granted, it won't boost gaming performance but boot times and general usage would benefit, even with the older SATA2 controller on the H55M?
 
Yes the 7870XT can be OC'd to 7950 performance......see HERE

I suggested he could add another 8GB of RAM as if he considers a mobo bundle upgrade when Haswell is released. He can let the old 4GB kit go with his mobo and CPU to help recoup some cash once he is up and running again on the new setup :)
 
honosuseri said:
Yes the 7870XT can be OC'd to 7950 performance......see HERE

I suggested he could add another 8GB of RAM as if he considers a mobo bundle upgrade when Haswell is released. He can let the old 4GB kit go with his mobo and CPU to help recoup some cash once he is up and running again on the new setup :)
Click to expand...

Cheers for the enlightening link!

Apologies for misinterpreting your post. Yes, when replacing the CPU/mobo in future, ditching the old RAM along with it makes sense.
 
Thanks for your responses.

I don't think i'm ready to upgrade mobo/cpu just yet as I think the GPU is a priority. I will probably upgrade to an i5 later in the year.

Regarding the ram i always thought it was one of the first things your should upgrade as its quite cheap. But looking at WTM - guildwars 2 uses 1gb of memory, and my combined mem usage is 73% with multiple firefox tabs and streaming radio. I assume the latest games will use way more ram though

Do you think the performance increase between the 7850 and the 7870 is worth another £50? I was planning to OC the 7850 anyway.

Also do you think the sapphire XT with the higher mem clock is better than the gigabyte with the high core clock? :confused:.

thanks

edit. Buying a cpu/mobo/ram upgrade together and selling my current ones seems like the way to go in the future!
 
Last edited:
Haswell is due around June we think. So I wouldn't suggest a mobo bundle upgrade just yet.

The 7870 is better than the 7850 obviously. The 7870XT isn't really a 7870 at all as it has the Tahiti architecture. The link I gave shows how it can perform against a 7950 if you are willing to tweak it a little. To be fair if you got a 7850 you'd want to OC the pants of that too. You can ignore the stock speeds of the GPUs really as you would overclock any of them, the length of the warranty and the quality of the cooler is a greater concern when balancing out what GPU to buy.

I don't know if you have access to the members market here but that is a great way to shift your unwanted kit to forum members who need to buy bargains 2nd hand. Your GPU will sell, how you spend that cash is down to you. An SSD isn't a bad suggestion but you are looking £80-100 for a decent 128GB version.
 
I'd check the recommended specs for new games you intend to play. Both Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite for example mention 4GBs. If you intend however to leave a number of apps/processes running in the background, you may benefit from extra headroom?

With regards to GPUs, I'd spend as much as you can afford. It's usually the most expensive component in your system and is not something you'd want to replace on a regular basis. Future-proof as best as you can and fingers crossed, it'll continue to serve you well when you get round to upgrading your other components.

It looks as if the 7870 XT sits between the 7870 and 7950 hardware-wise? Don't let its modest core clock speed confuse you (think wolf in sheeps clothing ;)). Other reviews online confirm it overclocks very nicely over a standard 7870;
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/51...st_overclocked_video_card_review/index20.html
 
Thanks for your help.

After much consideration, I decided to splash out on the MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION**. Its only £10 more than the sapphire 7870 with todays deal.

Looking forward to testing it out!
 
The 1156 i3 at 4ghz is definately no slouch, do not replace this with a sandly or ivy i3 it will be slower.

If it was me I would keep the 1156 platform as if you scout about you can find a quad core i5 750 for not a lot of money and they overclock like champs.

The 7950 is a great card, especially as its the fixed fan revision!
 
larry31 said:
Thanks for your help.

After much consideration, I decided to splash out on the MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION**. Its only £10 more than the sapphire 7870 with todays deal.

Looking forward to testing it out!
Click to expand...

Congrats on your purchase! :D
 
OP did the right thing.

One thing that always gets me is how others seem to recommend buying expensive hardware, when the OP clearly doesn't have/want to spend that sort of money.

Example: Hi guys, i want to buy product X which costs £200. Will this give me a decent boost in performance for application Y.
Common answer: Sure, it will. But I think you should spend £400, instead.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the posters on these forums are on commission :p

My philosophy is to upgrade the computer, for the lowest possible price and delay major upgrades for as long as possible. DrPeirson got it absolutely right.

The single most frivolous upgrade I see recommended on these forums is the PSU. There is nothing wrong with the old PSU, yet posters on these threads encourage people to throw away their old PSU (how wasteful), even though companies in 2013 are now producing parts which use less power.

Rant over.

As you were gents...:)
 
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