Worth An Upgrade?

Alitheia

Alitheia

Alitheia

Associate
Joined
25 Aug 2012
Posts
7
Hi there,

I'm a newbie to the forum, but a long time reader, mostly of the hardware threads here at the forums. With GW2 and WoW's MoP expansion out v soon, I was wondering if it was worth giving my gaming rig a (possibly) minor upgrade until I finally build a new one next year. My current setup is as follows:

Antec 1200 Case
MSI P7N SLI Platinum motherboard
2.4GHz Intel Quad Core Q6600 (Dropped the 3.0GHz overclock due to stability issues with new RAM, but will be looking to get this running again too.)
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR2 RAM (upgraded from supplied 2GB RAM DDR2 GEIL)
500GB Seagate Barracuda HDD
2x 512MB 9600GT Nvidia in SLI
Windows 7 64bit (upgraded from XP SP3)

The system was originally an OcUK prebuilt system from 2008, but I've tinkered over the years with some minor upgrades. Though the mobo/processor/ram is something I'd love to eventually replace with an Ivybridge setup, it's not something I can stretch to right now and would wanna wait until I could get at least an i5 in there so for now I'm just looking to freshen up my rig.

As I've already mentioned briefly, the system was originally OC'd to 3.0GHz, but when I installed the new RAM earlier this year, I had serious stability issues with the system starting up & at the time it was easier to just go stock. One of the 1st things I'd like to do as part of sprucing up the old dear is getting back my 3.0GHz OC.

I already have a spare 64GB Crucial M4 SSD kicking about, so was planning to install it as my OS drive and use the current 500GB as storage for games and programs.

Now to my debate. I'm wanting to get rid of my 9600GTs in SLI & replace them with a single card, but I'm stuck debating between an HD 6850 1GB, or a 560/560Ti/560Ti 440 series and would love any advice going. My budget is pref £160ish, but I don't mind stretching it to £200 if the bump in performance would be worth it. The thing is, I don't know if the rest of my setup would hold any of the proposed cards back by enough to make it hardly worth upgrading at all so I turn to you guys for advice.

Is it worth upgrading to any of these cards, are there any other cards I should be looking at or with the rest of my setup would it be better to just tuck the cash away into the IB build fund for next year?

Many thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm looking forward to any suggestions you may have. :)
 
I would go for the 6850 for those games the 7850 is better however bang for buck your not really getting the benefit in those games imo and put the pennies toward the I5.

I would put WOW on the SSD as well as your OS if there is room not sure how big it's gotten now.

For the OC its likely that upping the Vcore from the previous settings will sort it.
 
Thanks, I think I'll aim for the 6850 for now & grow my new rig's piggy bank for next year when I can add a card with more heft. I've another project that could inherit the 6850 when my new gaming rig comes along later too, so would definitely get my moneys worth out of it.

Thanks for your input guys, much appreciated! :D
 
Alitheia said:
Thanks, I think I'll aim for the 6850 for now & grow my new rig's piggy bank for next year when I can add a card with more heft. I've another project that could inherit the 6850 when my new gaming rig comes along later too, so would definitely get my moneys worth out of it.

Thanks for your input guys, much appreciated! :D
Click to expand...

I do see Gavs point. However I would also suggest the 7850

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x MSI HD 6870 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
Total : £307.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).



7850 vs 6870

I put the 6870 in the basket just to show how silly the prices are. I have a 460 which is on par with a 6850. It's overclocked to nigh on 6870 performance but a similar nvidia card costs £125 here, which is still close enough to the cost of the 7850.

It's not that the 6850 or 460 are bad budget cards but the 1GB of VRAM is a limiting factor. As 2GB is quickly becoming the norm, future games will look to exploit this. With there being plenty of quality free to play titles available (the star wars MMO is switching to free to play), paying just a lil more on hardware to cover yourself for the future makes sense.

The 7850 also overclocks well (dead easy to do) so you are getting more for your money if you are savvy. The card I suggested includes a couple of games, I'm sure you could sell the codes off to recoup a little cash if you didn't want them ;)
 
Oooh, that's a sweet price drop from £179 to £156. I hadn't noticed there was a deal like that running. Still well on my budget, consider me sold. Thanks for the heads up!
 
Alitheia said:
Oooh, that's a sweet price drop from £179 to £156. I hadn't noticed there was a deal like that running. Still well on my budget, consider me sold. Thanks for the heads up!
Click to expand...

AMD dropped their prices to combat the nvidia 660Ti. The standard 660 is rumoured to land very soon (next month). The 7850 is a no brainer but if you want to wait we can help point you at the best bang for buck GPU once the standard 660 is out if you wish.

That link i provided is very useful for comparing GPUs as well as CPUs. Worth a bookmark I think :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom