Potential System Upgrades

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Frayed_Sanity

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Hi there. New Here. I figured this place to be the best to ask any PC related questions, even though there's plenty of other forums doing the same thing...

First of all, I searched for topics similar, but really, when it comes down to it, you really do need to ask the questions yourself...So, here's my PC's specs, so you all know what I got.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 - running at stock 3.2Ghz

MOTHERBOARD: Asus M4A89GTD-Pro/USB3 Motherboard

RAM:8Gb Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 Memory running 8-8-8-24-33 at 1333Mhz

VIDEO:EVGA NVidia GeForce 460SC 1Gb Video Card

HDD/s Seagate 500Gb Sata2 and Seagate 750Gb Sata2 Hard Disks

POWER SUPPLY: Antec Earthwatts 650watts


So, that's the main things that are of a concern or are critical. I can still do a couple of things with this system to keep me happy until I put it out to pasture.

1 - upgrade my Video card to a GTX 760/770
2 - upgrade my DDR3 to the maximum the board can have (16Gb)
3 - If necessary, upgrade my power supply (need someone to clarify this is actually necessary)
4 - Get an SSD - this is a given even if I don't get anything else, I want one of these to get rid of the bottleneck in my system.

So, these 4 things are my wish list, without having to spend I crapload on a new system...Real world things like bills and mortgages stop me from getting too trigger happy with my plastic.

Anyone got some tips for me as to what I should do to get the maximum out of my current system?
 
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You are not going gain much from a better videocard, depending on the game. The 760 will peak performance most likely, upgrade the whole system after that...
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Alec Mowat

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RAM won't make any difference, it may actually reduce performance.

I would get an SSD if you want desktop performance, it won't impact game framerates.

I would pick up the 760, and I would never upgrade that system again. Your next upgrade should be a new computer.
 
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Gam3r01

Gam3r01

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The PSU is good to go, as for upgrades 8GB is fine for gaming, that processors once overclocked can last you for a little bit longer.

If you stay at stock speeds get something like the 750Ti, if you can OC a decent bit get a 760. My 965 at 4.22 can handle the 760 no problem, and most games.
After that you can invest in a new motherboard and CPU.
 
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Frayed_Sanity

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Thanks guys. Will probably just get the SSD and Video Card, but not a GTX 750/750ti. It has less bandwidth than my 460...Yes it does have double the memory, but has less bits of memory - 128bit on the 750 compared to 256bit on the 460. Processor clock is slower too.

The 760 sounds like the best option for me, even if I DON'T OC my CPU. I'll have a decent Video card to use in a future fresh build then. Plus I use Vray RT which has CUDA core in it so I can render using the video card. More cores the better I say.

My board is only PCI-E 2.0, but it should be fine to use a PCI-E 3.0 card in it.
 
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Frayed_Sanity

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Yeah :) I thought as much as well :) At this time yes, this system really only needs these things in it to be great for some time longer until the next gen stuff comes out and cheapens some more, which will take quite a while to do.

At present though my system can run Crysis 3 well enough to be playable, and RAGE and FarCry 3 really well - the 460 continues to surprise, but I really would like to upgrade to the 760. I've been told by a mate this card is perfect for me :) Glad I got a few more people here that agree :)
 
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Alec Mowat

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You are not going gain much from a better videocard, depending on the game. The 760 will peak performance most likely, upgrade the whole system after that.

http--www.gamegpu.ru-images-stories-Test_GPU-Action-Battlefield_4-test-bf4_proz_2.jpg

 
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Alec Mowat

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Probably not a massive one, no. The videocard in that benchmark is most likely a Titan to avoid GPU bottlenecks, so that CPU is only going to get 44FPS in BF4 (on ultra), regardless of what videocard you have.
 
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Frayed_Sanity

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Have never played BF4 (why does everyone talk about this game like it's the new Crysis? It's not, and never will be, sorry). It's full of bugs anyway.

I play RAGE and every previous id software game, blizzards games, Crysis series, COD MW series, that sort of thing. Plus I render stuff in VRay using VRay RT and VRay Advanced. I think it will make a fairly significant difference in those games and mediums.

It has about 3 and a-half times the cuda cores on it compared to my 460, I think that would be a great increase in performance.

 
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Alec Mowat

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Because it's the most system demanding game, which is why we use it as a primary benchmark. Which was what the original Crysis was used as, basically. What I am trying to show you is that, regardless of what videocard you use, you can only get 44 fps, because your CPU is not powerful enough for modern games any longer.

But as I said, yes, the videocard is an improvement. But your processor is the same, and you will bottleneck on the performance of the processor, as shown above. The videocard may be capable of double the frame rate, but your processor is already near it's limit.
Please read: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?428946-CPU-Bottleneck-What-is-it-and-how-it-affects-your-games

Hardware wise, It will be an improvement. But you will not see a massive difference on your current setup, as your CPU is your limiting factor in performance right now.
 
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Frayed_Sanity

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There's a heap of forums saying my CPU will bottleneck the 760 GPU, and alot of others that say it won't...Which one is it? AMD boards are really only just starting to come into PCI-E 3.0 now with the Piledriver architecture...I would of thought that alot of people would've upgraded to this and bigger cards on similar spec AMD chips...???

I don't want to upgrade my entire rig yet, but I do want a better video card. A good mate reckons if I re-overclock the 955 up to 3.8Ghz and up the ram to 1600mhz, I shouldn't have any trouble with bottlenecks, even with a GTX780!

Just puttin' it out there to try and get the best upgrade angle.
 
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Alec Mowat

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Depends on the game.

Games that are built around quadcore technology will get significantly better performance, than dual or single threaded games.

But this all boils down to my original point

Get the 760.

You will get a performance boost. It will be noticeably better.

Do not upgrade the system again after that point. The next upgrade will need to be your CPU. By the time you replace your CPU, the 780 will be replaced with sometime better anyway.
 
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Gam3r01

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If you get the CPU to 3.8-3.9 you wont bottleneck the 760, ram speeds dont matter really with that, as mine are at 1333. That processor will bottleneck a 780 at 9GHz essentially.
Get the 760, the bottleneck if any will be so small it is still worth the upgrade.
 
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