Should I upgrade?

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ac130

ac130

Honorable
Jun 10, 2013
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0
10,810
I have a sapphire radon hd 7950 vapor-x oc 3gb card.

Here are my options:

1. I do a crossfire of my card. With the new Asus re-branded r9 280 (not X)

2. I save the money and upgrade when prices drop further because my card runs quite fine at high/ultra settings at the moment.

3. I get a new card and maybe sell off my old one.

4. I use the money and upgrade another part of my system.

My system specs:

16gb corsair vengeance RAM

Fx-8350 OC'ed @4.4GHz

Asus m5a99fx evo r2.0

Radeon HD 7950 OC'ed

120gb Samsung ssd

1tb Seagate hdd

x2 80gb 10k rpm hdd's in hardware RAID

and a hackintosh partition which even though I had AMD was easier than my i7 build that I did recently.
 
Solution
herrwizo
You got it then, sir. Nothing wrong with this computer. Wait a bit more until prices go down and until you actually see low framerates ;)
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InvalidError

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
May 18, 2007
23,815
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My philosophy about upgrades: upgraded whatever is needed whenever is needed, keeping foreseeable usage changes in mind to avoid buying an upgrade that will need to get upgraded again prematurely.

If I am happy with how all my existing components run together for the stuff I am doing, I leave it as-is.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,396
4,193
174,240
So long as you are running well, there is no reason to change. Option #2.

But... when you get the itch, consider scratching it.

For a graphics upgrade, I would not consider crossfire with the dual gpu issues of tearing and stuttering.
Plan on selling your 7950 and replace it with a significantly stronger card like a GTX780ti.
Anything less, and you might be disappointed if you do not see a big benefit.

On the cpu side, look for a i5-4690K and a Z97 based motherboard.

To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement might do.

You could also experiment with removing one core in the bios. This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

As another upgrade option, consider a 2560 x 1440 or 2560 x 1600 monitor.
Keep your current monitor as a side monitor.
 
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