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CPU or GPU?

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  • Gaming
  • Graphics Cards
  • Computers
  • CPUs
  • GPUs
  • World Of Warcraft
Last response: in CPUs
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August 30, 2014 12:58:07 PM

Hello, I am kind of a noob when it comes to computer parts, so I wanted to ask people who know a lot more than I do whether or not I should upgrade my CPU or GPU first. Currently the CPU I have is Intel i3-3225 @ 3.30 Ghz (x2 I believe). The graphics card I am currently running is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 SE. I tried running in a 25 man group the other day and my FPS dropped significantly and it was a horrible experience. So before I hastily spend any money to fix the problem, I want to know what issue (CPU or GPU) needs to be fixed first. Obviously if I could do both, I would, but I am a poor graduate student so that's not an option right now.

Other information that could be relevant is my RAM, which is 8GB, my power supply, which is a Cosair CX500 and my operating system, which is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Since I don't have much knowledge with computer hardware terminology, please dumb down your answers for me as much as possible. Thanks in advance!

More about : cpu gpu

August 30, 2014 1:12:16 PM

Your CPU is fine. There hasn't been much progress in this area anyway in the past years.

The problem is from the videocard which is a mid-class 4 year old product, which became outdated very quickly.
I recommend looking at solutions like the totally fresh AMD R9-285 or the not so fresh but still strong NV GTX 760, both providing good performance for not that much money.
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August 30, 2014 1:13:30 PM

Graphics, is my recommendation.

Specifically a card about the $150 to $330 price point but I'm not sure of your exact budget. I'll link a benchmark later.

It's going to VARY a lot by the game how much a new CPU would affect things however you have a fairly modern 2C/4T (two cores with hyperthreading) CPU so for games like SKYRIM for example you wouldn't get much benefit out of an i5-3570K or i7-3770K but those are going to be $220/$330 roughly (haven't checked pricing).

For games like BF4 you would get a benefit out of a better CPU but it's hard to quantify especially since you have an older graphics card as well.

Which GRAPHICS CARD?

1) AMD or NVidia?

NVidia: PhysX, TXAA, Shadowplay (record/stream), G-Sync (future monitor)

AMD: Mantle (may or may not get supported well), some cards have more Video RAM (i.e. 3GB vs 2GB).

*So I recommend looking at the NVIDIA first and see if there's a feature you want. If so, stick with NVidia.

Summary:
I'll post this for now, but my quick recommendation is to WAIT for a GTX860 (GTX960?) if that is coming soon and the value makes sense.

I'll post some card links below.
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August 30, 2014 1:17:11 PM

Upgrading your CPU and GPU would both be ideal, however it may not be necessary dependant upon your requirements. What games are you trying to run/play? Certain games may benefit from a CPU upgrade whereas other games may benefit from a GPU upgrade; of course as mentioned, you can only upgrade one component. With that said, which country are you from? The United States? I ask as I am attempting to determine your currency, so I can select an ideal upgrade for you. With that said, what's your budget? How much are you willing to spend?

For the record, your i3 is a dual-core processor which is Hyper Threaded (HT). One core is one thread, two cores are two threads and so on. When the processor is hyper threaded, one core becomes two threads; so your i3's dual-core becomes 4 threads (2 cores / 4 threads). Hence your operating system, Windows 7 will utilise the additional threads as cores; think of the additional 2 hyper threads as virtual cores. So in total your have 4 threads.

Personally (again depending on the game) I believe you may bear better with a GPU upgrade. You don't need the latest GPU, but you can always upgrade to a better one. That should improve your graphical experience, and hopefully your FPS too. Again depending on the game, we cannot determine whether the FPS are based on the CPU or GPU. So if you could reply back with the game you're trying to run, in addition to your monitor's resolution and/or how many monitors you're playing on, that would be grand. From there on I'll suggest a GPU upgrade within your budget.

All the best. :) 
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August 30, 2014 1:30:23 PM

*My chose cards are based on both VALUE and QUALITY. I look at customer feedback as well as online professional reviews and a company's track record for support.

Asus, for example in general has great quality cards as does EVGA. The Asus GTX770 specifically is very well built with a backplate to prevent flex and runs fairly quiet.

SUMMARY BENCHMARK (average of games to help compare value of cards. Price/FPS):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_270X_Direct_...

(The GTX750Ti is similar to an HD7850 for performance though the Asus version overclocks slightly higher. I would guess the R9-280 to be betwen the R9-270X and R9-280X, perhaps similar to the GTX760 so you can use that as a rough guide to pricing in terms of VALUE.)

Cards:
GTX750Ti:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx750tioc...
or
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp43757k...

GTX760:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx760dc2o...

R9-270X:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9270xdc2t...

R9-280:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr928...

R9-280X:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9280xtdfd

GTX770:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx770dc2o...

WHICH CARD?
The Gigabyte R9-280 is a great value I think if you don't care about any NVidia features.

(I'd still hold off for more info about the GTX860. I'm hoping for $225 to $250 with GTX770 performance and 3GB of VRAM)
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August 30, 2014 1:37:51 PM

photonboy said:
...

1) AMD or NVidia?

NVidia: PhysX, TXAA, Shadowplay (record/stream), G-Sync (future monitor)

AMD: Mantle (may or may not get supported well), some cards have more Video RAM (i.e. 3GB vs 2GB).

*So I recommend looking at the NVIDIA first and see if there's a feature you want. If so, stick with NVidia...


AMD gaming Evolved now has Game DVR, so shadowplay isn't as huge of an advantage now, and they also have FreeSync, so G-Sync may not be a huge deal -- and there's a chance OP could use the 460 for a Physx card, so that may not matter either.
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August 30, 2014 1:53:42 PM

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6573/gigabyte-radeon-r...

The Gigabyte R9-280 looks great.

Other:
MrJak->
I thought I'd respond despite recommending AMD.

AMD vs NVidia for recording:
NVidia has a HARDWARE method using its NVENC encoder so there's very minimal frame rate drop whilst recording (often 5% or less). AMD is still using a software method AFAIK so yes it's a big deal if you want to record or stream (can do the DESKTOP as well).

I'm not an expert on this, and perhaps some of the software can use Intel's Quicksync as an alternative as well. I also thought AMD did have a hardware encoder so if it isn't used now I would expect it to be at some point.

G-Sync vs Freesync:
From what I've been reading Freesync may not be quite as good, however nobody has access to real hardware and AMD's FAQ on the subject is very confusing and misleading. We know G-Sync works as advertised though which is awesome.

Still, Freesync for an AMD is still an option which is good even if it turned out to not be quite as good as G-Sync.

PHYSX:
a) You'd have to use hacked drivers which may or may not exist, and
b) the GTX460 would bottleneck things likely causing the R9-280 to wait for it to finish.

It varies by the game how much PhysX processing is done (some have Low, Medium and High as well) but in general you want a PhysX card to be at least 75% as powerful as the main card with the GTX460 isn't even close too.

Plus, the GTX460 would be loud, and even REDUCE PERFORMANCE of the R9-280 anyway due to the added heat causing a thermal throttle.
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August 30, 2014 2:05:34 PM

Obnoxious said:
Upgrading your CPU and GPU would both be ideal, however it may not be necessary dependant upon your requirements. What games are you trying to run/play? Certain games may benefit from a CPU upgrade whereas other games may benefit from a GPU upgrade; of course as mentioned, you can only upgrade one component. With that said, which country are you from? The United States? I ask as I am attempting to determine your currency, so I can select an ideal upgrade for you. With that said, what's your budget? How much are you willing to spend?

For the record, your i3 is a dual-core processor which is Hyper Threaded (HT). One core is one thread, two cores are two threads and so on. When the processor is hyper threaded, one core becomes two threads; so your i3's dual-core becomes 4 threads (2 cores / 4 threads). Hence your operating system, Windows 7 will utilise the additional threads as cores; think of the additional 2 hyper threads as virtual cores. So in total your have 4 threads.

Personally (again depending on the game) I believe you may bear better with a GPU upgrade. You don't need the latest GPU, but you can always upgrade to a better one. That should improve your graphical experience, and hopefully your FPS too. Again depending on the game, we cannot determine whether the FPS are based on the CPU or GPU. So if you could reply back with the game you're trying to run, in addition to your monitor's resolution and/or how many monitors you're playing on, that would be grand. From there on I'll suggest a GPU upgrade within your budget.

All the best. :) 


Thanks everyone for all of the responses! I thought I posted the game in the thread, but I had a brain fart and only posted it in the tags. The game I play most is World of Warcraft and that would be what the GPU upgrade would be for. The overwhelming consensus seems to say that I should upgrade my GPU before CPU, so I'm happy to hear that.

As for my budget, I'm trying to stick with the $150 (US) range. I understand this greatly limits my options, but I don't have a lot of extra money.

Thanks again for all the responses!
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August 30, 2014 3:01:23 PM

alpal1189 said:
Thanks everyone for all of the responses! I thought I posted the game in the thread, but I had a brain fart and only posted it in the tags. The game I play most is World of Warcraft and that would be what the GPU upgrade would be for. The overwhelming consensus seems to say that I should upgrade my GPU before CPU, so I'm happy to hear that.

As for my budget, I'm trying to stick with the $150 (US) range. I understand this greatly limits my options, but I don't have a lot of extra money.

Thanks again for all the responses!


Thank you for your follow up response, not every user does reply so I appreciate your response. :) 

$150 USD to spend on the GPU alone isn't a tight budget, it's more than adequate to purchase a successor to your GTX 460 SE. If you want to purchase a brand new GPU, your budget allows for the GTX 750 Ti; which is a small card, extremely power efficient (does NOT require any 6-pin or 8-pin connectors) and at the same time, powerful too. However that's if you want to purchase a brand new card, if you're willing to purchase used cards from eBay in decent/good quality condition, you can purchase slightly more powerful cards.

If you're willing to switch to AMD for graphics, you could purchase the HD 7870 for $120, which is slightly more powerful than the GTX 750 Ti yet cheaper. Otherwise if you want to stick to NVIDIA, you could purchase the GTX 660 Ti for $150. (The GTX 660 Ti is superior than the GTX 750 Ti, where the GTX 660 Ti performs similarly to the HD 7870 mentioned earlier.) Apart from those two cards, if you're willing to switch to AMD and spend an additional $10, you could purchase the AMD R9 280X for $160; the R9 280X is a high-end card, and much more powerful than the GTX 750 Ti, 660 Ti and the HD 7870. However the R9 280X being a high-end card, it maybe bottlenecked (limited in performance) by your CPU; however you can always upgrade your CPU in the future as you're with Intel.

It's you're call which GPU you decide to purchase and how much you want to spend; if you purchase any of the above I mentioned, you'll have a major upgrade from your existing GTX 460 SE.

As we have already stated earlier, upgrading your GPU first maybe ideal; however WoW isn't a CPU or GPU extensive game. Upgrading your GPU is great, however you may also need to upgrade your CPU too; being in a "25 man group" could be more CPU extensive than GPU. For WoW I can't determine if it's CPU or GPU based; then again displaying 25 other players on screen could be GPU related, or perhaps even Internet connection speed related. If it was any other game such as Battlefield 4, we could determine whether you need to upgrade your CPU or GPU.

Regardless I hope the upgrade does meet your requirements.

All the best. :) 
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August 31, 2014 9:58:53 PM

I don't recommend USED or REFURBISHED cards.

The Warranty will be less (get a new card with 3-year Warranty). I just don't think saving 10% or so is worth it.

**You also get your choice of two FREE GAMES with an AMD card from the Silver Tier, such as "Sniper Elite III" and "Tomb Raider": http://sites.amd.com/us/promo/never-settle/Pages/never-...

I also recommend carefully looking at the CUSTOMER FEEDBACK. Simply getting the cheapest R9-280X for example isn't necessarily a good idea. Spending just a little more often gets a quieter, better performing card that is more reliable as well (and may have a longer Warranty).

*My recommendation is either the Asus GTX750Ti, EVGA GTX750Ti (the dual-fan 1.18GHz model), or if you can stretch to it the Asus R9-270X cards that I linked. Those are both high quality cards with some overclocking potential.

With the two FREE GAMES, I really think the Asus R9-270X is the best way to go for about $185 after MIR or cheaper if you can find it. If you just use $25 per game then the card is $135 or about the same as a GTX750Ti. It's also about 10% faster out of the box than most R9-270X cards (at 1.12GHz) due to the great cooler.

(And when/if MANTLE gets well supported your CPU will become less of a bottleneck for those specific games that use it well, such as Star Citizen.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_that_...

Other:
I chose Sniper Elite III as one of the free games both because it's a great game but also because it supports Mantle (I think a patch is upcoming). Again, that should mean your CPU becomes less of a bottleneck so wait and see.
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