Need help choosing graphical upgrades.

RevoltLePetit

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Dec 23, 2013
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Hey guys, I was wondering if you could provide some advice as to what I should upgrade in my PC. I want my PC to be able to keep up with new and current game titles such as Far Cry 4, AC Unity, etc. Initially I was going to purchase a PS4, but I decided that I'd like some help with what I can purchase for my PC instead. Before I go on here are my current specs:

- PNY GTX 550 TI
- Intel Core i3-3220
- Corsair Vengeance 8 GB RAM
- ASUS P8B75- M LE LGA 1155
- Thermaltake 600 watt PSU ( This PSU should probably be replaced.)

A budget that I can currently work with will be around $400.00
I'm not looking for something major, but something that could boost my PC performance. I was thinking of just upgrading my CPU and buying a new PSU because I'm sure the i3 won't be able to handle much in terms of the newer games coming out. Any other suggestions can help.

Thanks in advance

-RevoltLePetit
 
Solution
Update:
I see no need to upgrade your PSU unless it's having issues. You would use at most 300Watts with an i3/GTX970 setup.

i5 vs i3 (with GTX680): http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-ivy-bridge_5.html#sect0
In many games the i3 does quite well, but note in FC2 the i5 pulls ahead a lot more so an obvious CPU bottleneck there

*However a LOWER RESOLUTION tends to be more CPU bottlenecked. At 1920x1080 it would be less of a bottleneck, and increasing anti-aliasing and other GPU settings further shifts the load onto the GPU and reducing CPU bottleneck.

The review is also using the SAME video card.

When we use a GTX970 and R9-270X instead we discover the GTX970 can crank up the graphics settings a lot more which then...

menetlaus

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Jul 19, 2007
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Tough question. GPU upgrade to something around the $150 price point would be your best bang for the buck upgrade.

Even at that price your CPU is going to be holding you back - but a good upgrade to CPU (if you can find a LGA 1155 Quad or better yet unlocked quad i5/i7) is going to set you back about $200 and might not give a lot better performance (without the GPU upgrade).

If looking at upgrading both the CPU and GPU there might not be enough left in your budget to go for the PSU.
 

RevoltLePetit

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Dec 23, 2013
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Yea I understand that it's a tight budget. What GPU and CPU combo would be a good overall choice in your opinion?
 

menetlaus

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GPU: Lowest priced version of the highest rated card on this hierarchy chart http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Around $150 that would be a r7 265/270/270X maybe a GTX 760.

CPU: There is a similar chart here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

But as your 3220 is already in the 2nd tier - it doesn't leave much room to go up. All you can do with your motherboard is go for an LGA 1155 quad. Check the specs on your motherboard to know if there is even the option to overclock the CPU - if not - no need to get an unlocked quad as you can't OC it.
 
Short answer:
- Get a GTX970, specifically this card: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp42974kr
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
- redeem the free FC4 with the GTX970 (make sure that's a store option). Don't get Unity or the Crew.

Two upgrade paths:

*First, let's look at a graphics card comparison but note it assumes minimal CPU bottleneck so with an i3 cards would be closer together with some games performing almost the same and some games lower due to a CPU bottleneck:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_970_STRIX_OC/25.html

The GTX970 is almost 2X as powerful as the R9-270X (with overclocks it would be almost exactly).

Path#1:
- GTX970
- *For this path avoid games that you'll be heavily CPU bottlenecked with. There are still plenty of games that will run nicely on your i3 with a GTX970, and would give a BETTER experience than an i5 quad-core with a lower-end graphics card. In fact, MOST games will.

(for the future it's also difficult to predict but one important point is DX12 can actually reduce the CPU overhead. Regardless, I think the PRESENT situation is really the most important to consider including older Steam games since many are still fun and cheap)

Path #2:
- i5-3570 ($200) +
- R9-270X 4GB
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-112170420g
or
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr927xoc4gd

Recommend at least 3GB per card of VRAM even for R9-270X (due to new console ports using more VRAM than in the past).

Other:
Far Cry 4 and i3-3220:
http://www.techspot.com/review/917-far-cry-4-benchmarks/page5.html

*Note the dual-core (with hyperthreading) i3-3220 almost matches the i5-3470!! Thus it's more GPU bottlenecked overall so the better graphics card will benefit most.

I can confirm this for many games as I can use Task Manager to observe a lot of UNUSED CPU cycles on a modern i5 CPU.

For example, in Crysis 2 with a GTX680 (same as GTX770) the i3-3220 manages 76FPS still on Ultra at 1080p. While this isn't comparing many other CPU's my POINT is that it's getting over 60FPS already for a reasonably modern game (51FPS minimum). In fact it's the GRAPHICS CARD which is most important here.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/11/26/intel-core-i3-3220-review/6

Summary:
- I recommend just getting a GTX970.
- FC4 appears to run nicely with an i3-3220 and GTX970
- choose new games carefully if keeping i3 to prevent major CPU bottleneck and the i3/970 setup will be much better than the i5/R9-270X setup.

*I've been looking carefully at my Task Manager for CPU Usage, online benchmarks/reviews and even have turned my i7-3770K into a simulated i3-3220 in the BIOS (ran at 3.2GHz and disabled two cores but kept HT).

With my simulated i3-3220 and GTX680 I'm still getting a pretty great gaming experience and it's obvious to me that for most games the Graphics Card is the most important.
 
Update:
I see no need to upgrade your PSU unless it's having issues. You would use at most 300Watts with an i3/GTX970 setup.

i5 vs i3 (with GTX680): http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-ivy-bridge_5.html#sect0
In many games the i3 does quite well, but note in FC2 the i5 pulls ahead a lot more so an obvious CPU bottleneck there

*However a LOWER RESOLUTION tends to be more CPU bottlenecked. At 1920x1080 it would be less of a bottleneck, and increasing anti-aliasing and other GPU settings further shifts the load onto the GPU and reducing CPU bottleneck.

The review is also using the SAME video card.

When we use a GTX970 and R9-270X instead we discover the GTX970 can crank up the graphics settings a lot more which then starts to move the bottleneck over to the GPU as said.

It's a bit confusing, but basically the end experience at about 60FPS is better on the i3+GTX970 then it would be on the i5+R9-270X.

That won't always be the case of course but I wanted to point to some real benchmarks to try to explain the situation.

BATMAN AC:
Another way to look at the situation is that:
a) the i5-3330 is almost 25% higher frame rate than an i3-3220, but

b) A GTX970 is almost 200% faster than an R9-270X

c) We're well above 60FPS thus we've got room to configure the game to significantly favor the i3+GTX970 setup.
 
Solution

RevoltLePetit

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Dec 23, 2013
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Thanks so much for your help! I will consider getting the GTX970 and just upgrade my CPU down the line.
 

RevoltLePetit

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Dec 23, 2013
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Hey, so I've been looking at different combo's lately taking in consideration about the GTX 970. I saw some reviews on the EVGA 970 and people have been saying that it develops a coil whine. Someone on the forums not long ago, told me that the PSU I have is really unreliable but I've had it for 3 years with no issues so far. Here's what I have planned so far with a budget of about $500 and I just need your input:

Plan 1:
I could ignore purchasing a new PSU and just get the EVGA GTX 970 despite its history with coil whines.

Plan 2:
I could try finding a different GPU + CPU combo that will still let me run next gen games with good FPS and ignore purchasing a new PSU.

Plan 3:
Purchase a new PSU and the EVGA GTX 970

That's basically all that I have in terms of ideas. I've been debating if I should just get a PS4 but I really just think that I could get better performance using that money instead for PC upgrades and not have to pay to play online.