Advise on Upgrading 6850HD

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shadowschild

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Feb 27, 2012
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Hello,

My last pc upgrade was in June 2012, below are the specs.
I'm curious to know if it's worth maxing out my current i3 platform or buy a new platform all together.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Next 2 weeks
BUDGET RANGE: $400

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming (Witcher 3, mmos, future proofing), multimonitor (3), 4k?

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:
ATI Radeon 6850HD
Enermax Naxn ENP450AST Tomahawk II 450W ATX 12V 24PIN

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
MSI H61M-P21 (B3) H61 mATX LGA1155
Intel Core i3 2100
Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 4GB 2X2GB PC3-10666 DDR3-1333

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:
NCIX.com / Amazon.ca

PARTS PREFERENCES: Anything except asus

OVERCLOCKING: No overclocking necessary

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 3x 1360x768

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Currently i play some lineage 2 (mmo), civ V, skyrim sometimes. I want to get into the next gen of games (BF4/Witcher3 etc) with some degree of future proofing.
 
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Sorry to revive an old thread but I wanted to post my final outcome.
I upgraded the ram to 16gb of DDR3 1600 (my mb only supports 1333 with sandy bridge).
Then purchased an R9-380 and had to update bios for it to post but it works.

I've been playing BF3 on Ultra settings 1080p and getting 70+ frames per second.
Firestrike scores
Before:2202
After:6083

3DMark 11 performance score of 8024
Very happy!!!
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rhelmar1

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May 23, 2016
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I assume that your budget of 400$ is in cdn$ because you provided a link to the canadian amazon. Which sucks because the prices in canada are through the roof.
That i3 will keep you from getting 60 fps in games like witcher 3. I would like to know what settings you would like to be playing at? For fairly high settings at 60fps with all 3 monitors you would need to upgrade almost your entire pc.
 
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shadowschild

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Feb 27, 2012
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Yes the prices in canadian are on average 25% higher due to the dollar difference.
I typically run on medium settings online, offline however I prefer high quality settings without the Anti Aliasing.
I have 3 monitors but only 1 will be running the game. Often I like to have a video streaming on 1 of the 3 with the 2nd used for browsing

I was looking around for an R9 380 or a GTX960 @ 4gb, which I found on amazon for about $250. ALong with a new power supply for about $100 and push my ram up to 16gb $80. Which is around my budget area of $430


In contrast should I jump to a ddr4 platform the cost would jump to $650 + tax and shipping so about $720

http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-black-16g-d5-128866.htm $85
http://www.ncix.com/detail/intel-core-i3-6100-processor-3m-91-116491.htm $155
http://www.ncix.com/detail/asrock-h110m-dgs-intel-skylake-1151-e2-122251.htm $65
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-380-g1-4c-110236.htm $250
http://www.ncix.com/detail/corsair-cx-series-cx650m-650w-d4-125719.htm $100
 
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rhelmar1

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May 23, 2016
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If you are only using 1 monitor at that resolution, the 380 will probably be able to max out most games.
If you upgrade to skylake, I would at least go for an i5 6500. The i3 is not that much better than your cpu (maybe 20%), but it's your choice. You could also wait for zen later this year, to see what amd has to offer for budget gamers.
 
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shadowschild

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Feb 27, 2012
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After doing some research and based on feedback from the answers so far here is my proposed upgrade.
I keep the i3-2100 & simply upgrade as follows:

Upgrade Video card from a hd6850 to a GTX950 2gb ($185).
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-950-oc-19-113510.htm

Upgrade 4gb of ram to 16gb ($76)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/adata-xpg-v1-0-16gb-ddr3-1600-aa-93608.htm
Total cost of $261 + tax and shipping

Conclusion:
According to Tom's upgrade guide the gtx 950 is 4 tiers above the 6850. Performance wise at 1360x768 gameplay resolution it should run even the witcher 3 at good fps on high settings. Online reviews indicate that the 950/960 & even the r9 380 do not benefit from 4gb of ram unless the resolution is set to extreme levels. There comes a point where high resolutions makes text and icon's too small. My three screens are 21.5" and i am comfortable with this size.

The additional 12 gb of ram will allow me a greater range of multitasking and effectively max out the ram on the board. This should hold me over for another 2 years easily.
 
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S

shadowschild

Distinguished
Feb 27, 2012
11
0
18,520
Sorry to revive an old thread but I wanted to post my final outcome.
I upgraded the ram to 16gb of DDR3 1600 (my mb only supports 1333 with sandy bridge).
Then purchased an R9-380 and had to update bios for it to post but it works.

I've been playing BF3 on Ultra settings 1080p and getting 70+ frames per second.
Firestrike scores
Before:2202
After:6083

3DMark 11 performance score of 8024
Very happy!!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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