Next upgrade gaming rig

[pmct132]

current hardware:

CPU: AMD PhenomII X4 965 @ 4.0GHz(fully stable and cool)
MOBO: A7DA-S foxconn am2+ ddr2
GPU's: crossfired sapphire AMD Radeon 6850's OC'd
PSU: Corsair GS800watt
RAM: 8gb ddr2 (400mhz sticks, 800mhz in dual channel)<seems old
HDD: 1TB seagate 7200rpms

With the above setup i am still not happy with the overall performance of the computer it seems games are still lagging for me no matter what i do, my only option is to upgrade. So im on a 500$ budget and i want to know what will be the next best upgrade.

Anyone got any ideas? thanks.

 

[hellfire24]

yor cpu,psu,hdd,and other parts look good to me.for upgrades go to this link.very useful products for less money-
http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

6850 in crssfire should easily crack most of the modern games on high settings(not sure about BF3)

 

[FinneousPJ]

Are you on up to date drivers?

 

[inanition02]

What games/resolution are you using? It seems that it's a pretty good overall setup....the only I think I could see holding you back is the AM2+ platform (with the DDR2)If you keep the GPUs/Case/PSU/HDD you can do an awesome upgrade for $500.

This combo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.679878 ($462 - $10 MIR)

puts you into a i5 2500k, 8GB DDR3, Z68 Gbyte mobo and a 60GB SSD (basically a startup drive). But the SSD might be overkill...and it's an mATX board (though it does CrossfireX).

This combo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.736057

with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

($446.97 - $20 MIR)
Gets you an i5 2500k, Z68 full ATX board with USB 3.0 etc, and 8GB DDR3 1600. Better performance than the above, but minus the SSD.

 

[hellfire24]

well changing to intel setup will force him to rebuild his complete setup

 

[inanition02]

@hellfire24 - your link doesn't work (you can't send a shopping cart like that it, it just take you to an empty cart)

The only real weakness I can see in his setup is the AM2+ platform. He could stay AMD and change to an AM3+, then a bulldozer proc, but that would be a similar change anyhow (changing mobo, proc, and RAM to DDR3). The xfire'd 6850s should be plenty for most games, so I don't see a need to upgrade there unless he's gaming at giant res.

Plus pretty much everyone agrees right now that the perfomance sweet spot for gaming is the 2500k - it'll run circles around anything AMD has.

 

[hellfire24]

i know man that sandybridges are good as i am also a sandybridge owner but i think
with few upgrades(given below)he can upgrade to bulldozer easily and easily compete against sandybridges.
RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417

MOBO-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131736

SSD-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

BTW Inananition02,why phenoms are performing better than sandybridges in BF3 BETA???? i am really worried about it@@@

 

[ScrewySqrl]

the answer there is: We don't know -- it shouldn't! (How do you get this little Nash Rambler Out Of Second Gear??)

I'd wait a week for bulldozer specs (should be up weds!)

I'd suggest something like Crucial M4 64 GB SSD ($107), 8 GB DDR3-1600 ($42), FX-8120 ($205), and a Gigabyte 990X motherboard ($140): $494.

 

[inanition02]

Well, I have one sandy bdrige system and one phenom II x6 system (am3+ and all), and the sandy bridge system beats it by a lot(even with same ram and a slightly slower gpu) for almost all games. Havent tried the bf3 beta tho.

And if he changes the mobo, hdd, ram like youre suggesting, he probably should re-install windows anyhow, so it doesnt matter if he switches to intel

 

[megamanx00]

Well, you could get an AM3+ 990FX board and 16GB of fast DDR3. That would give you some increase but perhaps not a whole lot. Then again it would also prepare you for bulldozer if that wasn't enough. I also agree with screwy sqrl about getting an SSD to boost loading and boot times

What games are you having trouble in? What Resolution and Settings are you using?

 

[FinneousPJ]

First we need to figure out what's wrong lol, crossfired 6850s should have no trouble gaming.

 

[pmct132]

Its more me being a performance freak and getting pissed off evey lag, stutter, screen tare i see which i know is impossible even the best setups outthere will see something like this from time to time.

I Just want Better performance then what I have now and i would prefer not to switch to intel as i have had much more issues with intel with faulty hardware out of the box in the past more then once, AMD has always served justice (in my opinion)

As someone said above, yes I am on the latest driver always stay up to date, and make sure drivers/software is functioning properly before I decide something is wrong with the hardware.

It seems as if something is slowing my performance I just cant find the bottleneck.
And I am planning buying a bulldozer when they get released no question, so i guess now it comes down to:

SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW MOBO/RAM/SSD - AMD 990fx
thanks for all the help, really appreciate all the suggestions.

This is what i had in mind for Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157267
AND RAM as suggested above:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=xtdfar4c7fq
good or bad?

 

[inanition02]

Hmm - I wonder if you're seeing the microstuttering issue...?

 

[pmct132]

Maybe, that was the issue on one game that i evenetually fixed and it ran perfectly smooth but it seems i get it on every game? any ideas?

 

[inanition02]

Did you read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

 

[megamanx00]

Enable v-synch. Also make sure that if you've overclocked the cards that they are running at the same speeds.