New cpu or new videocard?

[star293]

hello guys so here is my current rig

gtx 460 768mb

athlon x3 455

4gb ram

am3+ motherboard


and when i play battlefield 3 on high setting i was getting around 24 to 30 fps so i lowered everything to medium setting and tested again but i was still getting similar fps. Can you guys tell me why i am getting same fps even though i lowered the setting? Do you think the cpu is causing this problem since it is not quad core?


i have only 230 dollars so i can only upgrade one hardware. Should i buy a new cpu or a new videocard? and what model should i buy?

 

[sosofm]

Buy a new video card.
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130623 230$ and 200$ after mail in rebates.
Try to overclock a little your cpu.

 

[capt_taco]

Video card is almost always the bottleneck if you have a somewhat modern CPU. Do that first and then since you have an AM3+ mobo, maybe you can get a better CPU if AMD ever gets its act together with Bulldozer.

 

[serialkiller]

cpu bottle neck is taking place(even gpu)

so better upgrade to phenom x4 BE and u will notice 5-20 fps increase

afterwards buy nvidia 660

 

[koogco]

Yes your current CPU and GPU seems fairly balanced. But if graphic settings makes little difference, that is a telltale sign that your CPU is at its limit in that game. You would probably have to upgrade both to see a big improvement though.

 

[guanyu210379]

+1 for upgrading both proc and GPU.

 

[sosofm]

Nobody is looking at his budget ? It have an Nvidia 460 and the only gaming improvement is to buy a 560Ti , 6950 and higher. And at this time he can upgrade his GPU and in the near future can make a CPU upgrade.

 

[ericmet]

Not sure which mobo or psu you have, but if they allow for it, here are some choices that could help. If you wanted to upgrade both and remain within your budget, you could do something like this:

AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz Quad Core CPU upgrade $110
ASUS Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card upgrade $110
EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card upgrade $130

If you can scrounge up a few dollars more, you could go with the AMD FX-6100 Zambezi 3.3GHz Six Core CPU for $150 and throw in that $110 video card.

Hope that helps!

 

[sosofm]

Nvidia 550Ti don't worth the money if you allready have Nvidia 460 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-550-ti-gf116-radeon-hd-5770,2892-6.html

 

[ericmet]

Ah, good point. Thanks for clearing that up. What about the six core CPU and adding another 4GB of RAM?

 

[sosofm]

A quad core will be better than that tri core.Tri to unlock to quad core. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4048/amds-winter-update-athlon-ii-x3-455-phenom-ii-x2-565-and-phenom-ii-x6-1100t

 

[capt_taco]

A quad core will be better than that tri core.Tri to unlock to quad core. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4048/amds-winter-update-athlon-ii-x3-455-phenom-ii-x2-565-and-phenom-ii-x6-1100t

^^^ I'd definitely vote for that option first - or if it doesn't work, see how far you can overclock it on three cores, because both of those options are free.

I don't think any AMD 6-core processors are worth it right now. The Thuban series was not showing a whole lot of improvement over quad-cores because most programs weren't taking full advantage of the extra cores. And the Bulldozer series has been a disaster so far - just horribly optimized for gaming. I'm fairly confident they'll figure out how to improve that down the line, but for now I'd stay away.

 

[ericmet]

^^^ I'd definitely vote for that option first - or if it doesn't work, see how far you can overclock it on three cores, because both of those options are free.

I don't think any AMD 6-core processors are worth it right now. The Thuban series was not showing a whole lot of improvement over quad-cores because most programs weren't taking full advantage of the extra cores. And the Bulldozer series has been a disaster so far - just horribly optimized for gaming. I'm fairly confident they'll figure out how to improve that down the line, but for now I'd stay away.

Agreed, but with only $230, the options are limited.

 

[capt_taco]

Agreed, but with only $230, the options are limited.

That's why I said I like the idea of overclocking or unlocking the fourth core. Then he can concentrate all of his limited cash resources on the video card.

I don't think anybody ever mentioned what size monitor this guy is using, by the way. If it's a big honking 1080p monitor, the video card, and in particular the 768MB of memory on the video card, could be where the bottleneck is. It's usually recommended to have 1GB or more of memory on your video card for the bigger monitors, otherwise performance drops. I found that out firsthand when I had an HD4870 with 512MB that worked great with my old monitor, then after someone gave me a 1920x1080 model for Christmas, performance was way down and I was experiencing skipping, etc. There's a fine line somewhere in that 512MB-1GB range that he may well be crossing.

In any case, when you take into account what he could get for selling his current card, a 560 Ti or HD 6950 ought to be well within his price range.