What should I updgrade CPU/GPU?

[regsa94]

Hello everyone.

To say it short I'm tired of not being able to play with max setting at a descent framrate 40+ on max settings in any game (bf3 crysis 22 etc.)

But I don't know what the problem is and what I should upgrade and what will have the biggest impact on fps

My system:
Amd Phenom II 955 x4
AMD 5850 1gb CF
4*2GB 1333MHz DDR3 Kingston
Running at 1980/1080

I was thinking of upgrading to i5 2500k but I don't know if that is the best solution?

(I'm not gonna OC) thx for any response in advance

 

[FinneousPJ]

I'd say you should upgrade the GPU to a 7870, that'll max any game on 1080p at the moment.

 

[nekulturny]

If you're not going to overclock, no point in buying a 2500k. Save 10 bucks, buy an i5-2500 (non k) or 2400 save 30 bucks. The K denotes overclockability, and usually costs more. Why are you afraid of overclocking? If you're talking about replacing the 955 with another CPU (which means another motherboard), you may as well overclock that one and see if it makes a difference.

While the 955 is antiquated, its a lower stepping than the 965 and up it should be sufficient to play most games. Are you absolutely certain you don't have things slowing your system down such as spyware, malware out of date drivers?

I'd think based on this article, you'd fair better with a video card upgrade, even Llanos (which are not particularly strong CPUs are able to step up to the challenge with a strong video card such as a 580)

http://www.techspot.com/review/458-battlefield-3-performance/page7.html

 

[regsa94]

Well I'm afraid of OC because I heard a lot of people got it messed up burned their computer and I don't have water cooling but if I were to OC I don't know by how much is recommended got an ANTEC NINE-HUNDRED 5 fans.

Ill check the link right away

 

[FinneousPJ]

No, you can't really burn your computer... Just follow instructions online.

 

[regsa94]

And yeah we are talking about replacing the motherboard and the cpu

 

[nekulturny]

Well, the first thing to do would be to invest in a CPU fan/heatsink assembly. The case fans matter some, but not as much as the cooler on the processor itself.

Something like this would be a good starting point. You don't need watercooling for a Phenom II. They have a low ceiling for overclocking they generally max out before more extreme cooling measures become a necessity.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

As far as how much you can overclock, every chip is different, you could take two identical chips. Say 2 Phenom II 965s, one may be able to hit 4.4GHZ, one may never even get to 4.0, it may top out at 3.9GHZ stable. You nudge it up and find its max.

Heres a good starting point:
http://blogs.amd.com/play/2009/04/22/overclocking-101-with-the-amd-phenom-ii-x4-955-black-edition-processor/

 

[nekulturny]

No, you can't really burn your computer... Just follow instructions online.

Technically you can literally burn up the the motherboard, mosfets and the CPU itself, but not unless you're doing something crazy/stupid.

As always, remember Overclocking voids you warranty with AMD, and possibly your motherboard manufacturer, not trying to scare you out of doing it, but you should know that there is a risk in almost everything thats worth doing in life.

 

[firedice]

Overclocking is indeed not so dangerous anymore. I have a 2500k and I overclocked it to 4.2 without doing ANYTHING else. Just saying it to go to that speed, boom it's stable and doesn't heat, on stock cooling and voltage. Which means if I played with it a bit I could make it go way higher.

DO NOT BE SCARED TO OVERCLOCK, IT'S WORTH IT AND NOT DANGEROUS!

 

[nekulturny]

I haven't found my ceiling on my 975 yet. My cooler isn't good enough, I pushed it to 4.2GHZ, it was stable but under Prime95 the cooler can't keep it down enough for my liking, but I hit the 4.0 barrier, good enough for me.

 

[regsa94]

Ok thx a lot I'll be looking at the the links about overclocking my cpu :=)

I'm currently using this to look at graphic cards http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

And I was wondering if there is a big difference between 580 and 480

 

[nekulturny]

No problem,
I wouldn't use passmark as a reference point, its too unspecific.

Here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=305

In answer to your question, not really.. Based on that, sure the 580 is the better card, but the 480 isn't out of the running.

Although, I question all of the review sites on Metro 2033. They all show high dollar cards struggling with it at maxed out settings, maybe they cleaned the code up for it at some point because I bought it last week on Steam, and my 550 TI handles it at maxed settings way better than the reviews seem to suggest it would.

 

[regsa94]

hmm thats odd www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/303?vs=305

 

[regsa94]

I get nearly the same fps with an gtx 580 as my 5850 CF

 

[nekulturny]

Yea, thats why I asked about malware out of date drivers and whatnot. Now occasionally crossfire/sli can cause problems.. but I'll be honest, I'm not read up enough on it to really explain it adequately. I'd consider disabling your crossfire and see if the problems persist with just 1 5850.

 

[suteck]

With 4 cores and a stock speed of 3.2 GHz I don't see your cpu as a bottleneck. While I prefer the Intel, AMD makes a good performing chip and I don't see any game taking advantage of the 4 cores YET. Are you saying you're running 2 5850's in CrossFire mode? I've heard the 5850's need tweaking to get the full performance out of them so maybe go into catalyst control center and see if you can adjust some settings there. another useful tool is Radeonpro found here - http://www.radeonpro.info/en-US/ - And try that. Or msi's afterburner. I hear it works for most cards.

However, If you just want to make it simple and upgrade to a better, more up to date card then either the 7870 or 7850 depending on your wallet. If you ebay your 2 5850's you could do the 7870 or 2 7850's at low cost most likely.

 

[regsa94]

kk maybe it's time to reinstall windows because I have had my share of virus mostly rouge anti viruses can they still have an impact?

Just updated my AMD Drivers this morning so they shouldn't be out of date

But I have switched to ssd from hdd which means I've installed windows 2 places on both drives can that slow it down?

 

[regsa94]

With 4 cores and a stock speed of 3.2 GHz I don't see your cpu as a bottleneck. While I prefer the Intel, AMD makes a good performing chip and I don't see any game taking advantage of the 4 cores YET. Are you saying you're running 2 5850's in CrossFire mode? I've heard the 5850's need tweaking to get the full performance out of them so maybe go into catalyst control center and see if you can adjust some settings there. another useful tool is Radeonpro found here - http://www.radeonpro.info/en-US/ - And try that. Or msi's afterburner. I hear it works for most cards.

However, If you just want to make it simple and upgrade to a better, more up to date card then either the 7870 or 7850 depending on your wallet. If you ebay your 2 5850's you could do the 7870 or 2 7850's at low cost most likely.

Can I just turn the graphic cards up in power or is there something that I should be careful of?