Upgrade tips: AMD or Intel?
 

Hey everyone!

Im in the thought about getting an upgrade in the upcoming month and i got a very limited budget. My budget cannot exceed 370euro.

I want to be able to play SWTOR without dropping to the sub 30s fps in warzones as i do with my current setup. Im 80% sure that im getting bottlenecked by my CPU + RAM, since my GPU usage never goes above 25% in warzones, while my RAM is at between 25-40mb "free" and cpu usage is around 50-80%.

I do not think i need to upgrade my gtx470, thoughts?

Since i got a pretty low budget, i wonder which one of these i should upgrade to.

My current system specs can be seen to the left.


Here is an AMD upgrade i put toghether:

AMD Memoria AMD Dimm 8 Gb (2x4 Gb) ddr3 1600 Mhz CL 8 Performance Edition
€ 51,89
(This memory is manufactured by Patriot)

AMD Processore FX-8120 Black Edition 8 Core 3,1 Ghz Socket AM3+ Sbloccato
€ 199,99

ASROCK Motherboard 970 Extreme3 socket AM3+ chipset AMD 970 ATX
€ 82,69

Total price: € 334,57


Here is the Intel upgrade i put toghether:

INTEL Processore Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) Quad-Core 3,30 Ghz con moltiplicatore sbloccato GPU integrata HD 3000 socket LGA 1155 Boxato
€ 219,99

CORSAIR Memoria Dimm Vengeance 8Gb (2x4Gb) ddr3 1600 MHz Unbuffered CL 9-9-9-24
€ 49,99

MSI Motherboard P67A-C43B3 (Rev. B3) socket LGA 1155 chipset Intel P67 Micro-ATX
€ 97,69

Total price: € 367,67

Regards
Cratzky

I agree, shold be a fine card for the job.

As for the rest.. It's for gaming and having faster cores is more relevant to having more cores. Get the Intel system.

+1 to erocker. Just check out the Bulldozer reviews; Intel is the way to go.

I would recommend Bulldozer if you're into hardcore overclocking and want to set records using LN2 (or just want to have one for the sake of owning it). This is a pretty niche activity though, so for general gaming it's definitely Intel.

Graphics card is fine.

Yeah i agree, but i had to be sure, since i will be doin overclocking and i like saveing money, but maybe even with overclocking, the 2500k may be even more ahead with decent 4ghz+ overclock that i would put it to. More data to the graphics card = better fps in my brain, and fast cores achieves that better then more cores to a certain degree, especially when most games are optimized for dualcores or quadcores at the best. We will havent seen any 6core games yet , have we?
Im completely and utterly in love with swtor so i have no idea whats goin on in the world :D Havent been outside the door since it was released in december.... :rockout:

If you're on this budget, gaming is your primary concern, and you price out an AMD system to compare to a 2500k, it'd probably be a better idea to go with the budget angle and look at one of their quads (or possibly a six core). The FX-8120 is high-end at certain tasks, but for most games it provides little (or in many cases no) improvement over a Phenom II or FX quad/six core. In fact, in many gaming benchmarks, even the Athlon IIs closely trail the Phenom IIs and FXs (on a core-for-core basis).

As erocker said, of those two builds (and for gaming), get the Intel.

The Intel system will last more than the AMD system you've put together. Also, as Suhidu indicated, the FX-8120/8150 has little to offer in terms of gaming compared to the FX-6100.

That Intel System is better. I would try and get like an ASrock Z68 or P67 motherboard, should be cheaper. That GTX470 is fine. Keep in mind, SWTOR has problems with some people where, even though their system is fine, it runs at really low frames. There were some people on the SWTOR forums with like GTX580's and i7's that were dropping to 10-15 dps in Warzones for some unknown reason.

Sounds like a buggy game engine to me. Duke Nukem Forever had a tendency to do this until the patch came out. In this case, no matter how powerful your system, it will run poorly when it hits that bug.

+1 for the intel setup

Yep. Intel mate. Keep the card 2.

You'd be silly not to go with intel.

Intel all the way.

In CPU limited games Sandy Bridge has shown real benefits for me coming from a 4.2Ghz Phenom II quad and a 4GHz 1090T.

GTA IV, Oblivion/Morrowind.Skyrim etc all play smoothly now at 1080p with much higher frames whereas previously smooth frames where hard to come by.

Your card is more than adequate and I definitely recommend the intel setup, not just for the game in question but for improvements in a plethora of other titles.

Let us know how you get on mate :)

Thanks everyone!
 

I was just finishing a thing in swtor for the rest of the night and checked back on the forum and i see that literally Everyone has recommended me the intel system . I love this forum , should check back more often :respect:

but im busy doin :nutkick: to people in warzones on my scoundrel :laugh:

Will check back in a month or 2 again and update with the final upgrade list, money first, then toys ;)

But i wonder, how is that MSI board for overclocking? Havent bought an MSI board since the old K8 series... If i get the 2500k, i will be overclocking it to 4.2-4.5 somewhere along those numbers :) i suppose any p67 board would do ? since this crap board i got now with my q9400 that i bought for like 60euro actually manages to take my q9400 from 2.66 to 3.50 before no-post :P and its been running like that since 2009, and i play games atleast 8hours per day, and its still goin strong :D

MSI is doing very well in BIOS design right now. And yeah, bnascially any obard will do, but as time goes on, it's becoming clear that some boards do do a fair bit better than some others. You'll have to pick individual boards for an accurate compare of what they are able to do, as I've only played with one Z68 MSI board, and the last before that was the MSI P45 Neo2 FIR, which is still kicking it with an e8400.

I understand that this is about the AMD. I am just pointing out the problems of going into Hex and Octo cpus. Software cannot utilize more then 4-cores. So an Octo-core system is shooting you in the foot, because the software would only use 1 core or up 4 of those cores. If the game has an option for multi-core processing you should enable that to allow the program to use more the cpu.

Funny actually that Divinity II has it the other way around. Therein one must state that the game must behave single-threaded. Other games I ever played don't ask it, in neither way.

Both setups is great. The Intel setup will gain you a slight performance advantage in none gaming apps. In Gaming they are both good.

Something OP should take note of is their notoriously bad VRMs on certain models. Could be a potential hiccup if he were to need a higher overclock later down the road.

I have 890fxa-GD70 and love it though. Especially the bios. :P

Intel+MSI combo all day. I have both that CPU and a MSI board and trust me even with a your current cpu you will notice a increase in all things gaming. This is coming from a AMD user...loved my old dusty dual core Athlon64 X2 5200. Oh though don't expect break necking performance in that game. As previously stated SWTOR is poorly optimized and people with high end rigs are having issues. Hopefully over time Bioware will improve performance.

Ironically from what I've read the latest version of the Hero Engine has DX11 and performs well. I guess they licensed it long ago and did their own tweaks/changes to it. To compare this is coming from someone who gets over 100 FPS(solo) normally, and then it falls off a cliff in warzones. You can also go to the Fleet when crowded and notice the same massive dip when around other players.

Thanks everyone for ur answers :toast:

I went with this setup:

Intel i5 2500k
MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3)
Kingston Hyperx 1600mhz CL9

total cost for upgrade: 377euro :rockout:

Waiting for the things to arrive, its like being a baby waiting for christmas presents, lol

Great Choice!