should i upgrade my cpu+mobo+ram for better gaming performance?

[Abir053]

I want to upgrade to the following:

1. Intel core i5 750 2.66ghz
2. Gigabyte p55a-ud3 (usb3.0 and sata 6gbps support)
3. A-data ddr3 4gb(2*2gb) 1333mhz

now i want to know that is it worth the upgrade or not.
i'm already using a sapphire 5870
what i'm thinking is my current setup is pretty old(except the 5870 ofcourse) and after upgrading the following my overall performance could gain a lot...

what u guyz think???

pls help me decide.....thanks.

[Abir053]

is my system bottlenecking my gpu??? coz i'm getting some occasional choppyness in AVP @1920*1200, very high, dx11

[Black Haru]

run a program to log your systems performance while you game and see what maxes out first. (I use GPU-Z, CPU-Z and realtemp) then run off that. I suspect that your CPU is bottle necking if you have a 5870...

If I were you and I had the money I would upgrade. (but that's me)

[Abir053]

Originally Posted by Black Haru

run a program to log your systems performance while you game and see what maxes out first. (I use GPU-Z, CPU-Z and realtemp) then run off that. I suspect that your CPU is bottle necking if you have a 5870...

If I were you and I had the money I would upgrade. (but that's me)

i'm using sapphire 5870 1gb for the last three months....it's been great so far
i think u r right, maybe my cpu bottlenecking my gpu
but should i upgrade the cpu only or the cpu+mobo+ram?

[pantherx12]

Yeah CPU could be the bottle neck, tis a older gen one you got there.

[Aleksander]

Normally the core i5 you want to upgrade is the best cpu you can choose for the 5870, i mean for money and performance. I recommend buying first the cpu, than if you are not satisfied, upgrade the mobo and ram.

[Black Haru]

What's your cpu/mobo/ram specs? (sorry I can't access users system specs from the schools comp)

if your system is fairly old, then a mobo replace would be first. then base your cpu and ram off of that.

a simple cpu replacement would probably not be a good long term investment (since your mobo limits what cpu you can have)

[Abir053]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Normally the core i5 you want to upgrade is the best cpu you can choose for the 5870, i mean for money and performance. I recommend buying first the cpu, than if you are not satisfied, upgrade the mobo and ram.

if i upgrade the cpu only which one(quad core ofcourse) do you suggest?

[erocker]

Before upgrading anything, and since you will have to reinstall your operating system when you do upgrade your hardware. Get your processor to 3.6ghz, do a Windows resinstall. Check performance then. With your system and your CPU at 3.6ghz running at a higher resolution (1920x1080, etc.) there will be no "bottleneck".

[Abir053]

Originally Posted by Black Haru

What's your cpu/mobo/ram specs? (sorry I can't access users system specs from the schools comp)

if your system is fairly old, then a mobo replace would be first. then base your cpu and ram off of that.

a simple cpu replacement would probably not be a good long term investment (since your mobo limits what cpu you can have)

core2 duo e6750 2.66ghz@ 3.41ghz, gigabyte p35c-ds3r, 4gb ddr2 800 @852mhz ........

[Abir053]

Originally Posted by erocker

Before upgrading anything, and since you will have to reinstall your operating system when you do upgrade your hardware. Get your processor to 3.6ghz, do a Windows resinstall. Check performance then. With your system and your CPU at 3.6ghz running at a higher resolution (1920x1080, etc.) there will be no "bottleneck".

i hate doing reinstall but i'll do it anyway with 64bit. btw my monitor res. is 1920*1200

[niko084]

Indeed that clock is WAY slow for that card, especially being it's a dual core.

An i5 or if you can bounce it the i7-860 would make a huge difference.
Even really going to like a q9550/q9650 that would be awesome and you wouldn't need much new stuff.

[r9]

The real question is do you have smooth gameplay as it is. There always be bottleneck. The amount of it is what matters. Who cares if the CPU is bottlenecking from 100 to 80 FPS.

[Abir053]

Originally Posted by r9

The real question is do you have smooth gameplay as it is. There always be bottleneck. The amount of it is what matters. Who cares if the CPU is bottlenecking from 100 to 80 FPS.

in AVP with very high, dx11, 1920*1200 some areas in predator mode my fps sometimes drop to below 40 but most of the time it's well above 60. but it feels annoying and disturbing coz i already have the most powerful single gpu.

and i'm facing similar choppyness in Avatar game at ultra setting with AA

all other games run just fine with ultra setting like bioshock 2, mass effect 2, dirt2 etc...

[erocker]

Originally Posted by Abir053

i hate doing reinstall but i'll do it anyway with 64bit. btw my monitor res. is 1920*1200

Well, if you were going to upgrade your system you would have to do it anyways. From what you are explaining, I don't see a bottleneck issue. Why not try to save money, reinstall the O/S and who knows? Maybe things will be good. If not, at least you tried and you can then go ahead and upgrade with confidence. Just throwing money at new hardware is a lazy way to go about it. People love to give advice on buying new hardware.

[Aleksander]

Originally Posted by erocker

Before upgrading anything, and since you will have to reinstall your operating system when you do upgrade your hardware. Get your processor to 3.6ghz, do a Windows resinstall. Check performance then. With your system and your CPU at 3.6ghz running at a higher resolution (1920x1080, etc.) there will be no "bottleneck".

Running such a powerful card with that processor and saying that there will be no bottleneck
Anyway in this forum at the time i wanted to upgrade to 5770, which is half of power of the 5870, the forum members suggested me at least a phenom X2 II 555, which is much better than the procesor he is running the 5870! In all forums i have seen till now, all tests, reviews, all people have said that the core i5 750 is the best buy for that card.
What is more, is that an increment of 190mhz will not "stop" bottleneck.
So with the cpu you have, lets say that the 5750 is the best buy. You cannot understand the bottleneck if you dont see the reviews and compare them with your rig. Normally myself recommends core i7 860, but most people say that the core i5 is better because of a lower price. Anyway it is really foolish to think that with core2duo E6750 processor you wont have bottleneck.

[erocker]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Running such a powerful card with that processor and saying that there will be no bottleneck
Anyway in this forum at the time i wanted to upgrade to 5770, which is half of power of the 5870, the forum members suggested me at least a phenom X2 II 555, which is much better than the procesor he is running the 5870! In all forums i have seen till now, all tests, reviews, all people have said that the core i5 750 is the best buy for that card.
What is more, is that an increment of 190mhz will not "stop" bottleneck.
So with the cpu you have, lets say that the 5750 is the best buy. You cannot understand the bottleneck if you dont see the reviews and compare them with your rig. Normally myself recommends core i7 860, but most people say that the core i5 is better because of a lower price. Anyway it is really foolish to think that with that processor you wont have bottleneck.

No it's not foolish, it's logical. At higher resolutions the workload is placed on the GPU, not the CPU. Sorry to say, but your PII 555 isn't that much better than his Core2duo. I think you need to do your research before calling something foolish. Do your homework. Show me evidence that this "bottlenecking" will happen or that it is happening.

Abir053, please open your task manager in the performance tab. Then run a game. How much of your CPU is being used? This will easily tell us all if you need to get a i5, which in itself is not what I would go for, for a gaming rig on a budget.

[BraveSoul]

see if u can get ur hands on a used quad core , like q9550/q9650 ,,even q6600 .,ur mobo should support it no problem ,,maybe u could borrow it from someone for a few days and do some testing,,,, personally went from dual athlon2.8ghz to phenomII 3.0ghz and saw noticeable difference in games using ati 4850

[Aleksander]

Ok, let's wait than for abir053 to show us the workload of his cpu...

[Abir053]

my IQ says that i should upgrade right away if i wanna get the full potential of my gpu....but at the same time i don't wanna spend a lot of money for uprading those stuff. i'm so confused!!!


Ok guyz i just checked my task manager when i'm in Avp @ highest setting and my cpu usage is 78% to 83%

[epicfail]

Originally Posted by Abir053

my IQ says that i should upgrade right away if i wanna get the full potential of my gpu....but at the same time i don't wanna spend a lot of money for uprading those stuff. i'm so confused!!!

Hey the more help you get on this the better the chance of doing the right choice,

[Aleksander]

Let's say this time i did the homework, cuz it reveals clearly that core i7 gives 3 times more fps (at least 1280x1024) in some cases. For the games that can run smoothly it does not mean that it is not bottlenecking.
Anyway this review is "one" of houndreds reviews that show clearly the potential of what the cpu has to do. I have to say that if you dont do the homeworks, you will wait for others to do them
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...g_4.html#sect1

[erocker]

Originally Posted by Abir053

my IQ says that i should upgrade right away if i wanna get the full potential of my gpu....but at the same time i don't wanna spend a lot of money for uprading those stuff. i'm so confused!!!


Ok guyz i just checked my task manager when i'm in Avp @ highest setting and my cpu usage is 78% to 83%

If it were a bottleneck it would be pegged at 100%. Like I said, try putting a little more OC on your CPU if possible, and reinstall your O/S to get rid of the bloat.

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Let's say this time i did the homework, cuz it reveals clearly that core i7 gives 3 times more fps (at least 1280x1024)

Of course! At a lower resolution, the workload is offloaded more to the CPU. Since 1920x1080 is being used, it doesn't matter.

[JATownes]

I have to agree with erocker here. A dual @ 3.4 might bottleneck your 5870 a little, but the only way you would notice is benchmarking it. I don't think you will notice "dramatic" gaming improvements from a new CPU/MB/Ram combo.

If you are just looking to upgrade something, if I were you I would do like bravesoul recommended: Find a cheap used/new quad to slap in your board and you should be good.

[epicfail]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Let's say this time i did the homework, cuz it reveals clearly that core i7 gives 3 times more fps (at least 1280x1024) in some cases. For the games that can run smoothly it does not mean that it is not bottlenecking.
Anyway this review is "one" of houndreds reviews that show clearly the potential of what the cpu has to do. I have to say that if you dont do the homeworks, you will wait for others to do them
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...g_4.html#sect1

from what you posted, theres not much difference at high res but at low res theres a bigger difference so i guess depends what he plays at.

i know for a fact my system is bottle knecked but it works fine i have 50-70 fps on mostly high and some medium in bc2 so.