Quick Upgrade Question

[Zaspera]

I'm currently using:
AMD 1090t @ 3.8GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
Corsair HX750
ATI 6970
ASUS M4A89TD
WD 1TB Black
HAF X

I'm wondering if I should hop on the SSD bandwagon (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820249010) or if I should Crossfire another 6970. What would benefit gaming more (mostly World of Warcraft)? Thanks. <3

[JrRacinFan]

On your current power supply, you may have issues with a 2nd 6970. The SSD will only help if paging from the hard drive for local files. I say neither would give a boost for WoW, ALTHOUGH the SSD would help all-around with launching apps and anything that pages the hard drive more.

[Zaspera]

Well my current card is a 6950 flashed to a 6970, but my 2nd card will just be a 6950 (money issues). I have about $300 to spend and am just wondering how/where I will see the biggest performance gain.

edit: based on http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1575219 my PSU is plenty

[Jetster]

Crossfire 6970 for WOW ? one 6870 would do just fine on max settings. I don't think you would even notice a difference. Go SSD just to shorten boot times

[SkullFox]

yeah got for the SSD...
It won't help a lot in WoW (and another graphics won't help either), but, it will help in all other games/apps.

[Velvet Wafer]

SSDs can help loading times and against lag in crowded cities in WOW...and they make your rig more responsive in literally everything (if you install it as a boot drive)
i would opt for that too

[Thrackan]

SSD by a mile. You don't need a 6970 for WoW in the first place, and SSD's aid in loading loads of small files quickly, which does help in crowded cities etc. Plus, it enhances your overall PC experience.

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by Zaspera

Well my current card is a 6950 flashed to a 6970, but my 2nd card will just be a 6950 (money issues). I have about $300 to spend and am just wondering how/where I will see the biggest performance gain.

edit: based on http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1575219 my PSU is plenty

I know one certain person in particular that was having issues on an HX850 with 2 6970's. May have been due to dirty power though. Yet again, I still say go with the SSD.

[Zaspera]

SSD it is then. I play with settings on ultra/high all the time, but there is one fight (Ragnaros) where I have to put my settings on super super low and still get quite a bit of FPS jitter. Another 6950/6970 wouldn't fix that?

[ShiBDiB]

Originally Posted by Thrackan

SSD by a mile. You don't need a 6970 for WoW in the first place, and SSD's aid in loading loads of small files quickly, which does help in crowded cities etc. Plus, it enhances your overall PC experience.

While what he said regarding what it will help with is wrong.. SSD is still the best overall PC upgrade in your case. This is coming from someone who wont normally stear anyone to an SSD, but your build is solid everywhere else so unless you wanted to upgrade your sound system or get a nicer monitor then an SSD is the way to go.

[ERazer]

SSD for sure! i dont see benefit of xfire for wow with your card

[Zaspera]

Originally Posted by ShiBDiB

While what he said regarding what it will help with is wrong.. SSD is still the best overall PC upgrade in your case. This is coming from someone who wont normally stear anyone to an SSD, but your build is solid everywhere else so unless you wanted to upgrade your sound system or get a nicer monitor then an SSD is the way to go.

My monitor is a decent 24". I could get a 2nd monitor, but it would never get used really. As to the sound system, I'm not really a big sound person. I find my G930 headset to deliver all the sound I need at a good quality. Thanks for the help.

[LordJummy]

Your CPU is what makes WoW slow down to a crawl at times. I would recommend upgrading to a 3 screen eyefinity setup, but I would definitely go Intel for WoW. I can't play the game unless it's eyefinity now. I only PvP, but still - 5760x1080 is a game changer.

I run WoW on my triple 24" setup powered by two 6970's and an i7 970. It used to run almost just as well on my i7 950 and one 6970 (unlocked 6950) with same monitor setup. You would see a benefit with an extra 6970 now, but only at certain times when your CPU isn't pegged at 100%. I occasionally see a dip where I go from 120FPS down to 40FPS, like when I fly into a city (org for instance) during a popular time of day. It levels out to 60+ quickly due to the ssd raid, but the CPU occasionally just can't take it.

SSD raid helps a lot, but the CPU will always be a limiting factor. AMD CPU's and WoW don't mix Hopefully BD will change that...

[Zaspera]

My CPU has never been anywhere near 100%. Actually, it has once when I was running Prime95. I don't think it has even passed 40% load other than that. I understand WoW is a CPU game. I don't see how or why, but I understand it. How does a 1090t @ 4GHz (just raised it to 4) let me run WoW on ultra during 25mans but anything above Fair settings for Ragnaros and I get some FPS jitter here and there (mainly during seed phase)? How would an Intel CPU stop that?

[LordJummy]

Ah well, actual CPU load may vary, but it doesn't mean the CPU isn't maxed as far as the game is concerned. WoW is not optimized for current gen AMD CPU's. It won't utilize the cpu 100% because it doesn't know how.

As far as that particular fight it's hard to say, but I'm guessing when you up the settings it is spawning a lot of added particle effects and things that are spawning server side. That would spike CPU usage for sure. You might want to look up some amd multicore cpu tweaks. They could help a bit.

[Zaspera]

You say WoW is not optimized for current gen AMD CPUs. Is it optimized for current gen Intel? Also, I went with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227729 for my SSD choice. I was going to get the Plextor 128GB, but they raised the price to $214 2 minutes before I added it to my cart.

[ShiBDiB]

Originally Posted by LordJummy

Your CPU is what makes WoW slow down to a crawl at times. I would recommend upgrading to a 3 screen eyefinity setup, but I would definitely go Intel for WoW. I can't play the game unless it's eyefinity now. I only PvP, but still - 5760x1080 is a game changer.

I run WoW on my triple 24" setup powered by two 6970's and an i7 970. It used to run almost just as well on my i7 950 and one 6970 (unlocked 6950) with same monitor setup. You would see a benefit with an extra 6970 now, but only at certain times when your CPU isn't pegged at 100%. I occasionally see a dip where I go from 120FPS down to 40FPS, like when I fly into a city (org for instance) during a popular time of day. It levels out to 60+ quickly due to the ssd raid, but the CPU occasionally just can't take it.

SSD raid helps a lot, but the CPU will always be a limiting factor. AMD CPU's and WoW don't mix Hopefully BD will change that...

beh buh bleh wtf

Did you just seriously jump into a 3 screen eyefinity setup for a guy asking a simple upgrade question, then brag about your 970 and uber wow gaming machine? seriously..

[Zaspera]