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Gaming PC upgrade path

GuyJD

By GuyJD
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GuyJD

GuyJD

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The time has been and gone when my gaming PC was capable of running any new game on anything other than the minimum setting, so for the last 6 months I've been looking at bits to upgrade it.

 

Current Spec:

Gigabyte -GA-P35-DS3

Intel Q6600 2.4Ghz

8GB DDR 2 800mhz

Nvidia GTX 460

 

I can't afford to do it all at once, so I'm looking at doing it in 2 phases either getting a new Motherboard, CPU, and Memory or getting a new graphics card and SSD at the end of this month and then following up with the rest in a couple of months.

 

New PC:

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor £185

MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard £110

Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory £100

 

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming Windforce £285

OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive £68

 

The SSD and Graphics card are compatible with my current motherboard but the Graphics card would step down from PCI 3.0 to 1.0.

 

Anyone got any thoughts on which way I should go?

Sagima

Sagima

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I think I would go with the Mobo, RAM and CPU first and then play games that are heavily cpu bound. Get the ssd and gpu later on.

 

I was waiting for Computex to come and go to see if it would get me a better cheaper current gen graphics card but that would be for my birthday (July).

Mako

Mako

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I think you'd lose more performance sticking a new card in that old kit than the other way around. While the Q6600 could be overclocked to come up to par that's fiddling you may not be comfortable with, and you would lose performance in the DDR2 RAM and slower PCI slot.

 

The GTX 460 can run Battlefield 4 on decent settings at a decent FPS, so I would go with getting the motherboard kit first.

sonofsanta

sonofsanta

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I would get the GPU now, which will give you some good gains straight off the bat (even on PCI-E 1.0), and get a new CPU/mobo/RAM when Intel's new Skylake CPUs launch towards the end of this year. That platform will be DDR4 and have full native support for NVMe SSDs, so is more future proof. The CPU performance won't have increased much beyond the current gen, so if you do go for CPU now you'll not be missing anything there, but the new Z170 motherboards will be better.

 

A 970 for £240 is an excellent move to make, and right now you'll get the Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham Knight bundled with it.

GuyJD

GuyJD

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I am inclined to go down the GPU route as I was getting less than 15 fps on Subnautica last night but then again I used to play a lot of DayZ and that's quite CPU intense and I stopped playing when the standalone came out and I got less than 10 fps.

 

Argh! see the dilemma i'm in?

Chris_Jones

Chris_Jones

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I would always go for the GPU first - this will give you the most gains.

 

My previous PC was a Core 2 Quad that I used from 2008 to 2014 I upgraded the GPU every couple of years to whatever the current mid range was and could still play the latest games on max with it.

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Garacesh

Garacesh

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After the issues I've had with my 970, I really would not recommend getting one. The 3.5/.5gb cache problem rears its ugly head more than you'd expect.

(My PC is still in bits until I can afford a replacement GPU, I'm using an old Frankenstein for now)

GuyJD

GuyJD

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After the issues I've had with my 970, I really would not recommend getting one. The 3.5/.5gb cache problem rears its ugly head more than you'd expect.

How is is effecting you? I thought it was just the last .5GB was just a bit slower

ICTDirect_Dave

ICTDirect_Dave

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After the issues I've had with my 970, I really would not recommend getting one. The 3.5/.5gb cache problem rears its ugly head more than you'd expect.

(My PC is still in bits until I can afford a replacement GPU, I'm using an old Frankenstein for now)

 

I must say I've not encountered any issues with my 970 yet. I've been playing most games on max on a 1440p display with absolutely no problems at all.

 

If you're trying to push it to 4K it might be more commonplace, but then 4K really is the realm of the 980 for the time being I reckon.

pete

pete

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What're the 970s like for noise? Both fan and electrical whine?

 

And if anyone's running a 290?

 

I'm also dithering over when to upgrade and currently running a 5850.

Garacesh

Garacesh

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How is is effecting you? I thought it was just the last .5GB was just a bit slower

The card has serious difficulty addressing both chunks of memory, so you really notice when it stops addressing the 3.5 and starts looking in the .5 (at least, in my experience)

 

I must say I've not encountered any issues with my 970 yet. I've been playing most games on max on a 1440p display with absolutely no problems at all.

 

If you're trying to push it to 4K it might be more commonplace, but then 4K really is the realm of the 980 for the time being I reckon.

I do have a 4k screen but I normally play at 2560x1440 because one card on it's own can't really do 4k. I am seriously looking at saving up for a 980, though.

I can do DOTA 2 at 4k easy, but the Source engine is CPU-intensive so it takes off the GPU quite nicely so I still get 60fps (I use VSync, so it caps there, but without it I've pushed 120FPS on DOTA)

But then as soon as I boot up PAYDAY 2, for example, at 4k.. Weeelll it no likey.

Edited by Garacesh
GuyJD

GuyJD

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The card has serious difficulty addressing both chunks of memory, so you really notice when it stops addressing the 3.5 and starts looking in the .5 (at least, in my experience)

 

 

I do have a 4k screen but I normally play at 2560x1440 because one card on it's own can't really do 4k. I am seriously looking at saving up for a 980, though.

I can do DOTA 2 at 4k easy, but the Source engine is CPU-intensive so it takes off the GPU quite nicely so I still get 60fps (I use VSync, so it caps there, but without it I've pushed 120FPS on DOTA)

But then as soon as I boot up PAYDAY 2, for example, at 4k.. Weeelll it no likey.

I'm not planning on running anything at 4k any time soon as I don't have a 4k display but it does sound like it'll be an issue at some point in the future, all the reviews I've seen of the 970 have been excellent and it well out performs the AMD equivalent on frames, temperature and noise levels. maybe it's just you've got a dud one, have you got it swapped under warranty?
Achandler

Achandler

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@pete I'm running a R290 and I had the stock cooler until recently. It is really noisy but a freally good card, I have replaced the stock cooler on mine with an aftermarket. When i bought it there was no none stock cooler versions and my old GPU has blown up so I needed a new one!

 

Personally I don't care for the electricity usage as some do. if I was to buy an R290 now though I would make sure it had a decent cooler on from the start:

e.g. Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Hdmi DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

Garacesh

Garacesh

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maybe it's just you've got a dud one, have you got it swapped under warranty?

No, because I hydro cooled it and they'll just say that my modifications have wrecked the card so that they don't have to replace it. I guess I can't really blame them. Putting the block on too loose, not using thermal paste, or simply just having the wrong block could all cause issues so I guess it's not too much of a cop out.

 

I'm not planning on running anything at 4k, but mostly because having my PC at 4k makes my mouse pointer tiny xD But my screen can do 4k at 60Hz easy. Starting to wish I'd gotten one of the 144Hz screens instead but at £600+ a pop.. Nah.

Mako

Mako

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And if anyone's running a 290?

 

I'm also dithering over when to upgrade and currently running a 5850.

 

I am, I have this: MSI R9 290 TWIN FROZR. I upgraded from a 5870, would highly recommend. AMDs give you good bang for your buck. Mine hovers around 70 degrees under full load, wouldn't say it's particularly noisy.

LincolnE

LincolnE

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What's your current PSU, out of interest? Don't forget that it's an important part of the machine and a cheap no-brand chinese knock-off might do more harm than good.
GuyJD

GuyJD

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It's a branded (can't remember which brand of the top of my head) 600w Modular PSU, the GTX 460 I have at the moment required a 450w minimum so I got something meaty on my last upgrade.
GuyJD

GuyJD

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I have this GPU I can not be happier with it. When not playing games the fans don't Spin at all. When playing game I can just hear them spinning.
By the time I'd look at some reviews last night, the free GTA V option had gone, this card has a slower core clock speed than the other cards I've been looking at but on the flip side it seems to be the card giving the least problems with the coil whine issue.

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