Best System Upgrade Path for Planetside2?

[Northpoll]

Looking to upgrade my system. This system is purely for gaming, specifically for Planetside2 and BF3. Looking to maximize my bang for the buck to get good frames in those 2 titles. Not really interested in OC and prefer to run a single GPU setup.

I currently run BF3 at 1680x1050 on all low settings to get 20-30 fps which barely seems adequate. I ran the PS2 beta and had terrible frame rates ~20 or less.

I see 2 paths here..

1 - Buy a new video card and an upgraded AM3 based chip. Lowest cost for an upgrade then move to a new CPU, board and ram in 9-18 months from now.

2 - Start fresh, get an intel chip like i5 3450 or i5 3570K. This means i have to buy a new CPU, board, Ram, and GPU so the cost is a lot higher going this way.

So the real question is… Will option 1 be enough of an upgrade to get solid frames in PS2 or should i bite the bullet and spend the money now?

Thoughts, recommendations?

Thanks all!!



Current Spec
---------------
• AMD Phenom II X3 720
• GA-MA790x-UD4P
• Radeon HD 6850 1024 MB GDDR5
• GSkill 2x2MB DDR2 PC2-6400 (400mhZ)
• Corsair Professional HX650W 650W ATX 12V 52A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan
• Coolermaster HAF 912 Black Mid Tower ATX Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB Sound
• Win 7 32
• 23" Monitor 1900x1200 native res


Either way I feel the sweet spot for a GPU right now is a Radeon HD7870 (~$220). I could not find any AM3 CPUs above a 965 listed at newegg, perhaps there are better ones out there?

Option 1
-------
Radeon HD7870 (~$220)
Phenom II X4 965 (~$90)

~$300

Option 2
--------
Radeon HD7870 (~$220)
Core i53570K (~$230)
Gigabyte Z77x-D3H (~$150)
GSkill 2x4GB ~($50-80)

~$700

 

[lehtv]

BF3 likes many CPU cores, don't know about Planetside 2. Your mobo can take a Phenom II X6, that'd be a great upgrade for BF3. In any case I'd expect Planetside 2 to be less demanding than BF3.

Look to ebay for used X6's. Completed listings suggest that they go for about $90-130 there. Then upgrade graphics to 7870 or even 7950. Current best deals:

Asus 7870 DCII $230 AR
Gigabyte 7950 WF3 $290

 

[mfenn]

Planetside 2 should be less demanding than BF3, but it is horribly (un)optimized right now. Getting it to run properly higher quality settings is pretty much impossible without a beefy SLI/Crossfire setup, which is ridiculous considering that the game doesn't even look that good.

As for BF3, I don't think I would dump any more money into AM3 at this point. Buy a 7870 like what lehtv linked, and see how you like the performance. If it still doesn't get to where you want it, buy the typical i5 3570K + Z77 mobo + 8GB DDR3 combo (see my midrange builders thread).

 

[Northpoll]

Quick update for anyone sifting for info. I decided to first upgrade the card and see what performance was like. It came down to a 7870 or a 660 ti. I ended up getting a gigabyte 7870 locally with a PM. The comparable 660 ti option would have run me ~$40 more.

I was torn as the forum chatter says nvidia plays PS2 better but from my research, the 7870 is better bang for the buck and maybe even a better card. From reading, lots of folks bash the 660 ti and its "gimped" memory bus so i couldn't justify spending more cash on a card with less specs.

I installed PS2 and gave it a run through last night, the FPS was better than my 6850, but still low. Getting around 20-30 fps on avg and dipping sub 20 in some action. The in game monitor shows my cpu as the bottleneck.

I tried "medium" in game settings at 1900x1200, then dropped to 1680x1050. Frame rate seemed similar in both resolutions, but it looked like crap comparatively.

It would appear that ps2 is more demanding than bf3 but talk around forums say there code is crap and not optimized at all.

Its time to look at a CPU and MB upgrade this weekend. Thanks for the midrange builders sticky, its clear a 3570k is the way to go for me, need to research MBs i don't know much of anything about ASrock or the flavours of z77 and what they offer.

Thanks!

 

[lehtv]

Yeah, that's not really surprising. AMD X3 isn't a fast CPU, and if it's not a bottleneck in GPU heavy games, it certainly should be in multiplayer games like PS2 and BF3. It could even be your RAM capacity is playing a role here.

If you have the budget for an upgrade to i5, go for it. Intel i5-3570K, a midrange Z77 board, 2x4GB DDR3-1600 1.5V and a 120mm tower cooler are going to cost about $400 in total

 

[Termie]

Yeah, that's not really surprising. AMD X3 isn't a fast CPU, and if it's not a bottleneck in GPU heavy games, it certainly should be in multiplayer games like PS2 and BF3. It could even be your RAM capacity is playing a role here.

If you have the budget for an upgrade to i5, go for it. Intel i5-3570K, a midrange Z77 board, 2x4GB DDR3-1600 1.5V and a 120mm tower cooler are going to cost about $400 in total

Well, just goes to show that the experts here in the General Hardware forum are usually right.

There was no question that your CPU was the problem - an HD6850 should easily get 45fps all high at 1680x1050. I don't know anything about PS2, but BF3...that was an an easy one.

Newegg has the 3570k for $220 with a $20 gift card right now. I'd jump on that: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504

Then go for one of the value motherboard deals with free RAM, like this AsRock z77 Extreme3 for $100: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...z77%20extreme3

After the code, you're talking $300 all in. That will net you the frames you're looking for, no question about that. Prepare for close to double the performance over your current CPU.

While an X6 would get you part of the way there, given that you need more RAM too, I just don't see that being a very cost-effective upgrade.

 

[Ken g6]

Have you tried unlocking your fourth core and/or overclocking your existing CPU yet? It couldn't hurt much to try optimizing your existing setup before upgrading.

 

[Northpoll]

I recall reading a long time ago that I could attempt to unlock my 4th core but I have never messed with it, sounds like fun.

I have built my own rig since about 98 but I tend to fall out of the scene for a while and the hardware moves so quick. I have never dabbled in OCing but I would be keen to learn more.

Budget wise, I should be able to swing an i5 with a mid range board and will go that way but I'm all for learning more and messing around with my existing setup to squeeze out some FPS.

Any good links on basics and how to get started with OC?

Also, ill do some searching around but is there an easy way to understand the feature set difference of z77 numbers? For example, the ASrock line, what does a Extreme 4 or extreme 6 have over an extreme 3 or pro3,4, etc. I'm guessing its # of PCI lanes, or on integrated video or something.

 

[Termie]

...

Also, ill do some searching around but is there an easy way to understand the feature set difference of z77 numbers? For example, the ASrock line, what does a Extreme 4 or extreme 6 have over an extreme 3 or pro3,4, etc. I'm guessing its # of PCI lanes, or on integrated video or something.

Here are the main differences to look for in z77 boards:
(1) number of USB3 ports
(2) number of SATA6 ports
(3) SLI/Crossfire compatibility (and specifically x8/x8 lanes, not x16/x4)
(4) slight differences in network and sound chipsets
(5) for higher-end board, power delivery (power phases)
(6) solid/high-quality capacitors

Run down this comparison chart on 5 AsRock models and you'll start to see the differences:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...157%2D298%2DTS

 

[lehtv]

Just to comment on those six points Termie listed:

1&2 - for most people these are irrelevant, all you need is the board to have USB 3.0 and SATA 6gb/s in the first place
3 - your PSU could handle it, and the Extreme3 does have x8/x8 lanes so you're covered; but this is probably not relevant in your usage scenario
4 - network chips have almost no noticeable differences, sound chips can have differences but if you are disappointed in onboard sound you can just add a handy little Asus Xonar series card
5 - will not make a significant difference with mild to moderate overclocking; the Extreme3 has 8 phase CPU power which is quite good
6 - always a bonus; the Extreme3 uses Asrock DuraCaps which are solid caps but not as good as the gold caps on Extreme4

One thing Termie didn't mention is the BIOS options. More expensive boards have better overclocker tuning features, and there are also differences between manufacturers. But as with power phases, these features don't make much difference at all for a mild overclock (anything below 4.5GHz).

 

[Termie]

Just to comment on those six points Termie listed:

1&2 - for most people these are irrelevant, all you need is the board to have USB 3.0 and SATA 6gb/s in the first place
3 - your PSU could handle it, and the Extreme3 does have x8/x8 lanes so you're covered; but this is probably not relevant in your usage scenario
4 - network chips have almost no noticeable differences, sound chips can have differences but if you are disappointed in onboard sound you can just add a handy little Asus Xonar series card
5 - will not make a significant difference with mild to moderate overclocking; the Extreme3 has 8 phase CPU power which is quite good
6 - always a bonus; the Extreme3 uses Asrock DuraCaps which are solid caps but not as good as the gold caps on Extreme4

One thing Termie didn't mention is the BIOS options. More expensive boards have better overclocker tuning features, and there are also differences between manufacturers. But as with power phases, these features don't make much difference at all for a mild overclock (anything below 4.5GHz).

Thanks, lehtv. I agree with everything you said - I was just pointing out the areas, not making calls on whether they were worth it.

The reason I didn't mention BIOS (or overclocking, for that matter), is that you can't really determine much about this from a website. One of the things I always look for is fan headers, and this you can figure out by closely examining the pictures on Newegg. But even that won't tell you much about fan control, which only a professional review can do.