GPU Upgrade Recommendations for an Older System?

[cusideabelincoln]

One thing these sites don't test is how frametimes are affected with slower CPUs.

I just upgraded from a 2500k to a 3770k, particularly to improve Overwatch performance. And the difference in smoothness is amazing. Here are my settings and performance results. Now if you ask me why do I run such low settings? Well I tried epic settings and I was able to maintain above 60 fps, but there was terrible mouse lag. So I have to maintain a framerate above 100 fps for the mouse lag to be unnoticeable. I also use 120 Hz with lightboost/strobing, so ideally I want to maintain above 120 fps, otherwise there is sometimes a ghosting effect.

The 2500k was at 4.6 Ghz while in these tests the 3770k is at stock. I'm using an R9 280x @ 1080p

As you can see, in both tests I maintain the same average framerate. However the frame time variation is much better with the 3770k, and my bottom framerate doesn't drop as low.

You want to know how I tested? I made a custom match on Nepal. Populated the server with Bots. Played the match for a few minutes until my bot teammates and I pushed the enemy back to their spawn. Respawn timer was decreased and ultimate charge rate increased. I basically kept killing them as they walked out of spawn and used Pharah's ultimate 3 times per benchmark run. This test is as repeatable as you can possibly make it, plus it's also demanding when you have bots popping their ultimates at the same time.

 

[techne]

The GeForce GTX 1060 goes on sale on July 19 for $249. If you can get one of these at launch for around $249, then I'd say that's your best bet assuming that it lives up to NVIDIA's claims. Radeon RX 480 is also an option at $229, but it's likely to perform worse and consume a lot more power.

So you are saying that you think NVIDIA is lying when it says that the 1060 is faster and more efficient than the RX 480 on average?

Anyway, OP should wait for 1060 reviews to land, scope out the availability situation, and then make a purchasing decision then.

Pretty much everything, thank you.

 

[Nhirlathothep]

Hi,

So I've gotten the itch to play some of the newer video games and while the current ATI 5850 runs stuff reasonably well (Overwatch runs pretty good at medium settings at 1080P for example), I'm looking into getting a better video card in hopes of getting significant performance boost.

Basically, I'm looking for the best price/performance ratio based on a older machine that won't be bottle necked by not so new parts.

Here's what I'm working with currently:

CPU - Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67GHz
RAM - 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz
Motherboard - Gigabyte P55-UD3L
Power Supply - Corsair CMPSU-650TX
Operating System - Windows 7
Hard Drive - 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD with a couple of older 7200 RPM drives for storage

Any suggestions/recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks

your pc is perfect and it s a good idea to upgrade gpu for gaming

if you play in 1080p 60 hz :


- buy a used gpu:

90$ AMD 280x
160-170$ Nvidia 970

don t waste more money on new gpus

 

[Headfoot]

Also, although you have a lot of ram, 532 mhz is really slow. Not sure how much that would hold back you cpu though.

This is a good point.

I don't know if 532 mhz is the real speed or if that's just the half-speed reported when you open up CPU-Z, which would equal DDR3-1066 if so. Which is pretty slow.

 

[Headfoot]

One thing these sites don't test is how frametimes are affected with slower CPUs.

I just upgraded from a 2500k to a 3770k, particularly to improve Overwatch performance. And the difference in smoothness is amazing. Here are my settings and performance results. Now if you ask me why do I run such low settings? Well I tried epic settings and I was able to maintain above 60 fps, but there was terrible mouse lag. So I have to maintain a framerate above 100 fps for the mouse lag to be unnoticeable. I also use 120 Hz with lightboost/strobing, so ideally I want to maintain above 120 fps, otherwise there is sometimes a ghosting effect.

The 2500k was at 4.6 Ghz while in these tests the 3770k is at stock. I'm using an R9 280x @ 1080p

As you can see, in both tests I maintain the same average framerate. However the frame time variation is much better with the 3770k, and my bottom framerate doesn't drop as low.

You want to know how I tested? I made a custom match on Nepal. Populated the server with Bots. Played the match for a few minutes until my bot teammates and I pushed the enemy back to their spawn. Respawn timer was decreased and ultimate charge rate increased. I basically kept killing them as they walked out of spawn and used Pharah's ultimate 3 times per benchmark run. This test is as repeatable as you can possibly make it, plus it's also demanding when you have bots popping their ultimates at the same time.

Fantastic post.

Great work dude. I keep telling people how much of a difference I noticed moving from my 2500k @ 4.5ghz + DDR3-1600 to the 5820 @ 4.44 + DDR4-3200. The frame time thing is exactly right. I was just so used to lots of weird ticks and stutters in games that are hidden by average FPS figures. Playing on the new CPU is massively smoother

 

[24601]

Fantastic post.

Great work dude. I keep telling people how much of a difference I noticed moving from my 2500k @ 4.5ghz + DDR3-1600 to the 5820 @ 4.44 + DDR4-3200. The frame time thing is exactly right. I was just so used to lots of weird ticks and stutters in games that are hidden by average FPS figures. Playing on the new CPU is massively smoother

It's due to the cancerous triple (and more) buffering that seems to be the fad in games ever since consolization. (And that you can't turn off because game devs/engine designers have no clue how to do their jobs properly[most of the time])

A properly made game would be single buffered with an option for double buffering.

 

[dogen1]

A properly made game would be single buffered with an option for double buffering.

flicker city!

 

[24601]

flicker city!

Latency über alles

 

[Headfoot]

Not to mention the 20 hz update rate from the server to client in Overwatch. When I've got ~20ms ping and I can push 120 FPS the slow update rate leads to tons of crappy experiences. I've only started getting better at overwatch once I realized I have to press buttons a beat earlier than I have to in other games for it to take effect. This is pretty unacceptable behavior in a would-be-competitive shooter...