I'm starting to realize how pointless, upgrading your computer is. (gaming too)

[Rvenger]

Im @ 60fps vsync on capped on all games, except BF3 on ultra high. But BF3 default or all high motion blurr off.. ,, with 8xCSAA FXAA on, AF 16x high quality 1080p.

I get 60fps no matter what I do.

Once I get a SSD , this system will POWN ,,, as it was born long ago in summer 2007.

and my only bottleneck is the HD. I get on avg 60 percent CPU usage when I play games. Sonar X1d avg CPU usage 50 percent.

TELL ME someone why should I upgrade ? lol,

I guarantee you are not getting a consistant 60fps in BF3. I couldn't even manage that on low with a GTX480 with a 2500k. There is an area of a couple maps where the CPU becomes a bottleneck and dips in the mid 50s. Average CPU usage is 65 - 85% when running BF3 depending on map and number of players.

Anyways, I am sure its still playable though. So the point if you are happy with your computer, then thats what matters.

 

[KingFatty]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm really excited to see the cheap 1440p LCD displays that use the A-/A panels.

Guess what? That means I'm definitely headed for an upgrade! I think your monitor is the biggest impact you can have to enjoy your computer. Bumping up the resolution and desktop size is a giant, in-your-face way to get a lot more enjoyment out of your computer. But, you need to get a stronger video card, and possibly CPU.

Now the fun part, I try to predict the market trends and see if I press the "buy" button at the right time. I have fun with that, to see how fast my purchase depreciates or appreciates. I keep patting myself on the back when I bought my hard drive and saw how it appreciated in value, but that's not fair as it was a flood and not me predicting the price trends.

Anyway, that's just another hobby aspect of computer purchasing, seeing if you can game the market and buy things that don't depreciate very much more, or buy them right before they are no longer carried/go out of stock etc. Hard to do if you want bleeding edge, but hey I've waited long enough to move beyond 1200p. I don't think the 1600p 30-inch monitors will come down anytime soon, the price drop for the 1440p just seems very freakish and gets my ears to perk up...

 

[tweakboy]

I guarantee you are not getting a consistant 60fps in BF3. I couldn't even manage that on low with a GTX480 with a 2500k. There is an area of a couple maps where the CPU becomes a bottleneck and dips in the mid 50s. Average CPU usage is 65 - 85% when running BF3 depending on map and number of players.

Anyways, I am sure its still playable though. So the point if you are happy with your computer, then thats what matters.

It drops for a split second to 54fps or soo then comes back up to 59fps 60fps ,,,,,, all settings set to high in BF3 motion blur off ,,,,,, and its 60fps Im not making things up here.... the avg framerate is 56fps ,, yes but I havent seen 40's just 52fps split second ,,,,,,,jumps right back to 58. Guys this is the Single Player of BF3 , not a 64 player match, Then yes for a 64 player match a nice Sandy or Ivy CPU would be good thing..... but ya Im happy, Im good to go except I would like more RAM like 32GB for my DAW. But darn mobo is 8GB limit ,,, sighs,,,,

I gotta get a SSD as well,,,,,,, speaking of BF3 cuz it and other games take long time to load...... My eye is on the samsung 300GB for 500 dollars right now! Also quick question you know how my drives are 320GB but only availble is 298GB ,,,, is SSD the same, or will 300GB mean, 300GB of space free ? thx gl

 

[Makaveli]

Larry you really should change the title to add something about gaming in it.

Like other have posted if all you do it play games you will be fine with just GPU upgrades. For those that do real work on their computers that need never stops.

Also depends on your age. I'm 31 now and been doing this all the way back to my first 286 pc. I still play games but my priorities are much different now and my builds are different because of it. Not to mention with consoles games have slowed down the development of good highend games there is just less of a need like there use to be back in the Quake 3 days.

gone are the days of upgrading my machine for a 10-15% boost in preformance its a waste of money and only something I will see on a benchmark. Its the reason i'm still on S1366 and totally skipping SB and IB and will only consider an upgrade at haswell or its refresh depending on my needs at the time.

As someone else has mentioned it was time to grow up.

if you still live at home with your parents then knock yourself out you don't really have any real bills to pay yet.

 

[slackerinabox]

Well, unless you do it for power-consumption reasons. Newer chips do draw less power, at least at idle.

But in terms of performance, unless you play games at hardcore settings, you really don't need a new computer. Even a Core2Quad is plenty of horsepower for basic things.

Granted, I think that having at least a basic quad-core, or a SB/IB dual-core w/HT is useful for desktop tasks. But anything beyond that is pure overkill.

Maybe I'll get rid of my desktops, for a nice lightweight Trinity or IB laptop. Still considering.

I've been giving away more computers lately. Mostly single-core older machines, but I donated a couple of AMD low-power dual-cores recently too.

Perhaps I'm just learning that I've been spending way too much on computers over the last few years, chasing something that I'm still not sure what, with my upgrades.

Thinking of selling my X6 @ 3.51, 16GB DDR3-1600, 240GB SATA 6G SSD, dual GTX460 1GB OC cards, etc., to a friend. It would cost $1500 to put this rig together today from Newegg (approx.).

What a waste of money. I've played Skyrim about once or twice on this rig, total. Not into PC gaming as much as I though.

I built a nice little mini-ITX box around an Asrock E-350 board (now I wish I had picked up the USB 3.0 version). Perfect little low-power (low-heat!) NEFbox. Fine for forums, even with a HD and not an SSD, and it can watch 1080P video too. Built-in HDMI output, DVI, VGA. eSATA too. Thinking of making that box my full-time rig, at least during the summertime.

I have been big into Distributed Computing, but as the summer gets closer, I have to stop doing that on my computer due to primarily heat reasons (and running the AC at full load isn't cheap on the power bill either).

Welcome to adulthood I was a constant upgrader and, now don't bother - in fact, I went 100% apple so that I don't have to deal with failing PSUs or new requirements prematurely outdating my gear (find that macs have a 3-5 year life cycle, which is fine by me). Arguable but I also feel like Apple focuses on task completion versus hardware bragging rights. I think that, once you're past a certain age the time, frequency, and money invested in upgrades is directly proportional to your quality of life - the more upgrades you do the more likely it is that you just need to enjoy the real world more (unless, of course, upgrades are work related). I also don't game anymore and when I do I just fire up the ps3, which is rare. Newegg must really miss me The biggest victim has to be my dad, he misses the hand downs!

 

[soccerballtux]

It drops for a split second to 54fps or soo then comes back up to 59fps 60fps ,,,,,, all settings set to high in BF3 motion blur off ,,,,,, and its 60fps Im not making things up here.... the avg framerate is 56fps ,, yes but I havent seen 40's just 52fps split second ,,,,,,,jumps right back to 58. Guys this is the Single Player of BF3 , not a 64 player match, Then yes for a 64 player match a nice Sandy or Ivy CPU would be good thing..... but ya Im happy, Im good to go except I would like more RAM like 32GB for my DAW. But darn mobo is 8GB limit ,,, sighs,,,,

I gotta get a SSD as well,,,,,,, speaking of BF3 cuz it and other games take long time to load...... My eye is on the samsung 300GB for 500 dollars right now! Also quick question you know how my drives are 320GB but only availble is 298GB ,,,, is SSD the same, or will 300GB mean, 300GB of space free ? thx gl

I believe there is extra space for when parts of the flash go bad, so that it can copy the data to them and the drive doesn't start shrinking on you.

When all 20GB is gone bad the drive notifies you to replace it as you've used something like 98% of the life of the drive and flash blocks are going to start going bad very soon.

 

[Makaveli]

troll thread is troll


try playing SC2 on a Q6600 and tell me how pleasurable that experience is every time a big battle happens...or try playing Nexus wars in SC2 and watch everyone yell at you.

lmao I play SC2 custom maps 4vs4 all the time and i'll be the first person to tell you to GTFO if you come in there on a q6600!

 

[flexy]

I used to be one who upgraded constantly, i simply couldn't stand the thought running a PC which is not up to the task anymore, for new games etc.

But i STILL have my overclocked Q6600 (3.6Ghz), second main board now (one got shot due to power spikes here in Spain)...and STILL don't have the itch yet for an entirely new system - although i will get a new graphics card soon.

I have not experienced ANYTHING, no BF3, No Skyrim or whatever recent game indicating i need a faster machine - in the slightest.

I dont know how old the Q6600 is now, but it's the best CPU i ever had (hands down)...and it served me many, many years (and still does). At this point i still think that a more recent graphics card is a much better upgrade since the Q6600 still takes anything i throw at it.

 

[Zebo]

overclcokers.com wrote an article about this years ago. For more speed they are essentially just tacking on cores which most apps don't even use. Basically yeah if you got a close to 4 years old bloomy I don't feel any upgrade is warranted. Areas of big improvement are video cards,compare them to 4 years ago lol. SSD vs HDDs. and that kind of stuff is better for upgrade for your $. Unless you have unlimited funds then it doesnt matter just go out and buy the best everytime it comes out.

As far as you're general meme - you're just getting old. I have teenagers so it keeps me young, as if I ever planned on growing up in the first place.

 

[Rvenger]

It drops for a split second to 54fps or soo then comes back up to 59fps 60fps ,,,,,, all settings set to high in BF3 motion blur off ,,,,,, and its 60fps Im not making things up here.... the avg framerate is 56fps ,, yes but I havent seen 40's just 52fps split second ,,,,,,,jumps right back to 58. Guys this is the Single Player of BF3 , not a 64 player match, Then yes for a 64 player match a nice Sandy or Ivy CPU would be good thing..... but ya Im happy, Im good to go except I would like more RAM like 32GB for my DAW. But darn mobo is 8GB limit ,,, sighs,,,,

Makes sense :thumbsup:

 

[Makaveli]

Im @ 60fps vsync on capped on all games, except BF3 on ultra high. But BF3 default or all high motion blurr off.. ,, with 8xCSAA FXAA on, AF 16x high quality 1080p.

I get 60fps no matter what I do.

I would need to see this to believe it unless you are talking about BF3 single player.

There is no way you get a steady 60fps in a 64 player multiplayer map on a q6600 doesn't matter how far you overclock it. And 8xCSAA, FXAA on AF16x 1080p all on a 560ti........ surely these are single player numbers!

 

[Makaveli]

Welcome to adulthood I was a constant upgrader and, now don't bother - in fact, I went 100% apple so that I don't have to deal with failing PSUs or new requirements prematurely outdating my gear (find that macs have a 3-5 year life cycle, which is fine by me).

Mac's don't have psu's that die?

Wouldn't the issue be more that you were installing cheap PSU's in your windows PCs?

Apple sells you both hardware and software they benefit the most from your upgrading!

My socket 939 system lasted 3 years, my current system is 2 1/2 years and I can easily see it doing 4 years.

If you build and maintain a pc properly it will easily last that long.

 

[SickBeast]

OP I don't know how to say this politely aside from saying that the OP is fail.

I have a 2500k and a 7850, both highly overclocked (40%+). I still can't run Crysis, Crysis 2, and several other games to my satisfaction at 1080p resolution. I could list off at least 15 other games that run well on my hardware that would not do well on lower performing parts.

If you're content to play 3 year old games you can get by on integrated graphics and old hardware, but most of us like to enjoy the cutting edge.

I was pessimistic like you a few months back. I was saying I wanted a laptop and that my overclocking days were over. Sandy Bridge brought back the hardware enthusiast in me. If you have the means, I highly recommend one.

 

[slackerinabox]

Mac's don't have psu's that die?

Wouldn't the issue be more that you were installing cheap PSU's in your windows PCs?

Apple sells you both hardware and software they benefit the most from your upgrading!

My socket 939 system lasted 3 years, my current system is 2 1/2 years and I can easily see it doing 4 years.

If you build and maintain a pc properly it will easily last that long.

Meh, I'm too old for nerd fights. I started back in the days before boutique PSUs - psus came with cases, 'nuff said. PSUs died and they were replaced, no biggie. Dells that I've owned have also failed based on PSUs, but I'm mostly commenting on the endless cycle - upgrading, repairing, tweaking, tinkering.. It's kinda juvenile, unless we accept it as a hobby.

I only mention Apple because my current lifestyle is that I much prefer a computer that I don't have to think about the inner workings and I'm not forced to upgrade based on the OS requiring more robust hardward. My wife's macbook has lasted 6 years and only now is considered EOL (still works great, just not compatible with Lion) and I'd be happy to get 3 solid years out of my macbook air. I'm completely aware that there are windows laptops with that longevity, but I have a graveyard of netbooks that were just fine 2 years ago but are now absolutely slow, useless dogs. I'm guessing SSD and ram upgrades will fix most of the sluggishness but investing $200 on a 2 year old $300 system seems goofy.

 

[slackerinabox]

OP I don't know how to say this politely aside from saying that the OP is fail.

I have a 2500k and a 7850, both highly overclocked (40%+). I still can't run Crysis, Crysis 2, and several other games to my satisfaction at 1080p resolution. I could list off at least 15 other games that run well on my hardware that would not do well on lower performing parts.

If you're content to play 3 year old games you can get by on integrated graphics and old hardware, but most of us like to enjoy the cutting edge.

I was pessimistic like you a few months back. I was saying I wanted a laptop and that my overclocking days were over. Sandy Bridge brought back the hardware enthusiast in me. If you have the means, I highly recommend one.

So play it at a lower resolution/detail. Is the game any more fun based on resolution? Also, not to be condescending and please don't lie to prove your point, but how old are you? When I was 15 graphic detail meant the world to me. At 31 I have more fun playing retro 8-bit titles on my phone.

 

[mv2devnull]

Toys and gadgets are fun, presumably. Isn't masochism synonymous to fun too?()

Nevertheless, my upgrades tend to have a point.

quick question you know how my drives are 320GB but only availble is 298GB ,,,, is SSD the same, or will 300GB mean, 300GB of space free ?

You surely do understand that 320GB really means same as 298GiB. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

 

[Makaveli]

Meh, I'm too old for nerd fights. I started back in the days before boutique PSUs - psus came with cases, 'nuff said. PSUs died and they were replaced, no biggie. Dells that I've owned have also failed based on PSUs, but I'm mostly commenting on the endless cycle - upgrading, repairing, tweaking, tinkering.. It's kinda juvenile, unless we accept it as a hobby.

I only mention Apple because my current lifestyle is that I much prefer a computer that I don't have to think about the inner workings and I'm not forced to upgrade based on the OS requiring more robust hardward. My wife's macbook has lasted 6 years and only now is considered EOL (still works great, just not compatible with Lion) and I'd be happy to get 3 solid years out of my macbook air. I'm completely aware that there are windows laptops with that longevity, but I have a graveyard of netbooks that were just fine 2 years ago but are now absolutely slow, useless dogs. I'm guessing SSD and ram upgrades will fix most of the sluggishness but investing $200 on a 2 year old $300 system seems goofy.

Nerd fight?

Where is the fight and who is the nerd?

i've have been doing this for along time myself since 1990, and gone through quite abit of psu's back in those days you were right it was abit more hit and miss. You don't have the solid choices that you have now. I however have probably had less failed psu's because I don't by brand name pc's I build my own for the last 20 years.

As for the cycle I don't think it juvenile its just a hobby we all enjoy. The childish part is the Intel vs AMD / Ati vs Nv Flaming fanboy wars that infect all forums.

And lastly your problem is buying a netbooks to begin with most of them are utter garbage. $300 computer is most likely a POS to begin with regardless of who's name is on it. Reminds me of that quote from steve jobs about why apple doesn't sell computer $500 computers.

Its the reason I totally skipped netbooks and went to ultra portable laptops.

 

[SickBeast]

LOL what's a nerd fight?

Sounds like a Quake deathmatch to me.

 

[Makaveli]

I dont know how old the Q6600 is now, but it's the best CPU i ever had (hands down)...and it served me many, many years (and still does). At this point i still think that a more recent graphics card is a much better upgrade since the Q6600 still takes anything i throw at it.

I would wait until haswell if I were you. Any current videocard you put in that system will be bottlenecked by the C2Q unless you are playing on a 19' LCD from 2005.

Even going with a 2500k+mb on sale right now may be a better investment but that is just my opinon.

 

[slackerinabox]

Nerd fight?

Where is the fight and who is the nerd?

i've have been doing this for along time myself since 1990, and been gone through quite abit of psu's back in those days you were right it was abit more hit and miss. You don't have the solid choices that you have now. I however have probably had less failed psu's because I don't by brand name pc's I build my own for the last 20 years.

As for the cycle I don't think it juvenile its just a hobby we all enjoy. The childish part is the Intel vs AMD / Ati vs Nv Flaming fanboy wars that infect all forums.

And lastly your problem is buying a netbooks to begin with most of them are utter garbage. $300 computer is most likely a POS to begin with regardless of who's name is on it. Reminds me of that quote from steve jobs about why apple doesn't sell computer $500 computers.

Its the reason I totally skipped netbooks and went to ultra portable laptops.

We're both on a tech forum, so I'm guessing we're both nerds Sorry, picked up a tone from your prior post that, based on this thoughtful post, wasn't there.

Anyways, yeah, I'm sure it's different now - the x4 I built my dad using mid-tier components still works great after a few years (aside from a hard drive failure). But when I was a tweeker I'd often get into endless and annoying troubleshooting fits that was, in retrospect, part of the fun of the hobby. I often get the itch to put together an intel box for shits and giggles but the advantage used to be saving 50% (especially back in the days I used Computer Shopper to buy parts, remember that?!), now pre-built's often cheaper, especially when you factor in warranties. The last time I got that urge to build a turnerless HTPC I picked up a $500 mac mini that works exactly as it should, especially since I don't game and "hardcore gamer post 30" is synonymous with "virgin" to me. Mac mini plus plex and 2 apple tvs = much less nerdy living room/bedroom media consumption. I don't know, I try not to be judgy but if someone can justify expensive upgrades every time a new video card comes out then all I see is someone who doesn't have many real world financial or time responsibilities (and I've never met an independently wealthy here in the city were rent is 1/2 of your income)...

And netbooks - yeah, massive fail in the grand scheme of things. I mostly like the 11.6 form factor and, pre ultrabooks, the form factor was mostly the home of utter stinkers or over priced vaios. God, the money I've wasted chasing "low cost" good enough laptops. My macbook air is a breath of fresh air in comparrison.

 

[blckgrffn]

I would wait until haswell if I were you. Any current videocard you put in that system will be bottlenecked by the C2Q unless you are playing on a 19' LCD from 2005.

Even going with a 2500k+mb on sale right now may be a better investment but that is just my opinon.

Haha, in what? BF3 64 man maps? Ridiculous custom RTS Maps? SupCom FTW!

With a new card you can just crank up the AA, etc. As long as you are comfortable with the potential lower minimum framerates from time to time.

Or is that what you were referring to with "bottlenecked"?

A Core 2 Quad at stock needs help, maybe, but OC'd they are still fine. "fine"

 

[Makaveli]

Haha, in what? BF3 64 man maps? Ridiculous custom RTS Maps? SupCom FTW!

With a new card you can just crank up the AA, etc. As long as you are comfortable with the potential lower minimum framerates from time to time.

Or is that what you were referring to with "bottlenecked"?

A Core 2 Quad at stock needs help, maybe, but OC'd they are still fine. "fine"

If these are the games being played why is it ridiculous ?

And yes that is the bottleneck i'm reffering too lower mins which in turn means lower averages etc.

Example Playing left 4 dead 2 on my opteron 170 + 4890 = bottleneck.

It wasn't until I put that 4890 into a i7 920 that I saw how much the 170 was holding back performance. Granted that is quite a jump in cpu's and probably won't be as large as a Q6600 to 2500k but this is my real life experience.

I'm not saying the Q6600 at 3.2+ won't be playable but the bottleneck will still be there.

But there is also missing info I don't know what kinda monitor he has or what settings he is using to playing with.

 

[blckgrffn]

If these are the games being played why is it ridiculous ?

And yes that is the bottleneck i'm reffering too lower mins which in turn means lower averages etc.

Example Playing left 4 dead 2 on my opteron 170 + 4890 = bottleneck.

It wasn't until I put that 4890 into a i7 920 that I saw how much the 170 was holding back performance. Granted that is quite a jump in cpu's and probably won't be as large as a Q6600 to 2500k but this is my real life experience.

I'm not saying the Q6600 at 3.2+ won't be playable but the bottleneck will still be there.

But there is also missing info I don't know what kinda monitor he has or what settings he is using to playing with.

My point is there is always a bottleneck. Now, some have more money, more desire, or less self control and pursue the edges of whats available.

We could say resolution doesn't even matter for CPUs. It's the games, their optimization and minimal level of performance required for performance (subjective to the max!) that are the keys...

There are very few games that a Core 2 Quad cannot play. I listed out those couple as examples of a couple niche use cases that are going to strain a users acceptance levels.

A C2Q+GTX 680 means that you choose to play mainly single player games in ridiculous graphical glory - and multiplayer games with a little bit of compromise.

Damn, this is getting long winded. What I really want to say is you can always crush a GPU with Super Sampling/what have you, but only in corner situations will you be cursing your CPU.

 

[Makaveli]

My point is there is always a bottleneck. Now, some have more money, more desire, or less self control and pursue the edges of whats available.

We could say resolution doesn't even matter for CPUs. It's the games, their optimization and minimal level of performance required for performance (subjective to the max!) that are the keys...

There are very few games that a Core 2 Quad cannot play. I listed out those couple as examples of a couple niche use cases that are going to strain a users acceptance levels.

A C2Q+GTX 680 means that you choose to play mainly single player games in ridiculous graphical glory - and multiplayer games with a little bit of compromise.

Damn, this is getting long winded. What I really want to say is you can always crush a GPU with Super Sampling/what have you, but only in corner situations will you be cursing your CPU.

I get what you are saying and I agree.

For me personally I try to make my builds alittle more balanced. Obviously everyone options will vary based on what they find acceptable and how much money they have to spend etc.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

I just like toying around with hardware occasionally. My Q6600 lasted me 3.5 years, before I finally bought SB. Now I've had SB for over a year, and I can't see myself bothering upgrading that for at least another 2+ years, and maybe more.

Buying new hardware every few years is just half the fun. The other half is figuring out how to upgrade, and/or mod your system to run better at minimal cost (imo). For example, I went P67 to a comparable Gen3 Z68 board (more a side-grade but I do get some extra features) at a total cost of $10. The next thing I am going to do is mod my video card by putting a H60 on it. I've already ordered a custom made bracket to do this. From a performance point of view, this isn't worth it, but the last time I've completely stripped down a video card and added fully custom cooling was a 7900GS. So I am really looking forward to doing this. When I start doing things like that, then it really starts feeling like my "personal" computer.