Need advice on upgrading.

j03h4gLund

Senior member
Nov 8, 2010
354
3
81
Here's what i have:

ASUS M4A785-M
AMD Phenom II x3 715 BE o.c. @3.2ghz(4th core is fubar)
8gb ddr2 800 ram
1gb gtx460
650w antec earthwatts ea650
crap sata & ide hd's that are nearly full

im thinking about snagging an ssd but i really am more interested in improving fps. what i would like to know is:

1. will an ssd give me a boost assuming these sata harddrives i have are el-cheapos and have 20% free space?

2. will faster memory give me better fps if i overclock my gtx460 and memory?

3. should i just part the mobo/cpu/memory out and snag a sli mobo and another gtx460?

As always, thanks for taking the time to read/advise.
 
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Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
1) SSD will make your computer feel snappier doing stuff, and will make stuff running off it load faster. It will do nothing for framerate in games.

2) Faster system memory? It will have almost zero effect on framerates in games.

3) Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. What resolution are you running? What games are you playing? Why do you think you need higher FPS? What is your budget?
 

Puppies04

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2011
5,909
17
76
I'm pretty sure that rig is more CPU limited than anything so you should look at upgrading to a quad with a higher clockspeed to improve FPS. Not sure what will fit in your board so you will have to do a little research.

As ZAP pointed out SSDs and RAM upgrades will do little more than decrease loading times, once you aqre in game your FPS will be almost unchanged Going SLI can cause stability issues compared to a single card solution but as I already said I think you are pushing your CPU with a 460 already so upgrading to something faster might not net you the gains you are looking for...

Without knowing your money situation this is just a shot in the dark but if it was me in that situation (assuming you play modern games and not 5 year old ones) I would bank the cash and keep saving for a few more months then pick up an IB rig (Or a SB rig built around the 100's of 2500ks that are going to appear in FS/FT once IB drops :p) and either sell your existing one or turn it into a HTPC/Gift it to a newphew etc...
 

j03h4gLund

Senior member
Nov 8, 2010
354
3
81
Thanks for the replies.

Any advise of what CPU could maximize my current mobo? I'm thinking the 1090t should give me some nice results after overclocked a bit... should i wait for the price to come down more? the $170 amazon price-tag seems decent.

And to clarify - my ddr2 800 memory isn't going to damper my fps?
3) Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. What resolution are you running? What games are you playing? Why do you think you need higher FPS? What is your budget?
I play Rift and currently on low settings at 1920x1080 i get high teens to low 20's fps while in areas with lots going on. I play BF3 too and def could enjoy more fps there. i get around 50 fps... so not terrible.
 

fourdegrees11

Senior member
Mar 9, 2009
441
1
81
Thanks for the replies.

Any advise of what CPU could maximize my current mobo? I'm thinking the 1090t should give me some nice results after overclocked a bit... should i wait for the price to come down more? the $170 amazon price-tag seems decent.

And to clarify - my ddr2 800 memory isn't going to damper my fps?

I play Rift and currently on low settings at 1920x1080 i get high teens to low 20's fps while in areas with lots going on. I play BF3 too and def could enjoy more fps there. i get around 50 fps... so not terrible.

AMD is stopping production of 45nm CPUs. The price of the 1090t isn't likely to go down, it will just be out of stock one day and you will be out of luck. If you plan on OCing make sure you get a good cooler, the power consumption is absurd above 3.8ghz.

A new graphics card would help a lot as well, but you might as well wait for the 7000 series gpus, and take care of the cpu while you still can without needing a new MB.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
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www.mfenn.com
I play Rift and currently on low settings at 1920x1080 i get high teens to low 20's fps while in areas with lots going on. I play BF3 too and def could enjoy more fps there. i get around 50 fps... so not terrible.

Bring up the Task Manager and set it to the performance tab. If you see that one (or all) of your cores are maxed out at 100% when the framerate drops, that means you are CPU-limited. Otherwise you are GPU-limited.
 

j03h4gLund

Senior member
Nov 8, 2010
354
3
81
Thanks for the replies.

mfenn - You helped me put together this budget-build a while back and I have to tell ya - I really really like this build. It was a great deal and handles anything I throw at it no problem. I am the type of gamer that throws everything on low settings to get peak performance, and this system pretty much rocks. So again thank you! Without your help, I would probably still be using my old c2d e6300 intel and overclocked it and been stuck with a mess, so yeah - you rock.

I'm going to monitor the cpu in the task manager n see what exactly is going on when my fps drops and will let you know what I do.

Thanks again!
 
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mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.com
Thanks for the replies.

mfenn - You helped me put together this budget-build a while back and I have to tell ya - I really really like this build. It was a great deal and handles anything I throw at it no problem. I am the type of gamer that throws everything on low settings to get peak performance, and this system pretty much rocks. So again thank you! Without your help, I would probably still be using my old c2d e6300 intel and overclocked it and been stuck with a mess, so yeah - you rock.

I'm going to monitor the cpu in the task manager n see what exactly is going on when my fps drops and will let you know what I do.

Thanks again!

Thank you! I'm glad that it is working out for you. :) Let me know how the experiment goes.
 

monkeydelmagico

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2011
3,961
145
106
I'm fairly certain you are getting CPU bottlenecked. I just sold off an athlon tri-core that was running @ 3.3Ghz. It dropped my FPS in skyrim about 10 when paired with a 5770 GPU.

I replaced it with the phenom in sig. Got it for $50.- at microcenter. Now I am GPU limited......the upgrade cycle never ends.....sigh

My son has the same GPU as you. We paired it up with a phenom ii x4 955be. Seems to be a good match. If I was you I'd seek out a phenom/athlon quad core running at least 3.2Ghz at stock settings. Plug it in and enjoy!


EDIT: Seems like your current CPU should have more OC headroom too, seeing alot of reports of 3.4 on air....might want to try bumping it up a little more?
 
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