need suggestions for something that won't bottleneck my GTX460 SLI

[Spurst]

I currently have an E8400 running @ 4050mhz. Its 100% reliable and speedy, but I think its the current bottleneck on my system, so I am considering an upgrade to something newer that will be a better match for my 2 GTX 460's.

If I can go with a C2Q, that'd be fine, but I'm also open to moving to an I5 / I7. I'd consider an AMD, but I honestly haven't kept up to speed on them since I bought my FX-60 4-5 yrs ago.

Currently I have:
e8400 @ 4050
8 gigs OCZ DDR2 SLI-Ready ram (4x2)
XFX 680i Tri-SLI motherboard
PC&P 760Watt PSU

I'd really like to keep an upgrade under $400. Would a q9650 be a better move than going to an I7 platform for now?

I'm thinking my CPU is what's holding me back, because I'm getting stuttering and voice lag in BF3 at 19x12 ultra settings.

 

[Lex Luger]

2500k is only answer bro.

If there is a microcenter store close to you, you can pick one up for 180 dollars.

A good p67 motherboard starts about 130(biostar tp67xe)

4 gb of ddr3 ram is about 40 dollars (4gb is all you will need)

If you buy a q9650 to try to keep using your old ram and motherboard, you are a fool.

AMD current FX processors are possibly the worst processors ever made, they are complete trash.

 

[Termie]

Agreed, time for an upgrade, and the 2500k is your best bet. That e8400 is holding you back badly in BF3, and would explain the voice problems. But note that 1GB of VRAM is not enough to run ultra settings in BF3 at 1920, definitely not with MSAA.

You can get a 2500k, SLI motherboard, and 8GB of ram for under $400 from Newegg (and can get it for less assuming you're near a Microcenter). But note that not all boards support SLI - you'll need to do some research on that to make sure you get a compatible board. Here's a great z68 board that does:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157271

Combined with a 2500k and 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600 ram, that comes to $394.60 shipped.

 

[dma0991]

An upgrade to SB is definitely the best path and you can't go wrong with the Core i5 2500K combo. I would skip a generation before upgrading and with your rig being in that situation, a complete overhaul is definitely a good choice.

 

[Spurst]

2500k is only answer bro.

If there is a microcenter store close to you, you can pick one up for 180 dollars.

A good p67 motherboard starts about 130(biostar tp67xe)

4 gb of ddr3 ram is about 40 dollars (4gb is all you will need)

If you buy a q9650 to try to keep using your old ram and motherboard, you are a fool.

AMD current FX processors are possibly the worst processors ever made, they are complete trash.

microcenter is local - im going to check them on blackfriday to see what deals are going on.

however, i don't entirely agree about the q9650 - if the q9650 meets my needs and will not bottleneck the GPU's, I'd be ok with it. if I can get the 2500+ in a deal, I'm open to it. I'm trying to keep upgrade costs minimal, especially since moving to a core 2 quad would potentially be an upgrade for half the price. It also means I don't have to reinstall my OS, shop for new parts, sell the old parts, etc. minor issues, but still issues.

I'm also running Raid 0 on some antiquated 36gig raptor drives, too for my boot drive. i should probably upgrade those, too.

 

[Spurst]

Agreed, time for an upgrade, and the 2500k is your best bet. That e8400 is holding you back badly in BF3, and would explain the voice problems. But note that 1GB of VRAM is not enough to run ultra settings in BF3 at 1920, definitely not with MSAA.

if that's true, then there's no point in upgrading. i can run high flawless with the current rig. i just want it running ultra without any problem - and after reading the reviews, that's why i picked up the 460's. maybe I'll dump them and just move to something else, then.

 

[toyota]

it would be silly to buy another cpu for your 775 platform unless you get an insane deal. its time to move on to a 2500k setup and by the time you sell your other stuff it will not even be very costly at all.

 

[Termie]

if that's true, then there's no point in upgrading. i can run high flawless with the current rig. i just want it running ultra without any problem - and after reading the reviews, that's why i picked up the 460's. maybe I'll dump them and just move to something else, then.

You'll still get a big advantage at high settings with a quad, and can at least push ultra/no MSAA with 460SLI. That voice problem you're talking about is not a VRAM issue.

it would be silly to buy another cpu for your 775 platform unless you get an insane deal. its time to move on to a 2500k setup and by the time you sell your other stuff it will not even be very costly at all.

Agreed - q9650 is a huge investment for old tech...plus...

...

however, i don't entirely agree about the q9650 - if the q9650 meets my needs and will not bottleneck the GPU's, I'd be ok with it. if I can get the 2500+ in a deal, I'm open to it. I'm trying to keep upgrade costs minimal, especially since moving to a core 2 quad would potentially be an upgrade for half the price. It also means I don't have to reinstall my OS, shop for new parts, sell the old parts, etc. minor issues, but still issues.

I'm also running Raid 0 on some antiquated 36gig raptor drives, too for my boot drive. i should probably upgrade those, too.

Oh man...dump those Raptors like a bad prom date, my friend. And since you'll need to reinstall the OS on any SSD anyway, just go all in on a new system. Even a 64GB SSD will be infinitely better than those Raptors as an OS drive.

 

[Spurst]

You'll still get a big advantage at high settings with a quad, and can at least push ultra/no MSAA with 460SLI. That voice problem you're talking about is not a VRAM issue.



Agreed - q9650 is a huge investment for old tech...plus...



Oh man...dump those Raptors like a bad prom date, my friend. And since you'll need to reinstall the OS on any SSD anyway, just go all in on a new system. Even a 64GB SSD will be infinitely better than those Raptors as an OS drive.

my budget is absolutely locked at $400. I have the current rig, and I could possibly sell one of my 8800GT's (sli'd in another rig with my FX-60 that I use for home theater) and thats all.

HD wise, I have sitting around:

Seagate Barracude 7200.12 1TB (storage drive)
2x 36 GB WD Raptors in Raid 0 array (boot drive)
WD Caviar Blue 500gb drive
Seagate 7200.10 sitting in an external box
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B 1 TB in an external box

then for the rest of the crap in the system:
8 gigs DDR2 6400 OCZ SLI Ready Ram(4x2gb)
e8400
XFX 680i SLI (the tri sli board)

PC&P 760watt PSU
Antec Nine Hundred Case
SATA Blue ray drive
SATA DVDRW drive

$400.

That's what I have to work with.

 

[Lex Luger]

Figure you can get at least 125 dollars for your e8400,mobo, and 6gb of ram

With biostar p67, 4gb of ram, and microcenter 2500k, your at 350.

Thats a 225 dollar difference

If you buy a q9650, you talking 150 USED!!!, meaning possibly abused, new your talking 250.

So you save 75 dollars by buying a USED processor, thats much slower.

The power saving alone after 3 years will probably be 75 dollars if you used cpu alot, plus most sandy bridge motherboards will support upcoming 22nm quad cores, which will run 5.5 ghz everyday no problem.

BUY A 2500K, the end

oh did I mention 4.5 ghz only draws 90 watts in prime 95.

Did I mention gamecube and Wii emulation runs fullspeed at 2560x1600 almost every game

Did I mention GTA IV runs like GTA 3 with 2500k?

 

[Termie]

my budget is absolutely locked at $400. I have the current rig, and I could possibly sell one of my 8800GT's (sli'd in another rig with my FX-60 that I use for home theater) and thats all.

HD wise, I have sitting around:

Seagate Barracude 7200.12 1TB (storage drive)
2x 36 GB WD Raptors in Raid 0 array (boot drive)
WD Caviar Blue 500gb drive
Seagate 7200.10 sitting in an external box
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B 1 TB in an external box

then for the rest of the crap in the system:
8 gigs DDR2 6400 OCZ SLI Ready Ram(4x2gb)
e8400
XFX 680i SLI (the tri sli board)

PC&P 760watt PSU
Antec Nine Hundred Case
SATA Blue ray drive
SATA DVDRW drive

$400.

That's what I have to work with.

Understood. Don't want to bust your budget, so here are some options.

- buy a Crucial M4 64GB (currently $110 but often much less than that): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148441

- buy the Asrock P67 Extreme 4 MB at MC for $160 and get $60 off with the combo deal: http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0367878

- buy any 8GB set of ram you can get for ~$45

- buy 2500k for $180 at MC

Now that comes to about $435, which is over your budget, but here's what to do to earn back some money.

- wait for M4 to go on sale (often $100)
- sell one 8800gt for $40 - should be able to do that on the AT For Sale/Trade page.
- sell off 2x2GB of your OCZ ram - you won't need it in that system anyway. I bet you could get $25 easy for that.

Just use your Caviar Blue drive as your program drive on the new system. Seems like you have plenty of external drives for backups. You'll still have the old 8400 system with your Raptors, 4GB of ram, and your Seagate, and can repurpose it or give it to a family member in a $40 case with PSU (might need a DVD burner too) when you have the spare change. Put your new gear in the Antec 900 with the 760w PSU.

 

[tweakboy]

I currently have an E8400 running @ 4050mhz. Its 100% reliable and speedy, but I think its the current bottleneck on my system, so I am considering an upgrade to something newer that will be a better match for my 2 GTX 460's.

If I can go with a C2Q, that'd be fine, but I'm also open to moving to an I5 / I7. I'd consider an AMD, but I honestly haven't kept up to speed on them since I bought my FX-60 4-5 yrs ago.

Currently I have:
e8400 @ 4050
6 gigs OCZ DDR2 SLI-Ready ram
XFX 680i Tri-SLI motherboard
PC&P 760Watt PSU

I'd really like to keep an upgrade under $400. Would a q9650 be a better move than going to an I7 platform for now?

I'm thinking my CPU is what's holding me back, because I'm getting stuttering and voice lag in BF3 at 19x12 ultra settings.

That is a nice OC on your CPU. Unfortenlty for you, games like quads and will use about 70 CPU power,, about 3 cpu's if you look at taskman or speedfan while playing Crysis 2 or BF3 . On your CPU BF3 would take 50 percent power and want more, thus bottlenecking your 460 SLI.

Can you put quad core CPU on your motherboard ? If soo the cheapest way to go is buy a Core 2 Quad chip from ebay and OC it.

second option will cost you about 500 dollars. 300 dollars for Sandy 2600K CPU, fastest desktop CPU in the market. and a 200 dollars ASUS P867 motherboard and a nice OC to 4Ghz. Then your SLI setup will show all framerates possible and not be bottlenecked. thx gg and gl and always gb ():hmm:

 

[happy medium]

used q9550 on ebay/forums for 150$ and overclock it.

 

[Spurst]

used q9550 on ebay/forums for 150$ and overclock it.

my board will take a core 2 quad.

Lex, you indicate that i'm taking a huge loss buying a core 2 quad and upgrading my existing system, but you aren't considering that i can sell the e8400, too. It still sells for ~100. If the Core 2 Quad will get the job done so I can upgrade next gen and its only $100 to buy myself another year of life, its a worth cost in my mind. Heck, for many of my normal apps, my 4ghz e8400 outperforms many of the newer CPU's.


The raptors are loud - so I'm open to a 64gb-100gb SSD drive. They are still speedy and its a viable option, so im not sure where it ranks in priority. How much of a performance increase are some of you seeing out of some of the SSD's? How much real world performance increase? 10k raptors in a raid 0 config are pretty quick.

also
why would I want to use the Caviar blue as the program drive versus the Seagate 7200.12? The 7200.12 is closer to caviar black speeds, isnt it? plus, its 1tb versus 500gb.

 

[Termie]

my board will take a core 2 quad.

Lex, you indicate that i'm taking a huge loss buying a core 2 quad and upgrading my existing system, but you aren't considering that i can sell the e8400, too. It still sells for ~100. If the Core 2 Quad will get the job done so I can upgrade next gen and its only $100 to buy myself another year of life, its a worth cost in my mind. Heck, for many of my normal apps, my 4ghz e8400 outperforms many of the newer CPU's.


The raptors are loud - so I'm open to a 64gb-100gb SSD drive. They are still speedy and its a viable option, so im not sure where it ranks in priority. How much of a performance increase are some of you seeing out of some of the SSD's? How much real world performance increase? 10k raptors in a raid 0 config are pretty quick.

also
why would I want to use the Caviar blue as the program drive versus the Seagate 7200.12? The 7200.12 is closer to caviar black speeds, isnt it? plus, its 1tb versus 500gb.

The q9650 isn't a bad choice, if you can honestly get it for $150 or so. I haven't shopped them lately. A number of us are recommending the 2500k because it has greater performance clock-for-clock in most applications, and has much higher OC headroom. Plus you said you had $400 to work with, not $150.

Going with an SSD will make the system so much more responsive than the 36GB raid raptors it's not even funny. I had the 150GB raptor, and it was a clunker compared to my more modern 7200rpm drives. Those things just aren't that fast, but man, are they loud. Take the plunge - you will never go back.

As for the Caviar Blue versus the Seagate, I figured you'd want to keep your e8400 system intact, which means leaving the Seagate in there. I don't think those 7200.12 drives are as fast as a Caviar Black, but I could be wrong...eh, I wasn't far off: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19330/6 (and check out those old SSD numbers...just for kicks)

Anyway, the OS drive is what will matter the most here...I doubt you'd notice the difference in game loading between the Seagate and the Caviar Blue.

 

[Spurst]

The q9650 isn't a bad choice, if you can honestly get it for under $150 or so. I haven't shopped them lately. A number of us are recommending the 2500k because it has greater performance clock-for-clock in most applications, and has much higher OC headroom. Plus you said you had $400 to work with, not $150.

Going with an SSD will make the system so much more responsive than the 36GB raid raptors it's not even funny. I had the 150GB raptor, and it was a clunker compared to my more modern 7200rpm drives. Those things just aren't that fast, but man, are they loud. Take the plunge - you will never go back.

As for the Caviar Blue versus the Seagate, I figured you'd want to keep your e8400 system intact, which means leaving the Seagate in there. I don't think those 7200.12 drives are as fast as a Caviar Black, but I could be wrong...eh, I wasn't far off: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19330/6

Anyway, the OS drive is what will matter the most here...I doubt you'd notice the difference in game loading between the Seagate and the Caviar Blue.

how was your 150gb raptor slow? i ran hdtune on all my drives and the raptors smoked everything else. windows boots up really quickly, too. in some benchmarks, the old raptors outperform the newer velociraptors.

i also mispoke - i meant a q9550. 9650's are still pricey.

 

[Termie]

how was your 150gb raptor slow? i ran hdtune on all my drives and the raptors smoked everything else. windows boots up really quickly, too. in some benchmarks, the old raptors outperform the newer velociraptors.

i also mispoke - i meant a q9550. 9650's are still pricey.

Slow is all relative. My Raptor 150 was fast for its time, but it was no faster in benchmarks than my Samsung 500GB drive.

Look again at the benchmarks I linked to. It includes the VR 600GB. That drive barely beats a 1GB Caviar Black in most tests. Versus an SSD it's not even in the same ballpark.

The Raptors were good in their day, but their time has passed.

 

[Spurst]

if i can snag a q9550 for ~160-200 and add in a SSD drive, putting $200 away for future upgrade and waiting for the next round of CPU's from intel, would that be better than going over to MC tomorrow and getting a 2500k, 4gb ram, mobo, and using my old raptors? that's basically what i'm tossing around.

the move from a e8400 to q9550 is ~100.
I could probably move to SSD if i sold some old HD's for free, but I tend to just collect HD's...

 

[toyota]

if getting a new platform then get 8gb of ram for sure. and really the 2500k can be quite a bit faster in some games than any Core 2 duo/quad just because it has better ipc.

 

[Termie]

if i can snag a q9550 for ~160-200 and add in a SSD drive, putting $200 away for future upgrade and waiting for the next round of CPU's from intel, would that be better than going over to MC tomorrow and getting a 2500k, 4gb ram, mobo, and using my old raptors? that's basically what i'm tossing around.

the move from a e8400 to q9550 is ~100.
I could probably move to SSD if i sold some old HD's for free, but I tend to just collect HD's...

I'll let others weigh in (see Toyota above). I personally couldn't stomach paying ~$180 for a used q9550 when I could get a new 2500K for the same price. I guess I'd just save up for the MB/RAM if I didn't have the cash in hand. Remember, a MB and 8GB of ram is about $150, and a solid SSD boot drive is $100-110.

The other thing is that going the SSD route requires an OS install, and I prefer to only do that with new builds (although I did do it, with some headaches, on my own e8400 system when I ditched my Raptor, and it was so worth it!).

BTW, if you're willing to sell the e8400, then I assume you're also willing to sell the raptors, all your DDR2 ram, and the MB. You'll come in way under $400 for the upgrade if you go 2500k.

 

[Spurst]

but even with a 2500k, i'd still not be able to push ultra settings in BF3 due to the memory on the 460's? maybe i'll just live with high settings.

either way, i'm going o head over to micro center and see what kind of impulse buy i might make... lol

 

[Spurst]

where is the link to the sale with the i5 2600k for $80 off with that p67 motherboard?

 

[Termie]

but even with a 2500k, i'd still not be able to push ultra settings in BF3 due to the memory on the 460's? maybe i'll just live with high settings.

either way, i'm going o head over to micro center and see what kind of impulse buy i might make... lol

Have fun...maybe you'll come away with a GTX580...

...but oh, what a CPU-bottleneck that would be!

FYI, ultra without MSAA is using 950GB of VRAM on my 5850s. It's stable in game, but doesn't take well to task-switching, it seems. I'm getting an "out of VRAM" dialog box with a game crash pretty regularly when I try to switch back and forth to the desktop. Ultra/MSAA is pretty much an insta-crash. A number of GTX570 users are reporting that those settings max out their VRAM (1.25GB).

 

[Termie]

where is the link to the sale with the i5 2600k for $80 off with that p67 motherboard?

Link: http://www.microcenter.com/specials/catalogs/index.html

Click on November Specials catalog and flip to page 27.

And trust me, it took me a while to find this. MC makes it so hard to find this deal, it's almost like they don't want you to know about it. Best print it out and take it with you when you go there.

Oooh, check this out: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366193. It's has 2-way SLI, costs $139, and with a 2500k combo, it would come to $260 ($180+$140-$60). Really, can you pass that up? Toss in memory and an SSD and you just hit $400 before you sell off your current rig and make back $200.

Do it, you know you want to!

 

[tweakboy]

Also don't forget SLI means sandwich and things will get hotter. Be prepared,, first try stock make sure all is fine, then OC a bit. gl