Should I upgrade ?

[fschris]

Looking for some feed back here.

I like to game and have a nice rig. I think it may be time to upgrade? I currently am running:

EVGA Classified X58 SLI MICRO

Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield @3.07 GHZ

12 GB RAM

EVGA GeForce 560TI SSC Graphic card.

SSD Sata II

Antec 300 case ( I think it can fit a full MB but I have a m-ATX)

Should I get a new Core i5-2500K or Core i5-3570K with sata III ?? How much better gaming performace should I get? What if I do a SLI with my graphics card on my current system? What is my best bang for the buck here?

Thanks!

 

[lehtv]

What's your budget, gaming resolution and power supply model? What games do you play and are you experiencing framerate issues?

With an i7-950 you're GPU bottlenecked in the vast majority of games and situations. This even though you're running the i7 at stock clocks. If you upgrade your GPU, overclock the CPU. You'll need a good aftermarket cooler for that.

SATA III has nothing to do with gaming performance. It is only relevant to SSD's that are SATA III compatible, which yours isn't.

SLI is not a good idea in your case, for many reasons:
- with 560 Ti, you're still limited to 1GB VRAM. Even with the performance of a single 560 Ti, 1GB can get maxed on 1080p (personal experience).
- SLI also means considerably higher power consumption (and thus noise and heat). Antec 300 is also not a great SLI case, at least not without 2-3 additional fans.
- based on a quick google search, your motherboard only has one slot between the PCIe slots, so the upper card would not get good airflow

SLI scaling also isn't perfect, you only get about an 80% improvement in framerates, at best. You're better off upgrading to a faster single GPU.

 

[fschris]

Sorry, I have a corsair TX85OW, Agree on the SSD, I should also add I put my games on my Raptor. I just use SSD for Boot drive. Yes I agree my case is small. I have a huge tower Thermaltake Armor that I converted to Un-Raid server.

Budget. I dont want to spend stupid money but I could afford to do something decent.

 

[lehtv]

OK. If image quality settings that you're aiming for are out of reach at playable framerates, upgrade to a GTX 670 ($420). Unless you already have an aftermarket cooler, get one and OC your CPU as far as it goes without going crazy on the voltages (I'd say <1.35V vcore, <80C load temps desirably). I'd recommend Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo $34, Scythe Mugen 3 $45 or Thermalright HR-02 Macho $53. If you don't know how to OC, the internet is full of guides for the first gen i7's

You can of course recover some of the cost by selling your 560 Ti.

560 Ti vs 670 (stock clocks): http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/547?vs=598

If you don't want to spend this much, wait until hardware becomes cheaper or the wallet fatter.

 

[Blain]

You didn't mention what resolution you're gaming at.
If you're gaming at 1080 or less... upgrade your monitor.

 

[fschris]

You didn't mention what resolution you're gaming at.
If you're gaming at 1080 or less... upgrade your monitor.

I am gaming at 1920x1080. I can play battlefield 3 and get about 35-38 fps in the Medium settings for the most part. I can turn settings up but I have to tweak them and turn down some in order to keep fram rates in a acceptable area.

lets say I have 750 to upgrade... what would you suggest.

New Mobo / CPU then get a new video card after that?

 

[mfenn]

I am gaming at 1920x1080. I can play battlefield 3 and get about 35-38 fps in the Medium settings for the most part. I can turn settings up but I have to tweak them and turn down some in order to keep fram rates in a acceptable area.

lets say I have 750 to upgrade... what would you suggest.

New Mobo / CPU then get a new video card after that?

When talking about a gaming upgrade, the video card is always the first part to consider. I'd highly recommend getting a GTX 670 like lehtv recommended.

That will leave you about $350 to spend on other parts. A 3750K ($230) and a Z77 Extreme4 ($122 AP) will cost about that much, so the real question is whether or not you can reuse your current RAM. What configuration is your 12GB and what voltage does it run at?

 

[lehtv]

It doesn't make sense to upgrade from i7 950 to 3570K. The difference in single threaded performance is pretty marginal, and the i7 950 is hyperthreaded so it beats the 3570K easily in BF3 multiplayer.

@ OP

As I said, the best upgrade you can do is $420 on a GTX 670 and $30-50 on a CPU cooler for overclocking. You don't need to spend $750. Upgrade the CPU to Intel Haswell in about a year if needed.

 

[fschris]

Thanks for the guidance everyone.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Yep, upgrade GFX to a GTX 670. Then next year look at Haswell CPUs.

And even with SSDs. SATA spec doesnt matter unless you benchmark synthetics or sequal.

 

[mfenn]

It doesn't make sense to upgrade from i7 950 to 3570K. The difference in single threaded performance is pretty marginal, and the i7 950 is hyperthreaded so it beats the 3570K easily in BF3 multiplayer.

Huh? Have you checked out the bench? The 3770K is roughly 50% faster in single-threaded performance, and of course the 3570K is right with the 3770K on a single thread. Not saying that the OP should necessarily spend $750, but if he does, the Ivy Bridge processor would net him a significant CPU performance boost.

 

[lehtv]

Yeah I've checked the bench... <50% boost is pretty marginal, I'd say. i7 950 is already very fast, most of the time the difference in performance won't be felt with a GTX 670, especially if the i7 950 is overclocked near 4GHz. But the difference can also be pretty significant if you're interested in Virtualdub encoding performance, for instance.

 

[fschris]

Wow... Bought a GTX670.... Running around 80 FPS I think on BF3 in high settings. What a difference. I am also running Win 8 now as well.

Was thinking about going for a Ivy bridge set up as well. I could wait for haswell but would rather save a couple bucks with a Z77 MB and an IVY bridge i5.

Thanks for the suggestion on the 670. I am blown away so far.

 

[mfenn]

:thumbsup: Glad you're liking it!