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Upgrade advice requested from: E8400 CPU (3 Ghz), 9600GT

S

simas

Senior member
My current system served me well since April of 2008 ,now I am looking at upgrade options

System is based on E8400 CPU (no OC), 9600 GT 512 MB GPU, 8 GB RAM, SSD HDD ,GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L MB, Win 7 x64 as OS . Gaming on 25.5 inch monitor at 1920:1200. Not sure about PSU, I think something in the 600-650W range from MicroCenter which I leave close to.

Gaming interests : Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins, Total War (Empire/Napoleon)
Gaming interests 2011: Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2 Total War, Mass Effect 3.

based on reading these forums, my next upgrade is likely to be GPU as I have some overclocking room in E8400 and already have 8 GB of RAM + SSD (both of which I love)

Budget for GPU $150-200, consider low noise to be advantage with performance being near equal.
No interest in either Nvidia 3D or AMD Eyefinity technology
If doing new build altogether, no attachment to either Intel or AMD for CPU

Questions:
1) and what point would GPU from the price range above will start to get constrained by CPU? with/without OC if I bump it up to 3.6 Ghz.
2) any GPU recommendations for the prince range above?
3) any real advantages to doing a new build (given that I have SSD and enough RAM already)?
4) Microcenter sells Q9300 (2.5 Ghz quad with 6 GB RAM) for $99. Any point to consider that an 'upgrade' over E8400?


Thank you for any comments
 
just oc your E8400 to 3.6 and get a gtx460. if you get a Q9300 you are going to need to oc it too because it will be slower than your E8400 in games that dont really take advantage of more than 2 cores.
 
You definitely need a new GPU and the 3 cards that will really push Full HD 1080P at your budget on your monitor are the

ATI Radeon HD 5850 (like above)

or

Geforce GTX 460 1GB

or

AMD Radeon HD 6850

All of which are at $199 or slightly lower due to refunds or just price.

The ATI Radeon HD 5850 Slacker posted above is faster than the HD 6850.
 
I have an E8400 at stock and am using a Radeon 6850 to play Fallout New Vegas now. It replaced a 4870 which was fine for Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age.

I'd say get either a GTX 460 1GB (but not the crippled "SE" version) or Radeon 6850 depending on nvidia / AMD preference and what Hot Deals you can find. Both will let you play 2011 games at a good resolution.

Your E8400 should be fine even at stock speed for a little while longer. After that either try overclocking (increasing the clock from 533 to 800 is supposed to almost always work) or get a Sandy Bridge setup once they've been out awhile.
 
DaveSimmons said:
I have an E8400 at stock and am using a Radeon 6850 to play Fallout New Vegas now. It replaced a 4870 which was fine for Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age.

I'd say get either a GTX 460 1GB (but not the crippled "SE" version) or Radeon 6850 depending on nvidia / AMD preference and what Hot Deals you can find. Both will let you play 2011 games at a good resolution.

Your E8400 should be fine even at stock speed for a little while longer. After that either try overclocking (increasing the clock from 533 to 800 is supposed to almost always work) or get a Sandy Bridge setup once they've been out awhile.
Click to expand...
an E8400 is 333x9.
 
I would say gtx460 and hd6850 both good, and both can OC quite a bit. With 6850 been slightly less power hungry when overclocked. just pick the one fits your need, if you need to play some multimonitor games then 6850, if more phsx games get 460/1gb not the SE version.
 
Both HD6850 and GTX460 1G are nice for the price you are willing to spend.

If you could wait a month for the GTX560 and see then what’s the best choice.
 
Thanks for comments so far.
Intrigued by recommendation of 5850 , how does it compare with GTX460 1 GB and 6850 ?
 
simas said:
Thanks for comments so far.
Intrigued by recommendation of 5850 , how does it compare with GTX460 1 GB and 6850 ?
Click to expand...

The 5850 @ stock speeds, is faster than both the 460 and the 6850. Unless you overclock, in which case, the 5850 will still be faster.
 
simas said:
Thanks for comments so far.
Intrigued by recommendation of 5850 , how does it compare with GTX460 1 GB and 6850 ?
Click to expand...
dont be lazy because a few seconds on google will give you plenty of reviews. anyway, a 5850 is just a little bit faster than a 6850 which is just a little bit faster than a gtx460. those are at stock speeds of course and the 460 probably has the most headroom for overclocking.
 
toyota said:
an E8400 is 333x9.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I think that DaveSimmons meant increase the FSB of the e8400 from 333 to 400, not 533 to 800.

simas said:
Thanks for comments so far.
Intrigued by recommendation of 5850 , how does it compare with GTX460 1 GB and 6850 ?
Click to expand...

It's better, by about 10%.

toyota said:
dont be lazy because a few seconds on google will give you plenty of reviews. anyway, a 5850 is just a little bit faster than a 6850 which is just a little bit faster than a gtx460. those are at stock speeds of course and the 460 probably has the most headroom for overclocking.
Click to expand...

Ouch...he's new here, you know.
 
i found that ME2 and DAO required HEAVY amounts of SSAA to look decent, and if that's the case for you, you'll want the video cards with more vram even at 19x12. if you intend on prolonging the life of your gpu (perhaps into your next build), then i'd recommend that you consider upping your gpu budget to the 300$ range. if you don't intend on keeping it long, then grab a gtx460 1GB and oc the heck out of it (and sli if necessary).

oc your cpu to 3.6-4.0 GHz and you're set there. no need for the cheap quad.
 
If I were to up the budget to $300 with intent to carry the card over to the next build (middle/end of 2011 after Sandby Bridge / Buldozer are out and known) what would recommendation be ? I read Tomshardware and their 'best card for the money' regularly and find it useful, anything to add to those articles. I also read detailed reviews (specifically looking at noise/temperature more than overall performance) for any product considered

Thank you
 
simas said:
If I were to up the budget to $300 with intent to carry the card over to the next build (middle/end of 2011 after Sandby Bridge / Buldozer are out and known) what would recommendation be ? I read Tomshardware and their 'best card for the money' regularly and find it useful, anything to add to those articles. I also read detailed reviews (specifically looking at noise/temperature more than overall performance) for any product considered

Thank you
Click to expand...

Honestly, save your ~$130 now and just get one of the cards listed above. If you really need more performance when you build a whole new system later in 2011, you can get another card to SLI/crossfire, or you can sell the card you buy now and buy an HD7000. You'll see almost no advantage in your current system going to something like an HD6950 over an HD5850/GTX460. Your CPU will limit you in any new game.
 
Last edited:
simas said:
If I were to up the budget to $300 with intent to carry the card over to the next build (middle/end of 2011 after Sandby Bridge / Buldozer are out and known) what would recommendation be ? I read Tomshardware and their 'best card for the money' regularly and find it useful, anything to add to those articles. I also read detailed reviews (specifically looking at noise/temperature more than overall performance) for any product considered

Thank you
Click to expand...
6-9 months from now we could have completely prices for video cards. a $150 gtx460 is much more appropriate for your system and will be a massive upgrade over your 9600gt. anything above a gtx460 will be of diminishing returns in some games especially for the extra 150 bucks.
 
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