Upgrade: If you had $600 what would you do

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Ok this is a interesting situation, i've got $600 to spend on a upgrade, current system specs in sig. I have already bought a GTX 460 1GB to replace my 4890(coil whine issue, will RMA).

Goal of upgrade: Want more 3D gaming performance, especially minimum FPS, I game at 1080P with 4 or 8 times AA and play with highest settings and feel my CPU and GPU are starting to hold me back with some newer titles(and even older titles, crysis is brutal, far cry 2 is bad as well). Being faster encoding would be a bonus too i do alot of ripping of DVD's and blue rays.


Options as i see them, feel free to suggest any i missed:

1. Stay AMD, My current board supports 1055's so buy a 1055T and top tier air cooler for $250 and hope for 4Ghz and then grab a Blazing fast and large SSD with the remaining cash. Only problem with this option is i will be screwed if i decide to go SLI later, i would be forced to sell the 460 and go with faster single card solution, or dual card crossfire solution. Also AMD single threaded performance is lacking compared to the i5/i7's so 6 cores might not mean crap in games over my current CPU, this will improve over time though as games get better coded for more cores.

2. Make the switch to the darkside, spend the $600 on a 1156 P55 mobo a i7 860 and 4GB DDR3 ram and again hope for 4Ghz, if i come in under 600 then put extra into savings for 2nd 460. This will then leave my GPU options open as i would get a board that supports both SLI and crossfire. I could then save up $200 grab another 460 and have a fast system for years to come with up to date features if i get USB3 and SATA3 on the new mobo.

3. Sell the 460 and buy a 1055 and a 480 or 5870

4. Sell the 460 and buy 2 5870's


And before anyone asks me why i didnt just buy a faster GPU to begin with i was not planning on spending 600 on a upgrade but recently came into some cash, after i bought the 460. Also didnt find out my current mobo supports new AM3 CPU's till yesterday so that opened up some options.

Thanks guys.
 

Sp12

Senior member
Jun 12, 2010
799
0
76
Actually, any system with enough PCIe slots can do SLI, a driver hack was recently developed for SLI on any dual-GPU system.

Nvidia GPU's typically have better minimums.

I honestly don't know if that mobo is worth hanging on to.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
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www.mfenn.com
A 940 @ 3.6 is not a slow CPU by any stretch of the imagination. Your board has 2 x16 slots, so I would say to send the 460 back and get 2 5870's if you really want to spend all of that money. If not, sending the GTX 460 back and getting a single GTX 470 wil probably be more than enough.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
A 940 @ 3.6 is not a slow CPU by any stretch of the imagination. Your board has 2 x16 slots, so I would say to send the 460 back and get 2 5870's if you really want to spend all of that money. If not, sending the GTX 460 back and getting a single GTX 470 wil probably be more than enough.


Getting 2 5870's is of course an option but very expensive at current prices for what you get performance wise. This is why im thinking platform swap is best option, i dont like paying twice as much just because AMD wont support SLI. OC'ed 460's in SLI is screaming fast, right up there in performance near 5870 CF for half the money. This would also leave my options open for future GPU upgrades. Because if i get a i7 close to 4Ghz i wont be CPU bottle necked for a while so the platform should last at lease one more GPU upgrade after the 460's.

And i know the CPU @3.6 is very fast but cant hold a candle to the i7 performance wise clock for clock, and suffers greatly in single threaded applications. Also it wouldnt go to waste if i swapped platforms as the CPU/mobo/ram from my current PC would filter downstream into the GF's comp, shes gaming more now and currently on a Phenom 1(worst CPU ever) X4 @2.3Ghz and 4830 so she sure could use a faster CPU and whatever card XFX sends me as replacement for my 4890. And her parts would go to the server as both are AM2+ platforms and leave me parts leftover to build a HTPC at the end of it all, which ive been planning for a while now as my PS3 is dieing, so another reason to swap platforms.

As for getting a 470 over a 460 i dont think it would yield much performance increase, would have to go 480. Ive been looking up 460 OC benchmarks like crazy lately and a good OC on a 460 will put you at stock 470 performance, and the 470's dont OC nearly as well as the 460 due to being a hotter more power hungry card to begin with, from what ive been reading at least. So at best a small OC on a 470 and a great OC on a 460 are going to perform very close to each other, and the 460 is cheaper/cooler/quieter.

Or i could just buy $600 worth of beer and call it a day :)
 

llee

Golden Member
Oct 27, 2009
1,152
0
76
$230 - Buy a second GTX 460 to run SLI on your rig.
$340 - Buy a pair of 60GB Sandforce SSDs and run them in RAID 0
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
I would buy a 2nd 460 but was under the impression AMD chipsets(like my 790GX) did not support SLI, and dont want to use hacked drivers to make it happen, would prefer a chipset with native SLI support.

3D is alright, i was looking at the demo NCIX had setup a few days ago but not worth the framerate hit. You would need to go at least triple GPU's to make it fast enough.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
SSD.

/Thread

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with that system. Based on all I've read, SLI/Crossfire aren't worth it. The SSD will give the biggest performance jump.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
I agree with the SSD is best for overall system performance/quickness but was under the impression it did nothing for gaming performance or am i wrong?
 

Sp12

Senior member
Jun 12, 2010
799
0
76
Typically not, that doesn't stop it from being the most awesome thing you can do with your computer.

Hacked drivers for free... or a platform change?
 

llee

Golden Member
Oct 27, 2009
1,152
0
76
GTX 400 series SLI has shown some impressive performance figures and performance scaling. The bloke has enough moolah to go SLI with another 460 as well as getting a pair of SSDs. The best of both options, really.
 

somethingsketchy

Golden Member
Nov 25, 2008
1,019
0
71
I agree with the SSD is best for overall system performance/quickness but was under the impression it did nothing for gaming performance or am i wrong?

Well, considering you are playing games that frequently have to read/write information to the hdd, it's nice to have something that offers a fast read/write speed. That being said, it'll help with loading levels and whatnot.

SSD, today, would probably be the biggest help to your current build.
 

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
2,428
0
71
By 3D you mean Nvidia's Glasses and stuff right? You don't mean surround gaming or a 3D monitor?

Geforce 460 (for SLI) $230

Phenom II X6 3.0Ghz $200

4GB Ram ~ $100

Buy some games that'll run that wouldn't have w/o the upgrades ~$80

Some good ones are:

Battlefield BC2 ($30: Steam)

Street Fighter IV ($30: Steam)

Alien Swarm (Free: Steam)

Metro 2033 ($50: Steam)

GTA IV ($20: Steam)

America's Army 3 is ok (Free: Steam)

If you want you can sell the 460 and instead of buying games you can them buy the 470. I normally don't recommend SLI/Crossfire but it just seems easier since you already have the 460.