Upgrading my Gaming PC ( Fixed Thread)

Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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Hello everyone!!

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Gaming.
2. What YOUR budget is. Not sure i would say 2k
3. What country Slovakia...
4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from. N/A
5. IF YOU have a brand preference. N/A
6. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Maybe

-My Current build is: i5-2500k (OC 4.2GHz) , 2x Sapphire 6950 (2GB) - Crossfire... I dont think that crossfire is big improvement.. it just improves a few things , Win 7 (64 bit) , ASUS VG236HE 1920x1080 , Corsair TX850 V2 , CASE = CORSAIR 400R , MOB = Asus P8Z68-V , 8GB Ram and its CORSAIR 8GB KIT DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance XMP Low Profile.
- I want to upgrade mostly because of upcoming Watch Dogs , Witcher 3 , The Division , Dragon Age... And I want to run them on high / maxed out graphics on very good FPS (60+).. So its pretty clear that my current build is just not strong enough

And now I realised its not only because of upcoming games. Currently i have problem in planetside 2 / Dayz Standalone.
Made sure that CrossFireX is enabled in AMD Catalyst Control Center (Performance- AMD CrossFireX - Enable AMD CrossFireX). Even right clicked on Catalyst Control Center hovered over the first entry for the cards ("1. Radeon etc...") > navigated to "crossfirex settings" > clicked on "show crosssfirex status icon (where applicable)" to enable it.
Thus I have CrossFire icon in top right corner ( was in Planetside2 and Crysis 3 but not in Dayz Standalone )

Planetside2 - Supports CrossFireX
Low (no battle) = 110-140 fps
Low (battle) = 70-100
Very High (battle) ( and if possible Ultra) = 45-60 fps
Very High (no battle) ( and if possible Ultra) = 55-65 fps

DayZ Standalone - Doesnt Support CrossFireX
Low = 50-75 FPS
High (FXAA HIgh, AntiAliasing Very High , Texture Filtering Very High) = 25-50 FPS

Crysis 3 - Supports CrossFireX
Very High ( Antisotropic Filtering 8x , FXAA ) = 40-50 FPS
Low ( If possible all off ) = 120 - 140 FPS

- Btw I have 1 TB HDD.. But its Not enough need to upgrade. Thus I will add another HDD.. I would go for 2TB ( 1TB mby wont be enought later) Currently I have http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
You know my MOBO its in the post. I think it has 6 SATA but not sure... I need to open Case and check (will do that later) but someone told me that it depends what all things I have plugged into it (power consumption).. You know my PSU.

- Several ppl told me that my CPU is fine thus i dont need to upgrade it but only GPU. I think Im going to go GTX 780 Ti


Someone said on forums:
"i dont think the 880 is going to be a huge performance increase over the Ti, but it will hopefully be $200 dollars less. so depending on what you have now, spending something like $300 for now-performance, & then plan on $500 in a year or less for the 880, wouln't be a bad idea imo.
Considering that Nvidia just announced/launched a bunch of cards fairly recently so I don't see them undercutting themselves by releasing something a lot better so soon.
So yea I pretty much dont see any reason waiting for next cards


- 8 GB isnt enough for me.. Im running mostly on 70-80% usage of RAM :D ... ( browser with many pages + playing game :D ..)
- Im going to go with GtX 780 Ti. But which manufacturer?? Heard that EVGA is best = Ti Classified ACX / Ti ACX Superclocked / Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition ( This one.. sadly I think isnt availiable in my country right now... = im from Slovakia :D ) Is the 3 Gb memory enough?? I think so.. Im only on 1080p.
- What about mine CPU ?? I guess its strong enough
MOBO = Asus P8Z68-V can someone check if this mobo is enough for this GPU ?? If it will use full potential etc..
- Im using CORSAIR 8GB KIT DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance XMP Low Profile ( 4x2 GB ) If I want upgrade should i get the same kit (4x2) ??? To have 16 GB ?? I think this one is rly good RAM right? Is the speed ok and so on?
- Confused about the GTX 790 or next cards...I dont want to wait that long... but im scared that I will regret it LOL.

-Thank you! And im Sorry about any missunderstanding and confusion
 
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Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
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I would agree. Wait for the game to come out and see how your system plays it.

The cpu requirements are insane, actually, while the gpu requirements are a lot more reasonable. Doesnt make sense either that a 3770K is for recommended and 4770k is for ultra, but there is not really that much difference between the two. Will be interesting to see how an i5 performs in this game, since both recommended and ultra specs call for hyperthreading. I have a feeing your 2500k will be fine, especially if you have it overclocked.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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I agree with Ken and Frozentundra. As a Corollary to Ken's First Law of buying computer parts, I propose:

"If you're upgrading for X, where X is an unreleased game, Don't."
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Overclock your 2500K, if it isn't already. With a decent cooler, mobo, and some luck, you may get 4.5Ghz or more out of it. Don't forget, yours has the soldered IHS.
 

Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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- Yes I use Crossfire. But I dont think that crossfire is big improvement.. I dont think its like 2 cards in full power. I think or heard that its just some improvement in some things so its not really 2 cards but just 1 with some better performance.
- To my surprise im overclocking to 4.2Ghz. Didnt even know about that ( so it must be alrdy over 1year lol..) downloaded RealTemp and CPU-Z where both shows that im running at 4.2 GHZ but the weird thing is that it shows this number in iddle ( not even running stress test ) but at startup its normal 1,6 ghz but after I start to do something then it stays 4,2 ghz even if i go iddle.. When I go into AI Suite II it shows 4.2 Ghz also... I guess it auto overclock OR the guys who made this PC for me overclocked it. ( Any idea how to check if its overclocked via AI suite / auto overclock??)
My cooler for CPU Is Cooler Master Hyper 212+ . Cpu Z shows that im using around 1,272+-V and Temp is 38-72C min / max during high stress test - used Intel Burn Test

- RIght now I Tried running Crysis 3 with these settings and the results: ( With the 4,2 Ghz cpu)
Without V SYNC , Advanced Graphics all on HIGH ( object, Post processing , particles , game effects , shading...) - maximum is VERY HIGH , ANISOTROPIC filtering 16x, Texture Resolution Very High (max)
MSAA HIGH (8x) 30-35 fps / Medium (4x) 35-45 fps
SMAA / FXAA 30-45 fps
I assume that Watch Dogs will have higher requirements and better graphics since its "next gen". So im not sure how I will run it probably not on high :(
Thus i can alrdy know how it will most likely perform
 
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monkeydelmagico

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2011
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If an OC'd 2500k with 6950 crossfire can't run Watchdogs at medium settings or higher on 1080 resolution then the developers need to be taken out back and beaten.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
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Watchdogs cpu requirements are a little out there. It may be the game to use hyper threading. My cpu only overclocks to 4.2 as well. I don't want to risk buying it for pc if I won't be able to run it on pretty high settings. I think I'll just get it for ps4 since most of my friends will too.
 

DSF

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Oct 6, 2007
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People fret and worry about upcoming game requirements, but software companies aren't going to release a game that no one can play. Even Crysis, which was the system killer of its day, would run on my P4/Radeon 9800 Pro if I turned the settings all the way down.

If you have to have "ultra" on everything it may be a different story, but that's vastly overrated in my opinion. I highly doubt you notice the difference between 16x Aniso and 4x Aniso when you're busy shooting bad guys.
 

hhhd1

Senior member
Apr 8, 2012
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it would be interesting if they used some of the new instructions introduced to haswell, like AVX2/FMA3
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
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People fret and worry about upcoming game requirements, but software companies aren't going to release a game that no one can play. Even Crysis, which was the system killer of its day, would run on my P4/Radeon 9800 Pro if I turned the settings all the way down.

If you have to have "ultra" on everything it may be a different story, but that's vastly overrated in my opinion. I highly doubt you notice the difference between 16x Aniso and 4x Aniso when you're busy shooting bad guys.

It depends for certain people. I've been used to cranking up everything and if it plays smoothly it is fine by me. If it doesn't then I'm picky and don't like messing around with all the settings. I used to have a crappy gpu so my current card spoiled me.

I guess what people can do is use the recommended settings the game gives you when you load it up and just change to native resolution then see if you are happy with the way it looks and plays. If it looks bad and you turn up settings but doesn't play as smooth well that's when I get bothered.

I'm curious to see how optimized this game will be for pc, since it looks like it was primarily focused on pc then consoles. But open world type of games I've always preferred to play on a console.
 

mfenn

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Jan 17, 2010
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it would be interesting if they used some of the new instructions introduced to haswell, like AVX2/FMA3

It's possible that they'll have an optimized code path that uses those instructions, but they'll also have to provide a standard SSE code path as well because Haswell only represents a tiny sliver of the total market.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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So im not sure if I should upgrade... I would like to run WatchDogs on ultra/high.. But with this current setup i dont think its even possible to run it on medium with 60+fps


That i7 4770 is totally bogus. Remember, this is a game they've got to hammer onto running on a netbook CPU and Radeon 7790, with DDR3. Your current i5 2500K and 2x 6950s already exceeds this, by a large amount.

Hold off spending any money on new parts until after the game ships.
 

Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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Thinking about upgrading. Replacing the AMDs with GTX 780 Ti or GTX 770... Some ppl on steam forums told me that Gtx 780 Ti is a bit overkill which is most likely true since im using a single 1080p. And I will keep my CPU i hope its strong enough right?.. And will upgrade RAM To 16 GB (8 gb is not enough for me )
( or wait for Gtx 800 series , but these will be high in price I guess )
What u think?
 

krnmastersgt

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Jan 10, 2008
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The GTX 800 family is going to potentially bring some very interesting results along with it, but their higher mid/high end isn't slated for quite a few months from now so I wouldn't be super hung up on waiting for that.

As others have said your rig is more than adequate for the majority of current gen gaming, also not sure why you were thinking of going to a 770 or a 780 Ti, the 780 exists between those 2 and is strong enough to pretty much max everything on the market for 1080p, higher resolutions call for more elaborate configurations sometimes but as it stands a 780 and often even a 770 or 760 is enough to max most games at 1080p.

Your CPU, while 2 generations old in Intel's product life cycle is still within a good margin of the 4770K for gaming for a few reasons. First is that most games don't scale much beyond 4 threads for their workload, the reason is that the majority of the gaming market is still running on duals or low end quads and when you develop and sell a game you have to aim to appease most people out there from a business standpoint. Secondly is that in situations where the hyper threading of an i7 doesn't matter (most of the time to be honest) from generation to generation usually you only see a 5-15% performance increase depending on the type of workload, so not a huge amount faster.

As others have said, wait and see but I doubt you'll need to upgrade at all unless you want to run the game maxed out in which case likely will only need a change-up in GPU set-ups to something a bit more modern and certainly more power efficient than 2 6950s.
 

Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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-Well ye I would like to run it maxed out.. I guess or atleast at very high graphics with really good fps...

-I was thinking about going for 780 Ti so it can last longer... because near the end of 2014 there is going to be released The Division which will have high demands also for sure.. and Witcher 3

-Thanks for the explanations about CPU. Even tho I might need to upgrade it in like 1year I guess...

-The source of information about 780 Ti vs 770 is from http://steamcommunity.com/app/243470/discussions/0/558752450103936860/?tscn=1398294900#p8
And starts from page 7 ( in middle ) from my post, same name...

-The price is most likely the biggest problem... The difference beetwen 780 Ti and 770 is like 300e ( half price ) since 770 cost 300e (there).. I can afford that but not sure if I want to throw in that much into it...So if I would go for 780 Ti it would need to last +2years... Mby I can get 770 save some money and wait for Gtx 800 ( + a bit longer wait after release) and i can get gtx 800
 
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sze5003

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I would not upgrade right now since the newer cards will be out. You may want to do that when they release by that time. I would wait and see if you like how the game runs when it's out.
 

Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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Ok I think im going to upgrade to GTX 780 Ti ( not sure yet..) and which manufacturer? And if for example EVGA there are more types so tell also which type... I hope the CPU i5-2500k is enough...
MOBO = Asus P8Z68-V can someone check if this mobo is enough for this GPU ??
I have 8 (2x4) GB ram would like to upgrade this also to 16 GB I guess.. My mobo supports 4 slots... Currently i have CORSAIR 8GB KIT DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance XMP Low Profile. So I should get the same kit ? Btw is it good RAM ?
 

mfenn

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We have no idea what the performance will look like, beyond a set of system requirements that were posted some time ago. We don't know what the context those requirements were generated in (min FPS, resolution, details, AA levels, etc) and we have no idea what the scaling looks like. Buying any card until we get more information is completely foolish.
 

Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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We have no idea what the performance will look like, beyond a set of system requirements that were posted some time ago. We don't know what the context those requirements were generated in (min FPS, resolution, details, AA levels, etc) and we have no idea what the scaling looks like. Buying any card until we get more information is completely foolish.
I know that... But Gtx 780 Ti will run it with maxed out graphics for sure... There is no doubt in that.
And im asking about overall quality / performance ( in the post above)... Not compared to Watch Dogs right now..
CHANGED THREAD TOPIC
 
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Lumicko

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Oct 7, 2011
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- I most likely decided to go with GtX 780 Ti. But which manufacturer?? Heard that EVGA is best = Ti Classified ACX / Ti ACX Superclocked / Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition ( This one.. sadly I think isnt availiable in my country right now... = im from Slovakia :D ) Is the 3 Gb memory enough??
- What about mine CPU ?? I guess its strong enough
- Im using CORSAIR 8GB KIT DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance XMP Low Profile ( 4x2 GB ) If I want upgrade should i get the same kit (4x2) ??? To have 16 GB ?? I think this one is rly good RAM
- Confused about the GTX 790... I dont think i want to wait that long.. but im scared that I will regret it LOL
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
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I know that... But Gtx 780 Ti will run it with maxed out graphics for sure... There is no doubt in that.
And im asking about overall quality / performance ( in the post above)... Not compared to Watch Dogs right now..
CHANGED THREAD TOPIC

I would go with evga or msi. But then again I would still wait because buying a new card right now doesn't make sense. The 20nm cards will be out in some time.
 
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