What should I upgrade?

womenbeshoppin

Junior Member
Nov 24, 2010
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Right now i have a AMD phenom X4 9850 with a ATI 4850 512MB. I was wondering would it be more beneficial to upgrade my processor to a AMD phenom II x4 940 (100$), or to upgrade my video card to a ATI 5850 1G (220$). Maybe even my slow ass ram? I'm looking for biggest improvement in gaming.

Biostar 790GX AM2+
400mhz 4GB ram (duel channel) <
ATI 4850
AMD 9850 phenom x4
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
3,268
11
81
You would see an increase in performance with either upgrade. Most games, depending on what you're playing at what resolution, would see a bigger jump in performance with the 5850 upgrade. It has extra power and extra VRAM, so you would at the very least be able to increase IQ and have the same or better performance.

With a CPU upgrade you are looking at about a potential 20-25% increase in gaming performance, so if you are hitting a CPU wall now then you could see up to 20-25% increase. If you're not hitting a CPU wall now then you will see a smaller or no gain. Meanwhile the 5850 approaches being twice as fast as the 4850 - think of it as having two 4850s in crossfire - and it is more faster at higher resolutions than lower resolutions. So as you can see there is a greater potential for the video card to give you a bigger performance gain than the processor.

It's hard to give you a clear cut answer. It really depends on what games you're playing.

Perhaps you should be planning on when to upgrade everything. Set out a timetable, because Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer will be arriving next year and they will be excellent upgrade paths for you - providing a substantial boost in performance much more than a Phenom 940 would.

Or if you're willing to spend up to $220 right now you could get the Phenom 940, or perhaps the X3 705, 710, 720, or 740, along with a video card upgrade like the GTS 450, HD 5770, GTX 460, or HD 6850.
 
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womenbeshoppin

Junior Member
Nov 24, 2010
6
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wow thanks for the info. I think I might just go for the 5850. For what its worth my main game is world of warcraft and only at a resolution of 1600x900. Even though wow isn't really "cutting edge" with the graphics, I think the card would do me best because the 512mb on the card is probably holding me back alot I would think?
 

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
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you will get the most benefit in most games by getting a faster gpu. but once you get that faster gpu, that cpu of yours will be a very noticeable limitation in more cpu intensive games especially at just 1600x900. you really need to upgrade both.
 

tysjiang

Member
Apr 2, 2007
34
0
0
GPU first, then CPU if you got money left over. Don't bother with the ram, 4 gigs is plenty and you won't notice the difference if you get faster ones.
 

crisium

Platinum Member
Aug 19, 2001
2,643
615
136
My system is nearly identical to yours. I experience limitations from both, depending on the game. StarCraft 2 hates the AMD 4000 series, and I'm hurt there. Other times the 512MB of VRAM makes me lower the resolution. But on the other hand, when I look at 4850 benchmarks I always get lower framerates than the websites out there. Why? Because a Phenom I at 2.4 or 2.5GHz is usually slightly slower than a stock Q6600. Even older benchmarks were of C2D or C2Q at above 3GHz.

I look at it this way: either upgrade will benefit you. But the Phenom II 940 is only $96. You know the best video card you can get for that price? A Radeon 4850. Oh wait, that's what you have. I'm not saying that a 5850 and a PhII 940 will each give you the same performance increase, but the 5850 is more than twice as much in price. I think the 5850 will give you a larger performance boost, but it may not be worth it - yet.

I'd get the Phenom II X4 940, and OC it to a healthy 3.3 or 3.4GHz. With a solid CPU backbone, your 4850 will be given new life. 512MB of memory should be alright at 1600x900, but ask a WoW junkie just in case. I have heard that MMOs love to eat up VRAM. Then I would upgrade to a 5850 or 6850/6870 at a later date when they are even cheaper. But again make sure 512MB is fine for 1600x900 WoW.
 

steve wilson

Senior member
Sep 18, 2004
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WOW is very CPU intensive and is going to benefit from the CPU upgrade a lot more. Having said that most other games will benefit from the graphics upgrade... tough decision. I guess it comes down to how much you are going to play other games. With Cata coming out soon I'm guessing you going to be playing wow for the short term... so I'd go with the CPU for now and get the graphics update later down the line.