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Forums - PC Discussion - Help Me Upgrade My PC

Squilliam said:
Mazty said:
Squilliam said:
I would say just upgrade the graphics chip and wait until you have enough money and do the whole rest of the system next year.


No point. A better GPU would be throttled by that CPU. 2.6Ghz?? As a lot of RTS' are dependant on a good CPU, he should look into getting a whole new mobo setup. IMO save up for a good i5 as that'll last you for a long time. 

This is what I said.

No it's not. You said:
" upgrade the graphics chip "

That would be a waste of time as anything he upgrades to would either be useless or be throttled so badly that he wouldn't see an increase in performance. He shouldn't upgrade the GPU UNTIL he's upgraded his CPU. 



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What motherboard are you using and what socket does it use? That should let us know if it's worth investing in a whole new motherboard or if you can keep the current board.

Otherwise, do you know how well your current CPU scales when overclocked?

As others have said, it's probably not worth investing too much on a GPU unless you can change your CPU (or you get a decent performance boost when your current CPU is overclocked). Otherwise, you'll just be CPU limited. Doubling the RAM would probably be a fairly quick and easy upgrade although I don't think you'll see too much benefit in gaming (unless you choose faster RAM).

Another option to consider is getting an overclocked bundle; motherboard, CPU (overclocked) and RAM. You can then invest a a decent GPU like an AMD HD7870 or above.



Mazty said:
Squilliam said:
Mazty said:
Squilliam said:
I would say just upgrade the graphics chip and wait until you have enough money and do the whole rest of the system next year.


No point. A better GPU would be throttled by that CPU. 2.6Ghz?? As a lot of RTS' are dependant on a good CPU, he should look into getting a whole new mobo setup. IMO save up for a good i5 as that'll last you for a long time. 

This is what I said.

No it's not. You said:
" upgrade the graphics chip "

That would be a waste of time as anything he upgrades to would either be useless or be throttled so badly that he wouldn't see an increase in performance. He shouldn't upgrade the GPU UNTIL he's upgraded his CPU. 

Why would it be a waste of time? I run a similar system with the only difference being 200Mhz and Phenom II vs Athlon X4. You're GPU/CPU limited in different parts of a scene so unless your CPU is hopelessly outdated you can still improve things with a stronger CPU and an Athlon II X4 is pretty decent still.



Tease.

You can overclock that cpu to 3.2 ghz with a fairly cheap cooler. Higher if you work at it. That's what I'd do.



I'd wait for the new intel chips to upgrade CPU/Motherboard. 



Squilliam said:
...

Why would it be a waste of time? I run a similar system with the only difference being 200Mhz and Phenom II vs Athlon X4. You're GPU/CPU limited in different parts of a scene so unless your CPU is hopelessly outdated you can still improve things with a stronger CPU and an Athlon II X4 is pretty decent still.

Starcraft II specifically is very CPU-bound and he's probably right.



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Soleron said:
Squilliam said:
...

Why would it be a waste of time? I run a similar system with the only difference being 200Mhz and Phenom II vs Athlon X4. You're GPU/CPU limited in different parts of a scene so unless your CPU is hopelessly outdated you can still improve things with a stronger CPU and an Athlon II X4 is pretty decent still.

Starcraft II specifically is very CPU-bound and he's probably right.

It may be CPU bound but that doesn't mean that a more modern GPU won't help things a lot. If you're CPU limited 50% of the time and GPU limited 50% of the time then upgrading the GPU to being 3 times faster means you can render each frame in 66% of the time or 1/3rd faster. That 1/3rd could be the difference between running something smoothly and running a juddering mess and this example is quite extreme as it is.



Tease.

Squilliam said:

...

It may be CPU bound but that doesn't mean that a more modern GPU won't help things a lot. If you're CPU limited 50% of the time and GPU limited 50% of the time then upgrading the GPU to being 3 times faster means you can render each frame in 66% of the time or 1/3rd faster. That 1/3rd could be the difference between running something smoothly and running a juddering mess and this example is quite extreme as it is.

I run SC2 on a similar setup (4850/E8400 [2x3GHz]) and don't experience slowdown in 4v4. SC2 only uses 2 cores afaik.

I do think SC2 is CPU-bound essentially all of the time.



Soleron said:
Squilliam said:

...

It may be CPU bound but that doesn't mean that a more modern GPU won't help things a lot. If you're CPU limited 50% of the time and GPU limited 50% of the time then upgrading the GPU to being 3 times faster means you can render each frame in 66% of the time or 1/3rd faster. That 1/3rd could be the difference between running something smoothly and running a juddering mess and this example is quite extreme as it is.

I run SC2 on a similar setup (4850/E8400 [2x3GHz]) and don't experience slowdown in 4v4. SC2 only uses 2 cores afaik.

I do think SC2 is CPU-bound essentially all of the time.


A Core 2 Duo has better single threaded performance than an Athlon 2 or Phenom 2, untill you overclock the North Bridge that is.
But you are correct StarCraft 2 is very processor demanding on only 2 threads.

However with that said, I have an Athlon 2 x4 620 in my brothers gaming machine that I built him and if you go into the BIOS and turn on "Advance Clock Calibration" - You may win the lottery like I did and unlock the L3 cache on that processor and turn it into a Phenom 2 x4.

Now he already has a Socket AM3 compatible motherboard so if we can find the model of his motherboard *hint hint* he may just be able to buy something like a Phenom 2 x6 or Phenom 2 x4 for cheap.
Something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

Then drop in a Radeon 7850 (Or better) and overclock the processor and maybe upgrade the Ram to 8gb and it should be more than enough for StarCraft 2 without breaking the bank to much.
Should run pretty much any game fine really.

Regardless of what you do though, I would advise getting a decent Power Supply (You sure it's an Anandtech brand? It's a popular tech website, never knew there was an Anandtech branded PSU!), Something like Corsair, Enermax, Seasonic, Antec Neo Eco etc' too.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

ok here are some more detailed specs. Looked up my order history from newegg.com for the exact parts.

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

HIS H487Q1GH Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161292

AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor ADX620WFGIBOX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231189

Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Hope that helps. thanks so far for all the info you guys have provided



I've been wanting to get a new graphics card in the 120-180 price range. What are some of the top selections for that price range?