• Considering buying a new GPU this year. Will the rest of my rig hold up?
    14 replies, posted
Alright, So I am considering upgrading my graphics card this year, but I was wondering if simply upgrading my GPU will suffice. In other words do you guys reckon there will be a bottleneck if I only upgrade the GPU. My current specs are - GTX 670 8 GB DDR3 RAM (Corsair Vengeance) Intel Core i7-2600k CPU (Oc'd - 4.4ghz) Asus P8Z68-V I may wait until the next range of GPUs are released. (Thinking a 960ti or an ATI equivalent. Recommendations are welcome.) Basically I am trying get the most out my machine and was really wanting to hold off buying an entirely new rig for at least another year. Any advise on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46870409]Yeah upgrading your GPU will be fine. That i7 OC'd will last you a few more years before you feel it lagging behind :) I recommend a GTX 970 if you can afford it now.[/QUOTE] Thanks man. I am certainly considering the 970! It is between that or waiting a tad for the next range.
Nvidia and AMD are set to slug it out in Feb if you can wait.
how fast is the ram?
[QUOTE=figeon;46910508]how fast is the ram?[/QUOTE] That doesnt really impact game performance all that much.
I'd recommend holding off until you know WHY you're upgrading. In other words, right now what game or software is performing so poorly you feel you need to upgrade? If you can answer that you'd have a better idea of what you need. If you can't actually point to any performance issues right now then I'd say wait a while.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;46912351]I'd recommend holding off until you know WHY you're upgrading. In other words, right now what game or software is performing so poorly you feel you need to upgrade? If you can answer that you'd have a better idea of what you need. If you can't actually point to any performance issues right now then I'd say wait a while.[/QUOTE] I think this is the first thing you've said that I agree with.
I agree, go for a GTX 970 if you can afford it. The bang for buck is great! I tried Crysis 3 in 4K on a single 970, to be honest it didn't to that bad considering the amount of pixels being rendered. So, if you're gaming at 1080p you'll get a rock solid performance.
[QUOTE=taipan;46911504]That doesnt really impact game performance all that much.[/QUOTE] It affected the computer I build a shit ton. Upgrading my ram was the difference between having choppy game play and running smooth, so that's a load of shit.
[QUOTE=figeon;46917538]It affected the computer I build a shit ton. Upgrading my ram was the difference between having choppy game play and running smooth, so that's a load of shit.[/QUOTE] Can you try backing up your claim with some specifics? In most, if not all applications, having RAM clocked higher than 1600MHz makes almost no difference in performance especially in games.
my computer wouldn't play most games smoothly with my 1600 speed. i spent forever trying to figure out what was wrong with my pc... i upgrade to 1866 and bam smooth as a baby. perhaps i'm biased because my personal experience. it could very well be the ram had it's own issues but i would like to think not.
[QUOTE=figeon;46921021]my computer wouldn't play most games smoothly with my 1600 speed. i spent forever trying to figure out what was wrong with my pc... i upgrade to 1866 and bam smooth as a baby. perhaps i'm biased because my personal experience. it could very well be the ram had it's own issues but i would like to think not.[/QUOTE] Your RAM definitely had it's own issues. Going from your slowest 1333mhz to the fastest 3000mhz DDR3 you're going to be seeing MAYBE a 2fps difference under best-case scenarios. This has been tested dozens of times by professionals.
[QUOTE=figeon;46921021]my computer wouldn't play most games smoothly with my 1600 speed. i spent forever trying to figure out what was wrong with my pc... i upgrade to 1866 and bam smooth as a baby. perhaps i'm biased because my personal experience. it could very well be the ram had it's own issues but i would like to think not.[/QUOTE] Did you also upgrade the amount of ram?
[QUOTE=taipan;46929250]Did you also upgrade the amount of ram?[/QUOTE] I went from 8 to 16 but that wouldn't have changed anything since most games I played only recommended 2-8. I concede perhaps the ram was just bad then if everyone else believes jumping from 1600 to 1866 wouldn't make a difference. Back on topic: I would also recommend the 970. I'm going to build a computer with the 970 as I was not impressed with my r9 290. (970 wasn't out at the time but still buyers remorse)
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