System recommendation for 1920x1200 gaming?

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BrunoPuntzJones

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 27, 2001
Messages
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I think it's the right forum...

Right now I'm running:

Core2Duo E6300@2.8Ghz
4GB DDR2@800FSB (I think...)
GTX 260 (192 version)
640GB Caviar Black
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 rev 1.3
Windows 7 64-bit

I think that's the important stuff.

The only intensive stuff I do is games. I'm running an HP ZR24w monitor at 1920x1200. I'm an older guy, so 60fps isn't anything necessary. Just want to be able to run stuff with max or near max detail without a lot of fiddling. I'm not opposed to overclocking, but want to keep it easy.

I think the furthest I can do is something like a quad Q6600 on this board.

I can get a $350 gift cert from Dell which would get me a Visiontek 5850 for about that, or pay an additional $100 out of pocket for a Visiontek 5870. Not sure if the 5870 is worth the premium.

Also don't know if my current rig throw enough triangles for the 5850 and above. I'm looking at playing games like Metro 2033 and whatever else comes out.

I've read that SSD's don't really improve game loading much. I don't do any MMO games, and don't really online game much at all. Sooo, not sure what I should be looking at for a HD if necessary. And SSD for the OS and some apps perhaps.

Not wanting to drop a lot of cash, best bang for the buck so to speak.

What say you?

Hopefully this makes sense. Been a bit tossing them back yea?
 
What PSU do you have? Bad idea to do a CPU or GPU upgrade if your PSU can't handle it.

In the case of Bad Company 2, a quad-core CPU would definitely be a major help. Since you have the Revision 1.3, that actually opens up the Q9550 as an option for a CPU upgrade. Do you happen to live near a Microcenter?
 
A Q9550 is definitely your best bang for the buck, cheaper than i7 and faster than a Phenom 2. Looking at your current system I'm going to imagine you already have a decent power supply.
 
I had an e6750@3.6ghz and upgraded to a q9550 now at 3.83 ghz, and an 8800gtx, upgraded to a 5850. The difference is huge. Pretty much any game but metro 2033 @ 1920x1200 max everything. I've also overclocked my video card to 980/1200. Bad company 2 never goes below 40fps, usually sitting at 80ish
 
what games are not running smooth with your setup?

I have a q9300 o/ced to 3.0ghz, 8GB of RAM, and a GTS250 and all my games run fine at 1920x1200 at max details with the exception of Crysis. Even Far Cry 2 is plenty playable for me at 1920x1200 - max details and DX10. I do NOT use AA and AF - because I don't see that it matters and I'd prefer the few extra FPS any day over AA and AF. I also don't need 60 FPS, but I must not be as picky as you because I think my system is perfectly capable right now. Depending on your games a Quad Core could help out, but 2.8Gzh isn't terribly slow. I'm just curious what games you are unhappy with?
 
I'm running a good power supply. Forget the model and wattage. Maybe a 650W Thermaltake or Corsair? It's a decent rig. I honestly haven't played a game in 6 months or so other than a few 5 min Counter-Strike sessions. I've just been too damn busy with work. I've had the rig since the end of 2008 and just figured I was due for an upgrade since it had been over a year and a half. I'm trying to think of what I have in the pipeline once I get done with the projects in work in a few weeks.

Stalker: Clear Sky
Metro 2033
Left 4 Dead 2
Bad Company 2
Mass Effect 2

Hell I can't think of anything else. I have a dozen or so back logged. Lots of older stuff that is probably fine (Kings Bounty, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway, nothing real demanding).

Maybe I should just stick with this rig and tone it down in Metro 2033 and spend the money on shoes?
 
Left 4 dead 2, and mass effect 2 will play just fine. BC2 would be much better with a quad. Not sure about stalker. Metro would have to be played on medium or low
 
If you are dying for an upgrade - I'd say upgrade to a Intel Quad Core - Q9300 or Q9550 at microcenter and overclock it. It will provide you the SSE version 4 instructions that the Q6600 won't supply you (if you do any video encoding or other applications that support SSE version 4 the improvement can be 25 to 30%). The Q9300 will most likely hit 3.0Ghz at stock voltage, and draws less power than the Q6600 or Q9550, (works in 65 watt max motherboards) but you will hit your max PC6400 RAM speed (400Mhz) at 3.0Ghz because of the low locked multiplier. The Q9550 will overclock higher, but you pay a bit more to play and have more heat and electricity use. Both chips are relatively cheap at Microcenter.

$140 for Q9300 - https://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0328258
$180 for Q9550 - http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0299412

Like I say - I have a lesser video card and play lots of different games - I can't find anything I'm unsatisified with at the moment at 1920x1200 resolution. I have NOT tried battlefield bad company 2 nor have I tried Metro 2033. But Stalker runs perfectly, Left 4 Dead 2 is a valve game and runs very well on minimal configurations. Mass Effect 2 should be perfectly fine. Far Cry 2 works perfectly for me. Company of Heroes is silky smooth. Any of my games in reality are fine at max settings besides Crysis. That 260 video card of yours is still quite decent.

Buy something more rewarding with your money if you seldom play games and your PC is capable of games currently!
 
Last edited:
Phenom II X-4 955 Black Edition <---- Best bang for your buck.
Radeon 5870
6GB of DDR3
 
BrunoPuntzJones said:
Maybe I should just stick with this rig and tone it down in Metro 2033 and spend the money on shoes?
Click to expand...

What matters more to you: Shoes or higher settings in video games?

As for the prices that Archaea posted for the Qxxx CPUs, those are the highest I would recommend paying for those CPUs due to socket 775 being effectively dead and that equally performing AMD Phenom II CPUs can be had for the same or cheaper price.
 
Krenum said:
Phenom II X-4 955 Black Edition <---- Best bang for your buck.
Radeon 5870
6GB of DDR3
Click to expand...

Well he could upgrade to a Q9550 which is faster than a Phenom 2 and cheaper and why would he buy triple channel ram when neither the Phenom 2 or Q9550 can use triple channel ram. =|
 
I game @ 1920x1200 w/ the rig in my sig, and can max most games.

q9450 @ 3.33 | hd4870 1gb | 8gb DDR2 | WD Black
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Well he could upgrade to a Q9550 which is faster than a Phenom 2 and cheaper and why would he buy triple channel ram when neither the Phenom 2 or Q9550 can use triple channel ram. =|
Click to expand...
Why upgrade to triple channel ram at all, regardless of price, when it makes zero impact in gaming? Oh excuse me, if you ran 640x480 with low textures you'd see a FPS boost, my mistake.
 
5870 will power all games at that resolution with a reasonable FPS, a 5850 would be close enough if you need a cheaper card.
 
Also note, the Q9xxx processes are 45nm chips and don't think they play nice with my board. It's only spec'd for 65nm chips :(

Also keep in mind I do ZERO other than games and Intertube browsing. No video or photo editing. I have dual quad Xeons at work if I ever need to do that sort of stuff.

I have looked at the Phenom II X2 555 which apparently can be unlocked to an X4 955. Runs about $100. Figure another $100 for a board, but then have to do another $200 for ram :(

Are there DDR2 boards that support the Phenom II X2?

Assuming a Phenom II X2 955 at 3.4 or 3.6ghz, and a 5850. Should be good for pretty much everything at high settings @ 1920x1200 for a while right?

How much ram are games using these days? 4GB plenty or should I be looking at double that?
 
BrunoPuntzJones said:
Also note, the Q9xxx processes are 45nm chips and don't think they play nice with my board. It's only spec'd for 65nm chips :(

Also keep in mind I do ZERO other than games and Intertube browsing. No video or photo editing. I have dual quad Xeons at work if I ever need to do that sort of stuff.

I have looked at the Phenom II X2 555 which apparently can be unlocked to an X4 955. Runs about $100. Figure another $100 for a board, but then have to do another $200 for ram :(

Are there DDR2 boards that support the Phenom II X2?

Assuming a Phenom II X2 955 at 3.4 or 3.6ghz, and a 5850. Should be good for pretty much everything at high settings @ 1920x1200 for a while right?

How much ram are games using these days? 4GB plenty or should I be looking at double that?
Click to expand...

Whoa man $200 for ram? Great ram can be had to for $100.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231274
 
I don't see the phenom X2 555 as being an attractive upgrade for you.

You aren't guaranteed core unlocks. Some people only get one core, some get none, some get both.
It isn't faster (to speak of) than a overclocked Q6600 at equivalent core speeds
so you'll have additional costs in motherboard and ram that won't bear any bonus to overall performance.

I don't see how that's a valid upgrade path?


If your choice is either the phenom system overhaul or a Q6600 - it defiantly makes sense to go Q6600 and do a nice overclock.

You might ensure your mainboard doesn't accept the 45nm. My Abit IS7-E was created before the Q9 series chips IIRC and yet a BIOS update allowed compatibility.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Well he could upgrade to a Q9550 which is faster than a Phenom 2 and cheaper and why would he buy triple channel ram when neither the Phenom 2 or Q9550 can use triple channel ram. =|
Click to expand...


Next time give people some information to back up your claims. According to Tom the Q9550 is slower but not by much, I would choose the 955 because its the least expensive though.

CPU Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/compare,1396.html?prod[2607]=on&prod[2620]=on


Price
Q9550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&cm_re=Q9550-_-19-115-041-_-Product

955 Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...103808&cm_re=955_black-_-19-103-808-_-Product
 
I don't want to hi-jack the thread but I didn't want to create a new thread for a similar question. Simply put, would getting a Q9550 benefit me? My current system is in my sig and I also game at 1920x1200 and mostly play BFBC2.
 
Krenum said:
Next time give people some information to back up your claims. According to Tom the Q9550 is slower but not by much, I would choose the 955 because its the least expensive though.

CPU Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/compare,1396.html?prod[2607]=on&prod[2620]=on


Price
Q9550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&cm_re=Q9550-_-19-115-041-_-Product

955 Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...103808&cm_re=955_black-_-19-103-808-_-Product
Click to expand...

How is it cheaper when he already has everything (but the quad core processor) to complete his system using an Intel chip? :confused:
 
Alright, I've pretty much settled on this:
Q9550 and should be able to get it to around 3.4Ghz hopefully (ram is already at 400FSB, so 400*8.5 would be 3.4).
HD 5850 or 5870

Should be fine for a couple more years with games at 1920x1200 eh?

Only last thing would be ram. 4GB of DDR2 going to cut it for a while under Windows 7? Or are more games making more use of more ram?

And I'll find a sequentially fast HD for putting games on, and a small SSD for the OS.
 
Just make sure that you don't pay more than $180 for the Q9550. Any higher than that and you're getting ripped off. If you can't find it for that low of a price, then go the AMD route as Krenum said. Compared to the $285 price tag of the Q9550, you can get the following:
$160 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU
$75 - Asus M3N78-VM GeForce 8200 HDMI mATX Motherboard
---
Total: $235 plus tax and shipping.

The 955 offers similar performance to the Q9550 and the mobo listed above uses DDR2 RAM and is compatible with AMD's upcoming six-core CPUs. So the above setup has a far better CPU upgrade path than socket 775. So if you can't find the Q9550 for less than the above setup, just go AMD.

Some other mobos to look at:
$83 - ASUS M4A77D AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
$83 - ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

In case you're wondering why I'm recommending those specific mobos: They use DDR2 RAM but are compatible with AMD's six-core CPUs.

Oh and 4GB of RAM is more than enough.
 
BrunoPuntzJones said:
Alright, I've pretty much settled on this:
Q9550 and should be able to get it to around 3.4Ghz hopefully (ram is already at 400FSB, so 400*8.5 would be 3.4).
HD 5850 or 5870

Should be fine for a couple more years with games at 1920x1200 eh?

Only last thing would be ram. 4GB of DDR2 going to cut it for a while under Windows 7? Or are more games making more use of more ram?

And I'll find a sequentially fast HD for putting games on, and a small SSD for the OS.
Click to expand...

4GB or 8GB ----
http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125493

Tons of google hits on that topic -- most seem to say for strictly gaming - 4GB is perfectly fine.
 
Gotcha on the 4GB vs. 8GB
Only real thing left is finding a Q9550 for the right price. I made an offer of $180 on one a few minutes ago. Lots around $215 or so, but more than I'm wanting to spend. No Microcenter close :(

If I can't snag one that low, may opt for a Q6600 for closer to $110 or so. Doesn't seem to be a huge difference in games.

I'll keep the AMD path in mind if I can't get a Q6600 either.

I'll keep ya'lls updated.
 
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