Can I squeeze more life out of this build?

D

dcmix5

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 19, 2007
Messages
132
It is a sad day when I cannot run WoW at anything higher than medium settings, so is there anything I can do on this current build to stretch it further, or is it time to upgrade?

Current bones:

Asus P7P55D mb

i5 760 Lynnfield Intel CPU

ATI Radeon 4850 GPU

2 x 4g Mushkin Enhanced Silverline PC3 10666 RAM

I could probably squeeze $500-600 in for upgrades or so at the moment.
 
Yup, video card for sure. + power supply depending on what you already have and what video card you might move to.
 
If possible, I recommend putting in either two 4GB sticks to bump you to 16GB, or two 8GB sticks to bump you to 24GB.

The rest of your upgrade budget should go to one of the mid-high range video cards in the upcoming release cycle :D
 
iamwhoiamtoday said:
If possible, I recommend putting in either two 4GB sticks to bump you to 16GB, or two 8GB sticks to bump you to 24GB.

The rest of your upgrade budget should go to one of the mid-high range video cards in the upcoming release cycle :D
Click to expand...

I haven't been paying much attention to GPU...which one would you recommend?
 
Wow and I thought my GPU was old! (see sig)

Our rigs are practically the same besides that and I'm still enjoying mine nightly....

I'd start with a GPU upgrade. An Nvidia 970 would be just about right.
 
iamwhoiamtoday said:
If possible, I recommend putting in either two 4GB sticks to bump you to 16GB, or two 8GB sticks to bump you to 24GB.

The rest of your upgrade budget should go to one of the mid-high range video cards in the upcoming release cycle :D
Click to expand...

The most his motherboard can handle is 16GB.

dcmix5 said:
I haven't been paying much attention to GPU...which one would you recommend?
Click to expand...

If budget allows the GTX 970 is one helluva GPU. WoW, IIRC is more CPU dependent but an i5 760 should be able to handle WoW just fine. You could probably get away with a cheaper GPU such as something along the lines of a 750 Ti if you're indeed GPU limited on the game.

What PSU do you currently have? (Be specific) How long have you had it?
 
Skillz said:
The most his motherboard can handle is 16GB.



If budget allows the GTX 970 is one helluva GPU. WoW, IIRC is more CPU dependent but an i5 760 should be able to handle WoW just fine. You could probably get away with a cheaper GPU such as something along the lines of a 750 Ti if you're indeed GPU limited on the game.

What PSU do you currently have? (Be specific) How long have you had it?
Click to expand...

I will look tonight...I can't remember which PSU I have at the moment.
 
OC the CPU for a small bump; you might be able to sustain a 10% OC on the GPU as well fairly cheaply. Aside from that, replace the GPU followed by a mobo+CPU replacement then RAM.
 
Not a bad PSU, but being that it's 5 years old you're gonna want a new PSU. They degrade after a few years.
 
Far be it to get in a pissing match with my esteemed colleague Skillz...

but I'd break the seal, inspect for bulged caps and hot PCB, and run that supply if it looked good.
 
If we're worried about getting him a card with the same power consumption, then he should buy a GTX 960. It's significantly faster than a GTX 750 Ti, and only about $70 more.

HD 4850 TDP = 110w
GTX 960 TDP = 120w

Both these cards use a single 6-pin PCIe connector in their default configuration.

Just make sure you buy a card that has a single 6-pin power plug like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-STRIX-GTX960-DC2OC-2GD5-ASUS-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00S9SGMZM
 
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Pay close attention to the 960 GTX 4GB. I bought one, only to find out that it required a single 8-pin PCIe connector for power. Non-issue for me, just surprising.
 
iamwhoiamtoday said:
Pay close attention to the 960 GTX 4GB. I bought one, only to find out that it required a single 8-pin PCIe connector for power. Non-issue for me, just surprising.
Click to expand...

That's why I pointed him to a 2GB card. The Asus card is fairly short compared to most other GTX 960 cards, but it has just as effective cooling (trust me, I own this card). The larger cards for Gigabyte and MSI are just for the idiots who think bigger is always better. You don't need a massive cooler for a 120W card.

The 4GB models are all aimed at "overclockers," with outrageous power supply connections and ridiculous coolers the size of a city block. You don't need all that crap for a GTX 960 to perform well (And it's $40 more for all that useless crap).

You don't need to spend extra for a 4GB model as they perform exactly the same at playable resolutions. This goes especially for a casual gamer like this guy who has been happy playing WoW on a 7-year-old video card.

A GTX 960 will be more than enough for another 5 years of use.
 
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I'd buy used for that build, 7950 would get my vote. Should be around $115 or less, and still a huge upgrade
 
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