Advice for Upgrading i5-2500k/560Ti rig

J

jmusso

n00b
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
9
Hey guys, this is my first time posting on Hard Forums and I'm not quite sure of the etiquette around here. I'm sure my rig is a pretty common set up so I hope I'm not asking something that's already been asked a bajillion other times on here.

Basically, I'd like to know some options for upgrading my PC so I can squeeze more graphical performance out of it on games. It is pretty good as is, but I'm looking for a range of options to squeeze the most I can out of this - and what those options might cost.

I'll give you guys my specs and then ask you to let me know what you'd do if you had some cash to burn:

Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.30GHz
MSI P67A-C43 (B3) ATX Mobo
GIGABYTE GTX GeForce 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
8GB G.SKILL 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM
ANTEC 550W PSU

That's about it. If there's something more relevant I forgot to put there please let me know... Oh, hard drives. I have a 120gb intel SSD running my OS and a few games, everything else is on a 7200RPM 1TB drive (Seagate maybe?). I know how much faster SSDs are but I'm not worried about loading times so much as graphical fidelity. So let me know what I could do to beef up my system... I can run almost any game on second-to-highest settings, and many games on max settings. I'd love to be able to crank Crysis 2 or The Witcher 2 to max if possible, and in a cost-efficient way!
 
Well your power supply isnt large enough to go sli and its not really cost effective to get an new power supply and new card when you could just sell your old one and buy something newer and keep your current power supply. I'd say you have 3 options:

1. Looking into AMD's current selection, probably a 7950.
2. Wait for kepler.
3. Buy a nice used GTX 580 which are going to start showing up more as people upgrade to kepler and AMD.
 
Hammer basically listed all the possible options. If you want more FPS 7950 is the best bet at the moment.
 
And if I opt for the 7950, will that work with my current motherboard/CPU combination?
 
Yes. And I'd probably get one of the great bang for the buck cpu coolers and OC that 2500k!

And what resolution are you gaming at?
 
1920x1080. A second monitor is coming in the mail today but I mostly planned on using it for desktop applications, not gaming. This is my first gaming rig so I'm a bit hesitant about OCing the CPU, unless there's a particularly safe method of doing so that would return noticeable results.

Is upgrading to a 7950 or a 580 really worth it though? I'm looking at these cards, and I'm not really seeing a huge performance boost for +$200 more. This probably sounds super simplistic of me, but would one of those cards really bring me from getting say, ~30 FPS @ max settings for Witcher 2 to 60 FPS?
 
From a 560ti for 1080p? Not sure the 7950 or a 580 would be great values for the money. How about getting a 2nd 560ti and going SLI? Errr, don't think your motherboard can do that. I'd probably wait to see what nvidia has coming out in the next month (or three??).

And why would you spend the extra money on a 2500k over a 2500 (not to mention a p67 board) if you aren't going to OC it?! :)
 
DarthV said:
From a 560ti for 1080p? Not sure the 7950 or a 580 would be great values for the money. How about getting a 2nd 560ti and going SLI? Errr, don't think your motherboard can do that. I'd probably wait to see what nvidia has coming out in the next month (or three??).

And why would you spend the extra money on a 2500k over a 2500 (not to mention a p67 board) if you aren't going to OC it?! :)
Click to expand...

Err, turns out I made a typo in the thread title. I don't believe its a 2500k, just a regular 2500. I thought it was a 2500k for some reason. I should have gotten the 2500k I guess. Can I even OC the 2500?
 
Ill say from experience that 2 560ti's in sli jsut dont have the VRAM needed for games like BF3, it stutters, bad FPS drops and even lockups.
 
That 2500 tops at out 3.7 in turbo. Could probably lock that in your motherboard BIOS. It's over a 10% increase which is nothing to sneeze at.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top