Not a worthwhile upgrade, right?

D

digitalgunfire

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Messages
317
I have an E6600, 4GB DDR-667 and a Geforce 8800GTX.

I have the opportunity to sell this PC for ~$500, so I was looking at what I could build instead. I priced out a Q9550, Geforce 280 and 4GB DDR-1066. The whole PC (new case, PSU, HD etc) came out to around ~$1200.

Realistically, this isn't a worthwhile $700 upgrade, right?
 
digitalgunfire said:
I have an E6600, 4GB DDR-667 and a Geforce 8800GTX.

I have the opportunity to sell this PC for ~$500, so I was looking at what I could build instead. I priced out a Q9550, Geforce 280 and 4GB DDR-1066. The whole PC (new case, PSU, HD etc) came out to around ~$1200.

Realistically, this isn't a worthwhile $700 upgrade, right?
Click to expand...

Sounds like a pretty nice upgrade to me.
 
You think it'd really be a noticable difference though? I mean, I'm not saying it's nothing.. but is it worth spending all that money on?
 
Memory speed hardly matters as long as its fast enough to support your overclocked CPU.
If you can get 3.2GHz or more from your current CPU, it will drive a GTX280 pretty near to its max performance.
 
Get the gfx card you want and give it a try in your current PC, it might be everything you need.
If its not enough, get the other new kit.
You might still want to get a new PSU if your current one cant handle the new gfx card.
 
It really depends on what you do with your PC. If you video edit all day and render media, then yes, its a huge upgrade. If all you do is game, then no, its not a huge upgrade. Even if you were playing SupCom, Crysis, and FSX, its only a minor upgrade, if that, lol. And if you're gaming, what resolution/settings?
 
I game at 1920x1200. My current PC is having a hard time with Warhammer Online, but I think that's problems with the client as much as anything, as I see everyone complain. I have a 600W Corsair PSU so I think I'd be OK on power.

I actually don't think the a new graphics card would actually help much with Warhammer in particular, as I get the same lousy framerates at 1280x1024 as I do at 1920x1200.
 
I would hold off and wait to see what other people who DO try to upgrade say. Or do some digging to figure out what's limiting it - CPU, GPU, I/O, or what?
 
digitalgunfire said:
I game at 1920x1200. My current PC is having a hard time with Warhammer Online, but I think that's problems with the client as much as anything, as I see everyone complain. I have a 600W Corsair PSU so I think I'd be OK on power.

I actually don't think the a new graphics card would actually help much with Warhammer in particular, as I get the same lousy framerates at 1280x1024 as I do at 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

Check CPU use.
Windows has Task Manager so you can check such things.
 
Have done, and it's not maxed. Many people seem to think it is a memory leak, but I don't get amazing framerates even when I first load, so I'm not sure.

I mean, I'll be looking to play some other games on here, like FarCry 2, and I'm not totally confident I'll be able to get good FPS with AA/AF at 1920x1200 without some upgrades. Whether I really need a completely new PC though is a point of debate.
 
You can tell if its a memory leak causing the problem by checking the Peak Commit Charge in Task Manager.
If the Peak is larger than your actual memory, you are running out of ram.
If that is ok...

Use a tool like RivaTuner to monitor the graphics cards GPU temp and graph it.
Using rthdribl_1_2 or Furmark etc, find the maximum load temp the GPU will achieve.
Note both your idle temp and load temp.
(load temps while gaming will be substantially less but still it gives a ballpark)

Now monitor the GPU temp while playing a game and see if it gets anywhere near the max temp.
If you get near 50% of the way between the idle and load temps, your GPU probably isnt being used fully.

If its not being used fully, we can troubleshoot.
 
Use PerfMon, also. Add performance indicators for various things: disk transfer rate, IO/sec, memory info, VM info, CPU info, etc.
 
I will try both those things. Thanks. I figured from the fact that dropping to 1280x1024 my FPS didn't change kinda eliminated the GPU. You still think it's worth looking at?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top