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Upgrade GPU over CPU?

S

SolidSnakeUS

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,282
I have been thinking, I wonder if I should just upgrade my GPU and just leave my CPU alone for a while. The only thing is, the GPU I'm looking at are the new AMD/nVidia cards that will come out that have PCIe 3.0. Was thinking of a possible 7950 from AMD or an equivalent nVidia for the card that I would upgrade to. My specs are at the bottom.

So basically, should I upgrade just my GPU, upgrade both (was thinking of Ivy Bridge)?
 
ib should be 2-3month after amds next gen gpu. might aswell upgrade both if you got the money.
 
7xxx is expected in January. IB and 6xx are expected around the same time, approx April/May. See how the 7xxx series launch is then you can begin to answer your question.
 
Well what I was thinking of, how future proof is my current processor? I mean, will the difference between what I have an Ivy Bridge really be that significant? Or is it not necessarily the performance but that the features involved in Ivy Bridge? Just a whole bunch of things running through my head.
 
since you're running ur 860 on stock, you would see a pretty big difference even upgrading to a 2500.
 
Well it's just stock clocks, but I do have a good enough cooler to OC (Corsair A70), just lazy lol.
 
Power efficiency will be through the roof, if thats important to you go ahead and upgrade. If your CPU is too slow for your tastes, upgrade. PCI-E bandwidth isnt an issue in all but a few cases so I'd expect 16x @ 2.0 to be plenty for most people using next gen cards.

It boils down to those things and not much else. Also consider can you make yourself wait until Haswell in 2013? Keep in mind this will be a bigger performance jump.
 
I think the i7 you have is pretty good, just put some oc on it :D
And buy the best gpu you can afford
 
try ocing ur 860 when you have free time. it should do 4ghz+ which is plenty for games
 
For some reason, when I thought of this thread, I completely forgot something...

My original thought of when I was going to upgrade was to sell my older parts to a friend of mine who probably really needs updated stuff (his stuff is pretty old and doesn't look good). As in the case, CPU, mobo, video card, and fans in the case. I'd keep the hard drives, PSU, sound card, memory and DVD/BD drives. Hopefully to help pay for all the new parts. Actually, if anyone could ever give me an estimate, how much would I probably get for selling the stuff I was going to to a friend for?

Maybe this thread should be moved elsewhere?
 
Last edited:
SolidSnakeUS said:
For some reason, when I thought of this thread, I completely forgot something...

My original thought of when I was going to upgrade was to sell my older parts to a friend of mine who probably really needs updated stuff (his stuff is pretty old and doesn't look good). As in the case, CPU, mobo, video card, and fans in the case. I'd keep the hard drives, PSU, sound card, memory and DVD/BD drives. Hopefully to help pay for all the new parts. Actually, if anyone could ever give me an estimate, how much would I probably get for selling the stuff I was going to to a friend for?

Maybe this thread should be moved elsewhere?
Click to expand...

This is typically what I do. And without giving out exact prices, my usual method is to find the current prices for all of those parts on newegg or pricegrabber and then I charge 50-75% of that price and I build it all out for him, burn it in, get all his software etc. I think that is a pretty fair deal for a used but solid system.

As for your upgrade, I wouldn't worry at all about your processor. I don't even think you are going to notice that much of a difference going from your processor to a 2500k if you are doing mostly gaming. You will get a far better experience by upgrading the GPU than the processor.

What is the resolution you are working with? Perhaps your best option would be to go to a 2GB 6950 and get one with a decent discount in the under $250 range. Or go with that new 560Ti with 448 shaders if you don't need the 2GB of VRAM. That will tide you over for awhile.
 
Overclock both your CPU and GPU. I have my 5850 running at 1GHz and it's still pretty fast.
 
I noticed a big difference when overclocking my i7 860 in a few games. A 5850 on the borderline where you may or may not see a difference with overclocking that processor.
 
SolidSnakeUS said:
I usually run all my games at 1920x1080.
Click to expand...

I doubt you would need the 2GB of VRAM then. I would just go with a 6950 or 560 Ti 448 core for a good price if you want an upgrade.

You could also overclock your CPU some, I just don't think it's worth it to upgrade the CPU for the price you would have to pay compared to the performance gains you would see. And I don't foresee many GPUs taken advantage of the PCIe 3.0 for a little while. Not enough information about the new crop of GPUs coming out to really tell yet.

The other question is, what would your budget look like?
 
I would just overclock what you have and then see what ivy bridge / AMD 7x GPU /Nvidia 6xx GPU bring to the table and go from there. Even if you arent impressed with the new stuff, it should force the price of the older stuff down to some extent.
 
Well I'll put it this way, if I could sell what I want to sell to my friend for about $350 to $400, that can take care of the CPU or GPU basically. I would be upgrading (asked for a new case and a few other things for Christmas/B-day) the CPU, Mobo, and Graphics card. Given I'd get a mobo for under 200 probably and the CPU and GPU would probably be from 350 to 400 each, maybe 550 at most after selling my parts? I'm keeping my 8GB of DDR3-1600... unless Ivy Bridge needs quad channel, then I need new memory and I would probably include the 8GB in that. Actually, I just remembered, my brother might need some new parts, so maybe he would want this instead of my friend? Hmmm....
 
My advice: Overclock your CPU to 4ghz+, buy a high end next-gen video card when they are released, and skip Ivy Bridge.
 
SolidSnakeUS said:
Well I'll put it this way, if I could sell what I want to sell to my friend for about $350 to $400, that can take care of the CPU or GPU basically. I would be upgrading (asked for a new case and a few other things for Christmas/B-day) the CPU, Mobo, and Graphics card. Given I'd get a mobo for under 200 probably and the CPU and GPU would probably be from 350 to 400 each, maybe 550 at most after selling my parts? I'm keeping my 8GB of DDR3-1600... unless Ivy Bridge needs quad channel, then I need new memory and I would probably include the 8GB in that. Actually, I just remembered, my brother might need some new parts, so maybe he would want this instead of my friend? Hmmm....
Click to expand...

Ivy Bridge 2011 uses quad channel, but it doesn't need it. For the GPU, you could probably get a decent next gen card for about $300, just not the top end versions and the first cards coming out from AMD in January I think will be the mid range. Personally I would wait for a bit before jumping on the bandwagon for the new cards. If you want to get the new cards, I would just stick with what you have now and wait for the second iteration of the 7950 to come out, that is usually when they have the kinks worked out and improve the cards and drivers a bit. Also around that time Intel might have some newer Ivy Bridge chips for cheaper, if you want to go that route. It will probably mean about 4-6 months more of waiting though. If you don't want to wait, I would still suggest the 6950 or 560Ti 448.
 
jbz7890 said:
My advice: Overclock your CPU to 4ghz+, buy a high end next-gen video card when they are released, and skip Ivy Bridge.
Click to expand...

Easier said than done with i7 860. Mine needed a ton of juice to get anywhere near 4ghz.
 
NoOther said:
Ivy Bridge 2011 uses quad channel, but it doesn't need it. For the GPU, you could probably get a decent next gen card for about $300, just not the top end versions and the first cards coming out from AMD in January I think will be the mid range. Personally I would wait for a bit before jumping on the bandwagon for the new cards. If you want to get the new cards, I would just stick with what you have now and wait for the second iteration of the 7950 to come out, that is usually when they have the kinks worked out and improve the cards and drivers a bit. Also around that time Intel might have some newer Ivy Bridge chips for cheaper, if you want to go that route. It will probably mean about 4-6 months more of waiting though. If you don't want to wait, I would still suggest the 6950 or 560Ti 448.
Click to expand...

The thing is though, my upgrade won't be completed till about when Ivy Bridge comes out. Also isn't Ivy Bridge also 1155 not just 2011? Would it probably be better to go the route of 2011 over 1155 or no?

But yeah, I didn't think the i7-860 would actually do 4GHz+, maybe 3.5 or 3.8 or so.
 
SolidSnakeUS said:
The thing is though, my upgrade won't be completed till about when Ivy Bridge comes out. Also isn't Ivy Bridge also 1155 not just 2011? Would it probably be better to go the route of 2011 over 1155 or no?

But yeah, I didn't think the i7-860 would actually do 4GHz+, maybe 3.5 or 3.8 or so.
Click to expand...

Yes Ivy Bridge is also on the 1155, but the 1155 does not support quad channel, only the 2011. The 2011 will be more expensive, most likley. There are only a few processors out right now for Sandy Bridge-E for the 2011 which are $600 and $1000 respectively. A 2011 MB is going to cost at least $200. So starting out for the 2011 right now you would have to shell out around $800 just for MB and chip. How much Ivy Bridge will be is yet to be seen.

The 1155 will most likely use dual channel and maybe triple channel memory and will be much more cost friendly.
 
NoOther said:
Yes Ivy Bridge is also on the 1155, but the 1155 does not support quad channel, only the 2011. The 2011 will be more expensive, most likley. There are only a few processors out right now for Sandy Bridge-E for the 2011 which are $600 and $1000 respectively. A 2011 MB is going to cost at least $200. So starting out for the 2011 right now you would have to shell out around $800 just for MB and chip. How much Ivy Bridge will be is yet to be seen.

The 1155 will most likely use dual channel and maybe triple channel memory and will be much more cost friendly.
Click to expand...

As it is right now, I do have double channel DDR3-1600, so I think the 1155 would be fine, but I'm curious, since Ivy Bridge is coming out on that socket, will they keep that socket alive for longer than other socket since 775? Because 1155 became popular a bit after I got my 860, and it is still going strong right now. Hopefully I can still have lots of 1155 stuff at least throughout most of 2012?

But honestly, I might still get the new GPU before I get the new CPU, considering the 7xxx will be out a few months before Ivy Bridge would be.
 
SolidSnakeUS said:
As it is right now, I do have double channel DDR3-1600, so I think the 1155 would be fine, but I'm curious, since Ivy Bridge is coming out on that socket, will they keep that socket alive for longer than other socket since 775? Because 1155 became popular a bit after I got my 860, and it is still going strong right now. Hopefully I can still have lots of 1155 stuff at least throughout most of 2012?

But honestly, I might still get the new GPU before I get the new CPU, considering the 7xxx will be out a few months before Ivy Bridge would be.
Click to expand...

Only Intel knows how long they will keep the Socket alive. I hope for awhile, I currently have a Socket 1155 board as well with a 2600k.
 
Would there be any benefit of going from vanilla 2500 to 2500k? Can I even OC this vanilla 2500 to any appreciable amount?
 
guppie said:
Would there be any benefit of going from vanilla 2500 to 2500k? Can I even OC this vanilla 2500 to any appreciable amount?
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a huge benefit. Do not buy a non k 2500 cpu if you want to overclock.

edit: I saw you already have the 2500 non-k. Are you cpu limited in anything? I wouldn't bother buying a whole new cpu just to overclock, but a stock 2500 would be plenty for my needs.
 
I just upgraded my GPU, and my CPU is like 4-5 years old. Made a huge difference.
its a Q9450. Thinking about going Crossfire with 5870's
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
Yes, there is a huge benefit. Do not buy a non k 2500 cpu if you want to overclock.
Click to expand...

Haha, that made me feel good about myself knowing I jumped the gun and bought a 2500 (non-k) when they first came out! LOL

Fortunately I don't OC (anymore) which is why I decided to save a few bucks. A hot case/computer is hard to keep cool and my electric bill is high enough as it is all year long with the A/C running all day here in Miami...
 
guppie said:
Haha, that made me feel good about myself knowing I jumped the gun and bought a 2500 (non-k) when they first came out! LOL

Fortunately I don't OC (anymore) which is why I decided to save a few bucks. A hot case/computer is hard to keep cool and my electric bill is high enough as it is all year long with the A/C running all day here in Miami...
Click to expand...

No reason to get a 2500k if you are having no issues with the 2500 and do not care about OCing.
 
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