Upgrade itch, need some advice!

[wasteomind]

So I've got the urge to upgrade again. I just got a GTX 680 to replace my tri sli gtx 280s, and a Crucial M4 256gb SSD to replace my Velociraptor RAID 0 setup. I'm feeling the itch for another upgrade and I'm debating between picking up a second gtx680 somehow, or upgrading my MOBO and CPU.

I'm leaning more towards the MOBO/CPU for a couple reasons. The first being I picked up the first generation EVGA X58 3x SLI board and while it has served me well it had one massive glaring issue, Sleep mode resume while overclocked. Too many problems with it to use it. While it wasn't a big issue I wish I could have used it. More annoyingly, was the double pump start from cold boot, even sometimes on restart, and just a generally long BIOS/POST start up. BIOS updates on the board also led to some wonky overclock inconsistencies and stability from version to version.

Another reason is I ended up with the C0 stepping on my CPU and didn't have much luck with it compared to others. So I've been running my 920 at 3.8ghz with turbo enabled for the past 4+ years and I just want to go faster. I play MMOs somewhat frequently which are CPU heavy, and would thus be my biggest motivation for targeting the CPU but I'm not sure the benefits of upgrading would be worth it.

One thing I'm really interested in the newer platforms is the Virtual Vsync, since vsync is an absolute must for me. Is this Lucid technology ready for prime time (I haven't seen much about it) or is it another driver compatibility nightmare pipe dream like their Hydra platform was?

A concern however is I thought Intel was getting ready to phase out this current generation socket type, and that not to long from now we might be looking at a new micro architecture cycle Haswell. Am I wrong? Also what about CPU revisions for Ivy Bridge? I really don't wanna get owned on something like the Bloomfield C0 vs D0 stepping again....

A bit longer post then I expected, but I guess it covers my question; In your opinion, where is my money best spent, an additional GTX 680 or a new CPU/MOBO platform.

 

[Relativist]

How about you take advantage of that socket 1366 and get an i7-970 6 core? Not really sure what to say about the sleep issue, that's something to take up with EVGA if you already haven't. Also, a Ram upgrade may be in order. What's your cpu cooling solution? lastly, have you tried the nVidia Adaptive Vsync, does that solve your Vsync requirement?

 

[wasteomind]

How about you take advantage of that socket 1366 and get an i7-970 6 core? Not really sure what to say about the sleep issue, that's something to take up with EVGA if you already haven't. Also, a Ram upgrade may be in order. What's your cpu cooling solution? lastly, have you tried the nVidia Adaptive Vsync, does that solve your Vsync requirement?

The 960 is the same exact architecture isn't it? I don't really see the point in going sideways to gain 2 more cores that I won't see much benefit from unless I am missing something here.

I'm on a water cooling system i built with a 4x120 rad on a loop of cpu - nb/sb - mosfet.

Sleep issue was a well known hardware limitation/oversight on design. They tried to fix it via BIOS updates but ultimately failed for most users. It was fixed in a later revision of the board, but EVGA did not make good on fixing/replacing it for first build customers.

Adaptive Vsync is not a viable solution since it introduces tearing at sub-refresh lock fps. I use a 40inch Samsung LCD TV for a screen and it has a terrible tearing issue without vsync, way more than most "computer monitors." Full vsync is the only acceptable solution to avoid stuttering/tearing. I've been happy with normal vsync.

RAM could use some love, but doubt on its own would be a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[Relativist]

Going with 6 cores would only make sense if your CPU heavy applications used the extra cores. without knowing more than "I play MMOs somewhat frequently which are CPU heavy, and would thus be my biggest motivation for targeting the CPU but I'm not sure the benefits of upgrading would be worth it." that is difficult to answer, but may be an option. It also avoids the cost of a full upgrade, if that's a consideration.

About the Vsync, All I do know that Adaptive Vsync gives both a full Vsync option and a 1/2 a Vsync option. I'm not really sure what your monitor requirements are, maybe your monitor should be the one to get the upgrade, not really sure??

 

[chronicfx]

So I've got the urge to upgrade again. I just got a GTX 680 to replace my tri sli gtx 280s, and a Crucial M4 256gb SSD to replace my Velociraptor RAID 0 setup. I'm feeling the itch for another upgrade and I'm debating between picking up a second gtx680 somehow, or upgrading my MOBO and CPU.

I'm leaning more towards the MOBO/CPU for a couple reasons. The first being I picked up the first generation EVGA X58 3x SLI board and while it has served me well it had one massive glaring issue, Sleep mode resume while overclocked. Too many problems with it to use it. While it wasn't a big issue I wish I could have used it. More annoyingly, was the double pump start from cold boot, even sometimes on restart, and just a generally long BIOS/POST start up. BIOS updates on the board also led to some wonky overclock inconsistencies and stability from version to version.

Another reason is I ended up with the C0 stepping on my CPU and didn't have much luck with it compared to others. So I've been running my 920 at 3.8ghz with turbo enabled for the past 4+ years and I just want to go faster. I play MMOs somewhat frequently which are CPU heavy, and would thus be my biggest motivation for targeting the CPU but I'm not sure the benefits of upgrading would be worth it.

One thing I'm really interested in the newer platforms is the Virtual Vsync, since vsync is an absolute must for me. Is this Lucid technology ready for prime time (I haven't seen much about it) or is it another driver compatibility nightmare pipe dream like their Hydra platform was?

A concern however is I thought Intel was getting ready to phase out this current generation socket type, and that not to long from now we might be looking at a new micro architecture cycle Haswell. Am I wrong? Also what about CPU revisions for Ivy Bridge? I really don't wanna get owned on something like the Bloomfield C0 vs D0 stepping again....

A bit longer post then I expected, but I guess it covers my question; In your opinion, where is my money best spent, an additional GTX 680 or a new CPU/MOBO platform.

Wow this is tough one.. If you are not being CPU bottlenecked than go for the SLI, if you would be CPU bottlenecked you may still get better performance going SLI vs. upgrading your CPU.. what to do, what to do... To be honest.. I'm stumped.. Go for the second graphics card and hope that your CPU lasts another 2 years?? Sounds less exciting than ripping your computer apart and and installing something from scratch but hey.. Better performance is better performance right?

 

[wasteomind]

Going with 6 cores would only make sense if your CPU heavy applications used the extra cores. without knowing more than "I play MMOs somewhat frequently which are CPU heavy, and would thus be my biggest motivation for targeting the CPU but I'm not sure the benefits of upgrading would be worth it." that is difficult to answer, but may be an option. It also avoids the cost of a full upgrade, if that's a consideration.

About the Vsync, All I do know that Adaptive Vsync gives both a full Vsync option and a 1/2 a Vsync option. I'm not really sure what your monitor requirements are, maybe your monitor should be the one to get the upgrade, not really sure??

Well I play a large variety of games, and this is a gaming machine. My point about MMOs was simply stating that performance in most MMOs are bottle necked more from CPUs then they are GPUs. Most games aren't multithreaded to any great degree either past 2-4 cores, so another 2 cores doesn't strike me as beneficial.

The monitor I'm using works fine and its the right size for my setup, I don't feel it needs upgrading as I also run a ps3 and xbox 360 off it and I'm happy with the resolution at 1920x1080 as it allows me to run close to 60fps vsynced in most games. There are some outliers that I know SLI will greatly help. Most people (without extensive experience) say SLI for 1080p is overkill, but it really depends on the game, especially if the goal is 60fps solid.

 

[chronicfx]

Well I play a large variety of games, and this is a gaming machine. My point about MMOs was simply stating that performance in most MMOs are bottle necked more from CPUs then they are GPUs. Most games aren't multithreaded to any great degree either past 2-4 cores, so another 2 cores doesn't strike me as beneficial.

The monitor I'm using works fine and its the right size for my setup, I don't feel it needs upgrading as I also run a ps3 and xbox 360 off it and I'm happy with the resolution at 1920x1080 as it allows me to run close to 60fps vsynced in most games. There are some outliers that I know SLI will greatly help. Most people (without extensive experience) say SLI for 1080p is overkill, but it really depends on the game, especially if the goal is 60fps solid.

Sounds like your setup is just like mine. I have my PS3, xbox360 and my computer all hooked to the same monitor. (my little gaming room) I just came off of tri-sli GTX280's as well. Were you able to sell them off? I gave one to my dad with my motherboard and q9550 and I still have two of them, not sure if i should just sit em on a shelf and let em rust or go through the hassle of ebay for like $75.

 

[wasteomind]

Sounds like your setup is just like mine. I have my PS3, xbox360 and my computer all hooked to the same monitor. (my little gaming room) I just came off of tri-sli GTX280's as well. Were you able to sell them off? I gave one to my dad with my motherboard and q9550 and I still have two of them, not sure if i should just sit em on a shelf and let em rust or go through the hassle of ebay for like $75.

Didn't bother trying. I can't imagine I'd get more than 50 bucks each given how old they are. So I moved two of them to an old gaming PC I gave to my brother to replace 8800 gtx sli, and the last one I have in my current PC for physx until I figure out what to do with it.

 

[swatX]

Not sure if 920 would bottleneck 2x 680GTX in SLI. Since you mostly play MMOs at 1080p, i would go with a CPU+motherboard combo.

And yes, haswell will be under a new socket. Unless if you are planning to upgrade again within the next two years, ivy bridge should last you for the next three+ years.

If you are curious about the diffrence between i7 9xx series vs i7 3770k check this out

 

[DejaWiz]

If you have to scratch that itch, then go for a Z77 and IB. Sell off all your old HW, like MoBo, CPU, and GPU's.

 

[vict0r]

i'd grab a z77 mobo, 8gb's of memory and an i5 3570k overclock it to its fullest .. you game a lot so the i7 3770k isnt worth it for you at the moment this all with the gtx 680 will be able to play most games in 1080p... thats what i'd do

 

[chronicfx]

i'd grab a z77 mobo, 8gb's of memory and an i5 3570k overclock it to its fullest .. you game a lot so the i7 3770k isnt worth it for you at the moment this all with the gtx 680 will be able to play most games in 1080p... thats what i'd do

Sounds like fun to rebuild a system but I think it would get smoked by a GTX680 SLI setup with the 920 CPU. Even in CPU heavy games. The 920 isn't that slow. If you want the fastest computer you can have and thats it, GPU upgrade will in 90% of cases beat a CPU upgrade even in MMO's. Get a fast LAN card and maybe that could help too with the online play.

 

[Showbiz]

Well I play a large variety of games, and this is a gaming machine. My point about MMOs was simply stating that performance in most MMOs are bottle necked more from CPUs then they are GPUs. Most games aren't multithreaded to any great degree either past 2-4 cores, so another 2 cores doesn't strike me as beneficial.

The monitor I'm using works fine and its the right size for my setup, I don't feel it needs upgrading as I also run a ps3 and xbox 360 off it and I'm happy with the resolution at 1920x1080 as it allows me to run close to 60fps vsynced in most games. There are some outliers that I know SLI will greatly help. Most people (without extensive experience) say SLI for 1080p is overkill, but it really depends on the game, especially if the goal is 60fps solid.

Have you looked at your CPU load during a game to see how much your CPU is pegged at? I used to play SupCom FA a lot, and as recall, that game was pretty CPU intensive as well. One day I was very surprised to learn that it never pegged my i7 920 more than 50%, and that was non overclocked at the time. So I can only imagine what your 3.8 ghz 920 is being utilized at.

 

[slh28]

To be honest I don't think your system even needs upgrading considering you're only gaming on one 1920x1080 60fps screen. If you really want to upgrade then I'd say getting another GTX 680 will give you better results, but $500 will not improve your gaming experience much at all.

 

[defaultluser]

If all you do is game, you only real upgrade option is Z77 plus 3770k...and overclock the hell out of it.

You have more than enough ram for gaming. You should have more than enough video power (assuming 1080p).

But the reality is a 920 at 4.0 GHz is damn fast. Unless you need to ditch your current platform because of stability issues, I would wait for Haswell.

EDIT: why futz around with some pile of unsupported crap from Lucid when you can just use the Adaptive V-synch that comes with your new card?

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/04/16/nvidia_adaptive_vsync_technology_review

 

[wasteomind]

If all you do is game, you only real upgrade option is Z77 plus 3770k...and overclock the hell out of it.

You have more than enough ram for gaming. You should have more than enough video power (assuming 1080p).

But the reality is a 920 at 4.0 GHz is damn fast. Unless you need to ditch your current platform because of stability issues, I would wait for Haswell.

EDIT: why futz around with some pile of unsupported crap from Lucid when you can just use the Adaptive V-synch that comes with your new card?

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/04/16/nvidia_adaptive_vsync_technology_review

Yeah I'm leaning more toward waiting for Haswell since the upgrade path I would take would end up costing me more than getting a second 680. This is due in part to needing to upgrade my waterblock mounting hardware and getting a new copy of windows 7 since I'm using an OEM version and I guess you can't transfer it to a new motherboard.

If I'm gonna drop the cash on a whole new platform it would have to be a significant step and after reading a lot of reviews and forums I'm just not convinced it would be a significant step for just gaming.

Thus I'm learning more towards going SLI since I do downsample from time to time and use SLI AA on some games (I miss it). Also in regards to your vsync question, a quote from my earlier post in this same thread:

Adaptive Vsync is not a viable solution since it introduces tearing at sub-refresh lock fps. I use a 40inch Samsung LCD TV for a screen and it has a terrible tearing issue without vsync, way more than most "computer monitors." Full vsync is the only acceptable solution to avoid stuttering/tearing. I've been happy with normal vsync.

When I questioned the Virtual Vsync it was more or less to finger out whether or not it was a viable upgrade/replacement for the current vsync solution.

 

[grambo]

From user reports I've read, Virtual Vsync (and any gaming functionality) from Lucid MVP is not well supported and a horrible experience trying to get to work. QuickSync seems to be the only useful purpose to using the iGPU.

Also, I was under the impression Virtual Vsync and NVidia's Adaptive Vsync achieved the same thing? Personally, I use Adaptive Vsync in pretty much every game I play, and love it, don't notice much tearing below 60fps (but definitely notice it above). It's a godsend for me in BF3 MP.

 

[Dirtybird]

I would jump to Ivy Bridge to go along with your Keplar gpu. Reduced heat, power consumption, and increased ipc make it a worthwhile upgrade imo.

 

[Relativist]

From user reports I've read, Virtual Vsync (and any gaming functionality) from Lucid MVP is not well supported and a horrible experience trying to get to work. QuickSync seems to be the only useful purpose to using the iGPU.

Also, I was under the impression Virtual Vsync and NVidia's Adaptive Vsync achieved the same thing? Personally, I use Adaptive Vsync in pretty much every game I play, and love it, don't notice much tearing below 60fps (but definitely notice it above). It's a godsend for me in BF3 MP.

Just out of curiosity have you tried Adaptive Vsync and found it doesn't solve the tearing issue?

It's probably just me, but for some reason I keep thinking you should get 970 while the gettings good, but for sure more ram. SLI may be the way to go in your case, is your 680 overclocked?

 

[grambo]

Just out of curiosity have you tried Adaptive Vsync and found it doesn't solve the tearing issue?

It's probably just me, but for some reason I keep thinking you should get 970 while the gettings good, but for sure more ram. SLI may be the way to go in your case, is your 680 overclocked?

I use adaptive vsync in every game I play now and it works as advertised (vsync off <60fps/Hz with slight tearing, vsync on >60fps). I notice no difference in input lag from Vsync on/TB which is what I ran before. Games tested include BF3, Diablo 3, ME3, Witcher 2 and NFS: SHIFT 2.