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Upgrade path is a hard decision...

X

Xa3phod

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 19, 2012
Messages
170
So, I'm itching to upgrade, but I don't want to throw money into the wind where I won't see any noticeable increase in performance. Mind you, the performance I refer to is for FPS gaming. I rarely do any workstation type of work, but I do occasionally recode video and I HATE waiting for video to recode. I don't want to get a constant 40-50fps in games like Planetside 2, I want 60+ with all bells and whistles on max. 40-50 with occasional drops into the 30s is unacceptable to me.

So, this is my current build. (Go for SLI? New CPU/Mobo/Ram?)

Asus P8P67-M PRO
2500K Overclocked to 4.329Ghz with Evo212.
Evga GTX970 (Not Overclocked..when I try it never works)
16 gigs dominator ram.
2 SSD. One for OS, one for games.
1 HHD, 2 TB of storage.


So, what do you guys think? I know the 2500K is a wonderful chip, I love it. Its able to run anything that is out today, but can it run it well enough to achieve my needs? Will another GTX970 make my dreams happen? Or do I need a GTX980ti or a Fuxy?

Please advise
Thanks!
 
I'd step up to a i7 6700K or i5 6600K, keep the 970 and see if you feel like you still want to upgrade.
 
But if I spend the cash on a 6700K, then I already upgraded. Will the performance increase be very noticeable?
 
If all you do is gaming, an i7 is overkill. Look into i5 or even i3. That being said, I cannot comment on what is bottlenecking you in that game. Fire it up and monitor gpu and cpu utilization to see which is peaking. That's what is causing your fps wall.
 
What resolution are you playing at? Your cpu is just fine for gaming so let's take a look at the GPU side of things.
 
I'd get a better HSF first, try to push as close to 5GHz as possible. A bigass air cooler will pay for itself many times over -- I've had the Prolimatech Megahalems for like, 3 builds now -- just had to buy a conversion kit for LGA 1155. The Evo is a nice budget OC HSF (hence all the recommendations here -- most people balk at spending $50+ on a HSF but want something better than stock), but it's on the small side. What are your temps like? Can you push it further with the Evo? Your chip is getting older and you're considering replacing it anyway, so I'd say push the voltage up a little and go for it. Don't go crazy and blow the thing up, but if it dies in 3-5 years from voltage instead of 20, do you really care? I had to get my 2500K to 4.7Ghz to get 60FPS stable in The Witcher 3. Granted, Planetside isn't exactly a AAA title, so you should be getting better FPS anyway. Do you know what most people playing it are running to get 60FPS clean? Or is it like Blade and Soul, just so horribly optimized that there's no hope. Don't chase the dragon without figuring out if you can even catch it first. ;)

You say OCing the 970 "never works" -- what happens? What software are you using, and what's your method/the tutorial you followed? What wattage/brand/model is your PSU, and how old? If you're getting hard locks with mild OCs you might be pushing it too far -- could be on the way out.

Let's get this out of the way -- 970 SLI is stupid in 90% of scenarios given current price points. If you're at a high enough res that you need SLI for 60FPS you can run in to VRAM issues and then you're screwed all over again, and that's assuming you're playing something that scales well or at all. I tend to run multi-GPU (have for my last 3 builds) but I'm insanely demanding, patient with the tweaking, and even then it's not without issues. I'm also running 3440x1440 and was planning to run 4K when I bought the GPUs; couldn't find a sanely priced 4K TV that made a good monitor, so I ended up with a Dell U3415W. At 1920x1200 a single card should be plenty.

If the 970 isn't enough, sell it and get a 980Ti or Fury X (whichever works best with the games you play -- look at reviews). At this point though, as most will likely say, I'd wait for Pascal if I were you. The 980Ti is Maxwell's swan-song, and if rumors are right at all Pascal isn't just a die-shrink and tweak on Maxwell, but a very different architecture that should do much better than Maxwell when "real" DX12 games hit.

If you /do/ end up going Skylake stay the hell away from i3. A 6600K i5 should be plenty for gaming, but if you don't mind spending the extra cash a 6700K i7 will tear through video encoding even faster thanks to hyperthreading.
 
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Great reply Silent-Circuit. Thanks for being so specific.

The 970 is an EVGA GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0.
GPU Clock:1165 MHz
Boost Clock:1316 MHz
Memory Clock: 7012 MHz effective

and I used MSI Afterburner with a couple of guides I found online using the valley benchmark. Maybe I just do it wrong, but when I try to even moderately overclock, it crashes so hard I have to go back into my bios to reset the drive order...seriously.

I'll see if I can clock higher, but I found that going anything higher than what I have causes crashes/glitching.

Thanks again.
 
4.3Ghz is nowhere near the limit of that chip; granted, I've used full size Z68 and Z77 boards, higher end with better power delivery than the P8-P67-M Pro, and chips do vary... but my understanding is mine isn't a "good one" so you should be able to do better. Of course mATX boards have to cut corners somewhere due to size -- you may just be limited by the board. Do you have a full size case that'd support a standard ATX board? If so, an Intel Z77 board with a single slot runs like $50 or less on Ebay (and I mean built by Intel)... might be worth considering, rather than $700 on a Skylake rebuild. You'd get better USB 3.0 support, too. I know people rat on Intel boards, but after using the DZ77GA-70K I'm legitimately sad they left the board market a couple years ago -- if there were an Intel-built Z170 Extreme Edition board, I'd be all over that.

What are your CPU temps like? What voltage are you running to reach 4.33Ghz? Focus on getting the CPU higher (if possible) using like, OCCT for testing, then once we get that stable we'll work on the 970.

Still need to know about your PSU. Wattage/age/brand/model.

I don't even know what stock clocks are for a 970. I'll do a little research and check back in a bit.
 
BCLK Freq is 103Mhz
CPU Voltage is 1.285
DDR Voltage is 1.5

I have a huge case, a Coolmaster Cosmos. I think another mobo would be like patching a sinking ship.
 
Xa3phod said:
I have a huge case, a Coolmaster Cosmos. I think another mobo would be like patching a sinking ship.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm familiar with the Cosmos -- I had an ATCS840 at one point.

If Intel DZ77SL-50K boards were still running $35 shipped on eBay instead of the madness that is asking $65 for one (I think I paid around that for my 70K SLI board) I would disagree. As it is, either we make your current setup work or it's time for a new one.

What ever possessed you to get a mATX board? ( ;) ) Don't do that again -- full size ATX tends to have better power delivery, which means better OCs and better stability.

I'll look in to OCing again -- honestly, I learned enough to push my chip one drunken evening and forgot most of it shortly thereafter. Everyone says LGA1155 is easier, but I remember when I had an X3220 (Xeon version of Q6600) and it was never this complicated.


What PSU are you using? How old? Model? Wattage? Amps on 12v rail? I've asked 2x now. ;)
 
Overlooking is never guaranteed. 4.3 is good enough for games, pushing to 4.7 might get you a couple percent more fps but nothing noteworthy. Your talking perhaps a 7% increase in games which is 4fps.

Your 970 should be giving you those framerates you are seeking so like silent said upgrade to a 980ti would be your best bet but snagging an additional 970 and running sli for a few months until pascal hits wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Upgrading now Imo is a waste unless you have the disposable income around to do so.
 
Xa3phod said:
The PSU is a 1000watt platinum Coolmax ZP-1000B.
Click to expand...

Also never buy Coolmax again. Granted, rated at 1000w it's probably really a 5 or 600w, so you should be fine with your setup.

Quote from a post on another site:
other site said:
CoolMax
Model Watts Problems and Issues Reviews
Green Power 500 Not 500 watts as advertised. Couldn't do over 450W in either the cold or hot tests. Voltage regulation was awful. jonnyGURU
CUG-700B 700 Not a 700 watt psu as advertised. Exploded during testing. No OCP. jonnyGURU
CUG-950B 950 Not 950 watts as advertised. Can only deliver 700 watts at room temperature. Dangerously high ripple above 700W. Can't cool itself well above 700W. Very poor voltage regulation above 700W. Very poor efficiency above 700W. OCP/OVP/UVP did not not work. jonnyGURU
V-500 500 Cannot deliver advertised wattage. Very Poor efficiency. Voltages out of spec. Noise and ripple above maximum allowed. Hardware Secrets
ZP-750B 750 Advertised as having 80 Plus Bronze Certification but it does not. Advertised as 750 watts but can only deliver 450 watts. Burned at 500 watts. Hardware Secrets 1, Hardware Secrets 2
ZP-850B 850 Advertised as having 80 Plus Bronze Certification but it does not. Hardware Secrets
ZP-1000B 1,000 Advertised as having 80 Plus Bronze Certification but it does not. Hardware Secrets
Click to expand...

Your unit at least hasn't been confirm as being weaker than advertised, from what I could find, but it's definitely not high quality. Also, the ZP-1000B is a Bronze unit, not Platinum.

EDIT: I realize I might come off heavy-handed... I just don't like to see people's shit catch on fire.
 
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Fire would give me the excuse to upgrade the whole thing :) But yeah, fire bad.
 
Xa3phod said:
Fire would give me the excuse to upgrade the whole thing :) But yeah, fire bad.
Click to expand...

Dude I been there. I had what, an Antec Quiet Power 450w (not even a bad unit!) I overloaded / kept too long once (caps get weaker over time). Heard a pop, fire spews out the back of my machine.... fun times.

Really though, no more Coolmax. Pinky promise -- that shit is binding.

I may have been drinking a little.
 
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