Advice on Upgrading PC for Gaming
December 12th, 2013
Here is my current setup:
CPU: AMD Athlon 7750 Dual-core 2.7 GHz
RAM: 3 GB PC2-8500
Video card: ASUS EAH4670 (512 MB VRAM, 750 MHz, 128-bit memory interface)
I was thinking of getting a new ASUS EAH6850 (1 GB VRAM, 790 MHz, 256-bit memory interface). Would that, by itself, improve my gaming performance? Or, would I need a new CPU, too? I just got a couple new 1680×1050 monitors and I’d like to play games at full resolution on one of them. I’m going to be getting Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 when they come out. I had to play GTA IV at medium quality to prevent stuttering. If I re-installed GTA IV, would the new card help with that? Thanks.
well, im no expert myself but maybe u can provide others with your current motherboard, and with HD 6850 and ur current CPU i think it will bottleneck so u should upgrade ur CPU as well…
ok. Thanks for the reply. My motherboard is an ASUS M4A78 Plus.
If you want to keep the board and the memory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103885
Video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948
Personally I suggest waiting for Bulldozer and do a major overhaul.
Thanks, but those CPUs are for Socket AM3 motherboards. My motherboard has an AM2+ socket. That video card looks good, though.
AM2+ socket can run AM3 CPU’s
AM2+ socket can run AM3 CPU's
But they can’t run Bulldozer and Bulldozer isn’t AM3 it’s AM3+ and even then you’ll need a newer board.
Macaw54 replied: Thanks, but those CPUs are for Socket AM3 motherboards. My motherboard has an AM2+ socket. That video card looks good, though.
That is where you are wrong, you only need a bios update (See capability list).
Sure you will lose a bit of memory bandwidth due to slower memory, its not a big difference in gaming.
If AM2+ can’t support AM3 CPU’s or AM3+ can’t support AM3 CPU.
AMD will not have any marketing strategies besides price competition.
Your CPU is weak and it WILL bottleneck your graphics card.
-paroxysM^ replied: AM2+ socket can run AM3 CPU's
But they can't run Bulldozer and Bulldozer isn't AM3 it's AM3+ and even then you'll need a newer board.
i was on about the phenom II 955 that was posted up.
Shah_Jahan replied: Your CPU is weak and it WILL bottleneck your graphics card.
It looks like you were right. The new HIS H679F1GD graphics card I bought lets me play GTA IV at high quality, now — I think mostly because of the extra VRAM. But the game stutters when I drive too fast and when I get in large gun fights. So, I just ordered a new AMD quad-core Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition (3.7GHz). It should be here later this week.
Macaw54 replied: It looks like you were right. The new HIS H679F1GD graphics card I bought lets me play GTA IV at high quality, now -- I think mostly because of the extra VRAM. But the game stutters when I drive too fast and when I get in large gun fights. So, I just ordered a new AMD quad-core Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition (3.7GHz). It should be here later this week.
Tomorrow AMD Bulldozers are to be released and for around the same price you could have got a six-core AMD FX-6100 with 3.9GHZ (Turbo) and with it’s supposedly better architecture it would be fast at the core speeds than the previous models. And for a little more you could get an Octa-Core.
Shah_Jahan replied: Macaw54 replied: It looks like you were right. The new HIS H679F1GD graphics card I bought lets me play GTA IV at high quality, now -- I think mostly because of the extra VRAM. But the game stutters when I drive too fast and when I get in large gun fights. So, I just ordered a new AMD quad-core Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition (3.7GHz). It should be here later this week.
Tomorrow AMD Bulldozers are to be released and for around the same price you could have got a six-core AMD FX-6100 with 3.9GHZ (Turbo) and with it's supposedly better architecture it would be fast at the core speeds than the previous models. And for a little more you could get an Octa-Core.
Yeah. But that’s not counting the cost of a new motherboard. It’s enough of a pain installing a new CPU.
I made the same mistake as you did. I bought a new dell pc with a six core phenom and a 5870 when sand bridge was to be launched in a week. Afaik you should have upgraded to a new architecture.
arnavk007 replied: I made the same mistake as you did. I bought a new dell pc with a six core phenom and a 5870 when sand bridge was to be launched in a week. Afaik you should have upgraded to a new architecture.
Hardly anyone needs to get the full potential out of their hardware just by playing a few games. Most of the time its just office work and internet.
I wouldn’t even upgrade at all till the current ones break, judging by his upgrade methods, you’d know that he is on a shortage of cash and no one likes waiting.
You don’t want to try out a GeForce card? Koroush Ghazi from TweakGuides.com always recommend a Nvidia gpu. I suggest you get an Asus GTX460 like mine or an Asus GTX560….Wait…getting their model…
P.S.
ASUS ENGTX460 DC TOP GeForce GTX 460 256bit 1GB DDR5 (RM695)
ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC GeForce GTX 560 256bit 1GB DDR5 (RM745)
There’s a little difference to the price between these two models as you can see from the price list on above. Thus, a GTX560 is highly recommended.
P.P.S.
Check this out.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2011/09/01/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-september-2011/1