Can I upgrade RAM or Graphics card?

[MostWantedSoulRider]

My signature describes my system build.

1) If I choose r9 280x as an upgrade, I need to pay more.

2) If I choose RAM, I could go up to 16 GB which is really lower in price than the new graphics card

Now, it seems R9 270x itself seems to work fantastic on high end games yet not sure if it can withstand on next 4-5 years of gaming world.

Should RAM is upgraded, minor/major stuttering and lags would be vanished (I hope so).

Though I have money for graphics card, I'm thinking to save some of it and spend on RAM. This is bit puzzling me and hence I seek help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Novuake]

What are your current specs? EVERYTHING, PSU exact model especially.
What resolution do you game at? Or want to?
What games do you play?

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

What are your current specs? EVERYTHING, PSU exact model especially.
What resolution do you game at? Or want to?
What games do you play?

PSU: Cooler Master GXII 550W

Resolution: 1366*768

Games I play: Watch Dogs, Hitman Absolution, NFS Rivals, Mass Effect 3, Arkham Origins, SimCity 4 Deluxe and Tomb Raider. Will be buying more high end games in next few days.

Update: In graphics card, I don't expect crossfire. A single card would be better for my taste.

 

[jitpublisher]

Your RAM is fine. Upgrading it wont make a noticeable difference. Id say if you are experiencing sudden lags or stuttering from time time, its your hard drive. What type of hard drive are you using.

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

I think stutter with ram only happens with failing ram, 8gb of ram should be enough. You could be running out of vram, that could be causing stuttering and lags... Sub'd to learn more.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

Your RAM is fine. Upgrading it wont make a noticeable difference. Id say if you are experiencing sudden lags or stuttering from time time, its your hard drive. What type of hard drive are you using.

Oh, Will hard drive impact on performance on high end games?. I just use 500 GB Seagate SATA.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

I think stutter with ram only happens with failing ram, 8gb of ram should be enough. You could be running out of vram, that could be causing stuttering and lags... Sub'd to learn more.

Yeah, thats why I increased the paging file memory for each partition and of course, it enhanced my gaming performance especially in watch dogs which was badly stuttering in the past.

Update: My mind didn't get convinced though, lol. Can I just stay with the current configuration for next few years or any upgrade would be better to make my GAMING COMPUTER, an awesome thing?

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

As new games like Division, FC 4 and Mass Effect 4 are soon to be released, I started thinking about my current rig whether if it can work on all those games in ultra settings.

As my computer is mainly for gaming, I expect everything to be in ultra settings.

After increasing the Virtual Ram, I could see lot of performance changes in most of the games. In watch dogs, the ultra texture throws minor stuttering on my screen. So, what I thought is RAM upgrade would help me on that part.

 

[Novuake]

You have not mentioned ALL your specs? What CPU, what current graphics card, what motherboard? EVERYTHING is needed to make a decent recommendation.
But something to note, an R9 270x or R9 280 would be complete overkill for your resolution, those cards are designed for 1080p, and would be wasted on such a low resolution.

EDIT: Ah i see your specs in your signature.

Right so you have no reason to upgrade ANYTHING, DO NOT make changes to virtual RAM/page file. Your performance will not increase from either a RAM or graphics card upgrade.

Something to note is that there are games like WatchDogs which require a sizable CPU overclock to run consistently on ultra settings
This proves that the game is CPU clock rate bound and you can do nothing about untill A. a better CPU releases, or B. you overclock your CPU, which you can not do.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

You have not mentioned ALL your specs? What CPU, what current graphics card, what motherboard? EVERYTHING is needed to make a decent recommendation.
But something to note, an R9 270x or R9 280 would be complete overkill for your resolution, those cards are designed for 1080p, and would be wasted on such a low resolution.

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

You have not mentioned ALL your specs? What CPU, what current graphics card, what motherboard? EVERYTHING is needed to make a decent recommendation.
But something to note, an R9 270x or R9 280 would be complete overkill for your resolution, those cards are designed for 1080p, and would be wasted on such a low resolution.

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

No, a higher resolution lowers your gaming performance. But 1080p would definitely look a lot better, but your FPS (Frames Per Second) are going to drop... a lot.

 

[Novuake]

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

Apologies.

Read my previous post too...

"Right so you have no reason to upgrade ANYTHING, DO NOT make changes to virtual RAM/page file. Your performance will not increase from either a RAM or graphics card upgrade.

Something to note is that there are games like WatchDogs which require a sizable CPU overclock to run consistently on ultra settings
This proves that the game is CPU clock rate bound and you can do nothing about until A. a better CPU releases, or B. you overclock your CPU, which you can not do."

And no, 1080p will not improve your performance. 1080p will definitely cause you to get LOWER FPS, BUT the images will be clearer with a lot better colour fidelity.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

You have not mentioned ALL your specs? What CPU, what current graphics card, what motherboard? EVERYTHING is needed to make a decent recommendation.
But something to note, an R9 270x or R9 280 would be complete overkill for your resolution, those cards are designed for 1080p, and would be wasted on such a low resolution.

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

No, a higher resolution lowers your gaming performance. But 1080p would definitely look a lot better, but your FPS (Frames Per Second) are going to drop... a lot.

But, as Novuake said, R9 270x is basically designed to play in 1080P.. so I don't think there would be a major frame drop.

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

You have not mentioned ALL your specs? What CPU, what current graphics card, what motherboard? EVERYTHING is needed to make a decent recommendation.
But something to note, an R9 270x or R9 280 would be complete overkill for your resolution, those cards are designed for 1080p, and would be wasted on such a low resolution.

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

No, a higher resolution lowers your gaming performance. But 1080p would definitely look a lot better, but your FPS (Frames Per Second) are going to drop... a lot.

But, as Novuake said, R9 270x is basically designed to play in 1080P.. so I don't think there would be a major frame drop.

Yes there is going to be a 270x IS NOT going to run everything on ULTRA like you want @ 1080p. If you lower settings sure it will play every game out there @ 60FPS, I have a 680 and it doesn't run every game on ultra @ 1080p with super sampling and AA cranked all of the way up.

 

[Novuake]

But, as Novuake said, R9 270x is basically designed to play in 1080P.. so I don't think there would be a major frame drop.

Yes, there will be a considerable frame rate decrease. But as long as its above 30FPS, it will be acceptable for most people, some people have higher FPS thresholds though.
I personally prefer FPS of 42 in most, but lower does not bother me in RPGs or MMOs.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

Apologies.

Read my previous post too...

"Right so you have no reason to upgrade ANYTHING, DO NOT make changes to virtual RAM/page file. Your performance will not increase from either a RAM or graphics card upgrade.

Something to note is that there are games like WatchDogs which require a sizable CPU overclock to run consistently on ultra settings
This proves that the game is CPU clock rate bound and you can do nothing about until A. a better CPU releases, or B. you overclock your CPU, which you can not do."

And no, 1080p will not improve your performance. 1080p will definitely cause you to get LOWER FPS, BUT the images will be clearer with a lot better colour fidelity.

It's okay, no problem. Before I saw this post, I read your EDIT part

1) Yes, now I could understand about the resolution part. I am thinking to afford a TN Panel Screen soon for cheaper rate. Any ideas/suggestions on that?

2) Discussing about the paging file, I didn't go beyond the RECOMMENDED value. Intentionally, I set the paging file memory a bit higher than the recommended size and my keyboard with mouse started lagging. So, I came down to the best values and since then, Watch Dogs is working far better.

3) Also, the game (watch dogs) in ultra texture, faced only a minor frame drop (around 10). Like you said about the game bound to CPU's Clock Rate, will i7 can bring positive changes?

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

But, as Novuake said, R9 270x is basically designed to play in 1080P.. so I don't think there would be a major frame drop.

Yes, there will be a considerable frame rate decrease. But as long as its above 30FPS, it will be acceptable for most people, some people have higher FPS thresholds though.
I personally prefer FPS of 42 in most, but lower does not bother me in RPGs or MMOs.

For me, 30 FPS doesn't bother me much. It looks good for me. Also, I have been seeing few youtube videos to know more about this card when it is stressed in WATCH DOGS. I observed the frame rate seems to be similar between 768P and 1080P.

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

Oh.. so a 1080P monitor can uplift my gaming performance? that's nice.

And I've already mentioned in the thread that the specs are in my signature. But I will type it again for you.


Intel Core i5-4670 ** Gigabyte H87M-D3H ** MSI R9 270X OC ** GXII 550W PSU ** Kingston Hyper X 8GB (2x4) 1600Mhz ** Acer Gateway KX1563 - 1366 x 768 Native Resolution

Apologies.

Read my previous post too...

"Right so you have no reason to upgrade ANYTHING, DO NOT make changes to virtual RAM/page file. Your performance will not increase from either a RAM or graphics card upgrade.

Something to note is that there are games like WatchDogs which require a sizable CPU overclock to run consistently on ultra settings
This proves that the game is CPU clock rate bound and you can do nothing about until A. a better CPU releases, or B. you overclock your CPU, which you can not do."

And no, 1080p will not improve your performance. 1080p will definitely cause you to get LOWER FPS, BUT the images will be clearer with a lot better colour fidelity.

It's okay, no problem. Before I saw this post, I read your EDIT part

1) Yes, now I could understand about the resolution part. I am thinking to afford a TN Panel Screen soon for cheaper rate. Any ideas/suggestions on that?

2) Discussing about the paging file, I didn't go beyond the RECOMMENDED value. Intentionally, I set the paging file memory a bit higher than the recommended size and my keyboard with mouse started lagging. So, I came down to the best values and since then, Watch Dogs is working far better.

3) Also, the game (watch dogs) in ultra texture, faced only a minor frame drop (around 10). Like you said about the game bound to CPU's Clock Rate, will i7 can bring positive changes?

What you needed was an unlocked k cpu, that allows you to get a higher clock rate. Yes the i7-4790k has a higher clock rate, but you have an i5 already. Just stick with the i5 and upgrade in a few years time if needs be.

 

[Novuake]

Don't use YouTube as a source. You have no idea to verify what they show/tell you.

Anyway.

1. Any TN or IPS panel with 5ms response time and 60Hz refresh rate will do. They are mostly the same. Read a review or 2 before purchasing one.

2. There is no reason to change the paging file UNLESS you have a small amount of RAM, 2GB, even then the changes will be positive in some cases and negative in others.
Without knowing how WatchDogs handles its RAM caching I can only guess why you are getting lower FPS after changing it, but it seems to be trying to use your HDD for texture caching, which is a VERY bad idea for a conventional hard drive.

Reset it to default.

3. An i7 for your current 1150 system will give a VERY small improvement(less than 10FPS), not even close to worth the cost though.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

What you needed was an unlocked k cpu, that allows you to get a higher clock rate. Yes the i7-4790k has a higher clock rate, but you have an i5 already. Just stick with the i5 and upgrade in a few years time if needs be.

Since I don't want to overclock, I bought the non-k version. New games like Division and FC4 are coming up. What scares me is what if those new games have lot of stuttering issues just like watch dogs did. What I feel is R9 270x is giving out a wonderful performance on graphics but CPU is not good enough for the new upcoming games and the users (like me, hehe) who expect 99% performance on ultra graphics.

But i7 3770k itself costs very close to R9 280X. In the next few years, I don't think price would fall down in my region yet tax is negligible. As I have some money now, I thought to use it wisely on my computer 'ON TIME'. I'm sorry if I'm pulling you a lot into this but I asked whatever I had in my mind.

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

Don't use YouTube as a source. You have no idea to verify what they show/tell you.

Anyway.

1. Any TN or IPS panel with 5ms response time and 60Hz refresh rate will do. They are mostly the same. Read a review or 2 before purchasing one.

2. There is no reason to change the paging file UNLESS you have a small amount of RAM, 2GB, even then the changes will be positive in some cases and negative in others.
Without knowing how WatchDogs handles its RAM caching I can only guess why you are getting lower FPS after changing it, but it seems to be trying to use your HDD for texture caching, which is a VERY bad idea for a conventional hard drive.

Reset it to default.

3. An i7 for your current 1150 system will give a VERY small improvement(less than 10FPS), not even close to worth the cost though.

Thank you so much for the facts.

I will reset it to default then. So, a better HDD can give a boost for my gaming performance? If so, I can upgrade that, right?

Update: meantime, I saw a review somewhere on this internet world, stating that TN panel would be much better for gaming rather than using IPS which is said to be a good one for image editing and other stuff.

and I don't get any changes in FPS for changing the paging file memory but stuttering got decreased.

 

[Novuake]

Thank you so much for the facts.

I will reset it to default then. So, a better HDD can give a boost for my gaming performance? If so, I can upgrade that, right?

Update: meantime, I saw a review somewhere on this internet world, stating that TN panel would be much better for gaming rather than using IPS which is said to be a good one for image editing and other stuff.

and I don't get any changes in FPS for changing the paging file memory but stuttering got decreased.

Nope, better HDD will not improve performance significantly when only check FPS counter, you WILL load into games faster with an SSD and in some rare cases you can get faster texture "snap-ins"(only applies to certain open world games like Skyrim for example).

Short answer, FPS improvements, NO improvement! Natural texture loading of HDD, YES improvement!

Since you seem to not like any momentary stutter, an SSD would benefit you.

As for TN vs IPS panels :

IPS important points :
MUCH clearer colours and larger colour palette.
Softer on the eyes, for those long gaming/working sessions.
Darker colours/scenes still have decent definition instead of glare or less definition of TN panels.
Limited to 60Hz, so FPS above 60FPS will not make a difference.

TN important point :
Cheaper for same specs.
Can find them up till 144Hz. But anything above 60Hz becomes needlessly expensive.
Dark colours are not clear.

The reason I prefer IPS is mainly because of the darkness issue or whats known as a lack of Contrast.
Consider this, when you play a game and your in a very dark area with little light.
How often can you actually distinguish detail?
You usually have to up the GAMMA or BRIGHTNESS of the monitor to actually see any detail, this over-saturates the area in white, which looks horrible in my opinion.

Again, that's my preference, I will admit, its purely MY reason to choose IPS.

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

You could pick up a cheap SSD, that would help with some of the micro stutter, I like IPS it is easier on my eyes ( I have -4 something) so staring at screens a long time sucks for me. I think your system with a SSD and a new monitor will be great for your needs, I think you will enjoy the monitor upgrade a lot!

 

[MostWantedSoulRider]

You could pick up a cheap SSD, that would help with some of the micro stutter, I like IPS it is easier on my eyes ( I have -4 something) so staring at screens a long time sucks for me. I think your system with a SSD and a new monitor will be great for your needs, I think you will enjoy the monitor upgrade a lot!

Mine's -2.75 lol. I'm thinking the same about SSD. 500 GB/1 TB SSD would do the trick.

 

[Novuake]

That's a bit much, 120GB / 256GB is enough.