CPU or GPU upgrade for DayZ Standalone (SA)

[antixher025]

I can play DayZ relatively fine, with fps ranging drastically from 4-70fps. around 20-30fps outside and 50fps+ inside houses.

Specs
i5 4430 3Ghz
R9 270x 2gb

I really want to improve my performance, on somewhat of a tight budget, looking to buy one or the other at the moment. Should I go for a CPU upgrade to an unlocked i7? Or a GTX 960 or 970? (970 is sort of a stretch, as far as money goes.)

Any and all help with be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Thats how pretty much every system I have ever seen runs that unoptimized mess of a game, at least back when the standlaone first relased and I have heard not much was done to improve performance. Do you have any friends you play with that get better performance with different specs? I would need to know your cpu usage while playing and your gpu usage while playing before I can recommend anything that might help, you can find out with software like msi afterburner

 

[antixher025]

Thats how pretty much every system I have ever seen runs that unoptimized mess of a game, at least back when the standlaone first relased and I have heard not much was done to improve performance. Do you have any friends you play with that get better performance with different specs? I would need to know your cpu usage while playing and your gpu usage while playing before I can recommend anything that might help, you can find out with software like msi afterburner

I'm at about 41% cpu load and 52% gpu load. My friend has almost the same cpu but with a much better gpu and he crushes all games pretty much. i5 4440 3.2 ghz and gtx 970. I am strongly considering the gtx 960 2gb for 230$cdn after rebate (http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-4c-105153-1230.htm), but pondering the idea of just saving the extra money for an r9 380 4gb. Any thoughts?

 

[gokitty199]

Thats how pretty much every system I have ever seen runs that unoptimized mess of a game, at least back when the standlaone first relased and I have heard not much was done to improve performance. Do you have any friends you play with that get better performance with different specs? I would need to know your cpu usage while playing and your gpu usage while playing before I can recommend anything that might help, you can find out with software like msi afterburner

I'm at about 41% cpu load and 52% gpu load. My friend has almost the same cpu but with a much better gpu and he crushes all games pretty much. i5 4440 3.2 ghz and gtx 970. I am strongly considering the gtx 960 2gb for 230$cdn after rebate (http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-4c-105153-1230.htm), but pondering the idea of just saving the extra money for an r9 380 4gb. Any thoughts?

get a 6600k or 4690k, a good cooler and overclock the crap out of it for dayz

 

[antixher025]

Thats how pretty much every system I have ever seen runs that unoptimized mess of a game, at least back when the standlaone first relased and I have heard not much was done to improve performance. Do you have any friends you play with that get better performance with different specs? I would need to know your cpu usage while playing and your gpu usage while playing before I can recommend anything that might help, you can find out with software like msi afterburner

I'm at about 41% cpu load and 52% gpu load. My friend has almost the same cpu but with a much better gpu and he crushes all games pretty much. i5 4440 3.2 ghz and gtx 970. I am strongly considering the gtx 960 2gb for 230$cdn after rebate (http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-4c-105153-1230.htm), but pondering the idea of just saving the extra money for an r9 380 4gb. Any thoughts?

get a 6600k or 4690k, a good cooler and overclock the crap out of it for dayz

Is that my best bet for improving frames? 4960k oc to somewhere around 4.2ghz? Is my cpu really the bottleneck? I also struggle to play space engineers, although I'm not sure of how cpu or gpu intensive that game is.

 

[gokitty199]

Thats how pretty much every system I have ever seen runs that unoptimized mess of a game, at least back when the standlaone first relased and I have heard not much was done to improve performance. Do you have any friends you play with that get better performance with different specs? I would need to know your cpu usage while playing and your gpu usage while playing before I can recommend anything that might help, you can find out with software like msi afterburner

I'm at about 41% cpu load and 52% gpu load. My friend has almost the same cpu but with a much better gpu and he crushes all games pretty much. i5 4440 3.2 ghz and gtx 970. I am strongly considering the gtx 960 2gb for 230$cdn after rebate (http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-4c-105153-1230.htm), but pondering the idea of just saving the extra money for an r9 380 4gb. Any thoughts?

get a 6600k or 4690k, a good cooler and overclock the crap out of it for dayz

Is that my best bet for improving frames? 4960k oc to somewhere around 4.2ghz? Is my cpu really the bottleneck? I also struggle to play space engineers, although I'm not sure of how cpu or gpu intensive that game is.

idk about space engineers, however for dayz/arma, your best bet is getting a 4690k(im assuming you dont wnat to spend money on skylake) and overclocking it, you should be able to hit 4.4ghz without to much trouble and ill help you if needed. the cpu makes the biggest difference in that game, keep in mind their releasing their new renderer at the 0.60 update for experimental soon, and thats the first of many changes to go on for improving visuals and performance. why dont you upgrade to a better gpu like the 970 for now(if you can, i wouldnt bother with the jump from the 270x to the 960) since that will make a much bigger difference in other games and help you out more in general than just dayz. keep in mind youll be getting a decent bump in performance in dayz anyways here soon and overtime.

 

[Ecky]

DayZ runs best with the fastest single-core CPU you can get.

For instance, a Pentium G3258 overclocked to 4.8ghz generally outperforms a Core i7 5960x overclocked to 4.5ghz, despite the the i7 having EIGHT TIMES more threads, and four times as many cores.

Moving up to a 4690K with a healthy ~4.4ghz OC will give you around 25-35% more FPS where CPU-limited, which would bring your 4fps situations up to around 5fps, 20fps up to around 26fps.

 

[antixher025]

Thats how pretty much every system I have ever seen runs that unoptimized mess of a game, at least back when the standlaone first relased and I have heard not much was done to improve performance. Do you have any friends you play with that get better performance with different specs? I would need to know your cpu usage while playing and your gpu usage while playing before I can recommend anything that might help, you can find out with software like msi afterburner

I'm at about 41% cpu load and 52% gpu load. My friend has almost the same cpu but with a much better gpu and he crushes all games pretty much. i5 4440 3.2 ghz and gtx 970. I am strongly considering the gtx 960 2gb for 230$cdn after rebate (http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-4c-105153-1230.htm), but pondering the idea of just saving the extra money for an r9 380 4gb. Any thoughts?

get a 6600k or 4690k, a good cooler and overclock the crap out of it for dayz

Is that my best bet for improving frames? 4960k oc to somewhere around 4.2ghz? Is my cpu really the bottleneck? I also struggle to play space engineers, although I'm not sure of how cpu or gpu intensive that game is.

idk about space engineers, however for dayz/arma, your best bet is getting a 4690k(im assuming you dont wnat to spend money on skylake) and overclocking it, you should be able to hit 4.4ghz without to much trouble and ill help you if needed. the cpu makes the biggest difference in that game, keep in mind their releasing their new renderer at the 0.60 update for experimental soon, and thats the first of many changes to go on for improving visuals and performance. why dont you upgrade to a better gpu like the 970 for now(if you can, i wouldnt bother with the jump from the 270x to the 960) since that will make a much bigger difference in other games and help you out more in general than just dayz. keep in mind youll be getting a decent bump in performance in dayz anyways here soon and overtime.

In that case I think i'll be purchasing the 4690k, any suggestions for a cooler? Not looking into water cooling just yet, perhaps a cheaper heatsink+fan combo, rather than the more expensive.

 

[Ecky]

Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, or Cryorig H7.