I need some help deciding on what to buy for my upgrade...

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bengolden

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Nov 15, 2013
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I currently am running:
xFx Nforce 790i ultra Mobo
Yorkfield Q9550 @3.6ghz
2x4gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer @1600mhz
SLI GTX 460's (1gb each)

I am looking for some help deciding on which route to go. I can do an I5 4670k Haswell with an ASRock mobo and 8gb gskill ripjaws x for around $380

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157448
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

Or I can do an AMD 750k Trinity, R9 270x 2gb, msi mobo and the same ram for about $400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127761
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113328
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130662
(same ram)

Is it worth replacing my 2 gtx 460's?

Im am basically looking to upgrade and stay around the $400 mark.

PLEASE HELP!!!

EDIT: My current setup allows me to play pretty much everything on max settings (BO2, Smite, LoL, Hearthstone and several others) But I have a MAJOR issue with BF4 having to run at minimum settings... It is time to give my gaming rig a refresher.
 
Solution
JOOK-D
It seems as though the next AMD line will be FM2+/AM3+ (most likely the first), and the intel one will be on socket 1150, following on from haswell.

Forgive me, I misread your post. Out of those 2 options I'd choose the 4670k option since you'll have an upgrade path in future (I thought it said 3570k at first). You probably won't see too much of a performance boost for right now, but you can save up for a new GPU like a 280x or 7970 and then you'll see the big difference. I wouldn't go for the FM2 unless you're very strictly budget and need a performance boost right now because it could leave you s.o.l in future.
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Your first option would get you a superior CPU while your second option would get you a newer, all around better GPU. You can keep your GTX 460's but they are starting to show their age. I currently run 2 GTX 480's and while they are still doing good things, they are at the end of their life cycle. What is most important to you? Do your current GPU's play the games you want at the frame rates you want? Or.... Do you want a faster CPU so that you may support higher end graphics and in game physics...
 
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That is a tough question, the more I read, the more I am leaning towards the Intel build. Although that would leave me still stuck with the 460s, they do work fine for now and I am pretty sure that I am running into a CPU bottleneck on BF4 (no clue how to check that).

Would also allow me the freedom to further upgrade in the future. I just want to get some good opinions before I pull the trigger.
 
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Most people seem to have a problem with BF4. Even some mid-higher end rigs don't get a steady 60.

I do think its worth replacing the 460s. Personally, I'd go for a FX 6300 if your budget can stretch that bit further. Personally, I'd try save and get something better than a 270x, maybe a 280x.

Also the AMD mobo you picked out seems to have a high failure rate, and is quite budget so you won't be able to overclock that CPU much. So you might want to look for another, possibly.

If I was in your position I'd upgrade my GPU first. Get a beefy 3gb card, such as the 7970 or the R9 280x since that CPU should still be able to handle most games. If it really is bottlenecking then just go with that AMD build, you'll see more of a benefit out of getting that AMD lot rather than the intel because the intel one lacks a new GPU, and I feel as if that's what is holding your system back.

 
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grab the i5 and the assrock without the ram because you already have ram and you might be able to squeze in the 270x for a little extra.or stay with the gpus you already have. frostbite requies having a good cpu 😉.
 
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The ram I am using is over 4 years old. I need to upgrade from 4 to 8gb anyway. I would assume I want the SAME ram and not to search ebay and craigslist for mates to mine.
 
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It seems as though the next AMD line will be FM2+/AM3+ (most likely the first), and the intel one will be on socket 1150, following on from haswell.

Forgive me, I misread your post. Out of those 2 options I'd choose the 4670k option since you'll have an upgrade path in future (I thought it said 3570k at first). You probably won't see too much of a performance boost for right now, but you can save up for a new GPU like a 280x or 7970 and then you'll see the big difference. I wouldn't go for the FM2 unless you're very strictly budget and need a performance boost right now because it could leave you s.o.l in future.
 
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Solution


Open up the task manager to the performance tab and make sure you set it to see all cores... Set the update speed to slow and leave it open when you play. as soon as you have played a minute or 2 during some slow frame rates, minimize the game and see if your cores were maxed out or close to it. If so then your CPU is the bottleneck. You can do the same for the GPU's, I use MSI Afterburner and take note of what the GPU1 Core and the GPU2 Core are doing. You will get to see if they max out or in one case I had, I noticed that SLI wasn't working on a game because GPU2 Core was not moving while GPU1 was maxed out...
 
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one more question Jook, if I take the Haswell route (the mobo is already slated for sli so i can use my 460s till i can upgrade them), what GPU would you recommend to replace my trusty 460s on an Intel build??
 
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Quick note....
You of course need to build around the performance you desire in the games you play... Just keep in mind you want a balanced system. You do not want the CPU, GPU, or RAM bottlenecking each other because then, you will be running a $400 GPU at the performance level of a $200 GPU... I am just using this as an example, nobody get anal retentive over the numbers.
 
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This is a hugely open ended question! I recommend 2 GTX 780 Ti's but then again, what is your budget? 😛
 
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I'd recommend one of the nice 3gb models when you can get one. Something like a 7970, R9 280x (but get a branded model, not a reference one since they run HOT). AMD GPUs tend to have the best price/performance ratio at the moment, however if you find a deal on an nvidia card with similar performance you could go for that instead (I don't know too much about them so it's difficult to recommend one, you can always look up benchmarks if you like). It's likely you'll see much better performance out of a single card than you are currently seeing out of SLI since not all games support it/produce microstutter instead.
 
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Looks like with bf4 on minimum settings im using 3.5g of my 4g of ram and 90-100% of my cpu at ALL TIMES. I didnt even get into a big mess to test it. Gonna look at my GPU usage next.
 
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Well there you go, 2 bottlenecks. Limited RAM and Not enough CPU speed/Cores... Please do youself a favor and find out what others are getting the best performance from, more cores or faster cores... Either way since the i7 is a hyperthreaded CPU that clock for clock is much faster than the AMD CPU's , I would go that route....
 
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i7's have basically no performance gains over the i5 k series at the moment, that may change with the introduction of nextgen console ports though (if they're lazily ported and work better with more cores, or if they're designed that way).

i5 4670k is probably top of the bunch at the moment for gaming performance. The FX 8350 trades blows with it but the i5 is superior in single-threaded performance which is brilliant for games by devs like Blizzard. The FX performs very well though, I've never been below 65 FPS (and maintain 100-120 most of the time) on any game I've played so far (had my 8320 for 1 week). Best of all I got it for 2/3 of the price that an i5 would have been for me. But yes, best of the best currently - 4670k. Definitely need a good GPU as you said, no point having a boss CPU and a lame GPU. And 8GB RAM is basically the standard necessary at the moment.
 
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Thanks for all the help! Bah, just gonna have to bite the bullet on the GPU's till next month... probably a good christmas present for myself and just get the new ram/mobo/i5 for now.


THANKS A TON!
 
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I'm sure I speak for the others... Not a problem, I love this sheet. 😛
 
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