Need advice on upgrading my old Build.

[ninthfuzz]

Hi guys, i'm new to the forums so high five to you all!

So currently i'm using an old PC build that i assembled 4 years ago, and now i was thinking heck maybe it's time for an upgrade. But i'm not really sure if i should do so (whether my current PC specs are still good). I needed some insight of what to do so here i am.

Here are my current specs:

Asus P6T Motherboard LGA1366
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz
Corsair TX 850W PSU
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1Gb DD5 (good but old)
2 SSDs + 1 External 2Tb Drive- (1 SSD for OS, 1 for gaming and apps, external for storage)
3 x 2Gb DDR3 RAM

I mainly play games on the PC. I noticed some stutter in when i played recent games like Crysis 3, Far Cry 3 and even Skyrim. And i didn't even put the graphic settings on High, so the FPS wasn't really that great (e.g ~20-25fps@Skyrim). But overall it's still playable.

So my main question is: Should i upgrade my PC to meet with today's standards of gaming? If so, what components do you think I should get rid of/upgrade? I have some products in mind, but need some good advice first. Thanks!

Oh, and i NEVER do Overclocking 😛 ; stock speeds are good enough for me.

 

[chulex67]

Wow, well im not an expert but i can see why you are struggling with the upgrading....
you dont have a shitty system (yet) but you dont have the best.... it can still run the games... but it cant run them at 60fps...


Alrriightyy lets do this.


First of all your cpu and Motherboard Can Wait a little more time before updating, i really dont know whats your butget but if i had to choose what to upgrate first right now to get a better performance in gaming, it would be the Video Card. My First choice for you to see a Change in those fps would be the 7950.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006



the 7950 should let you play your games at high settings with atleast 30fps, now, lets talk about your games......


Skyrim, Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 are the Kings of PC gaming, often used to benchmark Videocards and Cpus, Currently its like this

Crysis 3
Far Cry 3
Skyrim

With skyrim you will get your 50-40 fps
With Far cry- you will get from 35-25 fps
Crysis 3 you will be lucky if you can run it at 25fps. (Even the I5 3570k its getting owned by this game, and so its the new Nvidia Titan).

 

[ninthfuzz]

Thanks for the reply! I see, so my GPU is the one struggling huh. I was thinking of overhauling the whole system this year but i need to wait until May to recieve my next paycheck, so my budget is not a concern atm.

Ok so say if i get the 7950, would the other old components limit the performance of that GPU? I've heard something about bottlenecks in old CPU/GPU somewhere..

 

[ninthfuzz]

Sorry forgot to say this too, if i upgrade my motherboard/cpu/RAM would i get some considerable performance boost? I'm concerned whether it is worth upgrading them now or later.

 

[chulex67]

Ofcourse you would get a considerable performance boost if you Upgrade Cpu/ram/motherboard, now you get your paycheck on may right? well sir, On June The New Line Up of Intel is coming Out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-haswell-cpu-processor,20042.html

You Should Probably Wait and get the Haswell Intel Cpus, If you get Ivy bridge right now you wouldnt have the best Setup for even a Year hahaha.

Its not Like your Gpu is Struggling to much, its just that you have a very good taste on games and Ask For the Best, Dont We all hahahaha, But yeah Getting a Better graphics Card Would get you better Fram Rates.

Remember this, After Sandy Bridge, there was no Single Graphic Card that Could Bottleneck an I5 2500k. In Fact Theres Still None. If you are using a Good I5 with a Gtx 670 or a 7950 and You still get low fps theres only 2 answers.

1.- Its Crysis 3

2.- The Game Is Still not Optimized and Drivers for both The video Card or the Game Must be released, remember the Patch that came out for skyrim, It Really Improved The Fps by like 30%.


So You can Either Upgrade for a Better Gpu right Now Or, You Can Save up and buy all your stuff togueter at June, Getting Everything New. And you Could Also Sell your old System on Craiglist and get some money back for your new system.

 

[ninthfuzz]

Well i did some reading in other forums, most people said i7 920 is still good (when OCd) today. 6gb RAM more than enough and a mobo upgrade isn't worth it right 😛

Honestly, i didn't expect this.

So i've decided to get a 7970 soon and maybe learn how to OC cpu.

 

[ninthfuzz]

Best answer selected by Ninthfuzz.