Upgrading Help

[sr87dot62]

My current spec:

E6400 oced to 3.2
Asus P5N-E SLI
2x2 gb OCZ pc 6400 4-4-4-12 1T
geforce 260 216

As idiotic as this sounds, I want to upgrade to a quad core to play GTA4. It runs a bit choppy on mine right now.. I think i am getting 25-30fps. I am aware that my motherboard isn't compatible with the newer quad cores. I would also like to keep my ram and video card because I just purchased them. What is my best option to gain more FPS in GTA4?

These are my options

1. upgrade to a E8400 and overclock to 4.0
2. get a new motherboard and CPU (775 not i7 or i5)
(but since I am low on cash, I don't want to buy new rams)
3. buy a q6600 and oc it to 3.0

Thanks in advanced

 

[jimmysmitty]

Well a dual core will not help GTA 4. When it first came out I had no problems running it on pretty much max with a Q6600 and a HD2900Pro 1GB. but plenty of people with a E8400 OCed pretty high and a better GPU did.

GTA 4 was designed for at least 3 cores (thanks XBox 360.....) so a quad is the way to go.

You mobo supports only one 45nm quad and thats the Q9505 which is $230 on Newegg, maybe cheaper elsewhere.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?model=P5N-E%20SLI&SLanguage=en-us

Thats a listing of what your current mobo can support.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115060&Tpk=Q9505

Nice CPU, its basically a Q9550 but with half the cache.

That would be the one I would suggest unless you can find a Q6600 for less than $200.

If you decide to go with a new LGA775 mobo, then I would suggest this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131297

Asus P5Q Deluxe.

Its the same as my P5K (love it) but has a P45 chipset instead of a P35 chipset which gives it a bit of an advantage and will support any LGA775 CPU made. And it supports DDR2 as well as has PCIe 2.0 so your GTX260 Core 216 will be able to breath easier.

Hope this info helps.

 

[sr87dot62]

thanks for the prompt reply. I think I will go with q6600. But my concern is will q6600 oced to 3.0 become a bottleneck for my geforce 260 216? Is it worth paying $180 for something that is relatively outdated. I think i already spent too much money on upgrading this old rig.
4gb DDR2 $110
260 214 $230
- $110 (sold my old parts)
total i spent $230 on upgrading so far

 

[jimmysmitty]

Nah. A Q6600 wont even bottleneck a ATI HD 5870 at high res. Now if you went with multiple GPUs such as 2 GTX260s then maybe. But for one, Q6600 will be fine.

My Q6600 @ 3GHz keeps my 4870 in good shape and still plays GTA 4 maxed like a dream as well as L4D2, Batman Arkham Asylum just to name a few newer games.

All maxed out and never lower than 60FPS, L4D2 and Batman both average over 100FPS. GTA4 tends to average 60 FPS.

 

[sr87dot62]

i got my q6600 today and was able to overclock this only to 3.0 because of my weak mobo. man but i still cant believe i only got a 4fps increase. Before, my e6400@3.2 was pulling in 32fps in GTA4 and with the q6600@3.0 I am only getting 36fps. Talk about waste of money! No more upgrading for me for a while. I think next time I will buy a mobo thats gonna allow me to overclock this tto 3.6. Maybe I will see some difference then. O btw, I am sure you all know this but this came a a complete shock to me. I used 8multipliers with 400fsb to get 3.2 on my dual and the loading was quite fast and now with the quad, I am using 9 multipliers with 333fsb to get 3.0 but the loading time is twice as slow! (yes, the timing is still the same) So much for my big expectation....

 

[sr87dot62]

I live in S.Korea and I guess people here are a bit more tech savvy. Its very hard to buy cheap quality parts because sellers here price them according to their performance ratios. I think I will just stick with my current setup and perhaps SLI this later down the road.