What to upgrade?

[Brockavich]

Well I recently grabbed the Windows 7 beta to see how my rig handles DX10 games...

I wasn't impressed. about 15-30 FPS in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky and Crysis.

Now I think I want to wait until Battlefield 3 comes out... But...

1. What would be most worthy of an upgrade on my rig as of right now? I am trying to look to the future. If my rig cannot handle current gen games at a decent framerate (at LEAST 30FPS solid, preferably 60FPS), how can I expect it to do well on my fave upcoming games?

-E8400 3.0Ghz OC'd to 3.5Ghz
-EAH4850 512MB
-4 GB Corsair XMS2 800MHz Xtreme Peformance
-ASUS P5K/EPU

2. Is it worth it to switch to Quad Core CPUs at this point?

Thanks!

 

[Proximon]

XFX GTX 260 Core 216
Or
Sapphire 4870 1GB
Or
PNY GTX 285

You didn't say how much RAM you have, but I'm guessing 4GB.

No, a quad isn't going to get you better game performance, unless you are filling up your system tray... but I'm guessing with a fresh Windows 7 install that's not an issue.

 

[aevm]

What resolution?

How much room do you have for a video card? For example a GTX 285 is about 2" longer than your current card - would it fit in there?

What kind of PSU do you have?

 

[huron]

+1 Proximon - GPU seems like the most likely candidate.

 

[aevm]

Absolutely. We just need more info before recommending a new GPU.

One more thing, what's the budget?

 

[Brockavich]

I have a Cooler Master 650W
And my case is fairly roomy for a midtower, i have the Antec Gamer 300

I don't want to spend more than $300 on each component, like the CPU and video card. I'd prefer to keep it around $200-250, with a max of $300.

I think i have sufficient power and RAM though

 

[4745454b]

What res are you playing at? I would think the 8400 @ 3.5GHz, 4GBs of DDR2-800 ram and the 4850 would be able to handle DX10 games. This is ofcourse as long as you are gaming at 16x10, not 19x10/19x12. This might be an issue with drivers or a beta OS, not your hardware. Do some digging into what you should be getting, then decide if you need to part with the cash.

 

[aevm]

All right, what kind of CPU and GPU can you get for $200 each...

E8500 $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

HD 4870 1GB $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801

Spending $190 on an E8500 when you already have an E8400 is plain wrong. Spending $200 on a HD 4870 when you already have a HD 4850 is a smaller waste but still a waste IMO. I suggest that you don't upgrade the CPU at all and instead get the best graphics card you can. The best ones available these days are:

GTX 295 $510
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143167

HD 4870 X2 $395
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102768

Your PSU should be able to handle either of those. OK, it's kind of tight with the GTX 295 (required 46A, you have 45A), and overclocking the CPU puts even more pressure on the PSU. Still, it should work.

If you get the GTX 295 download DriverCleaner or DriverSweeper (or similar) and use it. That will help you switch from ATI drivers to nVidia drivers without leaving corrupted files around to cause trouble.

 

[aevm]

About the quad/dual thing:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=770&p=2

An E8400 at 3.3Ghz gets the same fps in CoH as a Q9650 around 2.5GHz (that is, a very honorable 81fps). They used a HD 4870 X2. With a GTX 295 the numbers would be even better, but still close to each other. Mind you, either way you end up with the monitor showing 60 frames and ignoring the rest (assuming the usual 60Hz refresh rate).

I don't have benchmarks for Crysis or STALKER but AFAIK those games don't really take advantage of the extra cores either. The quad would help if you run lots of things in the background while playing, but otherwise it doesn't really make a difference.