Best upgrade paths?

T

tybert7

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
2,763
So I am currently thinking about upgrading my rig over the next few months (perhaps a bit longer for hawaii launch).


My current system is as follows

amd phenom II 955 black edition at stock (got it free)
8 GB ram (1866 I think, it's been awhile)
Asus AM3+ MB
96GB kingston SSD
AMD 6870 GPU with 1GB RAM
Achieva Shimian 2560x1440p res monitor (60 ish Hz limit)


I don't want to upgrade the GPU until amd's new Hawaii hits, then I'll see what prices are like, but I won't go higher than 300 dollars on the gpu. Gpu prices seem to be way higher than what they used to be based on how long some of the old cards have been on the market. What happened to faster releases?


On the cpu side, I was mulling a switch to intel, but that also comes with a replacement of my MB, and perhaps ram as well. So I was thinking the 8320 or the 8350 would be my best bet for a decent cpu upgrade over my old 955 cpu. I do notice some sluggishness in certain games at the resolutions I play at (just started FFXIV).

I am not big into overclocking, but I can and will do it if anything can be done on air. If not I'd probably just take the 8350 for the 4.0 GHz stock settings.

Can the 8320 get to 4.0 on air without many issues? I don't need to get as high as possible, it will still be an upgrade over what I have now.


I don't intend to get multiple monitors, 2560x1440p will be the highest I go for the immediate future. I may upgrade to the same res PLS panels from those korean ebay sellers for the faster refresh rates, but that comes later.


I just need the best options for smooth playback of games @ 1440p

my current MB is only a single GPU slot, so that one gpu needs to do most of the heavy lifting at that res. Once Hawaii hits, will there be a suitable options able to achieve what I want for 300 or less?

What is considered the "amd 7950" for this generation or the one coming soon?
 
Seems to me you're stretching yourself a little thin on the hardware/budget considering you're driving a 1440p monitor.

To keep costs down, I'd definitely stick with AMD as opposed to Intel and/or nVidia. I run a 4.2 GHz i7 and 2x670s for 1080p (I do a fair bit of 3D gaming though), so I think your target of sub-$300 GPUs is pretty aggressive for 1440p. Do you find yourself having to turn down the settings quite often then?
 
Honestly, buy an H70 Liquid cooler and strap it onto your phenom 955, ($80 investment), and you'll get a sweet overclock out of as much heat as you can pull off your cpu. Next, swap your 8GB of ram up to 12GB, and either add a second 6870, OR, sell the 6870, and buy two 6950's. In XFire the 50's love to outperform most midrange solutions together. Your monitor is probably fine for now. :)
I would estimate your upgrade investment at 280 for the cards (roughly 140 apiece), and 80 for the h70 at most, which would put you at $360 for some power under the hood.
 
I like the OC idea with an H70, however I'm not sure why you'd need to upgrade your RAM, 8GB should really be fine in most instances.

That being said, at 1440p I would suggest upgrading your video card to something with 2GB in RAM. Pricing is going to be a wait and see game, not just on the next gen but on how the current gen drops. For $300 I think you should be able to get something quite solid.
 
TwistedAegis said:
I like the OC idea with an H70, however I'm not sure why you'd need to upgrade your RAM, 8GB should really be fine in most instances.

That being said, at 1440p I would suggest upgrading your video card to something with 2GB in RAM. Pricing is going to be a wait and see game, not just on the next gen but on how the current gen drops. For $300 I think you should be able to get something quite solid.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't see why 300 dollars on a video card should not be a solid investment, people who get higher are often using multiple monitors, I just want to use one.

And again, I remember the universal praise about how much of an AMAZING deal the amd 7950 was compared to the 7970 for the 300 dollar price, it was seen as the best bang for the buck on the market, but now the attention seems to be on he 600 dollar cards, is that REALLY needed for 1440p?


I don't mind turning some settings down for smoother playback, especially shadows.

I got the 6870 between 1.5 to 2+ years ago for around 200 dollars, and that card still sells for far more than it should. That tells me nothing really compelling is out on the gpu front in a long time, progress is slow and so ANCIENT hardware still has higher costs.

LOOK at some of the prices people are still asking for that old ass card

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...d 6870&sprefix=amd+68,aps&rh=i:aps,k:amd 6870

Something is wrong and unhealthy in the gpu space, we are not getting good options. higher res monitors are cheap now, and they need to start competing for that space with better cards for the money, and that does not mean focusing on the 600 dollar per card crowd who have no problem dropping 2 of those or more into their rig. How many people do that vs the midrange to upper midrange?
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
It just depends on your preferences for IQ. I game at 1600p, and after making that investment, it would be pointless to not have the GPU horsepower to provide the IQ to make 1600p worth it. Also, GPU prices stay somewhat stagnant because there isn't that much out there pushing the envelope due to old console hardware holding everything back; there isn't much a reason to upgrade.

TBH I haven't paid too much attention since I got my 2x6970s; I would take a look at the [H]s GPU reviews for 1600p single card and use that as your benchmark. 1440p is about 11% less pixels than 1600p, so if the performance is good enough for 1600p it should be even more solid for you.

A 7950 and a Corsair HXX AIU water cooler should be right about the $300 sweet spot you're looking at; pull up a few [H] reviews and see if the performance it's giving is what you're looking for.

EDIT: Newegg has a 3GB 7950 on sale for $189.99 after MIR, and it comes with 3 games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127737
 
Last edited:
irishtea said:
Honestly, buy an H70 Liquid cooler and strap it onto your phenom 955, ($80 investment), and you'll get a sweet overclock out of as much heat as you can pull off your cpu. Next, swap your 8GB of ram up to 12GB, and either add a second 6870, OR, sell the 6870, and buy two 6950's. In XFire the 50's love to outperform most midrange solutions together. Your monitor is probably fine for now. :)
I would estimate your upgrade investment at 280 for the cards (roughly 140 apiece), and 80 for the h70 at most, which would put you at $360 for some power under the hood.
Click to expand...

Bad advice if I may say in regards to the ram upgrade and sunce he can't do xfire the gpu advice was bad as well.

See below...
 
Last edited:
TwistedAegis said:
It just depends on your preferences for IQ. I game at 1600p, and after making that investment, it would be pointless to not have the GPU horsepower to provide the IQ to make 1600p worth it. Also, GPU prices stay somewhat stagnant because there isn't that much out there pushing the envelope due to old console hardware holding everything back; there isn't much a reason to upgrade.

TBH I haven't paid too much attention since I got my 2x6970s; I would take a look at the [H]s GPU reviews for 1600p single card and use that as your benchmark. 1440p is about 11% less pixels than 1600p, so if the performance is good enough for 1600p it should be even more solid for you.

A 7950 and a Corsair HXX AIU water cooler should be right about the $300 sweet spot you're looking at; pull up a few [H] reviews and see if the performance it's giving is what you're looking for.

EDIT: Newegg has a 3GB 7950 on sale for $189.99 after MIR, and it comes with 3 games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127737
Click to expand...

This is actually a really excellent idea. You may have to turn some settings down, but you weren't amiss to do that. The 7950 is really a great card, the 670 is as well but the AMD bundle makes it pretty much a no brainer.
 
This is a bit of a sidebar and has probably been addressed somewhere else but, was there a falling out with hardforum and newegg?

Does newegg not want to pay for links from this forum? It seems like the perfect type of forum to get links from. I don't mind using amazon instead if it generates more money for the site with the right link, just curious what was going on behind the scenes to cause so much of a push to amazon.
 
tybert7 said:
Gpu prices seem to be way higher than what they used to be based on how long some of the old cards have been on the market. What happened to faster releases?
Click to expand...


i think there were some good answers already posted but I think you shouldn't wait for the new amd cards and get a 7950 now. of course the new cards will be faster but you will not get anything close the price/performance of a 7950 with the next gen until a year or so after launch. plus the games bonus (which you could sell if you didn't want)
 
tybert7 said:
This is a bit of a sidebar and has probably been addressed somewhere else but, was there a falling out with hardforum and newegg?

Does newegg not want to pay for links from this forum? It seems like the perfect type of forum to get links from. I don't mind using amazon instead if it generates more money for the site with the right link, just curious what was going on behind the scenes to cause so much of a push to amazon.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, and yes.
 
needmorecarnitine said:
i think there were some good answers already posted but I think you shouldn't wait for the new amd cards and get a 7950 now. of course the new cards will be faster but you will not get anything close the price/performance of a 7950 with the next gen until a year or so after launch. plus the games bonus (which you could sell if you didn't want)
Click to expand...

Is it confirmed that they are only launching a high end Hawaii part?
 
it is now stardard practice for both AMD and Nvidia to always lauch the high end first, has been for years.
 
Yeah OC'ing the crap out of the CPU is a fine option. I've got a 940 BE, 2600k, and 3770K in different systems. When the bottleneck is the GPU the massively OC'd 940 BE isn't actually that much of a bottleneck.

There's very little reason to upgrade from an older Phenom II to one of the newer AMD FX chips. They're faster clock for clock, OC just fine, and those extra cores usually don't help all that much in game. Also make sure the mobo would support the newer chip, not all do.

Also if you drop the resolution and it speeds up, the issue is not the CPU, it's the GPU.
 
tybert7 said:
my current MB is only a single GPU slot, so that one gpu needs to do most of the heavy lifting at that res. Once Hawaii hits, will there be a suitable options able to achieve what I want for 300 or less?

What is considered the "amd 7950" for this generation or the one coming soon?
Click to expand...

One thing you're missing from your specs: what power supply are you running?

BTW, the HD7950 is the HD7950 for this generation; AMD's next-gen is the HD9000 series, but it's earmarked for later this Fall (i.e. October, last I read). You can easily get a beefy single GPU solution that will serve 1440p for $300, granted you have a powersupply to back it up (e.g. HD7950, GTX 760).
 
I think I can count on one hand how many times I've actually gone over the 6 gig mark in ram used, even playing wow with a bazillion addons, /shrug. Not saying don't do it as ram is pretty cheap right now, but if your pinching, I don't see how going from 8 to 12 would make much difference...
 
If your feeling the need to wait a bit. Just before black friday all the good tech deals go on sale online. pull the trigger then and you might have more options with saving money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top