Gaming orented upgrade

[ilikecake]

Hi,

I am looking to upgrade my current computer. I have noticed some slowdowns in games recently. Specifically, Skyrm with a bunch of mods, Batman AC, and Metro 2033. I currently have a i7 920 CPU at stock speeds and a Radeon 5870 video card. I was thinking of simply upgrading my video card, but I don't know if my CPU will be holding me back. I could overclock the CPU if it will help, but I was under the impression that games were mostly limited by the GPU and not the CPU these days. What is a good video card for gaming at 1920x1200 these days? I have no preference on AMD/NVIDIA. I am slightly interested in PhysX, but not enough to sacrifice a bunch of speed/price to get it.

There appears to be a deal on the Radeon 7970 for ~$350 after rebate. It also includes a bunch of games I don't care about/already own, so maybe I could sell them to lower the price a bit. Is that overkill for my setup? What NVIDIA card would be an alternative to that? Is my CPU good enough to keep up with these cards?

I have answered the stickied questions below.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

• Gaming, general web surfing and such.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

• $400, not including shipping. Lower is better, however.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

• USA, Madison, WI

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

• GPU, maybe CPU.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

• i7 920
• ASUS P6T Deluxe
• Antec CP-850 PSU
• 6GB memory (3x2gb)
• Intel x25-M SSD

6) Will you be overclocking?

• Maybe

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

• 24" 1920x1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

• In the next week or so

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

• I think my current motherboard is fine.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

• Yes, Windows 7 x64

 

[Mercuri]

Just FYI, CPX power supplies fit in a small number of Antec cases, and not much else. The form factor never caught on.

XFX's 7000 generation has had many reliable reports of louder-than-average fan noise. At 1080p/1200p or below, I don't think that you will achieve a meaningful performance difference between a 7970 and a 7950 anyway. Also, stay away from Sapphire's Vapor-X, because apparently its voltage is locked, so overclocking will be minimal. The Gigabyte model appears to be the best in that tier, but it's ~$330 before rebate. If you're certain that you need a 7970, I'd go with Gigabyte or Sapphire (minus the Vapor-X), to get the units that appear to have the best reputation for performance and build quality.

Asus' V2 boards are apparently pretty good. Avoid their original versions (the model number of the good ones always ends in "V2").

The GTX 670 is another option in that price range. It has a 256-bit bus instead of 384 bits. But at 1080p or below, this has not been a factor, as far as I can tell. I am partial to EVGA and would recommend their FTW (but not the FTW LE) for strong performance, but MSI's "Power Edition" is also good. Gigabyte's dual-fan design is apparently not as good as the triple-fan.

All the 670s that I am aware of have locked voltage, so their OCs will be relatively limited.

Whatever board you choose, make sure you have enough room. The reference 7950 is I think 11 inches long. Nvidia's 600 series will fit in most cases, though.

 

[Dangman]

If you overclock that CPU, that'll lessen the effect of any potential bottleneck. Some games these days are very CPU heavy (Skyrim and BF3 for example) so more CPU speed is always welcomed. GPU wise, I recommend the GTX 670 2GB due to Nvidia's slightly better drivers.