Computer Upgrade Time!

[Goggles]

I noticed that I was having a few performance issues with BF3. I was experiencing some performance lag, as those of you unfortunate enough to be on TS with me may have heard

It took me a longer than it should have to figure out that the problem is that my processor is hovering at the minimum requirements for the game! Eek! I'm on an Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66Ghz and the game minimum is a Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz. Yeesh!

Anyways, it's time for an upgrade of my processor. And we all know that this is a slippery slope... a brand new processor most likely will need me to upgrade my motherboard, which will lead to an upgrade in RAM, etc etc...

Here is my current system:

• ASUS P5B LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz
• G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (x 3 = 6GB total)
• ATI Radeon HD 5850 1 GB DDR5 PCI-E Video Card

Naturally I'd love to keep my RAM and Video Card. I left out the HDD/DVD-ROM/etc because.. well.. who cares about those

Anyone have any tips? What's the best option in terms of performance (assuming money isn't an issue)? What's the best cost-effective upgrade?

I bought this setup back in 2006, so it's lasted me without issue for 5 years. I think I'd prefer to go high-end and not have to worry about another upgrade for that time.

[madcow]

You will want to upgrade your Motherboard, Processor and RAM. RAM is extremely cheap currently though so don't worry about having to replace that.

What sort of figure are you looking to spend? The price varies a lot between super duper top of the line and still good but not the best.

[Goggles]

I don't currently have a budget in place. I'm kind of curious to see the price differences between "super duper" and what I guess is "one generation behind".

I was hoping that upgrade RAM could be avoided if there's a mobo out there that can support the latest Intel/AMD processor along with support for DDR2. I'm guessing I'm almost certainly stuck with DDR3, eh?

What is currently the best available processor on the market for gaming?

[Von_Krieg]

I assume you sounded less excited then Plankey does .

I would go with 8GB of RAM and G.SKILL is good stuff.

Lag is probably more of a game issue then your machine I think .

[Goggles]

I think the top intel is the Core i7 2600K, and the top AMD is FX 8120 (8 cores!) ... I would feel okay spending ~$300 on a processor if I knew it was: (a) top of the line, (b) going to last a long time.

[Ash2Dust]

http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/ ... field-3-pc

Its Nvidia written so I'd trust their "marketing" and cross marketing like a venomous snake. Its smells of paid advertisement and seems overly video card reliant.

I'm very happy with the performance of my Nvidia 460 GTX on low settings so you can probably still use your video card. I'd recommend latest or beta video drivers like Nvidia did. Made a big difference on the NVidia side.
Its only 4 pages, but you can see what cpu they recommend for 3 different setups just as a reference.

[Goggles]

I assume you sounded less excited then Plankey does .

I would go with 8GB of RAM and G.SKILL is good stuff.

Lag is probably more of a game issue then your machine I think .

I wish that were true! Unfortunately it really does appear to be just taxing the CPU something vicious. I've been tracking my machine performance during BF3 gameplay, and I can definitely see what's causing the issue :-/ On a bright side, though... it happens regardless of what graphics quality I'm using: so I can at least still play with pretty graphics

[Goggles]

http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/ ... field-3-pc

Its Nvidia written so I'd trust their "marketing" and cross marketing like a venomous snake. Its smells of paid advertisement and seems overly video card reliant.

I'm very happy with the performance of my Nvidia 460 GTX on low settings so you can probably still use your video card.
Its only 4 pages, but you can see what cpu they recommend for 3 different setups just as a reference.

That's an awesome article, Ash! Thank you!

[madcow]

I think the top intel is the Core i7 2600K, and the top AMD is FX 8120 (8 cores!) ... I would feel okay spending ~$300 on a processor if I knew it was: (a) top of the line, (b) going to last a long time.

The 2500k is the best value for money although not the most powerful. The most powerful crown goes to the i7-990X which costs $1000.

The i5-2500K and the i7-2600K are what I would suggest you go for. The 2600K is $100 more than the 2500K and obviously the performance boost won't be worth that $100 but it nevertheless will be faster.

I'd suggest getting the following:

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128512

Intel Core i5-2500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072

OR

Intel Core i7-2600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115070

G-Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231431

[Ash2Dust]

I found with BFBC2 my dual core AMD was drowning. Doesnt surprise me the older CPU's are still struggling. Went with i5-760 at the time and Im pretty happy still, no upgrade for another year.

[Ash2Dust]

http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/ ... field-3-pc

Its Nvidia written so I'd trust their "marketing" and cross marketing like a venomous snake. Its smells of paid advertisement and seems overly video card reliant.

I'm very happy with the performance of my Nvidia 460 GTX on low settings so you can probably still use your video card.
Its only 4 pages, but you can see what cpu they recommend for 3 different setups just as a reference.

That's an awesome article, Ash! Thank you!

Be wary of it tho. Nvidia had just put out a beta driver which I would bet everything was geared towards giving them high scores on their own benchmark.

Here one with video settings comparison. Page 3 I believe.
http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/ ... ance-guide

[.Sup]

i7-2700

[AlbinoKalle69]

I'd suggest getting the following:

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128512

Intel Core i5-2500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072

OR

Intel Core i7-2600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115070

G-Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231431

Yeah, that's the stuff I'm dreaming of . Although my processor is not that old (Q9505) I'm thinking about an i5-2500k. Maybe I'm just too greedy...
But I thought about this mainboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... A-Z68P-DS3 which is a bit cheaper.

[Goggles]

i7-2700

This?

What's the benefit?

[madcow]

i7-2700

This?

What's the benefit?

You're paying $50 for a 100MHz speed increase which is completely pointless. If you want that extra speed just overclock a 2600K very slightly.