A justified CPU or GPU upgrade?

[Rob_B]

Hi guys, I realise I might get told to 'wait for Bulldozer' but I have the upgrade bug & a bit of cash on its way to me soon so I'm in a spending mood!

I have an X3 @ 3.3Ghz & to be frank it's plenty for me, bit slow at folding but frankly it's probably good enough for my needs. I also have a GTX260 which again is probably enough for me although Crysis 2 might change my mind on that.

I'm considering an upgrade to one or the other but I'm not sure which. I could buy an X6 (I think it'll work in my AM2+ mobo!) or something like a 560Ti (both niiiiiice upgrades for my folding) but I'm struggling to work out which would be better for me.

Scan have the Phenom X4 955 for £96, or the X6 1090T for just under £150.
The 560 would be around £200 or I could go AMD to save some cash (but take a hit on folding) so I'm torn!

Anything will be a BIG change from my current setup so I'd probably take quietness/efficiency over raw speed. Selling my CPu would net about £40 & my GPU about £60, or... I buy an AM3 mobo to try and unlock my CPU which is a gamble but the cheapest option by far.

Help!

Rob



NB/ I had Deja Vu while beginning to type this...woo..spooky!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

How about you get a Phenom II X4 955BE and a GTX460 768MB or 1GB:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...hz-125w-retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/768mb...ores-dvi-mhdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...i-i-hdmi-d-sub

The GTX460 has 336 shaders and the GTX560TI has 384 shaders.

[Rob_B]

I was looking at that 955

That MSI 460 is fugly-as-sin! I was thinking if I'm spending £130 on a 460 why not add another £20/£30 & get something even better? 6x50 seems to be the flavour of the day around here!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was looking at that 955

That MSI 460 is fugly-as-sin! I was thinking if I'm spending £130 on a 460 why not add another £20/£30 & get something even better?

Once it goes in your case you are not going to look at it often!!

MSI is one of the better OEMs and £107 for pre-overclocked GTX460 768MB or £120 for a pre-overclocked GTX460 1GB is quite decent value. The Cyclone cooler is meant to be quite decent too.

If you spend £20 to £30 you will be limited to pre-overclocked GTX460 1GB cards too.

However for folding both the GTX460 768MB and 1GB seem more or less the same as they both have 336 shaders.

[Rob_B]

Looking at benchies I'm very GPU bound at the moment, so I'm thinking leave the CPU alone & spend on the GFX? Performance wise it's a toss up between the 6850/1GB 460 so I should really go with price...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looking at benchies I'm very GPU bound at the moment, performance wise it's a toss up between the 6850/1GB 460 so I should really go with price...

I prefer the HD6850 1GB since it consumes less power at load but since you are folding the GTX460 is a better choice.

[ik9000]

However for folding both the GTX460 768MB and 1GB seem more or less the same as they both have 336 shaders.

presuming shaders are more important than ROP for folding? due to the architecture the 768MB has 3/4 the memory and 3/4 the ROP, they had to disable both as they are clustered together. Shaders were clearly unaffected as both have the same.

[Pob255]

Yes streams and speed are more important for folding than rop's and memory bandwidth.

Personally speaking as some one who's still using a gtx260 I'd say maybe a monitor without flies first

[Rob_B]

It feels part of the family now though!

I've just bought Danroyles' 5850 from him. I'll see if I think I'm bottlenecked by my CPU before deciding on an upgrade for that

(anyone wanna buy a 260? )

[Domestic_Ginger]

Is the 260 much worse than a 460 features aside? Definately a 1gb instead of the 768mb for a marked improvement. I could be very wrong but the frame differences on the benchies never seemed to me to make or break a game.

I placed my 260 on an auction site for quite alot on the off chance someone would buy it. I thought the most reasonable jump was a 5850 as the 470 would have been too much. The fact it overclocks very well played a part.

'If' I was to upgrade I wouldn't get the top tier hex cores as a mild OC on the lower end ones will get you upto their speeds and turbo boost will only work on half the cores anyway.

The UCC mobo in the for sale thread may be a choice. Sell your MB; get mobo; sell DDR2; buy DDR3. Lower HT and PCI 1.0 though but it takes DDR2 and DDR3 and unlocks.....

5850 is a stellar gaming choice.