New Rig or Upgrade for GTA 5?

[TangoR34]

Hi all,

Initially I am thinking on upgrading my GPU to make it playable with decent graphics for GTA 5 but after looking around I somehow have doubts that my PC have any room for upgrades.

Specs:
MB:Asus P8Z68-LE
Socket: LGA1155
CPU: i5 2500 @3.3Ghz
RAM: Crossair DDR3 8Gb (4x2)
GPU: Gigabyte GTX550Ti - 1GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 1TB 6Gb/s
PSU: ANTEC 550W

NOTE: The MB actually enables CrossFireX rather than SLi which made me want to upgrade to an ATi R7 360/370 instead. However I have heard bad things about ATi drivers at the moment. Also I'm told that my CPU might not be ideal to Dual Graphics card due to the outdated PCI sockets (I cannot recall the exact words but it was about the CPU has to be just as powerful to make the most out of the GPU).

I can:
1) To hell with bad drivers and outdated PCI and go for the ATi set up
2) Stick with GeForce but upgrade to a 2GB card and build a new PC in 2 years time
3) Same as 2) along with a better CPU and I will keep the PC for years
4) Scrap the PC now and build a new one.

But before I make a decision I really need to know what you guys think. Are my concerns justified or is there so much potential in my current PC that I shouldn't be a paranoid beagle?

[EndlessWaves]

Bad drivers? Do you mean the concerns about DirectX 9/10/11 games with slow CPUs? Your CPU is neither slow and now DirectX 12 is out I'd expect any major CPU heavy game past the next few months to be able to take advantage of that and negate the problems.

You're unlikely to use crossfire on a card at this price so I'd drop that from your consideration. The big draw for AMD would be the sort of DisplayPort's Adaptive Sync technology for variable refresh rates (AMD market it as Freesync) as nVidia are currently only supporting their brand specific (and expensive) G-sync version.

At least on the 360 and 380. The 370 is an older double rebrand doesn't have it and I would struggle to come up with a reason to go for that over a 950, although it is slightly cheaper (for slightly less performance).

I certainly wouldn't consider upgrading the rest of the system personally, except to add an SSD. CPU performance is crawling along right now and you bought just after the last major improvement so until it picks up it'll likely make more sense to keep that CPU until it goes kaput then spend hundreds for a couple of dozen percent of improvement. Although you might end up upgrading for new technologies.

[TangoR34]

Bad drivers as in, from what I've heard, the ATi drivers are very glitchy and problematic that I am advised against upgrading to an ATi. Nothing to do with CPU performance.

However on a separate note I told that even if there is nothing wrong with ATi I would still need to upgrade my my CPU, possibly a new MB, in order to make the most out of Crossfired Cards because of something about having the same channel with the CPU and the PCI socket (16x4 or 16x8?). I'm just confused. If it's just CPU bottlenecking I might consider upgrading to something like an i7 while I'm at it to maximise this dual card setup . But if it's the MB bottlenecking then I might as well start all over and that is not what I want to do.

So I want to know how much room it has for upgrades before it reaches the MB's limitations. From what I can see it could still have plenty of life but I'm not sure if I have overlooked other small details.

[MrJim]

You don't mention the resolution you game at, or your budget? Personally, I'd be inclined to stick with your current cpu & motherboard for at least one generation - PCIe 2 doesn't make that big an impact on a single GPU system, but it probably would on a Crossfire setup. So whether you go AMD or Nvidia, I'd go for the best single card you can afford (& offset the cost a bit by selling the 550ti). Also, you might need to upgrade your PSU if you go for Crossfire, depending on which GPUs you choose.

[abaxas]

Buy a 960
Take out 550ti and sell on ebay
Insert 960

Play every game that is out or is coming out for the next 2-3 years.

Job done.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I would keep an eye out for gpu deals and see what comes up if you're not desperate.

There may be a free 4bin (400mhz) non-k oc available on your CPU.

[EndlessWaves]

Bad drivers as in, from what I've heard, the ATi drivers are very glitchy and problematic that I am advised against upgrading to an ATi. Nothing to do with CPU performance.

People have been saying AMD/ATI drivers are rubbish for at least fifteen years now. While there might have been some truth in that in 2001 these days I tend to ignore it unless they can point out specific issues.

However on a separate note I told that even if there is nothing wrong with ATi I would still need to upgrade my my CPU, possibly a new MB, in order to make the most out of Crossfired Cards because of something about having the same channel with the CPU and the PCI socket (16x4 or 16x8?). I'm just confused. If it's just CPU bottlenecking I might consider upgrading to something like an i7 while I'm at it to maximise this dual card setup . But if it's the MB bottlenecking then I might as well start all over and that is not what I want to do.

Technically true but perhaps misleading. The difference between two top end cards on full 16x PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth (on an X99 motherboard) and having the second one a PCI-E 2.0 4x slot is pretty small. You're talking about the last 5% at most.

I've never seen it tested on a low end crossfire setup but I would expect them to use less bandwidth and the difference to be correspondingly non-existent.

[Connell_]

Bad drivers as in, from what I've heard, the ATi drivers are very glitchy and problematic that I am advised against upgrading to an ATi. Nothing to do with CPU performance.

I have owned a lot of AMD cards over the past few years and I haven't experienced driver issues with any of them, but, who knows, maybe I've just been lucky.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AMD drivers are fine.

[Bonebreaker777]

Wish I could say the same for AMD laptop drivers as well. Especially with dual AMD graphic cards in older laptops (HD4xxx series as IGP and HD5xxx/HD6xxx as GPU). Nightmare to install them. Nightmare, I tell you!

[realc]

I have an AMD R9 280X (which you can pick up cheap second hand). Plays GTA V with everything Very High. No issues with AMD Beta drivers here. However, if you want to buy new and get full warranty, perhaps take abaxas advice on the GTX 960 while prices are coming down..

[TangoR34]

Sorry about the lack of responses, my 550Ti decided to go bust right after my last post. I have read every single post and decided to go for the GTX960 (4GB). The shop was able to go below 200£ for me. I scrapped the idea of dual cards due to the extra power consumption.