Is This upgrade worth it

[PcAsh]

Hello Just need a little help i could sell my pc and get this one for £500 just would like to know if you think its worth it and how much better the new one would be, games i play are mainly starcraft 2 with a little bf3 now and again...

Pc Now

i5 650 @3.2GHz
12GB ram
Gtx 560 2GB (non ti version)
1 Tb HDD

New Pc

i7 3770 3.4GHz with turboboost
6 GB ram
AMD 7950 3GB
128 GB SSD
1.5TB HDD

Any help? thank you?

[deejayburnout]

I can imagine that the new rig is better than your existing one.

The gpu is marginally better.

The CPU is better ( better ask a Intel guy. I am AMD ).

Its good that the new one has an SSD. As for the RAM. 6GB is probably ok for gaming.

You don't say what specs the mobo and the ram is at. Maybe the new rig is built on a lower spec board than you already have.


I think you need to ask yourself if you current rig Is too slow for your requirements. A small OC and a SSD might be all you need.

[PcAsh]

Marginally better? How much difference in fps do you think?

[deejayburnout]

Not sure exactly.

As the AMD card is newer, and one of the high end ones. I do think its a better card than the 560.

Your whole setup can affect the FPS.

[DLUK]

7950 is rather like 560 Sli, 7950's also tend to OC well. CPU is nice for apps and will help in a few games that use 8 threads (i7 vs i5) but it's mainly in multitasking or apps you see a large difference between i5 and i7. SSD helps yet again. So it's a better machine. But if the new parts are second hand they may not have any warrenty. So I would consider 'new' (eg a Scan bundle) over second hand if possible and I personally tend to recommend the 'K' Intel chips for those 4.4GHZ+ OC's as many games these days respond well to the OC on Ivy bridge or Sandy bridge.

[matts-uk]

i7 3770 3.4GHz with turboboost
6 GB ram
AMD 7950 3GB
128 GB SSD
1.5TB HDD

Any help? thank you?

For the games you are talking about.

The i7 offers hyper threading, which is of little benefit to you now and is unlikely to be of benefit in the future games either. 3GB VRAM is more than enough for 1080P.

Hyper Threading and VRAM are both relatively expensive technologies.

Your suggested spec is bottle-necked at the GPU, the same as your current PC.

So what I would do is;
+ Downgrade to an i5 3570K
+ Upgrade to a GTX670
+ Upgrade the RAM to 8GB if you can afford it.

That would, in my view, be a more balanced system for gaming. Providing you with more usable gaming performance, for roughly the same money. It would be a significant upgrade on what you have.

[DLUK]

For the games you are talking about.

The i7 offers hyper threading, which is of little benefit to you now and is unlikely to be of benefit in the future games either. 3GB VRAM is more than enough for 1080P.

Hyper Threading and VRAM are both relatively expensive technologies.

Your suggested spec is bottle-necked at the GPU, the same as your current PC.

So what I would do is;
+ Downgrade to an i5 3570K
+ Upgrade to a GTX670
+ Upgrade the RAM to 8GB if you can afford it.

That would, in my view, be a more balanced system for gaming. Providing you with more usable gaming performance, for roughly the same money. It would be a significant upgrade on what you have.

As always depends on the games you play FPS titles are fine on i5. MMO RTS and quite a few sim's love 8+ threads these days (also Skyrim which is even smoother on a HEX i7 than quad!). Many of the MMO's and RTS thread to all 8 threads and MMO players often multitask (read a web page for a quest chain, by alt tabbing out of the game etc). That's when i7 really pays off for gaming. So if you play those sort of games as well as 'Pew Pew' shooters the extra for i7 is worth it.

But for last 2 years or so the over clock on the 'k' series Sandy and Ivy bridge has been worth the premium for games and apps. As almost all game respond well to 4-5GHZ now on 4-12 threads and finding a decent app that won't thread is almost Impossible.

SSD's also really pay off for Sandbox games (Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Mafia 2, GTA4 etc etc) or games that stream data while you play. Far superior RW speeds and IOPs on SSD tech feed GPU VRAM and system RAM without lags or frame stalls (that even raid HDD can cuase). Even older SSDs can make a huge difference for these sorts of games vs any HDD hosting. And not putting your OS on a SSD is a crime against PCs in 2012.

670-660 Ti-7950 is also down to games you play or if you use apps as well as game. Nvidia general win the game BM's (and are slighty less annoying for game and media 3d) AMD have more VRAM and kill the keplers in Open CL for app use. Just looking at benchmarks on hexus can confirm which of the £200-300 GPU's is best for you. The cards at that price range trade blows all over the show on games software so their isn't really a wrong choice right now.

Really you want Intel I5-7 K at 4.4GHZ+
8GB DDR3
win 7 64
GTX 660 Ti AMD 7850 or better
60GB SSD for OS and 1-2 sandbox games or bigger 120-240GB models if you have budget. And even if you only play games that level load and don't stream you still want your OS on a SSD unless your mad.
Any old HDD attached to a USB Pata-Sata connector for media storage or hosting games that don't need a SSD to be hosted on.