Possible upgrade time...

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Ixtab
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Possible upgrade time...

Post by Ixtab » Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:18 pm

So, I am getting to the point again where there are games that I cannot run at all. It is a terrible thing, and must be fixed. Of note is that I still only have a dual core CPU (i3), and my video cards are not DX11. Also, with Fallout 4 coming out this year too, I need to be ready to play it the second it's available.

Now, with a new baby needing to eat and stuff (who would have thought, eh?), it means that I have to budget any upgrades as... shall we say 'thrifty' as possible (aka - I am cheap :P).

With that in mind (and without Fallout 4 specs out yet), this is what I am looking at:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 1437622987
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 1437622987
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 1437622987

Note that there is no memory there - I currently have four of these: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... -_-Product

So, does anyone have any suggestions or comments on this build?

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Re: Possible upgrade time...

Post by bluntspoon » Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:09 pm

Full disclosure, I am cheap too!

My son is on an overclocked e8400 @3.6 and my daughter is on an overclocked q6600 @3.2, both processors that are older than yours and they play TF2, DOTA, Minecraft, CSGO etc. Everything runs nice and smooth at 1440x900 and they are both happy as larks. You don't need the latest and greatest if your monitor is 1080p or less.

Which i3 do you have exactly? And Motherboard please. Hell while you are at it your PSU and the resolution of your monitor.

The GT 640 is a no go imho. It looks like your budget is $250 or so?

I'd be tempted to get this, as long as you have a half decent PSU and and your MB can take it and call it a day. It would absolutely be an order of magnitude faster.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121802

For $142 after rebate it's a great card.
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Re: Possible upgrade time...

Post by Ixtab » Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:38 pm

I think my mobo is a p7p55d-e, but I could be misremembering. My cpu is an i3 550 - 3.2ghz
So far, I can run most things, and I am fine with lowering settings in games. I have been looking into Farcry 4 though, and you need a quad core to even play it... from what I have read, it's because it is hard coded to use core 3 for some reason, and though there seem to be some hacks that may or may not work to get it to work on a dual core, theres no way I'll buy it even on sale if it most likely wont work.

That also makes me worry about the future of games. If it has been done once, then maybe more games will start needing quad cores, so I should probably upgrade to one.

Same with the video card - I have at least one game that I bought on sale without realizing that it needs DX11. Every other game I've tried, even ones that support DX11 would at least work with my cards, but if games are going to start requiring DX11.... then I guess my cards are becoming obsolete.

As for my PSU, it is pretty awesome. I think it could handle pretty much anything I could throw at it... I don't remember what it is exactly, but I know that it has two connectors specifically for video cards, since the vid cards I have now need them... which kind of makes my wonder why the better card I am thinking of getting doesn't need one.... I know that that probably doesn't mean much overall, but a part of me feels like if it doesn't need the extra power, it cant be as good.

My monitor is a 1080p - native resolution is 1920 x 1080, and my budget is kind of just 'as cheap as possible'

Edit - that is a pretty awesome vid card, and I would totally be tempted to get it if that was all I needed

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Re: Possible upgrade time...

Post by bluntspoon » Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:54 pm

If it was me I would buy this http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyp ... B005O65JXI
Then follow this http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/ ... clarkdale/ and overclock to 3.8 very easily. Then buy the video card and call it good.

I tend to buy a lot of my stuff used off of forums and have never been gipped yet. The q6600 and e8400 in my kids computers cost I think $15 each, shipped.
The gtx670 here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1869689 is a solid card for $110.
I was flat out sad I missed these http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1 ... ht=gtx+680 That guy had at least 5 responses in 20 mins.

I spend way too much time trying to figure out how to extend the life of aging hardware, if you have questions, let me know.
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Re: Possible upgrade time...

Post by belak » Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:15 am

I'd also caution against the 640. I have a 650 Ti and it's starting to show it's age quite a bit with the newer games.

Keep in mind that with nvidia cards, the first number is generally the generation and the number after that somewhat represents the power of the card. Some of the higher end 5xx cards can outperform a lower end 6xx like the 640, even though it's part of the next "generation" of cards.

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Re: Possible upgrade time...

Post by metacide » Sat Jul 25, 2015 12:19 am

bluntspoon wrote:I tend to buy a lot of my stuff used off of forums and have never been gipped yet.
"Gipped" comes from "getting a bad deal when dealing with Gypsies" and is about as racist a thing to say as "jewed" (somewhat interchangeable).

Not that I'm offended, I just saw some documentary about "Travellers" (what Gypsies call themselves) with the wife because she is fascinated by that sort of thing. Now I get to share it. Aren't you lucky?

I just bought a 610 for the daughter, it's fine for playing browser games and silly things like Terraria but I don't expect it to hold up against a proper game. What Belak says is true though, a slightly older generation with a higher number will usually (9 times out of 13) out perform a new generation with a lower number.

I actually have a 480 I bought a bit ago and I have no complaints about it yet. It runs all my games just fine.
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