My 3.5 year old gaming rig - Can it handle modern & current games?

[Actaeon]

Hi there,

I built my PC back in early 2011 primarily for Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and a few other somewhat older games. Recently had the itch to do some more gaming with some more modern games and the recent price drop on Xbox One made me consider picking one up.

But after much consideration, I would like to continue to use my PC as it could play many of the same games. Before I decide against the new Xbox, I was hoping to get some input on how my current rig stacks up. If it can't play them well and will cost too much to upgrade to play new games, then I might not bother and just get the Xbox instead. $349 with 2 games is a great deal.

I couldn't find any benchmarks using my graphics card anymore, so I'm not sure how well it will play modern games like Titanfall, Call of Duty, Ryse, etc. I will primarily be playing at 1080p resolutions as I use an HDTV as my monitor.

Anyway, here are the specs...

Intel Core i7 2600K - Sandy Bridge, OCed to 4.5GHz
Asus SABERTOOTH P67 motherboard
AMD Radeon 6950 2GB x2 in CrossFireX. Softmodded these to use the 6970 Stream Processor specs and has a mild overclock.
16GB of RAM
Windows 7

Bonus Question - What would be the first thing to upgrade on this rig if I had to do it? Presumably graphics cards since I recall those were the most 'stressed' component for gaming, but thought I'd ask.

Thanks in advance.

 

[master_shake_]

yep it's fine the 2600/2500k were no slouches and there has been zero reason to upgrade them.

they only thing you are missing out on is pci-e 3.0 and it is less than marginal in terms of more performance over the 2.0 spec.

i would upgrade to a 970 and call it a day if i were going to upgrade your system.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Bonus Question - What would be the first thing to upgrade on this rig if I had to do it? Presumably graphics cards since I recall those were the most 'stressed' component for gaming, but thought I'd ask.

You're quite right. The weakest link is definitely your graphics card.

A GTX970/R9-290 is something like 2.5x the performance. Alternatively you can get similar performance from the R7-260X(HD7790).

 

[Actaeon]

Thanks to you both. I've been out of the PC hardware news since my last build, so I really appreciate the responses.

Glad to hear the weak link is the GPU, since a new CPU would likely need a new motherboard and that would be another expense. A new GPU should be plug and play, minus the marginal gains I would get from PCI-E 3.0 (as I've just learned).

I just looked up that GTX 970, that seems to be the the hot item to get right now and a great value. You mention it is 2.5x the performance, that is very impressive. Is that a 2.5x improvement over a single 6950 card or my current dual GPU CrossFireX configuration?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Glad to hear the weak link is the GPU, since a new CPU would likely need a new motherboard and that would be another expense. A new GPU should be plug and play, minus the marginal gains I would get from PCI-E 3.0 (as I've just learned).

Its usually below 1%, so its really nothing to worry about.

I just looked up that GTX 970, that seems to be the the hot item to get right now and a great value. You mention it is 2.5x the performance, that is very impressive. Is that a 2.5x improvement over a single 6950 card or my current dual GPU CrossFireX configuration?

No, that's compared to a single HD6970 (anandtech's bench section doesn't have the HD6950 listed unfortunately):

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1061?vs=1355

Even with perfect Crossfire scaling a single GTX970 is faster then 2x HD6970's, while using around half the power.

You could always SLI a couple of 970's of course... :sneaky:

If you can find a good deal on it, the R9-290 is a good choice too BTW.

 

[Ken g6]

I didn't see the Crossfire the first time through either. One 970 is about the same as a 6990, which should be similar to what you have. Two is clearly better for almost everything.

 

[DesiPower]

R9-290 is on shell shocker for $270, HURRY!!!

 

[Ken g6]

PCPartPicker shows one R9-290 for $243!

 

[Actaeon]

Thanks for the comparison page. I think a 6990 is the equivalent of what I'm running, so that is very helpful to use. This page makes it easy to see the potential benefits of a better GPU and how it will run some of the more current games. The R9-290 and the 970 are definitely faster as you all have suggested.

Checked out that R9-290 deal on ShellShocker. $249 after rebate and comes with 3 free games. Pretty good deal I'd say (especially considering it was $400 last year), but besides the energy efficiency differences I'm not sure the performance increase is worth spending the money on over my current setup. For most games, the 290 vs my '6990' is about 25% better with a few exceptions here and there.

I could always CrossFireX it, but then I'm $500+ in, far more expensive than the Xbox One I've been eyeballing. The 6 free games sounds nice though.

A single 290 is faster for sure, but the framerates quoted on the Anandtech Bench for the 6990 in 1080p are still quite playable.

Crysis 3 @ 62fps
BF4 @ 49fps
Metro @ 41fps
Thief @ 55fps
CoH2 @ 24fps is pretty poor though.

Going back to the primary question, can my 2011-era rig play modern games? I've concluded that I need to do a big upgrade (Higher class single GPU or CrossFireX two 290s) if I want to see any meaningful benefit and that I shouldn't bother with a mid-high range single card like a 290. While higher resolution is not going to be an option with my current setup it is adequate to play modern games well enough in 1080p.

Am I totally off base here? Or am I overstating the case for my current setup? Thanks again.

 

[Actaeon]

PCPartPicker shows one R9-290 for $243!

Wow, what a great deal! Making me rethink what I just said... wish I could sell these old GPUs to offset the cost.

 

[mfenn]

Going back to the primary question, can my 2011-era rig play modern games?

Yes it can. Whether or not the microstutter and lower minimum framerates caused by your older CFX setup when stressed by games that run more demanding shaders (i.e. newer games) is playable as-is depends on your personal tolerances. Since that's subjective, only way to know is to try.

So in short, don't stress about it, buy a new game that you're interested in. Best case, you decide that you don't need to buy anything. Worst case, you pick up a new single GPU and enjoy smoother gameplay.

 

[Actaeon]

Yes it can. Whether or not the microstutter and lower minimum framerates caused by your older CFX setup when stressed by games that run more demanding shaders (i.e. newer games) is playable as-is depends on your personal tolerances. Since that's subjective, only way to know is to try.

So in short, don't stress about it, buy a new game that you're interested in. Best case, you decide that you don't need to buy anything. Worst case, you pick up a new single GPU and enjoy smoother gameplay.

Thank you, this is good advice and what I will be doing. I've had success with the games I have been playing, but those are what I'd consider to be older and not as intensive as these next-gen console based modern games.

I generally wait for games to go on sale before picking them up. I feel like the time has come for the launch titles of the next-gen consoles to finally start popping up on sale and was concerned my setup wouldn't be able to play them well since I couldn't find any benchmarks with my GPU. Titanfall, Ryse, Assassins Creeds, Call of Duties, etc.

Thanks to the help in this thread and the shared 6990 benchmarks, I was able to gauge the approximate performance of my setup with modern games and I will be giving it a try as is.

As it relates to upgrades, I don't feel there is a good answer at this time. For a single GPU, I do think I'll need to wait another generation or two before a single card can be meaningful upgrade for me. The cost benefit just isn't there yet. On the other hand, a Crossfire/SLI setup is overkill for the 1080p I plan to be running.

Just need to hope that when I do go around to upgrading my GPU, my CPU wouldn't be the bottleneck then

 

[Cerb]

So in short, don't stress about it, buy a new game that you're interested in. Best case, you decide that you don't need to buy anything. Worst case, you pick up a new single GPU and enjoy smoother gameplay.

+1. I've been sitting on a few games for some time, having only played them just enough to figure I'll enjoy them a lot more once my hardware is better. Single-player games don't get worse, over time, hanging around in your library, and multiplayer hardware-intensive games are a whole other can of worms.

 

[SKORPI0]

Definitely the graphics card. OC'd 17 2600k should still be good enough and decent amount of memory at 16GB. I you haven't yet, upgrade to a SSD drive for the OS.
And when you're ready to upgrade (CPU/Mobo/memory) you can still keep the graphics card.

 

[Actaeon]

+1. I've been sitting on a few games for some time, having only played them just enough to figure I'll enjoy them a lot more once my hardware is better. Single-player games don't get worse, over time, hanging around in your library, and multiplayer hardware-intensive games are a whole other can of worms.

Good point, I can sit on the game if I don't find them playable. I haven't run into anything yet but I expect that will come sooner rather than later. May need to drop some settings for some of the demanding games.

I'm pretty happy that my setup has lasted this long so far and I still think it has a bit more time left in it if I stick to 1080p. A move to a 4k display would definitely need an upgrade though.

Definitely the graphics card. OC'd 17 2600k should still be good enough and decent amount of memory at 16GB. I you haven't yet, upgrade to a SSD drive for the OS.
And when you're ready to upgrade (CPU/Mobo/memory) you can still keep the graphics card.

Thanks. This is strictly a gaming computer. I use my laptop for everyday use, so I'm not too worried about an SSD just yet.

Good point that I can move the GPUs to the next motherboard & CPU platform and can upgrade them independently of each other. I don't necessarily have to tie them together.

Interestingly, checking the CPU Bench, it doesn't look like desktop CPU performance has changed much since Sandy Bridge on a given clockspeed. Well aware of the benefits Haswell brings, but that seems mostly around energy efficiency and iGPUs in notebooks. Broadwell doesn't look to be that big of a boost either. May need to wait until Sky Lake before I start seeing a meaningful difference but my Sandy Bridge @ 4.5GHz still feels pretty quick.

 

[mfenn]

but my Sandy Bridge @ 4.5GHz still feels pretty quick.

That's because it is! Improvements in IPC (instructions per clock, basically processor performance) have been very incremental for the past few years. So a high-clocked Sandy Bridge is still quite capable.

 

[erunion]

The next Gen consoles are pitifully weak and some of the games are even locked at 30fps(on PC). You wont need a new PC to play console ports.

2015 will see Skylake and 20nm video cards, looking like a good time to upgrade.

 

[sm625]

4.5GHz 2600K is still a beast. Apparently we've been in a time bubble these last 3 years, where CPU technology fails to advance at any meaningful rate (and Intel's stock goes up 100% as a result?). A GTX 970 would obliterate that 6950 though. Go figure. (And of course, NVDA and AMD stocks have gone down these last 3 years. There's a lesson in here about the greed of wall street eh?)

 

[HumblePie]

I basically have the same setup as the OP. 2600K OC'd to 4.4 Ghz, 32GB of ram, and a couple of 6970's in xfire. I really haven't had a problem playing any game at all as I game at 1920x1200 still. Now if I was trying to push higher resolutions with high levels of AA and AF, then I expect to turn the games into slideshows on newer games.

But overall I haven't had a hitch in playing games.

 

[fixbsod]

QFT

I too have a Sandy Bridge i7 -- 2700k but only "oc'd" to 3.9 (all cores) and recently got an MSI 970 and have been loving it. Massive, massive boost to gaming performance (prev using a geforce 580) and very improved temps / thermals cuz of it. System is powerful enough to enable 4k DSR and get decent FPSs with games like Bioshock Infinite, Hitman Absolution, and more. I've been using it and have been LOVING it -- much better picture quality (even passed the girlfriend test!). Your system is not holding you back, the vid card is.

fyi -- a 970 blows the crap out of a 6990 (and at much better power draw/temps):

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1183?vs=1355

i would upgrade to a 970 and call it a day if i were going to upgrade your system.

 

[Actaeon]

Thank you all. Funny enough, after I said I wasn't going to upgrade, I found a deal I couldn't resist.

AMD just announced they were giving away copies of Civilization Beyond Earth on top of the 3 games they already give. Plus the price of the cards themselves feel like they're on clearance. I know this is overkill for what I do now, but I picked up a pair of Sapphire Tri-X 290Xs for $600 total, it will come with 6 free games and 2 copies of Civ:BE.

A single 290Xs were going for $600+ less than 6 months ago and even more during the mining craze. This was the card that beat a $1k Titan for 2/3 of the cost when it was released and we're paying 1/2 of that cost now. Then the multi-game bundles AMD put out is icing on the cake. $300~ worth of games plus the heavy discounts for this level of performance made the value proposition irresistible.

Then I get a boost in karma. I'll be giving away my 6950s to my friend whose GPU recently died and is stuck using an iGPU. I'll also be giving away that 2nd copy of Civ:BE to another friend. Good times for everyone!!

 

[mfenn]

Dual R9 290X's is certainly a pretty firebreathing setup, and with the XDMA engine, they are some of the best behaved multi-GPU cards out there. It's ridiculous overkill for console ports at 1080p (remember the consoles each have a 7850), but if it makes you happy then congrats!.

 

[Powermoloch]

Thank you all. Funny enough, after I said I wasn't going to upgrade, I found a deal I couldn't resist.

friend. Good times for everyone!!

I'm pretty much in the same spot as you, I grabbed 2 tri-x OC R9 290 for about $400..can't beat the performance and price. It's hard to believe just not too long ago, had bought (2) 6850s when they came out at a similar price.

technonology ftw...rip wallet D: