Which part to upgrade?

[Leopardos]

Hello,

So , here is BF3 coming in 5 days ...
Im wondering which part of my PC to upgrade ...

Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Intel QuadCore 9550 C1 Ver.
Radeon HD4870X2 2GB
2x2GB Corsair Dominator TwinX CL5 Dual Channel 1066Mhz

My cpu is OCed @ 3.4Ghz...
I know BF3 will be Hardware hungry ....
But while playing BFBC2 i get 95-100% CPU usage all the time and 60-90% GPU on core one and the other one is 30-60%..

I mean is it the time to upgrade the CPU first ? BFBC2 is alittle similar to BF3 with engines and gameplay and graphics ... so my CPU will be the same 100% ... Should i buy one or OC it more to 3.8 or so ? or upgrade the GFX ... ?

Im willing to play with medium or low gfx with this setup at the moment with 1680x1050 res...

BFBC2 FPS:
50-80 LOW
40-60 Medium
30-60Highest settings..
The fps drops comes in a VERY HEAVY fights..

Thanks

 

[Lasthitlarry]

Definitely OC as much as you can first, you could use a new CPU and GPU but that's gonna be $300-400+ and you might as well get new mobo and RAM as well. Getting an X4/X6 or 2500K and a 6850/GTX460 is my guess.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Quad+Q9550+%40+2.83GHz
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+4870+X2

 

[Leopardos]

Definitely OC as much as you can first, you could use a new CPU and GPU but that's gonna be $300-400+ and you might as well get new mobo and RAM as well. Getting an X4/X6 or 2500K and a 6850/GTX460 is my guess but you already have pretty equivalent equipment.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Quad+Q9550+@+2.83GHz
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+4870+X2

This is what i have guessed ...
Btw , my PC realy good .. i can run every game with good FPS...

so , about the CPU ... lets say i get it at 4Ghz ... will the cpu usage be 100% just as 3.4Ghz ?

 

[Lasthitlarry]

As long as your OCing the thing alright, nothing to worry about, the CPU is going to get used up as much as possible for those games, even at higher frequencies.

If I were to suggest anything it would be to get a 6850 and OC your CPU, but if it were me I would wait until the game launches and if the game benchmarks show that it does better with certain CPUs or GPUs, go for those. 5 days can change the price of parts too.

 

[Leopardos]

As long as your OCing the thing alright, nothing to worry about, the CPU is going to get used up as much as possible for those games, even at higher frequencies.

If I were to suggest anything it would be to get a 6850 and OC your CPU, but if it were me I would wait until the game launches and if the game benchmarks show that it does better with certain CPUs or GPUs, go for those. 5 days can change the price of parts too.

Your right ... Its smart to wait 5 days and then decide ...
I guess my PC will run it very good with medium settings ...

If not then i will upgrade the GPU...

The problem is that my Mobo cant run the 2600K CPU ... im not willing to pay too much to upgrade..

Im buying a house soon ... its more important at the moment ..

 

[biostud]

I would get a 6950 or 560Ti -> Lower power + no problems with CF scaling.

 

[Leopardos]

I would get a 6950 or 560Ti -> Lower power + no problems with CF scaling.

Will i have a bottleneck if i get the GTX570 or HD6950 with 3.4Ghz q9550 ? i dont want to upgrade for something old to be honest ..

 

[Leopardos]

Any one guys ? before going to buy it?

 

[Leopardos]

Last bump before the store close ...
will the GTX570 bottleneck my Q9550 @ 3.4 OR 3.6gHZ ?

 

[Leopardos]

Bump ... some one please?

 

[lehtv]

Hrrmmm... Well, if your CPU usage is near 100% already in BF3 then it would suggest that there's a bottleneck, or it would suggest that BF3 is a very CPU intensive game. Had you not posted that, I would be almost certain that Q9550 doesn't bottleneck a 570. Q9550 is still a pretty strong CPU.

GTX 570 is a bit faster than 4870X2, but not sure if it's worth the money as it won't be able to run BF3 at ultra settings and smooth framerates anyway. I have 560 ti overclocked near 570 speeds, and a 20% overclock on my i7 920 - framerate in BF3 beta @ ultra 1080p in the Metro map is around 35 outside, a bit more inside. Medium-high settings make it playable to me (50+).

My recommendation would be just to stick with what you have and play at lowered settings (BF3 at medium looks fine), and save your cash for a system overhaul when HD7000 series and Ivy Bridge are released. But if you really want all you can get out of that game, then I would recommend 6950 2GB crossfire, but is your PSU powerful enough? In addition, that setup could well be bottlenecked by Q9550. Do you have the cash for 2500K + 6950 2GB crossfire?

You could do some experimenting to determine how close your CPU is currently to bottlenecking your current GPU. Choose some GPU intensive game to benchmark, and test the performance first at high CPU clocks then at, say, 100-200 MHz intervals as you downclock the CPU. If performance is drastically lowered after a certain point, you'll know the 6870 is bottlenecked, and you could use that info to determine how likely it is that a faster card will be bottlenecked. FWIW I also hear that NVIDIA cards tend to require more from the CPU.

 

[Leopardos]

Hrrmmm... Well, if your CPU usage is near 100% already in BF3 then it would suggest that there's a bottleneck, or it would suggest that BF3 is a very CPU intensive game. Had you not posted that, I would be almost certain that Q9550 doesn't bottleneck a 570. Q9550 is still a pretty strong CPU.

GTX 570 is quite a bit faster than 6870, but not sure if it's worth the money as it won't be able to run BF3 at ultra settings and smooth framerates anyway. I have 560 ti overclocked near 570 speeds, and a 20% overclock on my i7 920 - framerate in BF3 beta @ ultra 1080p in the Metro map is around 35 outside, a bit more inside. Medium-high settings make it playable to me (50+).

If you really want all you can get out of that game, then I would recommend 6950 2GB crossfire, but is your PSU powerful enough?

You got me wrong ... I dont have 570 now ..
I have Q9550 OCed 3.4Ghz at the moment ..
with HD4870X2 GPU

My question is .. will i have a bottleneck upgrading to GTX570 with the same Q9550 OCed at 4Ghz?

 

[lehtv]

Yeah I remembered you had 6870, but then read again and fixed the post

Assuming there is no bottleneck at 3.4Ghz with 4870x2, then there should not be a bottleneck with at 4.0GHz with GTX570, at least not a big one. 4.0GHz is ~17% faster than 3.4Ghz, which is not far from difference between 4870x2 and gtx570 in average fps.

 

[Ken g6]

He's getting 100% CPU in BF2. On the other hand, reportedly, BF2 isn't CPU limited.

We don't really know for sure about BF3 until it comes out and is reviewed.

 

[mfenn]

Since lowering the detail settings causes your performance to improve, that means you aren't currently CPU-limited in BC2. Getting a GTX 570 or 6950 2GB will unbalance your system a bit, but then you are all set for a CPU upgrade down the line.