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Cpu Or Gpu, Which To Upgrade First?


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#61 Darwins Dog

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 03:31 AM

View PostFlapdrol, on 28 August 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

I'm not sure, but that cpu might be a devils canyon / haswell refresh cpu, which require a bios update to run, if the motherboard does not have a new bios on it the system will not boot and you'd need to get an old cpu to flash the bios.

According to the manufacturer's website (gigabyte) the two are compatible with bios version f12. I can't find anything about the BIOS version that comes on the MOBO though... I'll do some more digging.

EDIT: from the Gigabyte forums you can download the update to a USB drive and flash the BIOS from there.

Edited by Darwins Dog, 28 August 2014 - 03:35 AM.


#62 Flapdrol

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 03:40 AM

If it's a haswell refresh you will not even get into the bios, so you won't be able to update.

if it's a regular haswell it will be fine.

edit:
http://www.tomshardw...ack-screen.html

looks like it's a refresh, so the set will only work if the motherboard is new enough to have the latest bios preinstalled, otherwise you will need an old cpu to do the bios flash.

Edited by Flapdrol, 28 August 2014 - 03:50 AM.


#63 Bullseye69

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 04:18 AM

View PostDarwins Dog, on 25 August 2014 - 08:30 AM, said:

Hi all,

I'm looking to do a bit of upgrading on my computer, as I barely make the minimum settings. My FPS usually sits in the 30-40 range during minor engagements, but drops to around 15-25 (as low as 10) during heavy action. I have the game set to minimum everything except mech detail (because they look really ugly on minimum). I'm wondering what I should upgrade to get the best additional performance. I'd like to stabilize my FPS, but make the game look prettier if possible. I have about 300 USD to spend (maybe a little more).

My current specs:
  • CPU - AMD Phenom II x4 940 Quad-core 3.0GhZ
  • GPU - EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
  • MOBO - ASUS M4A79 Deluxe AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX
  • PSU - CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.3
I greatly appreciate any advice I can get. MWO is the main game I play, and the only one with heavy system requirements (Minecraft isn't as much of a resource hog).



UPDATE: After running some monitoring software I found my CPU was getting up to 80-85C ;). My guess is that it has been for some time. I ordered the cooling fan and thermal compound already, since the stock fan obviously wasn't cutting it. I'm not too keen on overclocking it now. I suspect it won't stand up to too much additional stress.

However, I got some extra money from selling sea urchins to a biology lab, and I now have ~570USD to play with. Now I can upgrade everything! This is what I am considering now http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HbmsVn (thanks for showing me this site btw, it's like smurfy for computers). I have the case, PSU (700W), etc. alreadt. My HDD is only 5400 rpm and 3GB/s SATA, but from what I've read that should only affect loading times. Thoughts?



Yes on the parts for a new upgrade. I had to do this myself I was running a athlon2 640 3.1ghz with 8 gig rams and a r9 270X(rebranded 7870Xt ) i was getting frame rate drops just like you was having to run it a 1440 res and low bit the built and went with this second part form a freind he changes out his computer parts about 4 times a year, Now running a Intel 4770K stock with 8 gigs of ram and the same graphic card i have no problems at all added a new cases from the same guy windows 8.1 and 60 gig ssd testing and now added a 250gig samsung 840evo ssd drive and have no complaints spent way more than budget but really happy with what i have. Now if i could only find a money tree in my yard or a pot of gold life would be good.

#64 Darwins Dog

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Posted 28 August 2014 - 07:03 AM

View PostFlapdrol, on 28 August 2014 - 03:40 AM, said:

If it's a haswell refresh you will not even get into the bios, so you won't be able to update.

if it's a regular haswell it will be fine.

edit:
http://www.tomshardw...ack-screen.html

looks like it's a refresh, so the set will only work if the motherboard is new enough to have the latest bios preinstalled, otherwise you will need an old cpu to do the bios flash.

Thanks for catching that. I'll have to find a different MOBO.

#65 Darwins Dog

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Posted 03 September 2014 - 09:11 AM

For anyone still interested: I installed the recommended cooler, and have been slowly increasing my CPU speed.

I am currently cruising at a stable 3.3 GHz, and about 59 C during heavy game play. My FPS is pretty consistently >30, except in really heavy action (like the kind I probably won't survive anyways). Oddly, my average CPU load (%) has increased since overclocking, but I am seeing performance improvements.

This is with all settings on low except object detail, which is at medium. I'll have a new GPU later this week, and I think I will push for 3.5 GHz (as suggested) and stay there.

Cheers again for the advice!

Edited by Darwins Dog, 03 September 2014 - 11:09 AM.


#66 Sgt Minuteman

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Posted 03 September 2014 - 10:06 AM

I play MWO just fine with a AMD Phenom II X61035T 2.7GHz 16GB 1066 RAM 7200RPM Seagate drive with EVGA Geforce GTX 470. That 470 ROCKS! Best damn card I ever owned. I recommend you look at the ATI R9 270x or the EVGA GTX 760.

Get the GPU.

I also have a 14" Asus Republic of Gamers with an i5 3320m 2.6Ghz and a Geforce GTX 660m

Both my computers play MWO just fine. CPU running at 3.0 GHz is fine. A .5 ghz change is not worth OCing for. I always just upgrade to a year older than current tech if I am upgrading. Went from a 9800 GTX to a 470 when the 500 series were introduced. Now I will probably upgrade to a 780 when prices come down.I always check specs on Hardwarecompare before I buy to see if the performace gain is worth the money. http://www.hwcompare...pu-comparisons/

AMD just released their FX 8 core CPU that will overclock to 5.0Ghz and they are $199.00 http://www.pcmag.com...,2466471,00.asp

#67 ninjitsu

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 09:36 AM

FX series CPU's have more problems with the game than the previous PhenomII chips. 5ghz is old news for amd chips, what AMD is releasing really isn't anything new.

#68 reiGngehoWn

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Posted 06 September 2014 - 07:10 AM

It's the game, that got the problems, not the CPUs *just saying*

Playing the game "just fine" can mean anything mr. sgt minuteman

"just fine" = 60+ fps all the time??
"just fine" = not in the reds!?
"just fine" = 30+ fps most of the time?

@DarwinsDog
I do not think that upgrading your GPU will help you increasing your FPS a lot ...

#69 Darwins Dog

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 12:36 PM

View PostreiGngehoWn, on 06 September 2014 - 07:10 AM, said:

@DarwinsDog
I do not think that upgrading your GPU will help you increasing your FPS a lot ...

I'm not expecting a big fps increase, I'm looking for more stability. If I can keep it to 40, then I'll be satisfied.

#70 Flapdrol

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 04:52 AM

View PostreiGngehoWn, on 06 September 2014 - 07:10 AM, said:

It's the game, that got the problems, not the CPUs *just saying*

Nah, almost all games that actually require cpu power perform much better on intel cpu's. The problem is with the FX cpu's.

#71 ninjitsu

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 08:14 AM

View PostFlapdrol, on 09 September 2014 - 04:52 AM, said:

Nah, almost all games that actually require cpu power perform much better on intel cpu's. The problem is with the FX cpu's.


Current AMD CPU's don't have true cores. They have modules that work in pairs, they share access to floating point modules and L2 cache. So in essence, an 8 core FX is really a quad core. The problem is the CPU. This is why AMD attempting to build a new chip from the ground up, we should be seeing it in roughly two years.

#72 Stijnovic

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:07 AM

Hey guys, I'm also thinking about upgrading my system (not only for MWO). I have an AMD Phenom II 955 Black, MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III, 8GB RAM DDR3-1333.

Currently I run most settings at medium, 1920x1200 with average framerate of >30fps. With higher settings, MWO mostly runs fine, but I sometimes get framerate drops to around 20fps for a few seconds, quite annoying.

I figure my options are:
  • I have an SSD, does it help to install MWO on it? It's currently installed on my hard drive.
  • My CPU cooler and current temperatures are decent, I could try overclocking?
  • Maybe I want to buy a new mainboard and CPU, I'm thinking i5-4460 or 4690?
  • Or maybe I want to upgrade the GPU to a GTX970?
Any thoughts?

#73 MoonHawk

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 07:14 AM

Hi guys! Sorry to hijack the thread, but i have a similar question. A couple of months ago, I got my dad into MWO, and hes lovin it, slowly but steadly crawling up to 1.0 kdr. Thing is, he has a crappy dsl (250 in a good da400 ping on sundays, I dont know how he manages to stand it) and an old rig. Hes looking to upgrade, doesnt care about eye candy, just wats to get out of 800x600 cause he can barely read loadouts on enemy mechs and his pc always freezes in the worst moments, getting him killed.
His rig:
Amd Athlon X2 @ 3.2 ghz
4 gb ddr2 @ 800mghz
Some crappy Asus M2n line mobo
8600gt 512mb
A generic horrible psu i gave him after his previous generic horrible psu melted.
1280 x 1024 5:4 samsung lcd
320 sata3 wd

A little side note: I have an P2 950be @ 4 ghz, 8gb 1333, amd 7850 2g and a 1360x768 lcd (60 t0 40 most of the time, 22 for lowewest on murderfests) and he loves playing mwo on it. So thats what helll settle for, more or less.

Yeah, i know. :wacko:
We will upgrade whats necesary, but if its advisable, we will build a new rig

Now the tricky part: The budget 350-400. Might go up if you guys consider building a new rig.
Now the trickier part: Southamerica! Where dated hardware cost up to 40-60% more than in NA or Eu and we cant import stuff, so buying in Amazon, Newegg, etc its out of the picture.

I will love any feedback, and if its too offtopic, I´ll start a new topic, just point me where.Thanks a lot fellow pilots!

#74 Catamount

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 07:43 AM

View PostStijnovic, on 06 November 2014 - 08:07 AM, said:

Hey guys, I'm also thinking about upgrading my system (not only for MWO). I have an AMD Phenom II 955 Black, MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III, 8GB RAM DDR3-1333.

Currently I run most settings at medium, 1920x1200 with average framerate of >30fps. With higher settings, MWO mostly runs fine, but I sometimes get framerate drops to around 20fps for a few seconds, quite annoying.

I figure my options are:
  • I have an SSD, does it help to install MWO on it? It's currently installed on my hard drive.
  • My CPU cooler and current temperatures are decent, I could try overclocking?
  • Maybe I want to buy a new mainboard and CPU, I'm thinking i5-4460 or 4690?
  • Or maybe I want to upgrade the GPU to a GTX970?
Any thoughts?



I don't know what you play, but to give some ideas, you'll get a little more benefit out of a new GPU in certain games (Tombraider, Star Citizen, BF4, a few others), and you'll get a lot more benefit out of a new CPU in others, like MWO, most RTS games, most MMOs, sandbox building games (KSP, Space Engineers), and actually, Star Citizen would stress that CPU heavily too.

My advice is to get a new CPU. Neither is unplayably bad at gaming, but you're probably more CPU bound than GPU bound. A 6950 is a very respectable card still. It's basically a 7870/270X by performance. It's getting long in the tooth, sure, but it can still handle gaming. I would probably plan on replacing that in the next year or two. Right now the CPU options are probably better compared to future releases than the GPU options anyways. If you get Haswell now, and miss out on Intel's usual super-incremental upgrade that gives like a 5-10% performance boost, it won't hurt you, but AMD Pirate Islands could shape up to be absolutely ridiculously good, Maxwell cards may drop in price a bit or a new release or refresh could come out, things that might actually make a difference. Besides, upgrading your CPU later will almost certainly mean a DDR4 purchase, whereas right now you can keep using that DDR3 (and 1333mhz RAM isn't going to degrade performance in more than one or two titles, and even then, barely measurably let alone noticibly).

#75 Catamount

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 07:56 AM

View PostMoonHawk, on 07 November 2014 - 07:14 AM, said:

Hi guys! Sorry to hijack the thread, but i have a similar question. A couple of months ago, I got my dad into MWO, and hes lovin it, slowly but steadly crawling up to 1.0 kdr. Thing is, he has a crappy dsl (250 in a good da400 ping on sundays, I dont know how he manages to stand it) and an old rig. Hes looking to upgrade, doesnt care about eye candy, just wats to get out of 800x600 cause he can barely read loadouts on enemy mechs and his pc always freezes in the worst moments, getting him killed.
His rig:
Amd Athlon X2 @ 3.2 ghz
4 gb ddr2 @ 800mghz
Some crappy Asus M2n line mobo
8600gt 512mb
A generic horrible psu i gave him after his previous generic horrible psu melted.
1280 x 1024 5:4 samsung lcd
320 sata3 wd

A little side note: I have an P2 950be @ 4 ghz, 8gb 1333, amd 7850 2g and a 1360x768 lcd (60 t0 40 most of the time, 22 for lowewest on murderfests) and he loves playing mwo on it. So thats what helll settle for, more or less.

Yeah, i know. :wacko:
We will upgrade whats necesary, but if its advisable, we will build a new rig

Now the tricky part: The budget 350-400. Might go up if you guys consider building a new rig.
Now the trickier part: Southamerica! Where dated hardware cost up to 40-60% more than in NA or Eu and we cant import stuff, so buying in Amazon, Newegg, etc its out of the picture.

I will love any feedback, and if its too offtopic, I´ll start a new topic, just point me where.Thanks a lot fellow pilots!


Honestly, that's a pretty decent machine for MWO. The only upgrade I could advise would be replacing the CPU/mobo with something like an Ivy or Haswell i5 if you wanted. It would definitely make the game run better.

#76 Flapdrol

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 08:17 AM

View PostMoonHawk, on 07 November 2014 - 07:14 AM, said:

Hi guys! Sorry to hijack the thread, but i have a similar question. A couple of months ago, I got my dad into MWO, and hes lovin it, slowly but steadly crawling up to 1.0 kdr. Thing is, he has a crappy dsl (250 in a good da400 ping on sundays, I dont know how he manages to stand it) and an old rig. Hes looking to upgrade, doesnt care about eye candy, just wats to get out of 800x600 cause he can barely read loadouts on enemy mechs and his pc always freezes in the worst moments, getting him killed.
His rig:
Amd Athlon X2 @ 3.2 ghz
4 gb ddr2 @ 800mghz
Some crappy Asus M2n line mobo
8600gt 512mb
A generic horrible psu i gave him after his previous generic horrible psu melted.
1280 x 1024 5:4 samsung lcd
320 sata3 wd

A little side note: I have an P2 950be @ 4 ghz, 8gb 1333, amd 7850 2g and a 1360x768 lcd (60 t0 40 most of the time, 22 for lowewest on murderfests) and he loves playing mwo on it. So thats what helll settle for, more or less.

Yeah, i know. :wacko:
We will upgrade whats necesary, but if its advisable, we will build a new rig

Now the tricky part: The budget 350-400. Might go up if you guys consider building a new rig.
Now the trickier part: Southamerica! Where dated hardware cost up to 40-60% more than in NA or Eu and we cant import stuff, so buying in Amazon, Newegg, etc its out of the picture.

I will love any feedback, and if its too offtopic, I´ll start a new topic, just point me where.Thanks a lot fellow pilots!

Do they sell pentium g3258's? Can combine it with an elcheapo board that overclocks, see the list in this topic: http://forums.anandt...d.php?t=2389948

those boards generally only have 2 memory slots, so I'd put in 2x4GB so you dont have to upgrade later.

For gpu's the best deals are secondhand I guess, going to have to upgrade the psu as well. But I reckon you can get a hd6850 or gtx460 for very little, should be a massive upgrade from a 8600.

Edited by Flapdrol, 07 November 2014 - 08:20 AM.


#77 Catamount

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 08:31 AM

I didn't realize he was looking to upgrade the old machine :/

Yeah, I agree, get a 3258, OC it on some H87 board with some DDR3, and pick up a well-used GPU. That machine entirely needs to be replaced except for drives (and hopefully PSU), and that's the cheapest route.

Edited by Catamount, 07 November 2014 - 08:31 AM.


#78 MoonHawk

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 10:42 AM

Thanks guys! Really useful stuff.
Ive been browsing stores and i cant seem to find a g3258. Lots of g3220 tho (90 us$) . Will it work? Or its a 3258 or go home deal?
I had an gtx460 and mwo ran fine, i sold it to my brother in law. Maybe i can buy it back, since hes thinking of upgrading it anyway. That will be ideal. Used 460s are selling for 110-120 online.
And my dads psu sucks mech-sized balls, its actually branded Codegen like generic, cant expect anything good out of that. It wont even power a 8800gt.

Thanks a lot guys, u rock!

Edited by MoonHawk, 07 November 2014 - 10:43 AM.


#79 Flapdrol

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 10:45 AM

The g3258 is overclockable, all the other ones are locked. Might be better off with an i3 or i5 if you can't find the 3258.

#80 Ruccus

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Posted 10 November 2014 - 01:59 AM

View PostMoonHawk, on 07 November 2014 - 10:42 AM, said:

Ive been browsing stores and i cant seem to find a g3258. Lots of g3220 tho (90 us$) . Will it work? Or its a 3258 or go home deal?

I had an gtx460 and mwo ran fine, i sold it to my brother in law. Maybe i can buy it back, since hes thinking of upgrading it anyway. That will be ideal. Used 460s are selling for 110-120 online.

And my dads psu sucks mech-sized balls, its actually branded Codegen like generic, cant expect anything good out of that. It wont even power a 8800gt.


The G3258 is also known as the "Pentium Anniversary Edition". Using that to search sites like newegg or amazon should bring up the G3258 ($70usd at both sites). It's unlocked but you need a motherboard that will overclock it as well. For those uncomfortable with overclocking, the Core i3-4150 is a nice budget processor currently selling for ~$120.

As for the GTX 460, if it's going for $110-$120 used then just get a GeForce 750Ti or Radeon R7 260X. Both are faster and sell in the $120 range new.





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