18 replies to this topic

[AFlyingBeerCan]

Hey all im running

AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz
16GBs Ram
Nvidia GeForce 460 SE

which upgrade should i consider first to get and immediate FPS boost
I only plan to play mwo
please and thank you

[xWiredx]

Ideally, you should wind up with an Intel Haswell, Skylake, or better CPU and any high-end GPU. With your particular system, if you have a decent PSU and an excellent CPU cooler (240mm AIO) you can get some more out of your CPU with a nice overclock. The GPU, however, is weak and should probably be the first upgrade. We recommend probably anything from Radeon R9 290/Geforce 780 or better (so an R9 380/390, Fury/X, GTX 970/980/980 Ti) would be about where you want to be if you want to play at high/very high settings.

[Goose]

What's your overclock?

[AFlyingBeerCan]

xWiredx, on 10 February 2016 - 06:23 AM, said:

Ideally, you should wind up with an Intel Haswell, Skylake, or better CPU and any high-end GPU. With your particular system, if you have a decent PSU and an excellent CPU cooler (240mm AIO) you can get some more out of your CPU with a nice overclock. The GPU, however, is weak and should probably be the first upgrade. We recommend probably anything from Radeon R9 290/Geforce 780 or better (so an R9 380/390, Fury/X, GTX 970/980/980 Ti) would be about where you want to be if you want to play at high/very high settings.

hey thanks for the suggestions i think ill upgrade the card first but the prices are really out of my budget. would a gtx 750 or 750 ti be worth it for an upgrade?

[Sideshow031]

GPU is def the first place i'd upgrade on that rig, and a geforce 780 is probably your most price-friendly option, because the 970 is twice as much at least, and the 980 is another 300 beyond that, and in all reality, the 980 isnt even worth it because the difference between the 970 and 980 is about 5-10 fps

try the 780

[Stingray Productions]

Sideshow031, on 10 February 2016 - 11:21 AM, said:

GPU is def the first place i'd upgrade on that rig, and a geforce 780 is probably your most price-friendly option, because the 970 is twice as much at least, and the 980 is another 300 beyond that, and in all reality, the 980 isnt even worth it because the difference between the 970 and 980 is about 5-10 fps

try the 780

Agreed, GPU first. I went with the GeForce 750ti Gaming edition from Newegg: http://www.newegg.co...7-836-_-Product
I like it a lot. And you don't need to plug in any extra power to the card. Just pop it right onto the mother board

Edited by Stingray1234, 10 February 2016 - 11:35 AM.

[xWiredx]

The 750 Ti is good for medium settings at 1920x1080, definitely an upgrade from a 460. You may want to look at equivalently-priced Radeon options, as there have been some good deals lately and you might be able to get better performance for the same price.

[AFlyingBeerCan]

xWiredx, on 10 February 2016 - 12:04 PM, said:

The 750 Ti is good for medium settings at 1920x1080, definitely an upgrade from a 460. You may want to look at equivalently-priced Radeon options, as there have been some good deals lately and you might be able to get better performance for the same price.

whats the equivalent to a 750 ti

[Goose]

That 750Ti meets the Three Tiers Rule, but I'd find the cash for a 950 if I was you.

[xWiredx]

The better question here, to avoid a lot of guessing and random google searching, is what is your actual budget for just the GPU upgrade and what PSU do you have?

[Iceolator]

GPU has most impact on FPS usually. Your CPU is perfectly fine. You should also overclock - 8120 in turbo mode goes 3.6 GHz, but you can get it to 4300 or even 4500+ if it's from a good batch and you have and ok cooler (even if it's not the water one).

It's absolutely safe and can't harm your hardware unless you're setting up incorrect voltage. You should OC your GPU too, it is done in a few clicks. Your 460 SE can go 800-840 clock and 4200 memory easy, and it will give you a nice little boost (+10-15% FPS).

If you're on a budged i can recommend AMD GPU's - i've always loved NVIDIA but AMD cards are very nice too and they usually are cheaper and OC better. I was also surprised at how good their drivers became.

[Flapdrol]

dunno guys, the 81xx performs pretty badly with this game.

I'd say download msi afterburner and use it to monitor fps and gpu use %, look up the lowest fps in the graph, if the gpu use is low you should upgrade the cpu, otherwise the gpu.

this game isn't that demanding on the gpu at lower settings, but it's always cpu demanding in a battle.

for most other games a gpu upgrade will have a much bigger impact of course.

Edited by Flapdrol, 10 February 2016 - 01:27 PM.

[Napoleon_Blownapart]

dont jump the gun, the game will be moving to a new cryengine supporting DX12 in a few months.I have read some articles that say AMD performs better in DX12 but it still may be too early to know for sure.just look up vid cards that support DX12 and see what bells and whistles they offer.

DX12 will also spread the computing more evenly across the cpu's 8 cores.

there are also bios settings you could disable like turbo or cool and quiet that can effect performance, others can chime in or correct me on these.

Edited by Gorantir, 10 February 2016 - 04:47 PM.

[AFlyingBeerCan]

Thank you everyone for your input.
right now I'm averaging 30-42fps on medium settings at 1680 x 1050
the resolutions im fine with im just looking to achieve closer to 60fps
and not willing to spend anything more than $150-180 (canadian)

[Ex Atlas Overlord]

AFlyingBeerCan, on 10 February 2016 - 06:15 AM, said:

Hey all im running

AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz
16GBs Ram
Nvidia GeForce 460 SE

which upgrade should i consider first to get and immediate FPS boost
I only plan to play mwo
please and thank you

Definitely upgrade the GPU first.

But you're probably not going to get anything mind blowing for 150 dollars.

Edited by The Atlas Overlord, 10 February 2016 - 08:01 PM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

AFlyingBeerCan, on 10 February 2016 - 05:59 PM, said:

Thank you everyone for your input.
right now I'm averaging 30-42fps on medium settings at 1680 x 1050
the resolutions im fine with im just looking to achieve closer to 60fps
and not willing to spend anything more than $150-180 (canadian)

In most games upgrading the GPU would be the way to go.
In MWO and other RTS type titles CPU is king.

Upgrading your GPU will let you turn up some bells and whistles and give you higher FPS, but that old Bulldozer 8120 is going to suck and keep the avg and minimums low to the point you'll likely not notice much difference in the getting "closer to 60fps" requirement you set.

If MWO is your main game, my opinion would be to upgrade the CPU first for more stable gameplay (Go Intel)
Then save and wait the new generation GPU chips out later this year, you'll either be able to get one of those or grab a bargain from the 900 series to improve the graphical aspect of the game.

TL:DR
CPU to stabilize
GPU to get more candy (but worsen CPU performance)

Canadian dollars are rough right now tho, so your budget won't do much of anything on either score.

Edited by DV McKenna, 11 February 2016 - 02:12 AM.

[xWiredx]

I would normally agree, but the GPU is the weaker of the two in OP's system. The CPU can be overclocked if he's willing to put some pennies into a decent AIO later one. The GPU was a mid-range offering 3 1/2 years ago, performing at less than half as well as a GTX 960. For his budget, he would get status quo if he tried to move to an Intel platform by getting a new motherboard+CPU -OR- he could get a small bump by getting a new GPU.

Within budget, the 750 Ti is the best OP can probably do if buying a brand new part. There could be some local used deals on sites like ebay/craigslist, but other than that a 750 Ti is all I could recommend.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

xWiredx, on 11 February 2016 - 05:54 AM, said:

I would normally agree, but the GPU is the weaker of the two in OP's system. The CPU can be overclocked if he's willing to put some pennies into a decent AIO later one. The GPU was a mid-range offering 3 1/2 years ago, performing at less than half as well as a GTX 960. For his budget, he would get status quo if he tried to move to an Intel platform by getting a new motherboard+CPU -OR- he could get a small bump by getting a new GPU.

Within budget, the 750 Ti is the best OP can probably do if buying a brand new part. There could be some local used deals on sites like ebay/craigslist, but other than that a 750 Ti is all I could recommend.

Personally I don't think the 750Ti is going to give a small bump in this scenario, yes it's better than the 460.
If he purchased a 750TI and left all his settings as is he's still going to suffer the FPS spikes with that bulldozer chip, if it were a vishera etc chip I would be in agreement.

But Bulldozer was always and still is scrap.

But as I say he's not helped with either option with the current value of the CAD

[Catamount]

RE: DX12 while that's probably going to be a huge help down the road keep in mind that the devs still have to actually implement it, and even then, it's not likely to make things significantly more threaded. CE is already capable of taking advantage of, what, 12 threads? Yet MWO doesn't seem coded to care about more than what, maybe 6, and to only modest effect past 4? That's not likely to change.

As for CPU vs GPU, the CPU is important, but that 460 is holding things back hugely, stupidly. Even at lower settings I bet that thing is bogging the game down like crazy. It's a 460SE, keep in mind. Nvidia, with some of their typical obfuscation, named three or four distinct GPUs "GTX 460", and the SE is a neutered version with lower clocks, stream processors and TMUs. It's maybe 75% of a legitimate 460. The OP probably also doesn't realistically have the budget for a CPU upgrade right now. What's he going to do, purchase an 8150 instead? That's a stretch to his budget, and would barely be an upgrade. Maybe he could get an 8350 instead if he sold the 8120 and hoped a bios upgrade made his mobo compatible... and lived without a computer for a week for a super-modest upgrade?

The only way the CPU gets better, and I mean actually better, is via a mobo upgrade and an i5, and I just don't see how that's in a $150-180CAD budget, and at that point the GPU holds him at 30fps, optimistically, anyways.


OP, if you're willing to increase your budget to 250, then you can upgrade the CPU, and that becomes the better option. If you don't have that to spend, then your budget has decided for you - get a GPU. Normally I wouldn't be fast to tell you to get a 750TI, but since we're trying to avoid a power supply upgrade (budget), that's exactly what I think you should do to not blow up that older PSU.

Here's one right within budget

http://www.newegg.ca...0-349-_-Product

Edited by Catamount, 11 February 2016 - 11:13 AM.