upgrade or new rig?

[nicula]

Good morning,

My rig is almost 3 years old now and i am exploring options to either upgrade the hardware in it or to get a new rig. Right now, my main concern is with my GPU; I am currently equipped with GTX 460 but the FPS suffers when I'm playing games like Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite (when set to Medium setting).

I was thinking if i should buy another Nvidia card for SLI and if so, should i change my power supply and buy any cooling system?

I will post some hardware specs of my computer for your advise on upgrading or buying a new rig.

Processor Intel i5 760 @ 2.80 GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM
Nivida Geforce GTX 460 767MB
Motherboard Gigabyte P55A-UD3


thank you!

 

[eminus]

Sell your 460 then buy 7870 and above gpu.. For nvidia for for Gtx 660 and above

 

[nicula]

Sell? I dont think anyone will want to buy a 3 year old GTX 460. Do you advise against going SLI? I was hoping i could harness the power of two GPU

 

[nippp0n]

What is your budget for your upgrade? What is your PSU brand and capacity? What is your gaming resolution?

 

[nicula]

hi nippon, thanks for your attention on this. My budget is below 500 and i am quite clueless about my PSU brand and power rating now. let me check and get back to you?

for 500, what do you suggest

 

[nippp0n]

hi nippon, thanks for your attention on this. My budget is below 500 and i am quite clueless about my PSU brand and power rating now. let me check and get back to you?

for 500, what do you suggest

Depends on your gaming resolution as well. Assuming it is 1080p,

I will suggest you to upgrade your gpu to Powercolor 7950 PCS @ $385 and change a new PSU (if it is out of warranty or old).

If your PSU is still doing fine, can change your gpu to Powercolor 7970 V3 @ $496.

Prices referenced from Tradepac bundle price. Bundle price is available for full system purchase but I think you can try bargaining and ask for price match to bundle price.

 

[nicula]

nippon, may i ask why you advise against SLI?

 

[nippp0n]

nippon, may i ask why you advise against SLI?

IMO, not economically wise to do so as SLI consumes more power and produce more heat. With that in mind, you will have to change motherboard (your mobo doesn't support SLI only AMD crossfire), change to higher capacity PSU and maybe change a bigger case for better ventilation.

Why not save the trouble of replacing so many items with just an upgrade of gpu to 7970 or 7950?

Manage to google an interesting article which is relevant to your case.
NitroWare.net :: AMD Radeon HD7970 versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 SLI Performance Review

 

[ronnie81]

Juz to share with you my SLI issue i faced previously with my 8800xt...the SLI configuration generate quite some heat and their lifespan was much shorter than another 8800xt which i bought separately for another system. In fact both card burnt out at the same time. I could not even revert to a single GPU configuration zzzz. Even though buying 2 cards to SLI was cheaper than buying a higher end card to match the performance, it was not worth the lifespan

 

[m3 th3 last]

Juz to share with you my SLI issue i faced previously with my 8800xt...the SLI configuration generate quite some heat and their lifespan was much shorter than another 8800xt which i bought separately for another system. In fact both card burnt out at the same time. I could not even revert to a single GPU configuration zzzz. Even though buying 2 cards to SLI was cheaper than buying a higher end card to match the performance, it was not worth the lifespan

Having 2 such cards can generate a lot of heat inside your casing, bad for all the components inside ur casing.

Plus i am sure there would be micro shuttering, refer to the tests conducted by Tomshardware.

 

[d4rkst4r123]

Sli IMO , is like trying to squeeze two Toyota engines together to have the performance of A Lamborghini, which does not really stack

 

[bukitview]

TS, my rig is almost identical to yours 2 years ago, since then, I made small incremental upgrades,

Starting from HDD to SSD,
gtx460 MSI Hawk to gtx 680 Overclocked
Faster Ripjaws RAM
Overclocked my CPU to 3.6 Ghz, but now not stable, but back to 3.2Ghz.

Its pretty fun doing small upgrades and learning the ropes of overclocking, its not that daunting as many think

 

[nicula]

TS, my rig is almost identical to yours 2 years ago, since then, I made small incremental upgrades,

Starting from HDD to SSD,
gtx460 MSI Hawk to gtx 680 Overclocked
Faster Ripjaws RAM
Overclocked my CPU to 3.6 Ghz, but now not stable, but back to 3.2Ghz.

Its pretty fun doing small upgrades and learning the ropes of overclocking, its not that daunting as many think

it is good to hear someone in a similar predicament as me has taken a first step out. does the extra RAM helps? sorry to change the topic a little but with SSD, you will be migrating your OS and game files into it so data can be retrieved faster, right?

IMO, not economically wise to do so as SLI consumes more power and produce more heat. With that in mind, you will have to change motherboard (your mobo doesn't support SLI only AMD crossfire), change to higher capacity PSU and maybe change a bigger case for better ventilation.

Why not save the trouble of replacing so many items with just an upgrade of gpu to 7970 or 7950?

alright, thanks for the insights. Will you suggest for me to upgrade my RAM as well?

Sli IMO , is like trying to squeeze two Toyota engines together to have the performance of A Lamborghini, which does not really stack

this is a really humorous take on the topic! hahah

 

[nippp0n]

it is good to hear someone in a similar predicament as me has taken a first step out. does the extra RAM helps? sorry to change the topic a little but with SSD, you will be migrating your OS and game files into it so data can be retrieved faster, right?

Yes correct. It is better to do a clean installation for your OS.

alright, thanks for the insights. Will you suggest for me to upgrade my RAM as well?

You can add another 4GB 1333mhz ram if your budget allows.

this is a really humorous take on the topic! hahah

Comments in red.

 

[nicula]

hi nippon, is it stated on my Mobo how what is the maximum frequency it can support from a RAM?

 

[bukitview]

it is good to hear someone in a similar predicament as me has taken a first step out. does the extra RAM helps? sorry to change the topic a little but with SSD, you will be migrating your OS and game files into it so data can be retrieved faster, right?

If you dont run programs that need a lot of RAM like video editing or photoshop, maybe its not neccessary, but its beneficial. Besides RAM is cheap, so my upgrade of 4GB to 8GB is only about 100 dollars. Furthermore Gskill Ripjaws RAM has a faster clock speed.

HDD cloning and OS migration should be quite easy these days

Intel® Solid-State Drive How To Series: Data Migration

I believe there are other user friendly migration programs (SSD are highly beneficial but also a luxury imo, aka not neccesary)

Start with a GTX Titan, 680 or 650 Ti Boost as priority, then Overclock ur CPU.

Crysis 3 ah, even my 680 also barely run maximum settings

 

[bukitview]

hi nippon, is it stated on my Mobo how what is the maximum frequency it can support from a RAM?

My RAM is at 1600 Mhz, so since we have exactly the same Mobo, its safe.
1.5V operation at 1600MHz CL7-8-7-24-2N.