is it time for a new computer?

[mtt907]

Hello,

i have some money burning a hole in my pocket, and am thinking about getting a new setup. i only play WoW so i am wondering if it is really needed and would be wasting my money.

current setup is Gateway Desktop PC FX Series FX6840-23
a while back i changed the GPU to GTx 750 ti.

i normally get 50 fps on medium settings but during intense raids drop way down. i was looking at the builds of the month. Do i need to get the unicorn of i am only using it for WoW?

[Pejo]

You do not need the Unicorn, but it's a solid machine. Tbh, the Dolphin is a good machine for what it is, and will handle WoW very nicely.

[mrgreenthump]

Only thing wrong with Dolphin is that it's recommending the 3GB 1060, which really isn't too good. It's a cutdown version of the 6GB model.. Enough for WoW though, if that's the only thing you play.

Also the 3GB of VRAM might be a problem in some fairly badly optimized games if you ever pick something else than WoW.

[Deleted]

Only thing wrong with Dolphin is that it's recommending the 3GB 1060, which really isn't too good. It's a cutdown version of the 6GB model.. Enough for WoW though, if that's the only thing you play.

Also the 3GB of VRAM might be a problem in some fairly badly optimized games if you ever pick something else than WoW.

Pretty much this , if you're planning to go play another modern day game and you want to go on high/ ultra settings 3gb of ram is really pushing it ,and if the game is badly optimized you really going to punch yourself that you didn't spend the extra 30$ for the 6gb version .

[BellicoseAxe]

You will not get the best graphics, but your current setup looks fine for another couple of years.

[Demoness]

When you say you have money burning a hole in your pocket, how much are you talking about? If you have like $400 or so, that is enough to upgrade to a modern i5 and you could hold off on the video card if all you really play is WoW. The processor is mainly what will hold back your performance in WoW.

[Rogamerx]

Depends on your new needs and if the current laptop that you have can meet them....if not then you need to upgrade...but first estimate the budget and identify the most affordable gaming laptop that you can buy

[Alexeht]

Depends on your new needs and if the current laptop that you have can meet them....if not then you need to upgrade...but first estimate the budget and identify the most affordable gaming laptop that you can buy

OP do not ask for laptop ... yuck

On topic - If you really only play wow then please tell us your budget as it is really important to know, as 'unicorn' would be really nice machine, but imo for only wow it is just too much.

[Deleted]

Dont buy the PCs that they link here to spead the Amazon-Reflinks. Get on /r/buildapc and ask for help there. They are way smarter than the Mods who pick the most expensive stuff on Amazon, so they make the most Reflink-Money.

If you only play WoW you want a CPU with high IPS (High Core-Clock). So a 7600K or something with a Z170 Board and then OC it to ~4.6GHz or higher. Faster RAM also helps if you are CPU-Bottlenecked, not sure if in WoW, but in Games like Witcher 3 or GTA5 faster RAM can give you something like 20% more Performance (DDR4-2133 vs DDR4-3000)

[pansertjald]

Dont buy the PCs that they link here to spead the Amazon-Reflinks. Get on /r/buildapc and ask for help there. They are way smarter than the Mods who pick the most expensive stuff on Amazon, so they make the most Reflink-Money.

If you only play WoW you want a CPU with high IPS (High Core-Clock). So a 7600K or something with a Z170 Board and then OC it to ~4.6GHz or higher. Faster RAM also helps if you are CPU-Bottlenecked, not sure if in WoW, but in Games like Witcher 3 or GTA5 faster RAM can give you something like 20% more Performance (DDR4-2133 vs DDR4-3000)

Don't listen to this guy

You are saying he should get a i5-7600 with a z170 board??????? i hope you mean a z270 board and you are saying that you will get a 20% performance boost in games with faster RAM...... Riiiiight

[Evildeffy]

Don't listen to this guy

You are saying he should get a i5-7600 with a z170 board??????? i hope you mean a z270 board and you are saying that you will get a 20% performance boost in games with faster RAM...... Riiiiight

Actually... Ignoring the first part of his statement a Z170 board is compatible with a Kaby Lake CPU.
And DDR4 has made a difference in game performance, you can check Digital Foundry on YouTube for that... the performance gains ARE real.

[pansertjald]

Actually... Ignoring the first part of his statement a Z170 board is compatible with a Kaby Lake CPU.
And DDR4 has made a difference in game performance, you can check Digital Foundry on YouTube for that... the performance gains ARE real.

Yeah you can use a z120, but you loose out on some of the new features that the Kabylake and z270 has, so there is no reasson to go down to z170 at all and the z170 boards are being phased out. Here in Denmark the computer shops/Internet sites are down to under 10 z170 boards now

Yes you gain a little performance in some apps and games, but it is not even close to a 20% performance gain

[Evildeffy]

Yeah you can use a z120, but you loose out on some of the new features that the Kabylake and z270 has, so there is no reasson to go down to z170 at all and the z170 boards are being phased out. Here in Denmark the computer shops/Internet sites are down to under 10 z170 boards now

Yes you gain a little performance in some apps and games, but it is not even close to a 20% performance gain

Some of the new features you're referring to is something that won't be in common consumer hands for the next couple of years.
And those features will actually be backwards compatible according to Intel itself.

The only thing you get is a bit more PCIe lanes for HSIO devices, nothing the average consumer will notice.

Regarding performance... actually it can be 20% depending on the age of the game, the newer games seem to take advantage of faster RAM and present performance increases bigger than CPU overclocks, The Witcher 3 has this large increase f.ex.
Combine both and you have the best of both worlds.

Again just check out Digital Foundry and see that newer games actually do scale rather nicely and have a tangible benefit with faster RAM.

[pansertjald]

Some of the new features you're referring to is something that won't be in common consumer hands for the next couple of years.
And those features will actually be backwards compatible according to Intel itself.

The only thing you get is a bit more PCIe lanes for HSIO devices, nothing the average consumer will notice.

Regarding performance... actually it can be 20% depending on the age of the game, the newer games seem to take advantage of faster RAM and present performance increases bigger than CPU overclocks, The Witcher 3 has this large increase f.ex.
Combine both and you have the best of both worlds.

Again just check out Digital Foundry and see that newer games actually do scale rather nicely and have a tangible benefit with faster RAM.

But why go down a step on motherboard, when you can take a z270 and as a said before. The z170 is being phased out

Only thing i saw in that video was, what we have been knowing since tha ages of day. You ALLWAYS get bigger numbers in Benchmarks with fater RAM. It has ALLWAYS been that way, but it doesn't work that way live.

I don't get any higher or lower frame numbers if i set my RAM to 2133MHz then if i let them stay at 3200MHz, but i do get better numbers in 3d Mark but nothing near the 20% mark

This is allso why overclockers that goes for records, OC the RAM to get that little last number out of the OC in benchmarks

[Svisalith]

Actually... Ignoring the first part of his statement a Z170 board is compatible with a Kaby Lake CPU.
And DDR4 has made a difference in game performance, you can check Digital Foundry on YouTube for that... the performance gains ARE real.

They're very real but it depends on the game. Some will get +40% performance when not graphically limited, others +0%

[Evildeffy]

But why go down a step on motherboard, when you can take a z270 and as a said before. The z170 is being phased out

Only thing i saw in that video was, what we have been knowing since tha ages of day. You ALLWAYS get bigger numbers in Benchmarks with fater RAM. It has ALLWAYS been that way, but it doesn't work that way live.

I don't get any higher or lower frame numbers if i set my RAM to 2133MHz then if i let them stay at 3200MHz, but i do get better numbers in 3d Mark but nothing near the 20% mark

This is allso why overclockers that goes for records, OC the RAM to get that little last number out of the OC in benchmarks

I didn't say he has to go down to Z170, that's what the BITBYBIT guy said, I simply stated that it's possible and that there aren't any real downsides to it from a normal consumer PoV.
Of course I would recommend a Z270 over Z170, there's no reason not to (unless you find a super cheap one).

However those videos you still haven't looked at have you? It's not really a benchmark as it is an actual game being played.
They actually do constitute a tangible performance benefit, The Witcher 3 in that video benefits a lot from fast RAM and it shows it.

There are actual real world benefits now, no more synthetic or enterprise reasons only.

And they are, in Witcher 3, beyond 20%, though I'll mention again: Mostly newer games and varying performance gains, but the gains are there.
https://youtu.be/43g3OTK2AbE?t=279

Again: Not synthetic benchmarks, these are actual playable games where the performance IS added to you playing it.

- - - Updated - - -

They're very real but it depends on the game. Some will get +40% performance when not graphically limited, others +0%

There is a reason that I said the following earlier in the thread and other threads:

Again just check out Digital Foundry and see that newer games actually do scale rather nicely and have a tangible benefit with faster RAM.

Crysis gains next to nothing, older game, Witcher 3 gains a stunning amount it's baffling, newer game.
There's a pattern to these things and time is one of them

[DrStiglit]

The benefits of a z270 vs z170 for a normal consumer don't really matter. The issue is you may have to flash the bios on the z170 board which may be difficult (depending on the board) without a cpu to get you going first. You would need a mobo that would allow you to flash from the bios or hope you got one that already had the latest bios. It's easier to just go with z270.

[Svisalith]

Crysis gains next to nothing, older game, Witcher 3 gains a stunning amount it's baffling, newer game.
There's a pattern to these things and time is one of them

Some pretty ancient games like starcraft 2 / HOTS gain huge amounts too (2010 released engine that was built from ~2005ish)

[Deleted]

Yeah, obviously GPU Bottlenecked Games like Crysis gain nothing LOL. First Person Shooters are never CPU Bottlenecked unless you play something like BF1 on a 64 Player Server and a huge Map.

But Witcher 3 and GTA5 are great examples of Games that are very CPU-bound and if you are CPU Bottlenecked faster RAM can make a huge difference as shown in the DigitalFoundry Videos.