Ageing computer, upgrade CPU or GPU?

[Aftonflickan]

As the title suggests, I'm sitting on a pc that's a couple of years old and not getting great results in WoW. I play on medium settings at 1080p with 60 frames while questing etc, but in dungeons / raids / BGs it drops down to around 20-25 fps, which is not a very enjoyable experience.
My current CPU and GPU are as follows:
AMD Phenom II X4 960T 3,0Ghz <- Older quad-core, not overclocked since my overclocking motherboard died and had to get a cheaper one
Gigabyte HD6850 Windforce <- slightly overclocked (15-20% overclock) but still struggling

I'm currently a poor student, so would prefer to only upgrade one of the two, which one would be my higher priority? My motherboard has an AM3+ socket, so the new Piledriver series should work, although I can't overclock on this motherboard.

Halp?

[Deleted]

The symptoms you describe have me believing the biggest boost you could get from a replacement CPU.

However, I'm AMD illiterate, so I'll leave the suggestions open for more experienced people.

[slasher0161]

As far as i'm aware an amd cpu upgrade isn't going to net you a massive increase without overclocking and wow is just one of those games that favours single thread performance which piledriver is lacking. Location and budget?

[Aftonflickan]

As far as i'm aware an amd cpu upgrade isn't going to net you a massive increase without overclocking and wow is just one of those games that favours single thread performance which piledriver is lacking. Location and budget?

Sweden, have around 1800 SEK to spend on an upgrade (that's roughly 210 Euro). Swedish / English / German sites will probably work, as they most often give you free shipping within the EU (and the fact that buying from an American store nets you a nice big tariff on imported electronics...)

[vesseblah]

You have a slight problem there as without overclocking you can't go much faster on any AMD processor, even FX-8350 will give only around 15-20% speed boost in WoW over the 960 you have now.

Basically your options are something like:

a) play on lower settings
b) switch CPU for ~20% gain
c) switch motherboard and OC for ~20% gain
d) switch cpu+motherboard to intel side for 50% gain

Option D isn't really good right now because Intel launches new processors in two months. After that you could do bigger overhaul on the ageing hardware, or keep using it as long as it lasts on slightly lower settings. Shadow quality is the biggest FPS killer you have, you could try push that lower and some other settings higher. Also certain addons like Recount will have huge impact on raid performance, switching it to Skada can give you instant 10fps more.

[yurano]

d) switch cpu+motherboard to intel side for 50% gain

Option D isn't really good right now because Intel launches new processors in two months.

This is only relevant if switching to an i5 or i7. Compared to the initial Ivy Bridge launch, certain Ivy Bridge i5s came a month later, i3s and higher end Pentiums came some 5 months later. Budget Pentiums and Celerons were only released late January of this year, some 9 months after the initial Ivy Launch.

Also certain addons like Recount will have huge impact on raid performance, switching it to Skada can give you instant 10fps more.

Are you sure about that? I use Recount on my aging T9400 and don't experience much impact to WoW performance. Skada tends to be touted as low resource, but I've never seen it proven.

[vesseblah]

This is only relevant if switching to an i5 or i7. Compared to the initial Ivy Bridge launch, certain Ivy Bridge i5s came a month later, i3s and higher end Pentiums came some 5 months later. Budget Pentiums and Celerons were only released late January of this year, some 9 months after the initial Ivy Launch.

Still worth waiting 2 months to the actual launch to see the detailed dates if getting new mobo+cpu isn't required now.

And on Sandy Bridge launch i5-2500k and i7-2600k were available on day one so it's pretty much impossible to predict anything.

Are you sure about that? I use Recount on my aging T9400 and don't experience much impact to WoW performance. Skada tends to be touted as low resource, but I've never seen it proven.

Happened with 5.1 patch, but could've been broken version of addon in Curse at the moment. Was bit odd since Blizzard did nothing to break addons at that time.

Maybe I'll try Recount again since I like the more detailed statistics it gives.

[yurano]

Still worth waiting 2 months to the actual launch to see the detailed dates if getting new mobo+cpu isn't required now.

And on Sandy Bridge launch i5-2500k and i7-2600k were available on day one so it's pretty much impossible to predict anything.

It sounds like the OP is suffering with his system now. The performance advantage of Haswell isn't going to be very large so Ivy Bridge prices aren't going to deprecate much.

The i5-3570K launched at the same time as the 3770K, but the OP is most likely looking for i3 or lower.

Happened with 5.1 patch, but could've been broken version of addon in Curse at the moment. Was bit odd since Blizzard did nothing to break addons at that time.

Maybe I'll try Recount again since I like the more detailed statistics it gives.

I remember 5.1 breaking HUD and Unit Frame addons for MW Monks due to Stance of the Wise Serpent.

I only play PTR, but I didn't have a problem with Recount on 5.1 PTR and there has been no in 5.2 and 5.3 either.

[vesseblah]

It sounds like the OP is suffering with his system now. The performance advantage of Haswell isn't going to be very large so Ivy Bridge prices aren't going to deprecate much.

No, but what's more important is the phasing out of socket 1155 in favor of 1150. If you buy mobo+cpu from Intel today you're pretty much locked down forever in upgade options. But if you wait 2 months it's the beginning of the new hardware, not the end.

[yurano]

No, but what's more important is the phasing out of socket 1155 in favor of 1150. If you buy mobo+cpu from Intel today you're pretty much locked down forever in upgade options. But if you wait 2 months it's the beginning of the new hardware, not the end.

Upgrading within socket really isn't a cost effective solution and isn't something you should futureproof for, especially since Intel hasn't been producing competitive gains each generation due to lack of pressure from AMD. Upgrading within socket is nice to have when the occasion presents itself, but not worth paying/waiting/suffering for.

[vesseblah]

Upgrading within socket really isn't a cost effective solution and isn't something you should futureproof for, especially since Intel hasn't been producing competitive gains each generation due to lack of pressure from AMD. Upgrading within socket is nice to have when the occasion presents itself, but not worth paying/waiting/suffering for.

Especially with lower end initial purchase it's the best idea. Get i3 now and i7 in year or two. That's the option you have when waiting for Haswell, but there are no guarantees you can find SB/IB i7's off the shelf in 2015.

[yurano]

Especially with lower end initial purchase it's the best idea. Get i3 now and i7 in year or two. That's the option you have when waiting for Haswell, but there are no guarantees you can find SB/IB i7's off the shelf in 2015.

Why not go for a Broadwell i3/i5 with motherboard in 2015.

At 2 years, a CPU upgrade is unlikely. New GPU at 2 years is more common.