Hi all, I'm looking for some ideas how to get the most out of my current system. I don't have a large budget to spend on upgrades this fall so I'm trying to gather as much information as possible to get the best bang for my buck. Here's what I have currently:
AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core Processor (Quad Core, but about as old a quad as you can get)
6GB of DDR2 (2x2gb, 2x1gb)
Asus M3A78-CM (Well, at least the board can take never AM3 processors even if it is still DDR2)
Sapphire HD4870 (512MB)
500GB WD Hard Drive (ST350032 0AS)
Windows 7 Professional
2 Displays - 24" 16:10 Primary Display (this is the one games will be running on) @ 1920x1200, 19" 4:3 Secondary Display @ 1280x1024
Right now my performance is pretty average in WoW. Getting 50-100 in less crowded areas, but bogging down to below 20 in crowded cities. Running with most details up to full except for view distance (about half way) and shadows (down to the 2nd highest option). I also only run with 1x AA enabled.
It seems that some title run better than others with my configuration; Dragon Age 2 runs perfectly totally maxed out, BF:BC2 plays excellent at mid/high graphics and Source engine games are perfect (though not that surprising), but as I mentioned WoW continues to have some issues and I just finished playing through DE:HR which was tolerable but not a pleasant experience.
As for titles I'd like to run in the near future BF3 and SWTOR would top the list.
What I'm looking for are which parts of this system should I replace to see the biggest performance increases? Is it realistic to play these upcoming titles at native resolution (and medium details) given a moderate investment in this system?
above upgrades would be a HUGE improvement over what you're using. if youre using a 64 bit operating system, i would get 8gb ram, because ram is pretty cheap, and i personally would get an I7 2600K, but the i5 is very good as is (as well as ~$100 cheaper)
video cards would also be something you need to look at upgrading, tho it should come secondary to getting a new processor/ram. if i were you, i would get the processor/ram/motherboard now, and when its closer to BF3's release, look at getting a new video card (assuming you want to run the game at higher settings)
Any thoughts on possible upgrading along the AM3 socket? If I was to switch to a new motherboard, processor and ram I'd simply start looking for a new system entirely.
Edit: Yes, I'm using a 64 bit version of Win 7. As for budget and we're heading into the holiday season I couldn't see myself spending more than $300ish in the near future (just need something to give me a bump until next year where I'll likely look at getting something new).
with a BIOS update, the ASUS support site says you can use pretty much any of the new Phenom II series, so take you pick from those. it would be a far smaller performance increase then going to one of the new I5/I7 setups tho
Yeah, I was aware of that and do have the latest bios revision. Curious if it's worth doing though. What sort of boost would I be looking at if i went up to a Phenom II x4 955?
The other question is would it be a major performance increase to go up to a better video card like a HD6790? What sort of impact, if any, would I gain from gaining more video card RAM at this point? 1920x1200 is a decently high resolution, when I first purchased the 4870 I didn't care much for the 1gb version as I was on a dinky 1280x1024 display and figured I would never need the extra texture memory.
it would be a pretty significant upgrade (cpu). exactly how much i cant say as it could vary from application to application.
video cards depend even more on the application. for wow, as long as you have a decent video card, you wont see a major performance gain getting a new video card since most of wow is cpu based. for games like BC2, BF3, and others that rely a lot more on the video card, it would be a pretty huge upgrade.
So at the end of the day which if these two would offer the bigger performance boost? Would one be worth doing without the other or are they both equal bottlenecks? Do these sound like bang for buck worthy upgrades given I can't see myself getting a new system for about a year or not worth the effort?
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