Upgrading my system this year. Opinions please :)

[Philip Antonia]

Hi guys.

I'm planning on upgrading my gaming system in the coming months. My main gaming interest is obviously Sim Racing. rF1 and Race On at the moment. My system handles these fine though some very detailed mods with big grids can slow it, but still well within drivable frame rates. I always run my Graphics settings at High to Max @ 1680x1050.

Now that this year sees the arival of rF2, Shift 2 and maybe GTR3 I want to get her ready. Now I can run Shift 1 (not that I bother as I don't like it much) with Frame rates around 40+ in action, but can be around high 20's on the grid and at starts at high detail, so I know that my rig has about reached a point where soon she wont be enough . (though part of this is probably down to having an ATi card)

My current system is as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (stock 2.16GHz) overclocked to 2.93GHz with a upgraded air cooler,
Asrock P45XE Mobo,
4GB (2x2GB) DDRII 667mhz OCZ Ram,
ATi Radeon 4870 512 PCIe Graphics Card,
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card.

She has served me well for a few years and especially well since getting the new mobo, ram and overclocking her. The graphics card was also a good purchase at the time too.

Now as I've built my own systems I've always had to upgrade in stages as my budget wont allow a full system replacement.

I'm leaning towards upgrading my CPU etc first and maybe a new graphics card at a later date.

My budget would probably stretch to this without a new Graphics card:

Intel i5-2500K 3.3GHz Cpu, (on the P67 boards can OC to 4.5GHz)
Mobo not decide yet, but possibly: Asus P8P67 Socket 1155 USB 3.0 Bluetooth 8 Channel Audio ATX or similar spec,
Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Memory Kit,
Sound Card: No change.

This would be pushing on to around £370, so very much my limit if I can stretch that far.

I chose the i5 as I don't do a lot that would need the Hyperthreading of the i7's. It gives good gaming performance especially with a single GFX card (I'll never have the budget for 2 or more) against similar i7's.

Now the the other option would be a new graphics card first like the new ATi 6970 2gb, but that's best part of £270 pounds. Though I'm not sure if my current setup would be a bottle neck or get the maximum from this card!

Basically I'm trying to find out if race sims will do better with more Cpu and system power than GFX ooomph? I know that Shift 2 is the first Sim (hopefully) that will need more in the graphics department, but will the first option be better suited to rF2 and GTR3 and give me good performance until probably late in the year or next year before I can afford a new GPU?

Any thoughts of yours are very welcome.

 

[Mark Johnston]

Dont get Nvidea!!!! I hate mine

 

[Knuck1e]

Hi there,

I think your current setup will bottleneck a 6970.
The intel i5-2500k is a good choice if u don't care about the hyperthreading stuff its fully overclockable and u can go beyond the 4.5ghz with oc , not that you are gonna need it!
I run a i7-2600k myself and I do notice a difference with hyperthreading off or on things just go faster but yeah it has a price tag too.
I also purchased a ASUS mobo and I also have NO intentions of running SLI or Crossfire so the standard p8p67 mobo does the job for me just fine.
Anyway a i5-2500k with a P67 board and a 6970 will give you all the performance you need for a decent price.
Hope it helps you out in a way .

 

[Jim Cole]

Your CPU is a bit lacking, so would pretty much require that you replace motherboard, CPU and RAM minimum. I understand that you are on a budget and I respect that, but don't go cheap if you can wait an additional month or so to get the funds together for something a little better. The thinking on this is that the better you get now the longer it will last, though not by much.

If you just go with the graphics, you will be disappointed as the CPU will not keep up with what the GPU can handle. You will find that you have low frame rates on many many games. It would be easier to turn down graphics settings to accommodate a lesser graphics card than to not be able to run a game at all due to CPU being to weak.

 

[Ben Zenon]

+1 for Good CPU choice with supporting MOBO and RAM. Latest Corsair Dominator RAM will clock to 2000Mhz, I prefer speed over quantity as this will help get more out of other components. If you take this over 1900Mhz and the CPU close to 4ghz you will be grinning nicely

Keep an eye on Scan's today only page for best UK prices

 

[John Bowman]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-023-OP&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1803

Job done