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thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary?

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jonathancoleevga
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2014/11/05 13:47:42 (permalink)
Hello everyone,
 
This wonderful rig was built with the help of this forum, thank you! 
 
2x Evga GTX 570 sli
asus p8 mobo
i5 cpu sandybridge with liquid cooler 
1050W psu (seasonic)
16GB Ram (1600 speed)
single monitor 27'
 
So far I'm playing Crysis 3, BF4 at ultra smoothly. But i'm worrying that Witcher 3 may need more, and some new titles are advertised as needing more Vram. Do i need to upgrade? If i were to play on a bigger screen, say a 40 inch HD TV, will i need more VRam? Isn't the resolution the same as on my 27inch 1920x1080 monitor, therefore not necessitating any more Vram since i'm still on one screen with similar resolution?
 
Were i to upgrade:
- should i go for the 970s? Will one be enough?
- change the mobo to take advantage of 3.0 pci? is Asus still a good bet for no OCing or is there a better choice now?
- is the i5 new generation equivalent still the way to go? I didnt take an i7 because i was advised against hyperthreading. Is that argument still holding with the newer architecture? And which chip should i get then? 
- i take it that the new GPUs are more power efficient, so the PSU is good enough?
- could i transplant the Ram to the new Mobo? i still do not plan on doing any OCing. 
 
I have a big corsair case, plenty of space to work in. 
 
Thanks for the help,
 
Jonathan 
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    rlb9682
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/05 13:59:03 (permalink)
    jonathancoleevga
    Hello everyone,
     
    This wonderful rig was built with the help of this forum, thank you! 
     
    2x Evga GTX 570 sli
    asus p8 mobo
    i5 cpu sandybridge with liquid cooler 
    1050W psu (seasonic)
    16GB Ram (1600 speed)
    single monitor 27'
     
    So far I'm playing Crysis 3, BF4 at ultra smoothly. But i'm worrying that Witcher 3 may need more, and some new titles are advertised as needing more Vram. Do i need to upgrade? If i were to play on a bigger screen, say a 40 inch HD TV, will i need more VRam? Isn't the resolution the same as on my 27inch 1920x1080 monitor, therefore not necessitating any more Vram since i'm still on one screen with similar resolution?
     
    Were i to upgrade:
    - should i go for the 970s? Will one be enough?
    - change the mobo to take advantage of 3.0 pci? is Asus still a good bet for no OCing or is there a better choice now?
    - is the i5 new generation equivalent still the way to go? I didnt take an i7 because i was advised against hyperthreading. Is that argument still holding with the newer architecture? And which chip should i get then? 
    - i take it that the new GPUs are more power efficient, so the PSU is good enough?
    - could i transplant the Ram to the new Mobo? i still do not plan on doing any OCing. 
     
    I have a big corsair case, plenty of space to work in. 
     
    Thanks for the help,
     
    Jonathan 


    You won't need more vram unless you're playing at higher resolutions; a larger screen size shouldn't affect it much at all as far as games.
     
    Personally, I upgrade when it feels to me like it's time-like my hardware can't push the games/software I want to at the speeds I want. If your games and such are running smoothly, I say why bother. But, if you want something like a 1440p or 4k monitor and new games are slowing you down, then I'd upgrade. In the meantime I'd just save up for the next setup.
     
    The new gpus are much more power efficient than what you have.
    The PSU should be fine still
    About the only cpu I'd upgrade to would be an I7 at this point, but that would mean a new MB as well. If you're mainly doing games I'd go with the Haswell.
     

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    #2
    jonathancoleevga
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/05 14:16:08 (permalink)
    thank you! lets see if Witcher rolls smoothly, if not...
    #3
    hutt132
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/05 17:30:26 (permalink)
    If you feel like you want more FPS, a single GTX 970 will be plenty for 1080p gaming.
    PCI 3.0 currently only has an insignificant performance increase, about 1-3 FPS increase in some cases.
    Sandybridge is still a really nice chipset. I have a 2600k OCed to 4.4GHz and it's still really fast and running anything I throw at it. If you feel your i5 could be a bit faster, you could try overclocking it.
    As for the TV, if it's the same resolution, it won't have a different performance impact on FPS and VRAM, but you may notice a bit more lag due to TVs having a slower response time and more input lag than PC monitors.
    Your power supply has plenty of power for up to 3-way SLI, maybe even 4-way SLI, with the current generation of cards.
    Your RAM will work in newer motherboards, except the x99 platform, since x99 requires DDR4.
     

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    jonathancoleevga
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/06 09:21:08 (permalink)
    thank you for the input! I'll stay put with this rig and see what happens with Wticher3. 
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    martinch
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/06 12:22:26 (permalink)
    jonathancoleevga
    thank you for the input! I'll stay put with this rig and see what happens with Wticher3. 

    Best choice - wait to spend money until you know you need to do so!

    Current PC: Intel Core i7 4790K, Noctua NH-U12S, Asus Z97-Pro, 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 1866Mhz RAM, Samsung 850 Pro 256GB, Crucial MX100 512GB, Western Digital Black 2TB, EVGA GTX 970 SC (blower), Pioneer BDR-209DBK, Fractal Design Define R4 + Noctua NF-A14 FLX fans, Corsair AX760 PSU, Dell U2713HM

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    RainStryke
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/06 19:26:06 (permalink)
    If you are running your CPU at stock speeds and have no interest in overclocking, then yes... It would be worth it to get the i7 4790K since it's 16% faster at the same clocks speeds as a sandy bridge processor and it's stock clocks are quite a bit higher.
     
    A GTX 980 is what i'd look into.

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    FattysGoneWild
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/06 21:55:58 (permalink)
    Sandy is still beastly. I have a i7 2600 and it still runs everything just fine. Even with out overclocking. Wont get a new pc until Windows 10 hits.

    HP Omen 880-160se custom ordered
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    jonathancoleevga
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/16 08:37:09 (permalink)
    Hey everyone, thanks for the input. I'm going to keep on playing on a single monitor 1080.
    So i got Shadow or MOrdor, tweaking settings to get it to run smoothly, maybe some patches coming to help with FPS (?) etc, but off the batt i can feel the limitations of my rig.
     
    question: seems like keeping my i5 2500 @3.4Ghz is what the forum is saying until a bigger leap for the mobo/cpu. If i go ahead and get a single gtx 970 and say keep one gtx 570 as a physics card, is that a good idea? Do i just keep on 570 in one slot, and replace the 570 closest to the CPU with the 970, then go into the nvidida control panel and set to non SLI and dedicate the physix to the 570? What do you think? Or should i just sell both 570s and just put everything on one 970?
     
    question: is one 970 a lot better than the current sli570? or should i get sli970? (expensivvvvee!)
     
    question: i read about CPU bottle necking. Upgrading to one or two 970s, will it cause it? What causes bottlenecking in my scenario?
     
    question: my gtx 570s are EVGA. hence the forum lol. i like them, seem ok. But been reading that the 970 MSI is better, more stable over time, better made, faster, cooler etc. I would get the reference MSI 970, not into Ocing. What's your POV?
     
    question: I have a Corsair OBsedian 650D (LOVE IT) case, and i replaced the side window panel with mesh and installed an extra big fan to cool the case because of the SLI570s. I've tried some screens etc but the thing is just a Vacuum cleaner and gets so dusty inside. I clean it out. Can i replace the glass side panel, if i go with a single 970 and be ok with cooling? what if i run 970s in sli, are they cooler? or what about a 970 and the 570 in physix?
     
    A lot of questions, sorry.
     
    thanks,
     
     
    #9
    rcarlos243
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/25 09:34:00 (permalink)
    Your current CPU is good enough especially when overclocked as there is very little performance improvement in terms of gaming from Sandy Bridge to Haswell.
     
    If you do any serious Video Encoding/Transcoding/Editing, then a Haswell CPU is a must upgrade as there is a massive performance increase especially on x264 on software mode.
     
    edit:
     
    if your current GPU are somewhat still able to play your current games, I suggest you wait till Q1 2015 and see what the R9 390 or Nvidia GTX 980 ti would be as it is generally better to run a single card vs multiple configuration especially in terms of heat output, power consumption, frame pacing, stuttering, driver issues, game support, etc...
    post edited by rcarlos243 - 2014/11/25 09:37:09
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    jonathancoleevga
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/25 10:13:58 (permalink)
    Thanks for the input!

    I oc ed the i5 2500 in the Asus bios with Ez turbo boost. When I used cpu z and hwinfo it read from 3.9 to 4.1ghz across four cores. The blck was up to 103.8. Temperature with the h60 was 58c during l load (bf4).

    SOunds good?

    I'm gOing to see if I can score a msi 970 4g this weekend!

    Mordor not possible to play with my rig with patches drivers etc at a good graphical level.

    J
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    rcarlos243
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/25 10:22:12 (permalink)
    jonathancoleevga
    Thanks for the input!

    I oc ed the i5 2500 in the Asus bios with Ez turbo boost. When I used cpu z and hwinfo it read from 3.9 to 4.1ghz across four cores. The blck was up to 103.8. Temperature with the h60 was 58c during l load (bf4).

    SOunds good?

    I'm gOing to see if I can score a msi 970 4g this weekend!

    Mordor not possible to play with my rig with patches drivers etc at a good graphical level.

    J



    I suggest you overclock you're cpu manually instead of using the Asus EZ turbo boost as you would generally have higher overclock. AFAIK 2500k's usually clock at 4.5-4.8Ghz easily.
     
    I suggest you look for guides or videos that is specific to your motherboard
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    jonathancoleevga
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/25 10:50:55 (permalink)
    It's not a. K though
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    RainStryke
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/26 17:59:44 (permalink)
    Then you are pretty limited. I'd look into a upgrade. Even a i7 3770K if you don't want to upgrade your motherboard.

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    Tropickz
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    Re: thinking about upgrading my current rig which is sandybridge based. Is it necessary? 2014/11/26 19:24:28 (permalink)
    I remember way back in the day when I used to do single monitor

     

     
     
     
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