upgrading my setup

[captain1ma]

ok guys, let me know what you think.

I have a I7-920 2.66 gig processor, im gonna upgrade to the I7-960 3.2gig processor

my machine has 18 gigs of ram so that's not even on the table.

video card. right now im running a radeon 4890... I did get a PM from one of the guys suggesting at gtx 960 or 970, but
im leaning toward a XFX Double D R9 280 933MHz 3GB DDR5... this one is a little slower, then the 1000mhz one, but
for $40 I cant justify it. that's not to say I cant afford a bigger card, I just feel this one is ok.

please let me know what you think. for me its all about aces high. maybe skuzzy could chime in on this too only in that
im having trouble running the beta with what I have, and if you feel this should get me back to where I should be, around 60 or so FPS.

thanks ahead of time for your opinions.....

captain1ma Aka jaeger1

[MrRiplEy[H]]

ok guys, let me know what you think.

I have a I7-920 2.66 gig processor, im gonna upgrade to the I7-960 3.2gig processor

my machine has 18 gigs of ram so that's not even on the table.

video card. right now im running a radeon 4890... I did get a PM from one of the guys suggesting at gtx 960 or 970, but
im leaning toward a XFX Double D R9 280 933MHz 3GB DDR5... this one is a little slower, then the 1000mhz one, but
for $40 I cant justify it. that's not to say I cant afford a bigger card, I just feel this one is ok.

please let me know what you think. for me its all about aces high. maybe skuzzy could chime in on this too only in that
im having trouble running the beta with what I have, and if you feel this should get me back to where I should be, around 60 or so FPS.

thanks ahead of time for your opinions.....

captain1ma Aka jaeger1

If you're looking for game speed increase leave the CPU alone and put all your cash to a video card.

You can overclock that i7 easily, just spend 60 bucks to a proper cooler: http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

If you're going to upgrade that cpu and get the r9 280 you're going to end up with a very weak performance. If you don't even touch the cpu and buy a GTX980 with the money you save, you have a rocket of a machine.

[Bizman]

You wouldn't probably even notice the difference of the new processor, they're so close to each other. It would be a waste of money, since the Overclock if you have to, or are able to. Also notice that the socket FCLGA1366 isn't too popular and the few processors supporting it are quite expensive and not even fast compared to their current counterparts. For the price of a i7-960 you'd get a 4GHz i7-4790K and a motherboard supporting faster RAM for further upgrades.

A new video card is a totally different thing. As Skuzzy has said, somewhere near 3 GHz for processor and 2 GB dedicated video RAM might be needed for most settings maxxed in the new AH3. A friend just dumped his 4890 for a used 6970 and the difference is like night and day. So although your current video card was in top three in its heyday, it's becoming outdated.

Did I understand you correctly, can you get a R9 280 for $40? If so, it's the best you can get for that price! Here you can get a clue about the difference between your current one and the top ones: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+4890. But if you meant the price difference between the 280 and some other card, compare what you'd get with your money. Don't look too much to the speed, a less than 10%/100MHz difference is mostly a marketing gimmick.

[captain1ma]

no I presently have a radeon 4890 looking at moving to the XFX Double D R9 280 933MHz 3GB DDR5 card for $209. the second option was the  R9 280X is the same card with 1000mhz for $248. I cant/don't want to change the motherboard because I'm using a raid setup and am afraid of losing all my data. it sounds like over-clock the processor which I have a zalman 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118046), go with a even bigger card?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

no I presently have a radeon 4890 looking at moving to the XFX Double D R9 280 933MHz 3GB DDR5 card for $209. the second option was the  R9 280X is the same card with 1000mhz for $248. I cant/don't want to change the motherboard because I'm using a raid setup and am afraid of losing all my data. it sounds like over-clock the processor which I have a zalman 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118046), go with a even bigger card?

Forget the CPU for now and invest more to the graphics card. It will give you the best bang for buck. A R9 280 is lower mid level card that should cost about 190 bucks in the US, you should aim higher. If you buy a GTX970 for a few bucks more you get a lot more power.

[Bizman]

As Rip said, forget the CPU. It won't cause any major bottleneck with a modern card, at least not concerning AH.

As for fearing to lose your data, don't rely solely on the raid. Backup your files somewhere outside the computer, be it some cloud service or a simple external hard disk. You can always reinstall programs, but you never can retake photos is what I say to my customers.

[save]

I overclocked my i7 930 to almost 4gighz with a aftermarket air-cooler, even though a moderate overclock to 3.66 gigaherz made it quite cool and still much more responsive than before.

For Aces High both AMD and NVIDIA higher end cards will make you happy

[captain1ma]

at this point I'm looking at the gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gamer. ive got it in my cart, I just haven't pulled the trigger. I'm a scared hehehe. so far everything looks great about it. it just kills me to pay almost $400 for a card.

I look at over clocking my processor, but im not sure what settings to use and I don't want to wreck anything. I have a huge zalman cooler on it, but fear changing the setting... that and I don't know what the heck im doing!

[MrRiplEy[H]]

at this point I'm looking at the gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gamer. ive got it in my cart, I just haven't pulled the trigger. I'm a scared hehehe. so far everything looks great about it. it just kills me to pay almost $400 for a card.

I look at over clocking my processor, but im not sure what settings to use and I don't want to wreck anything. I have a huge zalman cooler on it, but fear changing the setting... that and I don't know what the heck im doing!

It would kill you even more to pay 300 for a CPU that doesn't make your game any faster in the end. It's 400 well spent, trust me.

[guncrasher]

It would kill you even more to pay 300 for a CPU that doesn't make your game any faster in the end. It's 400 well spent, trust me.

I would wait a couple of months and those 400 bucks well spend will be 200-300 .


semp

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I would wait a couple of months and those 400 bucks well spend will be 200-300 .


semp

Not unless AMD manages to release some competition. Nvidia will not drop their prices just because they released a new premium product.

[captain1ma]

ok guys, for the update, I pulled the trigger on the gigabyte X970 G1 gamer--$355 at amazon.

I also got the I7-960 3.2gig processor for $97.... figured for that price, I had nothing to lose.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

ok guys, for the update, I pulled the trigger on the gigabyte X970 G1 gamer--$355 at amazon.

I also got the I7-960 3.2gig processor for $97.... figured for that price, I had nothing to lose.

You could have overclocked your current CPU for free. But I hope you're happy with the end result.

[captain1ma]

yeah I know its not much of a jump, but that's ok. hopefully the video card will make up for it!

[MrRiplEy[H]]

yeah I know its not much of a jump, but that's ok. hopefully the video card will make up for it!

It would have even without the new cpu.