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So I'm pretty sure my Mobo is toast. Fried. Donezo. I made a separate thread asking for ideas about that (So I possibly won't have to buy a new everything) However, I can't find a LGA1155 ATX Motherboard that would fit my CPU. (My case screws, Cooling set up and my GPU won't fit a mini/micro ATX board.) So I think I have to buy a new CPU and Motherboard.
My Current, Dead Build: R.I.P.
Video Card: Gigabyte 4 gb NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (this is overclocked to 4.4 ghz)
motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V LE
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance Series
Power Supply:600W Corsair CX600 V2
Hard Drive:500GB
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
OS: Windows 10
So I was looking around and I was thinking about the i7 4790k vs the i5 4690k. Both are significant improvements to my current CPU but I'm just wondering if there is a significant difference between the i7 and i5. I know the i7 has better hyper threading (I think?) but is it really worth the extra $100 over the i5 ? I could afford either but I'm trying to be frugal since this is a surprise purchase.
My current build was able to play Witcher 3 at Maxed settings at ~45-54 fps so I imagine that either CPU would give me a significant boost in that performance since I think the CPU on my old build was bottlenecking what my GPU could do.
And finally... Should I upgrade to 16gb of ram ? Is it necessary with a new mobo and cpu ?
Thanks for everyone's help!
Edit: Woops had put my ollldd card instead of my current 970.
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
Is likely your 970 limiting performance (CPU only sometimes) depending on settings. Some stuff hurts performance a lot in that game. You can easily see anyway, for 90% of gameplay you can see if you're GPU or CPU limited by looking at GPU load sensor - if it's not at 100% or very close, you're probably limited by something outside of the graphics card.
I think you could still find a compatible motherboard, maybe on used markets. It's 5 years old though. If you're getting a new CPU, it's probably better to go with a 6600k/6700k.
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I really need help deciding, R9 380X ($388) or R9 380 ($365) or GTX 960 4GB($390), or may be GTX 950 ($290). This will sound absurd, but I am asking for advice to choose GPU based on some arbitrary criteria.
I know R9 380X is the best in term of performance from all the benchmark, and at those price the GTX 960 seems like not a good choice, unless the game heavily favour NVidia like WoW or Witcher 3 (isit still the case?). and DX12, although none of the games I play now using DX12 lololol. G-sync/Freesync doesnt matter, using cheap 60Hz 1080p monitor anyway.
Game played the most: Dota2, Diablo3, Hearthstone, a lot of "random" games (not AAA) like Ori and the blind forest, Euro truck simulator, Terraria, Don't Starve, etc. Basically I have no doubt those cards can handle all those games, as I am currently on laptop GTX 645M and they all run just fine at 1080p, Dota2 > 70fps at all low, Diablo3 a bit stuttering. Just buying a new PC to have a cooler system to run. Laptop CPU hover around 90c when gaming.
Was pretty set on the 380 before the announcement of 380X, and now just discover Nvidia ShadowPlay. Is a 65-35 fanboy in favour of Nvidia as well, but the GTX 960 feel badly priced, and GTX 950 feel a bit underwhelming as an upgrade. Always been playing lowest setting for all games @ 1080p, but if GPU allows, sure I will set it to higher setting. Was doing a bit of video editing, and from my professional friends, Nvidia is favoured, but I am not serious enough and don't mind waiting extra hour or two for the video to render XD
About future proofing, I feel stupid doing that, but I still hope whatever GPU I pick can last 2 years or more, it's still a large sum of money after all. However, I have no idea if I will pick up any AAA games, so going overkill on GTX 970 doesn't make sense either. Kind of stuck trying to get the most value, trying to save money as much as possible while not shooting myself in the foot for skimming too much (like 950 may feel too weak), and am afraid of buyer's remorse.
Rest of the planned system, which will be bought soon: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RjNnYJ
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On January 10 2016 03:54 bluegarfield wrote:I really need help deciding, R9 380X ($388) or R9 380 ($365) or GTX 960 4GB($390), or may be GTX 950 ($290). This will sound absurd, but I am asking for advice to choose GPU based on some arbitrary criteria. I know R9 380X is the best in term of performance from all the benchmark, and at those price the GTX 960 seems like not a good choice, unless the game heavily favour NVidia like WoW or Witcher 3 (isit still the case?). and DX12, although none of the games I play now using DX12 lololol. G-sync/Freesync doesnt matter, using cheap 60Hz 1080p monitor anyway. Game played the most: Dota2, Diablo3, Hearthstone, a lot of "random" games (not AAA) like Ori and the blind forest, Euro truck simulator, Terraria, Don't Starve, etc. Basically I have no doubt those cards can handle all those games, as I am currently on laptop GTX 645M and they all run just fine at 1080p, Dota2 > 70fps at all low, Diablo3 a bit stuttering. Just buying a new PC to have a cooler system to run. Laptop CPU hover around 90c when gaming. Was pretty set on the 380 before the announcement of 380X, and now just discover Nvidia ShadowPlay. Is a 65-35 fanboy in favour of Nvidia as well, but the GTX 960 feel badly priced, and GTX 950 feel a bit underwhelming as an upgrade. Always been playing lowest setting for all games @ 1080p, but if GPU allows, sure I will set it to higher setting. Was doing a bit of video editing, and from my professional friends, Nvidia is favoured, but I am not serious enough and don't mind waiting extra hour or two for the video to render XD About future proofing, I feel stupid doing that, but I still hope whatever GPU I pick can last 2 years or more, it's still a large sum of money after all. However, I have no idea if I will pick up any AAA games, so going overkill on GTX 970 doesn't make sense either. Kind of stuck trying to get the most value, trying to save money as much as possible while not shooting myself in the foot for skimming too much (like 950 may feel too weak), and am afraid of buyer's remorse. Rest of the planned system, which will be bought soon: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RjNnYJ
We know for a fact that a lot of games are performing "better" in terms of support with nvidia, I bet we can all picture ourselves the infamous "the way it's meant to be played". Drivers through the geforce experience program are being updated, usually with dditional support for the new and big games. Going overkill makes no sense idd, but the 950 would be quite underwhelming, so I believe you're bound to buy the 960.
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@pEcul!Ar: yeah, "better" is the problem. it makes the GTX 960 being priced higher, thus it feels less value compared to the R9 380X. I am looking at Sapphire R9 380X vs Gigabyte GTX960 4GB (not the G1, just normal version) in particular. and while "better" in support is one thing, most benchmarks say otherwise, hence I am totally unsure now. Going something like Leadtek Hurricane or Palit GTX 960 Jetstream can save me like $20, but not having heard about them much gives some doubt.
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On January 10 2016 04:37 bluegarfield wrote:
@pEcul!Ar: yeah, "better" is the problem. it makes the GTX 960 being priced higher, thus it feels less value compared to the R9 380X. I am looking at Sapphire R9 380X vs Gigabyte GTX960 4GB (not the G1, just normal version) in particular. and while "better" in support is one thing, most benchmarks say otherwise, hence I am totally unsure now. Going something like Leadtek Hurricane or Palit GTX 960 Jetstream can save me like $20, but not having heard about them much gives some doubt.
Experimenting allows us to achieve greater things, it can bite you in the ass, but any problems with the unit and you can return it, no permanent harm done to you, Palit does ring a bell, Leadtek does not ring a single bell at all.
But let's be honest, it's only 20$, and you, even more than me I'm assuming, should know that saving 20$ is not worth it, at least not in this branch.
Benchmarks, I never ever base my decisions on benchmarks. My 780Ti's driver crashes when I put the cores on the maximum possible (it's the OC'd version), it goes back to default with every boot, THUS, the benchmark of my card is bollocks. Had to down it by 300 to prevent it from crashing. So benchmarks are not always flawless by any means, keep that in mind. And yes, my card could be faulty, but then it'd crash entirely, yet it's the drivers crashing, not the unit itself, and I know I'm not the only one.
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Driver issues sound bad on both sides, but I guess I heard it less from the green team.
i don't know why but it seem hard to decide when buying for myself. I have no problem putting up any builds for any requirements for my friends.
Not only I have troubles deciding between 960 and 380X, I havent finalized my mobo choice as well. ITX (GA-H170N-WIFI) for being small + wifi + type-C USB or m-ATX (GA-H170M-D3H) for being cheaper + more fan headers + thunderbolt. it feel kinda suck tbh
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On January 10 2016 05:09 bluegarfield wrote:
Driver issues sound bad on both sides, but I guess I heard it less from the green team.
i don't know why but it seem hard to decide when buying for myself. I have no problem putting up any builds for any requirements for my friends.
Not only I have troubles deciding between 960 and 380X, I havent finalized my mobo choice as well. ITX (GA-H170N-WIFI) for being small + wifi + type-C USB or m-ATX (GA-H170M-D3H) for being cheaper + more fan headers + thunderbolt. it feel kinda suck tbh
There are ways around the amount of fan headers, sure, it'll get messier with the extra cables, but that's all. Depending on which case and how much space you want, the ITX might be better, but again, look at the space you want/need.
It's always more difficult when it's for your own use, because you know exactly what you want and with the options presented, there's a grey area filled with uncertainty, it's a gamble in a sense, which makes it hard to be sure of any decision you make.
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
Benchmarks, I never ever base my decisions on benchmarks. My 780Ti's driver crashes when I put the cores on the maximum possible (it's the OC'd version), it goes back to default with every boot, THUS, the benchmark of my card is bollocks. Had to down it by 300 to prevent it from crashing
OC unstable, if that's factory OC then it's grounds for RMA. You should also be able to tweak voltages and offsets to fix that, i think.
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On January 10 2016 06:07 Cyro wrote:Show nested quote +Benchmarks, I never ever base my decisions on benchmarks. My 780Ti's driver crashes when I put the cores on the maximum possible (it's the OC'd version), it goes back to default with every boot, THUS, the benchmark of my card is bollocks. Had to down it by 300 to prevent it from crashing OC unstable, if that's factory OC then it's grounds for RMA. You should also be able to tweak voltages and offsets to fix that, i think.
Factory OC idd (Gigabyte), can't change the voltages, at least not through the drivers and whatnot and I'd rather not throw away the warranty. Doesn't crash anymore, been testing and changing the values until it stopped crashing.
Can't be bothered sending it back, takes too much time and I don't have the patience for it. If it would be doa or it would really be unusable, then sure.
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Just wanted to hop in to say thanks to everyone, and to bluegarfield in particular, for helping with the build! After several cross-country Skype calls, a broken motherboard, a couple of missing cables, her Mac refusing to burn discs or create USB installers, and one cat trying to play with things it oughtn't play with, my friend has successfully built their first computer!
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i bought my rig two years ago. i'm really curious why it isnt as fast i expect it to be, so please be patient.
processor: A10-5800k 3.9ghz (not OC)
gpu: AMD Radeon 7660D
RAM: 4GB ddr3
mobo: ASUS a55bm-k
im having problems playing dota 2 on high settings and NBA 2k16. on what aspects should I upgrade?
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
On January 10 2016 18:45 icystorage wrote:
i bought my rig two years ago. i'm really curious why it isnt as fast i expect it to be, so please be patient.
processor: A10-5800k 3.9ghz (not OC)
gpu: AMD Radeon 7660D
RAM: 4GB ddr3
mobo: ASUS a55bm-k
im having problems playing dota 2 on high settings and NBA 2k16. on what aspects should I upgrade?
Graphics is weak
you can see if you are GPU limited by testing if performance improves a lot when you set lower graphics/resolution and/or by monitoring GPU load while running the game as it's performing lower than you want
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thanks Cyro
how would I know what GPU would be compatible for me to upgrade? do I base it on my mobo? what other factors should I consider?
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
You should check the GPU load stuff to make sure it's a GPU limit before changing any hardware over it
They're pretty much compatible with everything but there are a few things to check when upgrading GPU:
If power supply can support the GPU
If case cooling is acceptable (usually true, but high power consumption graphics cards can't work without airflow)
If CPU is capable of the performance level in that game that you want, so that you wouldn't just hit another limit if you had faster graphics
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okay, ill google some stuff that I dont know. thanks a lot!
edit: how would I know that there's a gpu limit? when there's 100% usage?
edit2: also, can I add another 8gb stick to my ram (total of 12)?
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
edit: how would I know that there's a gpu limit? when there's 100% usage?
yeah or close to it
RAM thing, do you have 1x4GB stick now?
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yes I have 1x4GB, I can add one more and was thinking of adding an 8GB since I can afford it.
just played dota and it was 100% on high temps (60-70C)
btw, assuming I can add another ram, does it have to be the same brand or as long as it is compatible to my mobo?
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So I decided to cheap out on motherboard, dropping from GA-H170-D3H / Asus H170M-Plus and chose GA-B150M-D3H instead so I can get i5-6600 for that extra MHz. Kind of feel... underwhelming??? Not sure why, I mean it still run Dota2 and Diablo 3 max setting max fps, and those are the heaviest games I currently play, but may be cheap out on quality and features on the mobo will bite me later.
kind of got convinced by @pEcul!Ar and got the GTX960 instead of 380X as well lololol. Rest of the build: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/elqz/saved/hPF2FT
@icystorage:
On January 11 2016 09:11 icystorage wrote:
yes I have 1x4GB, I can add one more and was thinking of adding an 8GB since I can afford it.
just played dota and it was 100% on high temps (60-70C)
btw, assuming I can add another ram, does it have to be the same brand or as long as it is compatible to my mobo?
60-70C is not that high temps, anyway 100% load on dota seem like you are really bound for gpu upgrade.
also, adding a 8GB RAM stick will work, not the best possible configuration but it works just fine.
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GPUs are rated for >100C use. 70C on full load is pretty much the norm.
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EPT
