Help out with my upgrade...another gpu or new board and cpu first?

[Miraklum]

Hi everyone,

First of all sorry if I write down something wrong as I am Portuguese. I need a piece of advice, and preferably from someone who knows about hardware.
This is my system:

- Case: NOX Coolbay TX
- CPU: Amd Phenom II X6 1055T 3.02GHz
- Mainboard: Sapphire Tech PC-AM3RS890G
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600MHz 2x4GB
- Graphics Card: Asus HD7870 Series
- PSU: LC-Power LC6650GP3 V2.3

I'm replacing my PSU, but what I cannot make my mind about is if I should go for another 7870 and crossfire it or if I should replace my cpu and motherboard. I'm stiking to amd so bear with me, I'm on a budget. All opinions will be apreciated.

[Gianni]

well if u got another 7870 ur cpu might bottlneck so i geuus stick witht the one gpu and possible get a btter cpu the better ur cpu the bettr i wont hurt anything

[Rove]

I don't think you need to do either one. For now I'd say wait for the next AMD graphics generation and for DDR4 RAM and CPUs and Motherboards that support it. Maybe even beyond next generation. It sounds like you already have a pretty good rig.

Get your new PSU and then wait patiently for a year or so.

If you absolutely must upgrade something right this moment then go ahead and get your crossfire HD 7870s. It's overkill for now but you will be able to re-use the graphics cards when you upgrade CPU and Motherboard and RAM. DDR4 is coming eventually and CPU and Motherboard and RAM upgrade will be a way better idea then instead of right now. Meanwhile your GPUs will probably be good enough to carry into your next motherboard.
Waste-not-want-not.

Also a quick tip, you might just want to share some RAM to your current HD 7870 instead of actually buying a new card. I would recommend sharing 4GB of RAM to your card and then you will have like 6GB of total graphics memory which should be more than enough for all current tasks.

I bet your system performs fine for right now and given how much exciting new technology is coming in the future it makes sense to wait and buy it later if you can.

[Miraklum]

Messaggio originale di Rove:

I don't think you need to do either one. For now I'd say wait for the next AMD graphics generation and for DDR4 RAM and CPUs and Motherboards that support it. Maybe even beyond next generation. It sounds like you already have a pretty good rig.

Get your new PSU and then wait patiently for a year or so.

If you absolutely must upgrade something right this moment then go ahead and get your crossfire HD 7870s. It's overkill for now but you will be able to re-use the graphics cards when you upgrade CPU and Motherboard and RAM. DDR4 is coming eventually and CPU and Motherboard and RAM upgrade will be a way better idea then instead of right now. Meanwhile your GPUs will probably be good enough to carry into your next motherboard.
Waste-not-want-not.

Also a quick tip, you might just want to share some RAM to your current HD 7870 instead of actually buying a new card. I would recommend sharing 4GB of RAM to your card and then you will have like 6GB of total graphics memory which should be more than enough for all current tasks.

I bet your system performs fine for right now and given how much exciting new technology is coming in the future it makes sense to wait and buy it later if you can.

Thank you for the tip, how do I share ram to the gpu? And yes it performs okay, only games it doesn't perform that okay is the total war series...go figure lol

[Miraklum]

Btw, will sharing ram with the gpu increase performance that much without slowing the system? If so, how much would you share?

[Velmarshal]

Messaggio originale di Miraklum:

Btw, will sharing ram with the gpu increase performance that much without slowing the system? If so, how much would you share?

1 or 2 gigs is enough, anything above is a waste.

[Rove]

I don't recall how I did it. If anyone can tell us how to share RAM to the video card in Windows I would be grateful.

I remember that there was a slider-bar and also a place where you could manually enter the number instead of using the bar. I shared 16 GB of my 32GB to my HD 6950 card and now I show up as having 18GB or graphics memory on things like WEI and DXdiag.

Can anyone say how?

I was pretty sure it was in Control Panel or through a panel that I got to via a "run" command.

[banzaigtv]

If you need more performance, you could upgrade to an FX-8350 (or perhaps the upcoming 9590, which is a 5 GHz CPU) and a socket AM3+ motherboard.

[_I_]

gong from the amd pii x6 to a fx 8000/9000 wont improve it much at all

better step would be to an i5

[banzaigtv]

Messaggio originale di _I_:

gong from the amd pii x6 to a fx 8000/9000 wont improve it much at all

better step would be to an i5

He stated that he wants to stay with AMD.

But like _I_ stated, switching to an i5 or i7 would be better since Intel is better at CPUs for gaming.

[Miraklum]

Messaggio originale di banzaigtv:

Messaggio originale di _I_:

gong from the amd pii x6 to a fx 8000/9000 wont improve it much at all

better step would be to an i5

He stated that he wants to stay with AMD.

But like _I_ stated, switching to an i5 or i7 would be better since Intel is better at CPUs for gaming.

Well if I wasn't on a budget would try one out, but if had no problems with amd so far and I believe muticores will pay out in the future. But im gonna stick with the system I have for now, just like Rove said, lets see how things progress.


Thank you all for your opinions guys ;)