CPU or GPU

[sMull]

Im thinking of doing a small upgrade, and my question is which should i go for to increase performance more? Currently have an i5 3.0, and an Ati 5770. Thanks!

[pjknibbs]

Depends what you're planning to do. If the objective is to improve performance when playing games then I'd say the graphics card is your biggest bottleneck--5770s only have 1Gb of on-board RAM at most, and a lot of modern games like to have more. The CPU is a quad-core (I believe all 3GHz i5s were, at any rate) so is ample for current gen games.

[Tamina]

Not quite, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 was released 2009 which was also the very first release of i5 processors at that time

Code: Select all

Name | Cores/HT | Ghz | Release
Core i5-650 2/4 3,2 GHz (3,46 GHz) Q1 2010
Core i5-655K 2/4 3,2 GHz (3,46 GHz) Q2 2010
Core i5-660 2/4 3,33 GHz (3,6 GHz) Q1 2010
Core i5-661 2/4 3,33 GHz (3,6 GHz) Q3 2010
Core i5-670 2/4 3,46 GHz (3,73 GHz) Q1 2010
Core i5-680 2/4 3,6 GHz (3,86 GHz) Q2 2010

A bunch of 2core i5s with Hyperthreading.
Every follow up i5, released a year later, has 4 cores.

I think we might have the same PC Is yours from Dell?

[sMull]

Depends what you're planning to do. If the objective is to improve performance when playing games then I'd say the graphics card is your biggest bottleneck--5770s only have 1Gb of on-board RAM at most, and a lot of modern games like to have more. The CPU is a quad-core (I believe all 3GHz i5s were, at any rate) so is ample for current gen games.

Thanks, but why was this moved to offtopic? I posted it in Rebirth because that's the game I had in mind specifically, and was wondering what it would benefit the most.

[mrbadger]

At a guess I'd say because this comes up a lot around here and you're much more likely to get a good answer .

[pjknibbs]

A bunch of 2core i5s with Hyperthreading.

None of which ran at 3.0GHz, which is why I said what I did--all the 3.0GHz Core i5s are quad cores, according to the list on Wikipedia.

As for why this message was moved here, all hardware discussions belong in Off Topic regardless of what game they're targeting.

[CBJ]

Thanks, but why was this moved to offtopic? I posted it in Rebirth because that's the game I had in mind specifically, and was wondering what it would benefit the most.

Because it's about your prospective hardware purchases, not the game, and we ask people to hold such discussions in the Off Topic forum. As it happens this is also a good place to get this kind of advice, so it all works out in the end.

[Gligli]

First I saw the OP:
Why not talking about RAM? It seems to still the more problematic point in Rebirth, actually (not confirmed, I plan something to figure it out )

Then 1Gb(or2?) on the GPU:
Seems better than my GTX9800 xD (around 60 fps on good IG conditions)

Then again, I saw that the CPU could be i5(650->680)
Start to be tricky here... Give us his number, than we could be sure.

[sMull]

Well I was wondering will Rebirth benefit more from a good CPU or good GPU? Id rather buy just one. I know some games you can have a crappy GPU or the best one, and the game will still run the same on the same processor. This kind of thing.

[CBJ]

One thing to bear in mind is that most games, including X Rebirth, have graphics settings to help you adjust the graphics workload to suit your graphics card. Settings that make a significant difference to the amount of core processing power used by a game are a lot less common. For that reason I'd generally recommend a CPU upgrade over a GPU one, unless someone has a particularly mismatched system where the GPU is really holding back the CPU. That said, it's also worth remembering that GPUs are often easier to upgrade as motherboard compatibility for those tends to change less frequently.

Edit: Clarification.

[felter]

If anyone is for buying a new GPU I would recommend holding back as the new nvidia pascal chip is suppose to be released around about march time, and if the rumours and hype are true it is supposed to be up to 10 times faster than the current GPU's, that is quite a leap. AMD are also have a new GPU in the works and it's supposed to be blisteringly fast also, though I don't know much about it.

[jlehtone]

Well I was wondering will Rebirth benefit more from a good CPU or good GPU?

To update CPU ...
Which socket/chipset/motherboard do you have now?
What CPU models fit into it and are still available?
Newer CPU could mean new motherboard and new RAM too.

What is your "small upgrade budget"?

[Gligli]

And btw, your actual quantity of RAM... We never knows

[sMull]

Thanks for the help all.

Currently have 4GB ram. If I need to upgrade my motherboard to fit a new processor I will do that, if that's what Rebirth will benefit from the most.

[Oldman]

Thanks for the help all.

Currently have 4GB ram. If I need to upgrade my motherboard to fit a new processor I will do that, if that's what Rebirth will benefit from the most.

Hi

I'm currently thinking of getting a new graphics card myself at the moment, but I think I'll hold off choosing one until early next year....maybe....
I was particularly looking at AMD's R 380 (An MSI version) but saw the 'new' R 380X on Tom's Hardware web site being given the once over..
Anyway, I've posted the link because it also includes 'best gpu for your budget' etc.....and mentions Computex 2015.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-gr ... 32899.html

Edit...just thought to add, if you're anything like me, choosing a graphics card, you'll be reaching for the headache tablets at some point!

Oldman

[Gligli]

Thanks for the help all.

Currently have 4GB ram. If I need to upgrade my motherboard to fit a new processor I will do that, if that's what Rebirth will benefit from the most.

Ouch.
The last bit remains is the number of your proc, which will determine if you have a real 4cores, and its socket.
But even if it's the oldest one possible, I fear that RAM is actually your worst problem, and regard to other it's the cheapest upgrade till a certain quantity...(imo you need at least 8GB more)

If you wants to completely change in a near future, I council to make it in two point (related to budget):
a) Keep the GPU and change Motherboard, CPU and RAM
b) Upgrade the GPU
[edit] remove Note

[sMull]

Good stuff, thanks. Will be getting 4gb more ram tomorrow and will shop around for a new cpu.

[pjknibbs]

Good stuff, thanks. Will be getting 4gb more ram tomorrow and will shop around for a new cpu.

You need to check what RAM you already have and what RAM slots your motherboard has. For instance, if you have 2 2Gb DIMMs and your motherboard only has 2 slots, the only way you can upgrade to 8Gb is to buy 2 4Gb DIMMs and replace what you already have. Oh, and it's always a good idea to have RAM in matched pairs because the system can access them both at the same time for extra performance, so 2x4Gb is generally superior to 1x8Gb.

[xanfus]

It would be of importance and more direct to know, what system devs are using. Egosoft released game, which they thought was very optimized for their machines and all other machines. We usually receive system reqs in terms of models and brands, but it would be more objective to list gpu, cpu throughputs, gpu memory, system memory, memory CAS, QPI or HyperTransport maximum transaction rate, PCI slot bandwidth. I personally think, my system is limited by gpu memory bandwidth at 14GB/s, because my APU is demonstrating slightly worse performance with it's 12.8 GB/s.