Old member, back on, with new build, and upgrade questions...

I haven't been on here in probably a few years, but just did a nice budget build comp, got a Biostar z87 MB, supports up to 32gb ram, 1150 socket, with a 3.2 ghz duo core, 8 gb ram, (2x4gb) Radeon 7770 2gb GHZ edition, I think, know it's 2gb of ddr5 on the card, 500 gb SSD. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, I noticed how great it could look, but was somewhat laggy, and had a fair amount of settings turned down. I can get a 2nd 7770 2GB for about $70 and run crossfire, but I'm guessing that what I really need is a better cpu? I know GPU does a very vast majority of the graphics, but some of it also relies on the CPU. I'm thinking that what I really need to do is get a quad core, but, well, they aren't cheap... I wish I could check the classifieds here, but it says private, and I can't see anything. Also wondering if getting a sound card is worth it, as in does it eat much ram? The on-board produces really nice sound, just don't know if it drains performance that way, and what you would recommend rather cheap, all in all this build comes in under $450, counting the 640gb Sata I bought for my old computer before deciding to build a new one from scratch. Oh and the DVD burner is stolen from my last build also... Extremely happy with what I have for what I paid, however I know it could be soooo much better, I just need to know the direction to go next. I remember somewhere there was sort of a stress test windows had on it, that would tell you your weak link, but that very well may have been on XP, if not I have no clue what it was, or where either lol. Know that in the control panel there is the performance information tool, which says my primary hard drive is my draw back, being rated 5.9 when everything else is in the mid 7's, think that's because it's not only testing the SSD, but also the HDD.

For starters welcome back. As far as SoM goes your cpu will be holding it back more than anything right now. A site I like to use to judge how well my budget build can play games and on generally what settings and things of that nature I use systemrequirementslab.com.

I like to use it to judge how my games may or may not look. It doesn't give you specifics like what settings you can run but its a good way to find out how well your pc will do with the min and rec requirements.

If you could go ahead and update your signature with your new build so it will be a little easy to follow what parts you have.

I did that, but it isn't showing up right now, as far as I can see, think I'm going to log out and in, see if that may do it...

How big of a CPU should I go honestly? Don't want extreme overkill, but do I need a quad core if I go Intel? Would the I3 series be decent, or do I pretty much need to go 5 or 7 to have it work quite well for a good while? I see I3's going for lower $100's, whereas the I5's I'm finding are ~$200

Also, if anybody could browse the classifieds here I can use anything I5 4430-4690, I7 4765-4790, even I3 would probably be okish I'm guessing if it's cheap enough, 4130T-4370, at least those are all listed in compatible on the Boistar website... I would if I could access it, but unfortunately I can't... Doubt I could afford an I7, may be able to do $150, gotta get my old comp sold, or part it out

I just went thru a number of websites stating the minimum and recommended requirements and the video card you have is quite a bit less powerful from what I can tell compared to the minimum ATI 6950 card. If you move to what most of the recommended video card is...well your are not on the same playing field at all with a 7770 vid card.
RGone...

Would my CPU be ok at all if I went with the Radeon 7950 3gb? Found one I think I can afford, but I won't be able to upgrade the cpu then for a while

(My CPU is the G3258, still shows my old signature on my end at least, though I've saved it a few times, and it shows in my profile)

Rock on one side and hard spot on the other...

...rock and hard spot are often what catch us when we really go for the cheap. Heck we should not spend what we don't have. Stuff happens.

Okay I went and did a little more checking.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 (125W, BE) vs Intel Pentium G3258
That compares your G3258 against an AMD 965BE processor which I felt surely would be a lesser performer since most diss AMD for gaming. You can see how it seemed to spec one against the other.

When the dual core G3258s were first talked about, a number said oh yeah, good for gaming and should overclock very well. It is the overclocking part that is very often recommended to get a cpu up to working better with the performance of a video card. In the little gaming that I do and have done...it was just about always the Cpu speed that could make a big difference in gaming. I see many gaming situations responded to by pro-offering the advice to overclock the cpu to help keep up with the video card. IF you have enough cooling you should be able to overclock the G3258 to get along with and help out with the later 7950 video card if need be.

So much of this stuff is plain specific game related and many suggest one way and others another way. Often either way is helpful to some extent. Now that is where to me you are between rock and hard place. Were I truly wishing to have a setup that met minimum requirements for SoM, I would say you need cpu and video card both. You say no can do. Rock and hard place. Gaming suggestions almost always begin with suggestions to get the video card pumped up. Well yes you intend same with 7950. i suggest you might be able to hedge your bets somewhat if you can overclock the cpu for additional help with new video card if need be.

Not the died in the wool gamer that many are, so you might wish to see what some "gamer" sees as a better way.
Luck man.
RGone...

cdyoung1985 said:

Would my CPU be ok at all if I went with the Radeon 7950 3gb? Found one I think I can afford, but I won't be able to upgrade the cpu then for a while

(My CPU is the G3258, still shows my old signature on my end at least, though I've saved it a few times, and it shows in my profile)

Click to expand...

It is overclockable, though I know little about doing it, though the MB came with a program to manage that for me. Plus right now the video card is much more affordable than a decent, let alone good CPU, and the video card I have now is returnable, which is about 2/3 the cost of the other card, just going to be brutal not having a card for that short time, unless I buy the new one now, and then return the old, which I just may have to do. Bills can be pushed back, gaming can't lmao

You have a z motherboard so thats a good start. If you can overclock your CPU go with upgrading your GPU and see what results that will yield you for gaming.

I game quite a bit with my system along with benchmarking and running my CPU at 4.8 vs the stock 3.9 gets me close to 10 extra fps depending on the game. Some not so much. The big jump in fps was changing my GPU of course.

Just seen where you said you had the G3258 my bad.

That processor should hold up quite well for your gaming needs fairly well. And wit hthe 7950 you shouldn't have an issue with bottlenecking your GPU. There are plenty of knowledgeable individual here to assist in helping you oc that CPU. From what I have read most overclock very well.