Hey guys!
I was hoping to upgrade my PC by buying a newer card, but I just realized it may not be the best way to spend my money. My current rig is an i5 750 on a Gigabyte P55-US3L with 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz and a HD 6970 2GB. My primary time-waster is Falcon 4 BMS which I run on 4 screens -- 3 screens (19"-24"-19") with a combined res of 4480x1080 via SoftTH plus 1 touchscreen at 1920x1080 res. When playing, I get upper-teens to mid-twenties FPS on the ground and high-twenties to low-thirties FPS in the air. I ran MSI Afterburner to monitor my GPU usage and found out that my GPU is only running at 55% tops but I am maxxing out my 2GB RAM on the GPU.
I had thought of upgrading by buying a 3GB or higher card, but then I realized that my board is PCI-E 2.0 and was told that the newer cards were PCI-E 3 and would only be slowed down by my board. I also have two SSDs connected to this board which only does 3GB/s.
My initial plan was to come here to ask whether to get a GTX 770 4GB or a HD 7970 3GB but now I feel that my "upgrade money" is best spent upgrading my CPU and motherboard. I am hoping to still be able to use my cooler (Hyper 212 Evo) and RAM on the new setup.
So, three questions:
1. Is my money better spent on upgrading my CPU/motherboard or will a PCI-E 2 vs PCI-E 3 not make much of a difference?
2. If upgrading my CPU is better, any recommendations of CPU and board? I'm a "bang for my buck" gamer as you can see by my i5 750 choice vs an i7, so I'm alright with being just slightly behind bleeding-edge. My current rig is coming up 4 years now and has served me very well, anything that'll last me 3-4 years would be sweet.
3. If upgrading my GPU is better, any recommendations? I've been an ATI guy as of late (previous 3 cards were ATI), but I'm not sure if the 7970's 3GB is enough vs the 770's 4GB. I'd grab a 6GB card but at the moment they're quite steep. I only run a few games on triple-screen (BMS, Deus Ex, Mass Effect) while others I am happy to run 1920x1080, so basically all I am hoping for is a bit more headroom and not to max out the card all the time.
I know these questions are quite broad, so thanks for bearing with me. Just want to see what you guys think and hopefully this will help me come to a decision.
EDIT: I just saw my "spec signature" below and all I've changed is the GPU (XFX ATI Radeon HD 6970 2GB) and the case (Corsair Carbide 500R), everything is still the same.
I was hoping to upgrade my PC by buying a newer card, but I just realized it may not be the best way to spend my money. My current rig is an i5 750 on a Gigabyte P55-US3L with 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz and a HD 6970 2GB. My primary time-waster is Falcon 4 BMS which I run on 4 screens -- 3 screens (19"-24"-19") with a combined res of 4480x1080 via SoftTH plus 1 touchscreen at 1920x1080 res. When playing, I get upper-teens to mid-twenties FPS on the ground and high-twenties to low-thirties FPS in the air. I ran MSI Afterburner to monitor my GPU usage and found out that my GPU is only running at 55% tops but I am maxxing out my 2GB RAM on the GPU.
I had thought of upgrading by buying a 3GB or higher card, but then I realized that my board is PCI-E 2.0 and was told that the newer cards were PCI-E 3 and would only be slowed down by my board. I also have two SSDs connected to this board which only does 3GB/s.
My initial plan was to come here to ask whether to get a GTX 770 4GB or a HD 7970 3GB but now I feel that my "upgrade money" is best spent upgrading my CPU and motherboard. I am hoping to still be able to use my cooler (Hyper 212 Evo) and RAM on the new setup.
So, three questions:
1. Is my money better spent on upgrading my CPU/motherboard or will a PCI-E 2 vs PCI-E 3 not make much of a difference?
2. If upgrading my CPU is better, any recommendations of CPU and board? I'm a "bang for my buck" gamer as you can see by my i5 750 choice vs an i7, so I'm alright with being just slightly behind bleeding-edge. My current rig is coming up 4 years now and has served me very well, anything that'll last me 3-4 years would be sweet.
3. If upgrading my GPU is better, any recommendations? I've been an ATI guy as of late (previous 3 cards were ATI), but I'm not sure if the 7970's 3GB is enough vs the 770's 4GB. I'd grab a 6GB card but at the moment they're quite steep. I only run a few games on triple-screen (BMS, Deus Ex, Mass Effect) while others I am happy to run 1920x1080, so basically all I am hoping for is a bit more headroom and not to max out the card all the time.
I know these questions are quite broad, so thanks for bearing with me. Just want to see what you guys think and hopefully this will help me come to a decision.
EDIT: I just saw my "spec signature" below and all I've changed is the GPU (XFX ATI Radeon HD 6970 2GB) and the case (Corsair Carbide 500R), everything is still the same.
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