Upgrade possibility or bottlenecked? E8600/HD6770

[Fightnfire498]

Hello, I have a question about the build in my sig. It's old but it has been an amazing machine. I use to game quite a bit back in the day but in the end I only really played WoW and then left that game a year or two ago. I have some friends heading back in for Legion and thought I would check it out with them. I got out of building PC's and gaming because our family started to grow. Now that my boys are 8 and 6 I have a bit more free time.

I just upgraded the CPU to the E8600 this week and have it stable at 4.2, the HD 6770 was added a few years ago when the 8800GTS failed. I have the HD 6770 OC'd and stable, I forget the current settings, I'll post them when I get home. The old Q6600 which was OC'd its whole life to 3.2 is sitting on the desk... amazing chip. 8 years overclocked.

I want to be able to run some dungeons and raids without bogging down too much during encounters. I can log in fine and the game plays fine with FPS floating between 30-50 depending on what I'm doing.

Do you guys think I could see a noticeable improvement upgrading the GPU or am I bottlenecked with the E8600? Are there other obvious upgrades for this system that I could see improvements with? If I can hang in Legion with a few minor upgrades I'll keep this machine, if not, I'll be building a new one in the winter.

Thanks!

 

[Fightnfire498]

The HD 6770 is at 950 and 1215 memory.

 

[Lochekey]

I would look at replacing your hdd with a ssd and then just wait too build a new system. Your system is slightly better than the minimum requirements for legions so it may not be the best but should be ok.

I would normally say buy a new graphics card and then just use it in the new build but the gpu market is in such flux currently that I would wait to buy for a few months.

 

[trents]

Back off on the CPU overclock and see if the frame rate suffers. That will answer your question.

 

[Fightnfire498]

I would look at replacing your hdd with a ssd and then just wait too build a new system. Your system is slightly better than the minimum requirements for legions so it may not be the best but should be ok.

I would normally say buy a new graphics card and then just use it in the new build but the gpu market is in such flux currently that I would wait to buy for a few months.

SSD will be added soon, thanks for that tip, I've been wanting to do that for a while.

Back off on the CPU overclock and see if the frame rate suffers. That will answer your question.

I backed off the CPU OC and didn't notice much difference in frames. However, I did play with the graphics settings in the game and got noticeable improvements in frames by lowering the settings. It defaults me to medium, 5 out of 10 and that keeps me fine for solo playing. When I joined a large world event I lagged out bad until it stabilized around 15-20 frames. Lowering it to 2 out of 10 the frames umped to over 80 and held there in party fights. I did not have the opportunity to test the lowered settings in a large world event.

Taking all of that into consideration do you guys think this would be worth a GPU upgrade to the GTX 750ti SC? With a $20 rebate from EVGA it can be had for $89.99 from Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487024&ignorebbr=1#close the rebate end this weekend. Everything I'm looking at shows the 750 Ti to be a great card for my situation. I don't plan on playing any new games in the immediate future.

 

[EarthDog]

I would say to save more money and wait a couple of months, then buy some modern and worthwhile.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

You have a good PSU: go used GPU.

For a bit more than a hundred bucks, you can get a 7970 or a GTX 680.

These are far better than a 750i, and if it worked for the past 2 years, no reason it won't work for an extra couple of years!

Edit: and what the gentleman above says.

 

[trents]

Yeah, I wouldn't waste your money on a 750ti. If you're going to upgrade your GPU then upgrade it significantly.

 

[Fightnfire498]

You guys have been very helpful, thank you.

Is this a better option than the 750Ti, a refurbished GTX 950 2gb SC+ from Newegg for $99 after rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487204

 

[trents]

No, not a better option. Pretty much equivalent to the 750ti performance wise. You need to be looking at moving up to at least an R9 370 to get significant improvement over what you have now. You need to get into the 256 bit bus width cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202197&cm_re=R9_370-_-14-202-197-_-Product

 

[Fightnfire498]

No, not a better option. Pretty much equivalent to the 750ti performance wise. You need to be looking at moving up to at least an R9 370 to get significant improvement over what you have now. You need to get into the 256 bit bus width cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202197&cm_re=R9_370-_-14-202-197-_-Product

Thank you for the help, I'm a bit confused because everything I'm reading says the GTX950 is better than the R7/9 370 and it's $20-$30 less.

I have to be missing something?

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R7-370-vs-GeForce-GTX-950
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-950-vs-AMD-R7-370/3510vs3571
http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/inde...msi-gaming-4gb-edition-vs-geforce-gtx-950-2gb

 

[trents]

Sorry, I misread your post #9. All I saw was the mention of GTX 750ti which would be a lateral move and not an improvement. Be careful when looking at reviews and benchmarks. They can be misleading. The card I referenced at New Egg is the R7 970 X which is a more potent card that the R7 970. Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units

You will see there are several versions of the Radeon 970, even an R9 version.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Trents, sure you are all right? Something in your coffee or tea maybe?

R9 970... Mmmm... That's a new one! Lol!

Talking about the 370, right?

 

[trents]

Trents, sure you are all right? Something in your coffee or tea maybe?

R9 970... Mmmm... That's a new one! Lol!

Talking about the 370, right?

LOL! Thanks for catching that. I meant to type R7 370 and R7 370 X. Actually, there is even an OEM R9 370. Too many choices! It get's confusing .

 

[Fightnfire498]

Trents, sure you are all right? Something in your coffee or tea maybe?

R9 970... Mmmm... That's a new one! Lol!

Talking about the 370, right?

LOL! Thanks for catching that. I meant to type R7 370 and R7 370 X. Actually, there is even an OEM R9 370. Too many choices! It get's confusing .

It definitely gets confusing, thank you guys for all of the help. I remember when it was 8800 GT, 8800GTS, 8800 GTX, 8800 Ultra. Much easier to keep it all straight.

I have ordered that refurbished GTX 950 SC+ from Newegg which is the 3rd best GTX 950 EVGA makes out of 10 or so. I think this is about the best I could do for <$100 and it's about the best I could see to put in my system without wasting capability or money.

http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=02G-P4-2956-KR

Thank you for being patient, I know the n00b questions can get old. At least with all of the reading and studying I've done in the last few days I feel confident to build a new system this winter and pass this one to the wife and kids.