Upgrading this System Build: - Need advice where to upgrade from here.

[Inatar]

Hello Overclockers.

Recently, I bought a new system for gaming, here are the main specs:

• CPU: - AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE OC'ed to 3.75Ghz
• Graphics Card: -ATI Radeon HIS Icooler V 5870 1GB DDR5
• Motherboard: - Asus Crosshair Formula 3
• RAM: - 8GB DDR3 at 1333 MHz
• HDD: - 2x 500 GB SATA II in Raid Zero.
• Liquid Cooling: - CoolIT Domino Advanced Liquid Cooler
• Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D
• Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster P2450 1920x1080p 2ms Refresh Rate

As you can see, its a more or less very powerful system, but so far I have been satisfied with results, but I didn't manage to achieve what I wanted to with Crysis running, which I use as a benchmark.

I understand that Crysis is optimized for nvidia cards and is still an extremely demanding game, but I am seeking the advice of this community where to upgrade next.

Here are some of the things I am considering:

1. Upgrading the Processor to an I7 920 OC'ed to 4:00GHz
2. Another Radeon 5870
3. 6GB of 1600MHZ RAM

Can any enthusiasts here advice me on where I should go next in terms of upgrading the system i.e. CPU, graphics card e.t.c

Thanks guys, and please do post if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer.

 

[NobleX13]

Obviously you would need to move to a new motherboard to use that i7, but that would be my recommended course of action. I thought about recommending a Phenom II X6 1055T like mine, but for gaming, the Intel route will net you better performance. That 5870 is a beast of a card by itself, and I ultimately feel you will be better served with a better CPU.

If money is a concern and you don't want to spend tons of dough on a new X58 motherboard, the EVGA had some SLI/Crossfire capable boards for around $100, IIRC. With three PCI-express x16 slots.

 

[MattNo5ss]

The only thing I see that you could get and actually notice a difference would be a SSD.

 

[Inatar]

Hi guys.

Should I get another 5870 or a single 5970.

Also, will the upgrade from my AMD 965 x4 BE 3.75GHz to a x6 1090 make much of a difference?

 

[A-Dub]

What kind of temps are you getting on that cooler? Is your 965 a C2 or C3? My C3 965 did 4.0ghz on decent air cooling and 4.2 on water. Better cooling or a C3 chip might get you to 4.0+ ghz.

Edit:
I didn't notice that you're running 8gb of ram, is that 4x2gb sticks? That might be holding back your oc a bit, the deneb chips are known for having somewhat weak IMC's. Is there something specific you need 8gb for? I can't think of any games that will max out 4gb of ram.

 

[Inatar]

What kind of temps are you getting on that cooler? Is your 965 a C2 or C3? My C3 965 did 4.0ghz on decent air cooling and 4.2 on water. Better cooling or a C3 chip might get you to 4.0+ ghz.

Edit:
I didn't notice that you're running 8gb of ram, is that 4x2gb sticks? That might be holding back your oc a bit, the deneb chips are known for having somewhat weak IMC's. Is there something specific you need 8gb for? I can't think of any games that will max out 4gb of ram.

Yeap, its 4x2gb of standard DDR3 1333MHz. I got 8GB because I thought that games like Flight Simulator were RAM intensive, turns out that that particular game actually feasted on your CPU.

The website I bought off (cyberpower.co.uk), would only do Safe and stable overclocking (10 - 20%) on a x4 black edition, rather than an Xtreme which would be 20 - 30%, turns out i've been a little short changed I reckon if your water cooling got you to 4.2 GHz.

Whats also very annoying is that soon after I bought the PC fo 2000 pounds (with the monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse e.t.c.), they released this new custom configuration, which with the monitor and keyboard e.t.c. I got with it, would have come to a very similar price. And its almost double the power of what I bought.

I'm not sure what the temps are, the cooling display simply says 'N/A', which isn't helpful but I've also got decent airflow in there, 3 120mm fans and all.

 

[A-Dub]

So cyberpower did the overclock for you? Did they touch the NB at all? Phenom II chips get a good performance boost from a NB overclock.

Here's a very good read on overclocking the Phenom II:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

If you can get to 4ghz along with a good NB overclock and you're still not getting the performance you want than its your video card that's holding you back.

 

[bda1967]

I would run only 4 GB of RAM and OC the CPU closer to 4.0 GHz but at higher resolutions I don't think the CPU will be bottlenecked even at 3.75GHz. I would also add a second 5870 which the Crossfired 5870's should give you better performance than a 5970. What PSU do you have?

 

[Inatar]

So cyberpower did the overclock for you? Did they touch the NB at all? Phenom II chips get a good performance boost from a NB overclock.

Here's a very good read on overclocking the Phenom II:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

If you can get to 4ghz along with a good NB overclock and you're still not getting the performance you want than its your video card that's holding you back.

I don't know if they overclocked the NB, but they did say any further overclocking on any components will void the warranty. I'll check out the guide but i'm not sure if I would be confident enough to tamper with any bios settings e.t.c.

the thing is, FSX should run at very high settings on the machine I have, unless i'm wrong. I think it was very cheeky of cyberpower not to recommend me the Typhoon system it would have really made a massive difference.

 

[Mario1]

I don't know if they overclocked the NB, but they did say any further overclocking on any components will void the warranty. I'll check out the guide but i'm not sure if I would be confident enough to tamper with any bios settings e.t.c.

the thing is, FSX should run at very high settings on the machine I have, unless i'm wrong. I think it was very cheeky of cyberpower not to recommend me the Typhoon system it would have really made a massive difference.

Your CPU warranty is already voided if they OCed it or at least Intel won't replace your CPU.
So there is no way of them figuring out you OCed it more, Intel could find out if your CPU was ever overclocked, but the motherboard should be fine on the warranty side, even if you break it by overclocking (which is virtually impossible) after clearing the CSMOS

 

[Inatar]

Your CPU warranty is already voided if they OCed it or at least Intel won't replace your CPU.
So there is no way of them figuring out you OCed it more, Intel could find out if your CPU was ever overclocked, but the motherboard should be fine on the warranty side, even if you break it by overclocking (which is virtually impossible) after clearing the CSMOS

I think the warranty they were offering was unique to them, idk, but thats what they specifically warned me.

How does 2x 5870 in crossfire compare to single 5970?

 

[A-Dub]

I don't know if they overclocked the NB, but they did say any further overclocking on any components will void the warranty. I'll check out the guide but i'm not sure if I would be confident enough to tamper with any bios settings e.t.c.

the thing is, FSX should run at very high settings on the machine I have, unless i'm wrong. I think it was very cheeky of cyberpower not to recommend me the Typhoon system it would have really made a massive difference.

Its pretty hard to kill a cpu by overclocking it unless you run 1.6+ volts through it or let it overheat to 65c or more.

If you download cpu-z it will tell you what frequency your NB is running at in the memory tab. The stock NB frequency is 2ghz. Here's a good article on NB performance scaling. You can see that AMD really should have increased the stock NB frequency.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3877/...investigation-of-thuban-performance-scaling/7

 

[Inatar]

Its pretty hard to kill a cpu by overclocking it unless you run 1.6+ volts through it or let it overheat to 65c or more.

If you download cpu-z it will tell you what frequency your NB is running at in the memory tab. The stock NB frequency is 2ghz. Here's a good article on NB performance scaling. You can see that AMD really should have increased the stock NB frequency.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3877/...investigation-of-thuban-performance-scaling/7

Wow, that really sticks a knife into AMD... are intel much better when it comes to NB?

 

[Knufire]

How does 2x 5870 in crossfire compare to single 5970?

A 5970 is a 5850x2. CF 5870s will beat it, hands down.

 

[Bobnova]

Sort of, it's two underclocked 5870s.
5850s have fewer cores then 5870s or the dies used in 5970s.

 

[Jmtyra]

Hi Inatar!
Welcome to the OC Community!

 

[Mario1]

Its pretty hard to kill a cpu by overclocking it unless you run 1.6+ volts through it or let it overheat to 65c or more.

If you download cpu-z it will tell you what frequency your NB is running at in the memory tab. The stock NB frequency is 2ghz. Here's a good article on NB performance scaling. You can see that AMD really should have increased the stock NB frequency.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3877/...investigation-of-thuban-performance-scaling/7

More like running it @ 75c or more

 

[A-Dub]

More like running it @ 75c or more

The max safe temperature on the Phenom II cpu's is 62c:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/A... Edition - HDZ965FBK4DGM (HDZ965FBGMBOX).html

 

[Inatar]

New Build

Hey again guys.

I recently upgraded again.

This time I now have: -

I5 2500k 4.00GHz
GTX 470
Same HDD
Same OS of course.
6 GB Ram (same model)

I still get 25-40fps on Crysis Warhead with enthusiast settings and AA.

I just feel I am not getting enough bang for my buck and am asking for suggestions as to where to go next as I dont want to just give up on this pc

 

[Knufire]

You just downgraded your graphics card.....

Just turn off the AA. It takes a monster of a PC to run Crysis, even by today's standards.

Btw, you want 8GB of RAM. Take out a stick or get another 2GB.