New pc build

I haven't read the whole thread ... but why do you want to do a big upgrade at all? Just replace the graphics card and double the RAM. You'll hardly find a game you can't play @max.
Save the rest of the money until it's clear how next gen consoles will influence PC games.
 
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I haven't read the whole thread … but why do you want to do a big upgrade at all? Just replace the graphics card and double the RAM. You'll hardly find a game you can't play @max.
Save the rest of the money until it's clear how next gen consoles will influence PC games.

This or wait until next year as there doesn't seem to be to many new games heading our way this year that will be that demanding.

Personally I am waiting until about this time next year just before the TW3 release.
 
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What are you doing with your old pc ?

I was thinking of selling it or give it to my wife.

Are you hinting I should take parts from it? Its a good enough PC and I thought if took parts then the rest of the ones will be wasted.
 
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I haven't read the whole thread … but why do you want to do a big upgrade at all? Just replace the graphics card and double the RAM. You'll hardly find a game you can't play @max.
Save the rest of the money until it's clear how next gen consoles will influence PC games.

I was thinking of just upgrading the graphics card but I thought I won't gain much from a new card since my MB and CPU are old.

I wasn't planning on getting more RAM since I didn't think that will make difference.

If I were to upgrade graphics card, which one will you recommend give the other parts I have in the system?

Is my PC good enough to make the best of say GTX 770?
 
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This or wait until next year as there doesn't seem to be to many new games heading our way this year that will be that demanding.

Personally I am waiting until about this time next year just before the TW3 release.

Lot of people are tell me to wait till this time next year as well since the new consoles will be out and we will have better idea what kind of PC we will need for gaming!
 
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Yes, this would be the best idea, to wait, at least until some of the new console games are out and see what they'll require on the PC, it might not be that good an indication since they are release titles, but better than buying now.
 
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It won't make the best of it, but it's good enough that you would see a significant performance increase from your GTX 460.

This is what I thought as well. Anyway if I decide to upgrade I don't think its worth going for GTX 770 given my current PC can't make the best of it. May be I should look into a mid rage GTX 6xx series?

Have you got your new GTX 770 card yet? if yes i would like to know what you think about it? make much difference to some of the current RPG games you play?
 
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I was thinking of selling it or give it to my wife.

Are you hinting I should take parts from it? Its a good enough PC and I thought if took parts then the rest of the ones will be wasted.

Well, I think your pc is still quite powerful and can/should be able to play most games without any problem. Maybe it can't achieve highest graphics and stuff, but I've never been bother by that. For me games have to run smoothly, that's what I care about so even if I have to lower graphic details to make that happen I don't usually mind.

I was thinking that I could take it over from you if the price were right, but I'm a bit squeezed for money at the moment... Spend too much on restaurants and life-gigs last month...

If you are giving it to your wife, then that would be ok I guess, but if you were throwing it away, I'd say it's a waste...

I'n still gaming on my laptop which has a 1st gen i5 and a GT 330 in it, so your desktop is a beast compared to it :D
 
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This is what I thought as well. Anyway if I decide to upgrade I don't think its worth going for GTX 770 given my current PC can't make the best of it. May be I should look into a mid rage GTX 6xx series?

I'd say it depends on the price difference. Over here in the US, the GTX 770 is only around $50 more than the GTX 670 right now. Imo, that makes it a no-brainer to get a 770. Not sure about the prices in the UK though…


Have you got your new GTX 770 card yet? if yes i would like to know what you think about it? make much difference to some of the current RPG games you play?

I should receive it by tomorrow or Friday. (It's shipping from California to Florida). I'll be sure to post some impressions.
 
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I haven't read the whole thread … but why do you want to do a big upgrade at all? Just replace the graphics card and double the RAM. You'll hardly find a game you can't play @max.
Save the rest of the money until it's clear how next gen consoles will influence PC games.

This is exactly what I thought when I read your specs.

Upgrading anything except your videocard on that system will give you very little return for your money.

Going to a 770 or 780 will double to triple your FPS. I wouldn't waste money on a 600 series if you want 2.5 yrs out of it. I would also get as much VRAM as you can afford. People with heavily modded skyrim are running out with only 2 GB. So while no vanilla games need it, it's not out of the realm of possibility it will in a year.

Upgrading to an i5 won't give much return gaming wise as games are heavily dependent on GPU. As least not enough of a return to justify the money spent on mb and CPU.

Going from 8 GB of ram to 16 of the same speed ram will see no benefit at all and even if you get faster ram the performance gain is negligible.

So I say get a good videocard ( don't worry if its more powerful than the rest of your components you'll still see a huge increase and can bring it too you next system) and wait for haswell-E platform in 2014. That will be the next real jump for intel with estimated 30-50% gains over current top of the line processors.
 
Ah, but is there ever a right time to upgrade? When the new architecture comes out it will be new, and thus overpriced. By the time prices have dropped, the next gen GFX cards will be around the corner again... It's an endless cycle ;)

But to comment on an earlier topic of discussion: Getting a solid state drive was the best thing I did for my current system. I have a small 128G one, just for the OS, a few core programs, and two/three favorite games that have long loadtimes or stream a lot of stuff from the HD (Witcher 2 and Gothic 3, currently) - all the rest is on a quality standard HD. But it makes such a difference for starting up and just responsiveness of core stuff, I just can't imagine going back. So maybe not for games specifically, but for general use SSD is something I really recommend.
 
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I bought i7 five years ago with 6gb of memory and it still runs everything with max settings with GTX680 (the only thing Ive updated). I think it might beat the new consoles even since the graphics card is better and the cpu is built for gaming unlike the jaguar cpu which is meant for casual web browsing instead of gaming.

If you update at the right time and put all money in you can get a computer that lasts atleast a generation.
 
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So I say get a good videocard ( don't worry if its more powerful than the rest of your components you'll still see a huge increase and can bring it too you next system) and wait for haswell-E platform in 2014. That will be the next real jump for intel with estimated 30-50% gains over current top of the line processors.

I am more and more leaning towards getting new video card than getting a new system now :) After all I get to spend less money and reuse the card on a system next year.

Do you guys know if GTX 460 and GTX 770 uses the same power connectors please?

Edit: looks like need different power connectors.
 
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Ah, but is there ever a right time to upgrade? When the new architecture comes out it will be new, and thus overpriced. By the time prices have dropped, the next gen GFX cards will be around the corner again… It's an endless cycle ;)

But to comment on an earlier topic of discussion: Getting a solid state drive was the best thing I did for my current system. I have a small 128G one, just for the OS, a few core programs, and two/three favorite games that have long loadtimes or stream a lot of stuff from the HD (Witcher 2 and Gothic 3, currently) - all the rest is on a quality standard HD. But it makes such a difference for starting up and just responsiveness of core stuff, I just can't imagine going back. So maybe not for games specifically, but for general use SSD is something I really recommend.

SSD makes a big difference. I don't normally play more than 2/3 games at a time so my 128GB SSD doesn't seem like a huge issue. If I get new game, I don't uninstall the previous one but just move the old game to different folder to free up space.
 
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16 GB won't make much of a difference unless you're running many programs at the same time. I thought because you said you're coding that this could be the case. Apart from that, RAM is so cheap nowadays ... "I already had my case open" sounds like a good enough reason to me.

The graphics card upgrade is definitely the way to go. Your current card is the bottle neck. Remove it and your PC will fly.
Beware of noise though. Choose your card carefully.
 
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Do you guys know if GTX 460 and GTX 770 uses the same power connectors please?

Edit: looks like need different power connectors.


It depends on the brand. Most of them use 1 six-pin connector and 1 eight-pin connector, but there are some brands that use 2 eight-pin connectors.

It probably won't be an issue though. Most of them ship with extra adapter-cables nowadays.
 
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So going for just the video card, eh? I bet GothicGothicness could spec you a system with a Titan and extra memory for £1200 now!

Honestly, the 460 is the only thing that looks a bit weak on your system. Even that shouldn't be too bad until the new console games come out or maybe some very-beta release of Star Citizen.
 
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@lostforever - I finally got around to running some benchmarks with the GTX 770. I only tested two games (I didn't have much time for comparison tests because I already had my GTX 470 sold on Ebay) but the results are fairly impressive.

In Tomb Raider @1920x1200 with all settings at maximum + TressFX. Using the built-in benchmark, my fps went from…

Min = 12.5
Max = 33.0
Ave = 23.4

to…

Min = 26.3
Max = 62.3
Ave = 47.7

In Metro 2033 @1920x1200 with everything maxed + Advanced PhysX, I went from around 23 fps to around 50 fps. (Used Fraps)

Considering that I haven't touched the rest of my system yet, I'm quite happy with those results. With the CPU and RAM you have, you should see a significantly larger increase if you were to upgrade your GTX 460 to a 770.

*Edit* I should probably add that I also had vsync enabled during those tests, otherwise the fps might have been considerably higher. I didn't see the point in disabling vsync for the benchmarks though because I always use it when gaming.
 
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