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Upgrade: SSD or GPU?

Currently I am using an overclocked version of the GTX 260. Supposedly it runs pretty close to the GTX 280 in benchmarks. I am upgrading my computer pretty soon, and was trying to decided wether to buy a 64GB SSD to put my OS and game or two on or to upgrade the graphics card.

Games I want to play with it are: Rift mainly (I really want this to look amazing and run smooth), Oblivion/skyrim when it releases, some fps games and that's all i can think of that's demanding.

Edit: Also to note, Quizzical told me before that upgrading the graphics card was not necessary right now because the new GPU generation will be out, but I don't know when.. Also I have heard mixed things about the GTX 260 I have. Some people say it will run rift maxed and others tell me I would need to get something better...so Idk.

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Comments

  • KabaalKabaal Member UncommonPosts: 3,042

    The 260 should max it out fine as although Rift is pretty its not as demanding as games like AoC. For gaming performance i'd upgrade the 260 before getting an SSD though as an SSD won't really make any difference once your in a game unless it has lots of loading screens.

  • drazzahdrazzah Member UncommonPosts: 437

    For sure, get a new graphic card first and then get the SSD. You will see way more gains with that, and depending on the rest of your PC, the GTX 260 will NOT run Rift at max settings. My OLD gaming rig has GTS 460 SLi (2 of them) and that ran Rift pretty much Max Settings (not full shadows) and i was around 45+ FPS. 

     

    I would recommend you look into ATI/AMD Cards. They relatively have better bench marks and are cheaper. 

     

    Use http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188 and check out your benchmarks for the GTX 260 VS another card.

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  • KhrymsonKhrymson Member UncommonPosts: 3,090

    Originally posted by Nunez1212

     

    Edit: Also to note, Quizzical told me before that upgrading the graphics card was not necessary right now because the new GPU generation will be out, but I don't know when.. Also I have heard mixed things about the GTX 260 I have. Some people say it will run rift maxed and others tell me I would need to get something better...so Idk.

     

    Well, the new AMD GPUs are 'rumored' to release in the next month or two{but there is no hard evidence to suggest they will}, and nVidias' new GPUs won't release until Spring 2012 at the earliest.  And when they do, they'll be releasing the higher end and most expensive versions first.  So it could still be several months or next year before even the new AMD cards are affordable, and probably not until fall 2012 with nVidia

     

    I'd suggest you get a good GPU that will run the games you want to play on high/max now{and the near future}, rather than later.  PC hardware is always changing so get what you can afford now and worry about upgrading again in a yr or two.  With a GTX 570 or GTX 580, you'll be fine for the next 2-3yrs easily.  Most games have become more about accessibilty rather than an attempt to drop the best PCs to their knees.

     

    And no the 260 will not play Rift on max, or at least not decently, you're fps would be in the low teens.  I've got a GTX 580 and with Rift on max I get about 44-56fps @1600*1200.  You could with anything from the 560Ti and up though...

  • See this is what I mean. One person tells me it will easily max it and other tells me it will definitely not. I don't know who to believe. Also, I have heard that ssd's do wonders with mmo's and games that are very open world such as oblivion. So where are you both getting your information from? The rest of my system will be plenty enough to run it max, except maybe the gpu.

  • KhrymsonKhrymson Member UncommonPosts: 3,090

    Well, I'm basing what I've said on personal experience.  My previous GPU was the GTX 275 and I did play Rift with it and when I attempted to max it out, the best FPS I could get was about 14-21fps @1600*1200.  Course this was with "supersampling AA" on, and if I turned AA off entirely I could get about 31-35fps.

  • KabaalKabaal Member UncommonPosts: 3,042

    On the 2 PC's currently in our house it maxes out on a GTX460 @ 1920x1080 at 40-60 fps and on the other with an old HD4850 @ 1600 x 1200 it can run at almost maxed but with fps around 20-30, a 260 is a bit better than the 4850. Not sure why you're getting lower fps on a better GPU Khrimson unless the rest of your system is a bit older or clocked lower.

    SSD's really don't do wonders for MMO's, the only difference mine has made is for start up speed, zone loading in an out of instances etc. Performance when playing has been the same as when playing with my old mechanical Seagate.

  • drazzahdrazzah Member UncommonPosts: 437

    Trust us, a GTX 280 is a $99 Graphic Card. If a $99 Graphic Card ran Rift at Max settings fine... EVERYONE would be going out and getting one and there would be no reason for the high ends. A GTX 280 will and does not run any new game at max settings with a high resolution, just not going to happen.

     

    If you can spend about $150-$200 for a graphic card right now, I would. And youd be able to run Rift on max settings.

     

     

    And SSDs dont increase performance, but it will load things faster. Def get a GPU before a SSD

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  • KhrymsonKhrymson Member UncommonPosts: 3,090

    Are you playing with Supersampling AA on?  If I turn that off with the 580, it ramps up to over 100fps...  

     

    EDIT: Oh and I have an i7 875K 2.93ghz.  Plenty of power under the hood to handle the 580, though I would like to get a Sandy Bridge or the next CPU sometime next year.

  • KabaalKabaal Member UncommonPosts: 3,042

    On the 460 yeah but not with the 4850, it would probably fry it.

    Edit, could be the CPU difference then. The 460 is paired with an i5 2500k @ 4.8ghz atm.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    The reason I suggested holding off on a video card upgrade is that you were looking at getting a processor and video card only maybe 50% better than what you have.  That's not enough to justify an upgrade unless you've got an enormous budget and get the latest and greatest as soon as it launches.

    On your budget constraints, I thought it made sense to go for a bigger upgrade of one, while not upgrading the other at all until later.  With a broken motherboard and very little memory capacity or bandwidth, you desperately need to fix that.

    For a video card, you should note that there is an enormous difference in frame rates (but not necessarily in image quality!) between high graphical settings and max settings.  A GeForce GTX 260 can run Rift at pretty high settings without any problems.  In some games, you'll have to pick a few computationally intensive things to turn down or off, such as the SSAA that Khrymson mentioned.  Using SSAA rather than MSAA can basically cut your frame rate in half all by itself.  But you can live with running things at high but not max settings.

    On your processor, some games won't run smoothly even at low graphical settings.  That's a much bigger problem than merely having to run some games at high but not max settings.  That's why the processor/motherboard/memory upgrade is so much higher priority.  If you have to choose a processor upgrade or a video card upgrade in your current situation, you should go with the processor upgrade.

    If your budget is big enough to fit an SSD or GPU upgrade, then maybe you should just get a bigger processor/motherboard/memory upgrade instead.  If you can get a Core i5 2500 and a good P67 motherboard and 8 GB of DDR3 memory (that's about $400 for these items) and still have $200 left over for an SSD or video card upgrade, then go ahead.  But your initial stated budget didn't leave room for that.

    Also note that if you replace the motherboard, you may need a new Windows license, as well.  That eats about $100 of your budget, too.

  • Ok so here are the specs I was going to be getting along with possibly a new gpu:

    Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz Quad Core

    8GB DDR3 

    Corsair PSU 650w 

    So what would be a good graphics card to add to that, which will not kill my budget and will max rift.

  • To Quizzical: So you think that if I could spare more money in the first place then I should just get a better motherboard/cpu instead of upgrading the gpu or getting and ssd? Why would I do that exactly? I'm just confused because everyone told me that the combo you suggested would not have any issues with games for years so why would going further make any difference when the gpu/ssd would actually make one.

  • joeri123joeri123 Member UncommonPosts: 247

    About SSD's

    ---------------------

    I have an SSD and tried to put mmo's on it. They do reduce start up time and loading times between zones. I was often BG leader in wow because it loaded so fast. In-game no big diffrence, only slightly but not worth it for that purpose.

    I recommend a raptor hard drive (Those 10k RPM ones) for your games and an SSD for you OS. SSD's work wonders when you put the OS on it. Lightning fast start ups and close downs

    My set up is like this.

    SSD: OS, drivers and MS office (I use it a lot)

    Normal 1 TB HD: big static files, music, games (the install exes), etc..

    Raptor 600 GB HD: All my installed games, nothing else. Keep it defragged and it will work as closely to an SSD as you can get while having way more GB's for your buck.

     

    About the GPU

    --------------------

    I think the diffrence between people with your GPU will probably be a diffrent CPU. A lot of people think they need better graphic cards while often their CPU is the bottleneck (worst part).

  • joeri123joeri123 Member UncommonPosts: 247

    Originally posted by Nunez1212

    Ok so here are the specs I was going to be getting along with possibly a new gpu:

    Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz Quad Core

    8GB DDR3 

    Corsair PSU 650w 

    So what would be a good graphics card to add to that, which will not kill my budget and will max rift.

    4 GB RAM for gaming if more than enough. I have tried  8 GB before it doesn't make a diffrence. I max crysis2 and the highest load I'm getting is 3.8 GB. I guess you could go with 6 GB  but more is really overkill if you look at gaming.

    For a GPU I recommend the AMD 6950 (It's flashable to work like a 6970 easily with a quick google search)

  • KhrymsonKhrymson Member UncommonPosts: 3,090

    Ok, well I didn't know you had such an old CPU.  You really should upgrade that along with your MB first, otherwise a new GPU would only perform as well as your CPU would allow, thus not giving you the performace you desire.   If after you upgrade and can afford a better GPU, then I'd suggest at least a GTX 560Ti.

  • drazzahdrazzah Member UncommonPosts: 437

    I would get the 6950 over the GTX 560 Ti, mostly because you can flash the 6950 (Like i did) and unlock the shaders to equal a 6970.

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  • So are you saying that I would get more of a performance boost in games if I upgrade my cpu to an i5 2500 and keeping the 260 instead of getting the phenom II X4 3.2 Quad core and getting a better GPU?

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657

    Originally posted by joeri123

    Originally posted by Nunez1212

    Ok so here are the specs I was going to be getting along with possibly a new gpu:

    Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz Quad Core

    8GB DDR3 

    Corsair PSU 650w 

    So what would be a good graphics card to add to that, which will not kill my budget and will max rift.

    4 GB RAM for gaming if more than enough. I have tried  8 GB before it doesn't make a diffrence. I max crysis2 and the highest load I'm getting is 3.8 GB. I guess you could go with 6 GB  but more is really overkill if you look at gaming.

    For a GPU I recommend the AMD 6950 (It's flashable to work like a 6970 easily with a quick google search)

    If you are using a 32 bit operating system version the maximum RAM that will be assigned to any application/process is 2GB. A 64 bit OS will increase that maximum significantly but that also means the application must be programmed to be able to use more RAM.

    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • drazzahdrazzah Member UncommonPosts: 437

    Originally posted by Nunez1212

    So are you saying that I would get more of a performance boost in games if I upgrade my cpu to an i5 2500 and keeping the 260 instead of getting the phenom II X4 3.2 Quad core and getting a better GPU?

     

    If you mostly game, the Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz & New GPU will be better than just upgrading your CPU, but remember if you arent buying a new MoBo, you cant just put any CPU into your existing MoBo. Do you know what base your mobo is right now? (AMD or Intel?) and do you know what type of socket it is?

     

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  • joeri123joeri123 Member UncommonPosts: 247

    Also a nice tip when buying RAM. Check wich type the mother board supports.

    Double channel means you need two slots filled, triple three etc.

    I made a mistake few years back when I was still a noob and bought triple channel for my double channel mobo. Plugged in the three and didn't work. Ofc I could just use two of the three but you waist money for other parts :)

  • miagisanmiagisan Member Posts: 5,156

    i have a GTX 280, phenom II x4 965, 8 gbs ram - gskill ripjaws (8-8-8-24), and asrock extreme3 mobo *almost exactly your setup* and i can run most games on max (tor, eve, lotro, etc - sorry never played rift) and lowest i ever get is about 40 fps....even with AA on....so not sure whats up.  Single player games like bad company 2, mass effect 2. oblivion (heavily modded), bioshock 2 (the current single player games i am playing) all on max, everything cranked...never falls below 60 fps.

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  • DraemosDraemos Member UncommonPosts: 1,521

    For game performance, upgrade your GPU.  While Rift will probably not see a huge improvement (because its not that demanding)... Skyrim will.

    For overall system performance, upgrade your SSD.  An SSD is probably the biggest "difference maker" when it comes to OS performance and application loading.  Unfortunately they aren't particularly useful for gaming, outside of loading times.


  • Originally posted by drazzah

    Originally posted by Nunez1212

    So are you saying that I would get more of a performance boost in games if I upgrade my cpu to an i5 2500 and keeping the 260 instead of getting the phenom II X4 3.2 Quad core and getting a better GPU?

     

    If you mostly game, the Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz & New GPU will be better than just upgrading your CPU, but remember if you arent buying a new MoBo, you cant just put any CPU into your existing MoBo. Do you know what base your mobo is right now? (AMD or Intel?) and do you know what type of socket it is?

     

    I mostly game. I do a lot of other things also, but nothing requiring anything very fast...just basic things. Quizzical recommended a combo awhile ago and I know they are compatible.


  • Originally posted by miagisan

    i have a GTX 280, phenom II x4 965, 8 gbs ram - gskill ripjaws (8-8-8-24), and asrock extreme3 mobo *almost exactly your setup* and i can run most games on max (tor, eve, lotro, etc - sorry never played rift) and lowest i ever get is about 40 fps....even with AA on....so not sure whats up.  Single player games like bad company 2, mass effect 2. oblivion (heavily modded), bioshock 2 (the current single player games i am playing) all on max, everything cranked...never falls below 60 fps.

    See, this is the kind of thing that confuses me. That is prety much my exact setup and everyone else is saying it won't max anything like that...but you have the setup and are telling me it works great so what the heck...

  • drazzahdrazzah Member UncommonPosts: 437

    Originally posted by Nunez1212

    Originally posted by drazzah


    Originally posted by Nunez1212

    So are you saying that I would get more of a performance boost in games if I upgrade my cpu to an i5 2500 and keeping the 260 instead of getting the phenom II X4 3.2 Quad core and getting a better GPU?

     

    If you mostly game, the Phenom II X4 3.2Ghz & New GPU will be better than just upgrading your CPU, but remember if you arent buying a new MoBo, you cant just put any CPU into your existing MoBo. Do you know what base your mobo is right now? (AMD or Intel?) and do you know what type of socket it is?

     

    I mostly game. I do a lot of other things also, but nothing requiring anything very fast...just basic things. Quizzical recommended a combo awhile ago and I know they are compatible.

     

    Well make sure, because depending on your mobo you cant just put in any Intel or AMD. its one or the other.

    Rift "can" be a very demanding game if you run full settings, Rift has some of the nicest and smoothest graphics ive seen compared to a lot of games out at the moment. I would go with the AMD & GPU combo IF your mobo is the right socket.

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