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upgrade or build new
Ok, so I'm thinking of building a setup for my son. Thing is I'm wondering if mine is worth upgrading, or passing it down to him and building new.
Currently I have
Asus Crosshair Formula IV
AMD 1090T
4gb gskill ram
ATI HD5970 video
120gb ssd
1tb WD black
Now, I'm always getting weird framerates in the games I play (FFXIV, TSW) and I keep reading that alot of games don't run crossfire well. Would I be better off switching my video card, is the rest of the system still up to snuff? If I build a new system for my kid, I'd like to stick under 800 all in. Thanks!
Comments
Seems more like SW issue as you should be running most things ok.
CrossFire, like SLI, is very dependent on video driver magic. AMD isn't going to focus primarily on keeping CrossFire working on cards that are nearly five years old; rather, their focus is on newer architectures and the cards that they want to sell you today. Nvidia is like that, too, for obvious reasons. So CrossFire on newer games will be very hit and miss--and often miss.
The other problem with your card is that, like most dual GPU cards, it's too much heat in too little space. The reference Radeon HD 5970 was very prone to overheating, as AMD didn't shell out for a great cooler like they did with the Radeon R9 295 X2. So there's a decent chance that the cause of your erratic frame rates is the card overheating. The alternative to throttling back clock speeds is being failure-prone like a Radeon HD 4870 X2 or GeForce GTX 590. That's curable by only using one of the GPUs, but then you paid for a 5970 and would be using it like a 5870.
Regardless, I'd say to build a new system and pass that one on. What's your budget?
I would get 4 more ram so you have 8 and then i would get a new gfx card..i just sold my 7950 ati card today.
Im not sure aboutthe cpu..i think it can do for now if u just get ram and better gfz card..then you can wait with a new mobo and cpu and u also might get a 1000 w psu for the todays gfx cards...ur Hdd is fine
Already have a 1000w psw.
What I'm thinking is building a budget system for the kid, giving him my ram and 5970, and buying 8gb for myself, and a new card. What should I get for a card right now in the 300 range?
OK, next questions. I'm going to build a somewhat budget setup for the boy. I want to go mITX form factor as he'll probably be bringing it here and there, so I'm looking at the coolermaster 130 elite case as it takes a standard PSU and my hd 5970 will stuff in there
What can I put in there for a decent budget mobo and cpu. Should I go AMD or intel? I've never run an intel computer before so I have no idea what to buy with them. I'm kinda lost with all the changes AMD made as well
Finally, what card should I get in the 300 (CDN) range to replace my hd 5790?
Thanks gang!
OH, BTW, I ran glarys and malbytes and spent some time cleaning all the crap my son had on my machine, and I'm back to pretty decent performance, so I'm not worried about anything actually being pooched on my computer, just after three years I guess its time to update a few things lol!
Intel pretty much installs just like AMD:
The CPU goes in the socket, the heat sink on top - that's about it.
You just need to make sure the socket type matches your CPU - that's not any different from AMD, it's just they are different socket types. And Intel commands a premium for all their stuff - you'll pay around an extra $25 for a similarly-equipped Intel board as you would an AMD board, and the CPUs are, well, you can look those up yourself.
For gaming rigs, I usually recommend against dual-core anything, so that pretty much kills the entire Intel Core i3 line. There was some buzz around the Pentium G3258 (basically a stripped down Core i3 with some nice overclocking), but your still stuck with dual core, which is hard to recommend today. Intel dual-cores benchmarks in today's games ok, but as soon as you go over something that needs more than two cores (which is becoming more and more common), you get really poor performance. As such, I usually recommend a Core i5 as the bottom Intel to look at, and the FX6300 the typical go-to AMD part (it is like $10 more than the 4-core 4300, 2 cores for $10 is a steal, and the only reason why I don't usually recommend the 4300).
Apart from that, all the rest of the components should work as you are used to. Installation-wise, it's no different at all.
Most people save around $125-150 on an AMD-build compared to an Intel build (FX-6300 is what I typically recommend with a discrete video card, as opposed to a Core i5). You can save a bit more going with an AMD APU - the CPU/motherboard are a touch more, but you save ~$100 by not needing a discrete GPU. Granted an APU won't perform nearly as well as a 5970 and probably won't fit your particular situation, but if your talking budget budget, I just thought I would throw it out there to complete the post.
I would recommend an i5.
It's more "futureproof" (lol) then an i3 and game performance when compared to AMD is worth the extra cost. AMD have a use in budget gaming rigs and have some other applications but I doubt a normal user will see a difference anywhere but games.
I have an 5970 and 2x5870 here. problem with the 5970 is that it allways runs in xfire, some games run faster when it off.
And thats verry hard to do unless u do some tricks.
And what os u have 32 or 64 bits.
4Gb is a little low.
ASRock B75M-ITX
i5-3570
R9 280X / GTX760
Upgraded my ram to 8gb, putting the 4gb in my sons build
Boy's Build
Cougar Spike MATX case
650w modular power supply
MSI h81m - p33 mobo
Intel G3258 haswell
4gb gskill pc 1600
Seagate Barracuda 1gb HDD
ATI HD5970 2gb vid card
Hyper 212 plus cooler
Sound good?
Question, any difference between wiindows 8.1 and 8.1 pro? I can get the pro alot cheaper at a student rate
thats your answer right there!
mmorpg junkie since 1999
Pro has some additional features that normal 8.1 doesn't have. Those additional features are more aimed at businesses, and likely you won't ever need them, but if can get 8.1 pro cheaper than 8.1 then go for it. You'll get everything that Windows 8.1 has plus some additional features.
Well guys, I figured I'd bump this to the top for all the helpful people who responded. I'm typing away on my sons new machine as we speak, just finished the install and updates. Its running great, and although I have no idea how to work my way around windows 8.1, I'm surviving.
His final setup:
Cougar Spike mATX tower
MSI H81m-p33 mobo
Intel G3258 processor
4gb gskill flare ddr 2000 ram
HD 5970 GPU
Seagate 1tb 64mb cache HDD
Hyper 212 evo cooler
It was a pain to cram all that into the little case, but looks badass and is cooling well. Everything is running as it should, and I ran the ffxiv benchmark, got a score of 8800 on max at 1920x1080. Haven't tried overclocking at all yet, can't figure out all the software that comes with the mobo and Bios. For now it runs fine, but apparently the g3258 overclocks decently on air, maybe I'll give it a try soon. Thanks for all the help!
On a side note, I was always under the inderstanding that xiv didn't play well with crossfire, and to run it in windowed mode. So I ran the benchmark both ways, and my score was near double running fullscreen in crossfire
Glad to hear it is all working out - congrats on the upgrade.
Tip for Windows 8.1:
http://www.classicshell.net/
See, I told you
Gratz on your new rig!