How much of a bottleneck is the R9 270 on an i5 6600k?
Im currently waiting for pascal so when building my new PC I just used my old card, but im noticing pretty much a negligible increase in fps in the games Ive tried so far(wolfenstein and Elite: Dangerous). My old CPU was an FX8320
How much of a bottleneck is the R9 270 on an i5 6600k?
Im currently waiting for pascal so when building my new PC I just used my old card, but im noticing pretty much a negligible increase in fps in the games Ive tried so far(wolfenstein and Elite: Dangerous). My old CPU was an FX8320
The 270 being a 2gb card is going to be an issue. Both games are probably more heavily gpu bound than cpu bound. You probably won't see a huge difference until you snag a gpu with higher than 4gb+ of memory.
Are there any decent build guides that include the addition of cable cards for a HTPC setup? We're also looking to be able to access the content on the HTPC while out of the country.
I'm looking at choosing between a 980 or a R9 Fury (not the X model). Both are currently in a good sale position, could get the 980 for 500 € or the Fury for 480 €. I'm running at 2560 x 1440.
Unsure which to pick, the Fury generally provides better performance and DX12 titles especially ought to run better on those. Furthermore I'm working with UE4 and a Rift too, so I'm definitely in a position to improve power for VR. What's making the choice hard here is the question of holdover until I upgrade to the next card - that might be in 6 months, might be in more than a year, I can't say right now. This'll be the deciding factor - if by any chance I can't manage an upgrade for a longer time, I'd prefer the card I'll get more mileage out of within the next 2 years.
I do however wanna get a new one interim, so... historically I've always been on Nvidia, but what's your opinion here? Leaning towards the Fury here, to be honest.
Or I could cheap out and spring for a 970 at 330-370 €, but I'm afraid it won't really get me anywhere far in regards to UE4 + Rift development.
Even as someone who has a Fury non-X myself, and am happy with the peformance, I generally recommend against all cards in that price bracket with some exceptions. Budgeting more for a GTX 980 Ti or less for a Radeon 390 are both better a value for your dollar. So I'd recommend one of those two things, and the 390 over the 970 for a 1440p user since that is where it tends to show a lead. Especially if you think your next upgrade range could be relatively close, then using the extra cash you save by going 390 toward a Polaris or Pascal in 2017 might be your best bet.
A 970 as a stop gap card wouldn't be a bad idea. You can generally get them for $300 consistenly. Supposedly the 1080 is launching at the end of May. Really depends on what resolution/fps goals are. 980 Ti's are easily bought at $600 new and I'm pretty sure I saw one in the BST thread for $550 shipped.
I actually sold my 980 Ti to get a 970 to wait. I would have upgraded either way, because I like new shiny stuff, but I figured I would take less of a resell hit this way. The 970 does really well at 1080/60 pretty much maxing out new games. Recently using it on The Division and it performs extremely well close to max.
Well I personally think spending $300 on a 970 right now might not be worth it, if I am to buy a 1080 in about 3-4 months. I'd rather save that money and just use my 780 and settle for like 30% lower performance. Plus a better CPU and RAM will most certainly increase performance for me even with a 780 since I am still rocking first gen i7.
My goals are 1080P/60FPS since I don't have a better monitor (will get a superior one later this year), but I will be happy with 30FPS or so for the time being until 1080 comes out. Would you recommend waiting for the Ti version of 1080 or just go for the non Ti when it comes out?
Thanks again, Joka! You replied in my actual thread, too, and I've been looking at your suggestions heavily. Great help!
Thanks so much for the welcome and reply! Really great info here and I just have a couple of questions! People have been saying I should get a K card and a Z board to both overclock and increase ram past 2133. Do you think I should do this? I was looking at the i5 4690-K, but couldn't find a compatible motherboard on pcpartpicker.
Thanks for the info on office, I was really confused about that! Good to hear I can just get the normal version still.
With the 1TB HDD should I be worried the SSD is small? 120GB seems tiny, but we still have that 1TB there right? I was also going with G.Skill for memory because it seemed cheaper - is there anything wrong with G.Skill over your selected Kingston? I was also opting for a single 8GB because I heard it's better than splitting into 2 4GB, any truth to this?
Finally, I decided on the XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($203 on Newegg), but to your point, some people said some games have Nvidia specific options. Do you recommend the 960 over the XFX 380? I'm hoping to play the latest games on high/ultra (cliche I know, but that's the goal).
Going the K CPU and Z board is a good idea imo. Unless you literally don't want anything to do with overclocking, which again imo is probably not the right thing unless you have a special purpose build.
You can play with the i5 6500 and Z170 board and DDR4 2666mhz CAS 15.
Or
i5 4690K, Z97 board and 1866 DDR3 CAS 10 RAM.
That's all going to push the price up a fair bit though.
2x4 ram is better as it'll run dual channel, the advertised speeds are Dual Channel. So a 1x8gb 1600mhz is in fact just 800mhz. And recently we see ram speeds make a difference so it's better to go dal channel with 2 ram modules.
128GB SSD is ok, Windows is like 20GB, you can run your favourite game or two off the SSD and the rest can run off the HDD. The drive is only making the game load faster, it won't impact fps.
On the AMD vs Nvidia, depends how important those propietry features are to you. I've given up and just buy Nvidia as is has more features plus lower power consumption which is important to me for a small build PC.
But in a budget situation I would look for bang for buck. If AMD is offering more fps on average at your price point then get AMD, that's all it comes to.
G skill, Kingston, crucial, corsair are all good ram brands.
Well I personally think spending $300 on a 970 right now might not be worth it, if I am to buy a 1080 in about 3-4 months. I'd rather save that money and just use my 780 and settle for like 30% lower performance. Plus a better CPU and RAM will most certainly increase performance for me even with a 780 since I am still rocking first gen i7.
My goals are 1080P/60FPS since I don't have a better monitor (will get a superior one later this year), but I will be happy with 30FPS or so for the time being until 1080 comes out. Would you recommend waiting for the Ti version of 1080 or just go for the non Ti when it comes out?
I must've missed where you said you had a 780. In that case, definitely just use that and wait.
At this time, I couldn't say. It would be easier to make that decision once we see legit numbers from Pascal and you can decide whether they are good enough, because the Ti will most certainly be better.
Even as someone who has a Fury non-X myself, and am happy with the peformance, I generally recommend against all cards in that price bracket with some exceptions. Budgeting more for a GTX 980 Ti or less for a Radeon 390 are both better a value for your dollar. So I'd recommend one of those two things, and the 390 over the 970 for a 1440p user since that is where it tends to show a lead. Especially if you think your next upgrade range could be relatively close, then using the extra cash you save by going 390 toward a Polaris or Pascal in 2017 might be your best bet.
Hmm, that sounds reasonable enough, given a 970 doesn't really cut it at 1440p and a 980 is sorta iffy in terms of value per buck. To my chagrin I've had to realize I can't fit 390 cards - lacking about half an inch to make it, and while I could take out the offending bits in the tower, I'd have 2 drives I can't really stick anywhere else. Gonna have to think on that.
So micro-ATX is the smallest form factor that can still support up to 32GB of RAM right? Compared to standard ATX what are you losing out on and is there a difference when building a PC (vs one with a standard atx board) or is the physical motherboard size the only actual difference?
Hmm, that sounds reasonable enough, given a 970 doesn't really cut it at 1440p and a 980 is sorta iffy in terms of value per buck. To my chagrin I've had to realize I can't fit 390 cards - lacking about half an inch to make it, and while I could take out the offending bits in the tower, I'd have 2 drives I can't really stick anywhere else. Gonna have to think on that.
So Hello PC-GAF, having an issue and would like input/suggestions Please. Here's my setup:
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair AM2+ mobo on (Genie 1402 BIOS mod v3)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0GHz Stock
GPU: ASUS GTX 770 DCU2 1050/4000 core/mem OC
RAM: 2x 4GB DDR2-800
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750G2
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64
DRIVERS: Latest as of 3/14/2016 with GeForce Experience
Been having an issue with my PC just straight up shutting off right when I boot a game (No BSOD, no freeze, no audio loop), like the instant the game window loads up (happens about 75% of the time) and it happens with different games at different times. I'm left constantly rebooting my PC to retry again and again (sometimes a dozen times) before it'll boot the game up normally. Sometimes my buddies come over to play a local co-op game and I'm stuck there rebooting again and again, it sucks... sucks even when I just want to play a game myself. This used to happen randomly way back in the day when I had my original 8 year-old PSU before I got the new one, but its started happening recently and more frequently, and only during game bootups.
This motherboard was released in 2006, I bought it almost 10 years ago on 09/18/2006... It's lived a long life so I'm not against a completely new build. And I have upgraded everything else in the build except for the Motherboard and the Case (old Coolermaster CM Stacker 830) but what could I do to troubleshoot this issue before I do anything rash? My PC is plugged into a Surge Protector and at idle my CPU/GPU are at 46/47c, topping out at 60/80c at full load. I take apart my PC and dust it and reapply the CPU's thermal paste every year.
What could be causing this? Could it be voltage fluctuations, could my caps be going bad on my motherboard? Should I just backup my files and reinstall Windows 7? (haven't reinstalled windows in 3 years) Please help me out PC-GAF, I'm pulling my hair out over here and I'm scared a large chunk of my tax return will have to go to for a new build and transplant my 770 into it while I wait for the Pascal 1070.
So I overclocked my i5 2500k from 4.5 GHz (which it has been at for years) to 4.6GHz. I also overclocked my EVGA SC GTX 980 using precision X using the following settings:
power target - 124%
GPU temp target - 84%
GPU clock offset - 133%
Mem clock offset - +0
I then ran 3DMARK Firestrike which went through perfectly and there was no artifacting.
The problem is, every now and again, a game will go to an orange screen and hard lock the PC. I reverted all overclock settings and the games work fine. My question is, do you believe it to be more of a GPU overclock issue or the CPU OC? If it's the GPU overclock, any recommendations on what I should lower the above settings to?
So micro-ATX is the smallest form factor that can still support up to 32GB of RAM right? Compared to standard ATX what are you losing out on and is there a difference when building a PC (vs one with a standard atx board) or is the physical motherboard size the only actual difference?
UPDATE: In my BIOS I changed CPU fan speed from standard to silent and now its sitting at 866 RPM. Is it ok to put it on silent when overclocking to 4.5 and gaming?
So, I've been pining after building a new PC. I'm a video/motion graphics professional, and I have a website/podcast that I run on the side. I don't need a massively beefy PC at home, but I plan on doing the occasional freelance work and streaming. I'm trying to keep my budget low. At most, I plan on playing some new games, but my current PC is a 2007 Mac Pro that I've strung along as far as I can.
So my main needs are middling gaming, streaming, video editing, and 3D rendering.
How does this build look? I've had some friends that have helped me out with keeping the cost low whilst choosing decent components.
for a modular unit could you technically just unplug your wires from your existing psu and then just plug them back into the new psu? without opening all the wires compartments and unplugging every component?
also do you usually need to order wires with modular or do they come in the box but just not attached... semi - modular same question but obviously it has some attached which could be a pain...
or am i off base and its recommended to replace wires anyway - my pc is new.
Is it possible to only upgrade your video card and still have good performance. I bought a prebuilt of a couple years ago that has an amd 6300 paired with a r9 280 but I have finally hit the point where I can't run newer games at max settings. I can get a new card, will I have to upgrade both?
for a modular unit could you technically just unplug your wires from your existing psu and then just plug them back into the new psu? without opening all the wires compartments and unplugging every component?
also do you usually need to order wires with modular or do they come in the box but just not attached... semi - modular same question but obviously it has some attached which could be a pain...
or am i off base and its recommended to replace wires anyway - my pc is new.
It's usually difficult to say if modular cables can be used between different power supplies. Even models from the same brand aren't foolproof, as some brands do not manufacture their own power supplies and order them from another OEM company instead. Modular power supplies will always come with all the cables they can support. You will never need to buy new cables unless you lose some or they get damaged.
Is there a reason why you don't want to replace the existing cables? Don't feel like undoing the cables that have already been tied up? What brand and model of power supply do you have?
Is it possible to only upgrade your video card and still have good performance. I bought a prebuilt of a couple years ago that has an amd 6300 paired with a r9 280 but I have finally hit the point where I can't run newer games at max settings. I can get a new card, will I have to upgrade both?
Depends on the game. Some/most games don't require a lot of CPU power and will benefit more from a better graphics card than a better processor. You are not required to upgrade more than one part unless it's incompatible (e.g., new processors usually require newer motherboards) or if your PC is just not good enough overall to run the game.
How much of a bottleneck is the R9 270 on an i5 6600k?
Im currently waiting for pascal so when building my new PC I just used my old card, but im noticing pretty much a negligible increase in fps in the games Ive tried so far(wolfenstein and Elite: Dangerous). My old CPU was an FX8320
It's usually difficult to say if modular cables can be used between different power supplies. Even models from the same brand aren't foolproof, as some brands do not manufacture their own power supplies and order them from another OEM company instead. Modular power supplies will always come with all the cables they can support. You will never need to buy new cables unless you lose some or they get damaged.
Is there a reason why you don't want to replace the existing cables? Don't feel like undoing the cables that have already been tied up? What brand and model of power supply do you have?
Ah just nervous to do it first time is all but of course I wasn't thinking when I posted that the current p.o.s isn't modular anyway so I'm set to do it anyway... the current one is a pre-built junker. Do you just take pics first or is it similar to everything else pretty much only one cable fits into each dock lol . You gotta learn sometime
Looking at ordering this week. I only have a 280x graphics card at the moment so won't get gsync or 100hz until I upgrade with pascal, but my current monitors are dead and i want ultra wide.
I'd really like to keep this computer for a long time and focus on upgrading and what not. With that in mind, I edited Arbok's parts list and tried to swap in a Z board with a K card and it starts to get out of affordable range (unless I'm doing it wrong). When I put the compatibility feature on pcpartspicker, no motherboards seem to be compatible with i5-4690K.
Is not pushing past 2133 mhz notably inferior in any regard? I'm thinking I just stick with Arbok's setup since opting for a Z+K combo pushes the price up significantly.
Yeah it's probably a good idea to for Arbok to share his advice. It's always good weight your options and get all information so you can make the best decision for your money.
Besides I'm sure it's always good to have a second option to share information, and become more knowledgeable and make the best call to wind up something that makes you happy.
That is the most important thing, to get something that works for you and you are ultimately pleased with the end result.
Sorry for the late reply, it seems most of your questions have been answered already by OmegaDL50, LilJoka and others. I don't have too much to add on the technical side of things but would like to toss up a few options for your consideration.
Option 1 - This would be the ~$600 build I mentioned previously, with an i5-6500, GTX960/R9 380. This is a pretty nice build that would play most of the games well at 1080p/30fps at medium to high settings. This would be more what I would call a mid-tier build so its not going to play the latest games at 1080p at high/ultra settings. The CPU runs up to 3.6Ghz (base 3.2ghz) and is still a much better CPU than the one in the PS4/XboxOne so it should at least last till the end of the generation for most games. You could buy a better graphics card to this build a year or two down the line and give your computer a boost.
Option 2 - If you want your PC to last a little bit longer, consider a build with overclocking. You'll have to get a 'Z' motherboard and a 'K' CPU plus a new cooler for overclocking. However this will run you maybe $100-150 more than Option 1. In terms of performance, you could overclock an i5-6600k to around 4.5ghz. In real world terms you won't get 20% extra performance, but it will help in relieving any bottlenecks and give better performance in CPU hungry games. Then again at this budget range, you'll get much better performance gains if you were to put the $100-150 towards a better graphics card like a GTX970 which will get you close to 1080p/60fps high/ultra settings for many games.
As for Haswell vs Skylake, id go for Skylake for future CPU/ram compatibility. They are already starting to phase Haswell out plus its using the old DDR3 ram as well. Even though you can't overclock the CPU in the first option, you could always add a new CPU or more sticks of DDR4 ram later without having to change your motherboard. I'd only go Haswell now if its a deal that could not be passed up.
Also if you're thinking of adding more RAM later you could always use 1 stick of 8gb Ram now but you'll need to buy the same RAM later. RAM works better when there's 2 sticks in dual channel mode.
It sounds like a lot of decisions to make, but that's the nice thing about PCs, there's a lot of choice!
EDIT: And one more thing, there's a rumour Nvidia will reveal something at GDC and possibly a pascal release (their new graphics card) in the next couple of months so take that into your consideration as well.
Sorry for the late reply, it seems most of your questions have been answered already by OmegaDL50, LilJoka and others. I don't have too much to add on the technical side of things but would like to toss up a few options for your consideration.
Option 1 - This would be the ~$600 build I mentioned previously, with an i5-6500, GTX960/R9 380. This is a pretty nice build that would play most of the games well at 1080p/30fps at medium to high settings. This would be more what I would call a mid-tier build so its not going to play the latest games at 1080p at high/ultra settings. The CPU runs up to 3.6Ghz (base 3.2ghz) and is still a much better CPU than the one in the PS4/XboxOne so it should at least last till the end of the generation for most games. You could buy a better graphics card to this build a year or two down the line and give your computer a boost.
Option 2 - If you want your PC to last a little bit longer, consider a build with overclocking. You'll have to get a 'Z' motherboard and a 'K' CPU plus a new cooler for overclocking. However this will run you maybe $100-150 more than Option 1. In terms of performance, you could overclock an i5-6600k to around 4.5ghz. In real world terms you won't get 20% extra performance, but it will help in relieving any bottlenecks and give better performance in CPU hungry games. Then again at this budget range, you'll get much better performance gains if you were to put the $100-150 towards a better graphics card like a GTX970 which will get you close to 1080p/60fps high/ultra settings for many games.
As for Haswell vs Skylake, id go for Skylake for future CPU/ram compatibility. They are already starting to phase Haswell out plus its using the old DDR3 ram as well. Even though you can't overclock the CPU in the first option, you could always add a new CPU or more sticks of DDR4 ram later without having to change your motherboard. I'd only go Haswell now if its a deal that could not be passed up.
Also if you're thinking of adding more RAM later you could always use 1 stick of 8gb Ram now but you'll need to buy the same RAM later. RAM works better when there's 2 sticks in dual channel mode.
It sounds like a lot of decisions to make, but that's the nice thing about PCs, there's a lot of choice!
EDIT: And one more thing, there's a rumour Nvidia will reveal something at GDC and possibly a pascal release (their new graphics card) in the next couple of months so take that into your consideration as well.
Picking up my new pc parts tomorrow. Went with a i7 6700k since I have the cash. Microcenter sold it to me for $314 because of Pi day.
I'm upgrading from a fx 6300 @4Ghz paired with a overclocked 7950. The 7950 is staying for now until I can save up some more cash on a new gpu in the future.
Someone tell me this will be worth it? How big of a increase am I going to see here? Had a friend say not to do the upgrade, it won't be worth it, another told me to only get the i5 6600k since it will perform almost the same at 1080p. I don't plan on building a new pc for a long time, so I chose the more powerful one, since it was only $100 more.
It's not exactly user friendly, seeing as temperatures can't be monitored and it's not quite as easy to overclock with just the base clock. I'd actually recommend it more for people who already know how to overclock, but it's not as if it's too hard for people who don't know anything about overclocking to do it.
Ah just nervous to do it first time is all but of course I wasn't thinking when I posted that the current p.o.s isn't modular anyway so I'm set to do it anyway... the current one is a pre-built junker. Do you just take pics first or is it similar to everything else pretty much only one cable fits into each dock lol . You gotta learn sometime
Oh right, I spoke to you before about you wanting to upgrade the graphics card. What sort of prebuilt PC do you have? You also said it was new? If you're worried, there's nothing wrong with taking pictures first, but most cables are designed to only fit where they're supposed to go, although it's not impossible to plug something into the wrong spot if you apply too much force.
So, I've been pining after building a new PC. I'm a video/motion graphics professional, and I have a website/podcast that I run on the side. I don't need a massively beefy PC at home, but I plan on doing the occasional freelance work and streaming. I'm trying to keep my budget low. At most, I plan on playing some new games, but my current PC is a 2007 Mac Pro that I've strung along as far as I can.
So my main needs are middling gaming, streaming, video editing, and 3D rendering.
How does this build look? I've had some friends that have helped me out with keeping the cost low whilst choosing decent components.
I wouldn't recommend AMD FX processors, they're a couple years old now and already on a dead platform. The usual consensus is to go with Intel for better support for newer features. Here's what I recommend:
This build should offer stronger performance all around, except for video editing and 3D rendering which take a bit longer. I think gaming performance and framerate be higher and smoother is more important than having your video and 3D model rendering finish faster, though. It supports USB 3.1 and USB type C. A CPU cooler isn't needed because a basic one already comes with the processor and the i5 processor runs cooler than the FX-8350, but you could still add the 212 Evo CPU cooler to that list for less noise while running and it'll still cost less in total compared to the AMD FX based parts list.
What GPU will be pushing them? Will take more grunt for 21:9 screens.
That said, I have a 29inch 21:9 and wouldn't go back. A 25inch 21:9 is equivalent vertically to a 20inch 16:9. So bear that in mind. On the up-side you'd have better pixel density.
Yes you're right, I should have mentioned it in my post. There are a few differences though in method of overclocking but its doable and there's a bit of money to be saved from buying a non-K CPU. The Z170 motherboard is a lot more expensive than the H110 motherboard I selected in Interrobang's build and he was on a tight budget.
ASRock also apparently put out new H170/B150 motherboards that can overclock non-k CPUs. Link
Perhaps someone here can recommend a motherboard to buy?
I must've missed where you said you had a 780. In that case, definitely just use that and wait.
At this time, I couldn't say. It would be easier to make that decision once we see legit numbers from Pascal and you can decide whether they are good enough, because the Ti will most certainly be better.
Is it possible for me to build an HTPC or a Mini ITX for a high end rig like with a 980Ti ?
I assume SLI is out of question due to heating concerns, but even a single card would be enough.
Also I am thinking of buying either MSI Gaming M5 or Gaming M7 due to them being future proof and really cheap. I don't really know what the M7 offers over M5,someone once said it's M.2 support but M5 already has that no?
If you don't get signal trying other methods, plug back your old GPU and update the BIOS, seems like there is lots of updates for your motherboard so could help the issue, though I'm not sure if BIOS can be the culprit here.
Make sure all cables are properly seated and maybe if you have another computer to try it on, could rule out faulty GPU.
What GPU will be pushing them? Will take more grunt for 21:9 screens.
That said, I have a 29inch 21:9 and wouldn't go back. A 25inch 21:9 is equivalent vertically to a 20inch 16:9. So bear that in mind. On the up-side you'd have better pixel density.
My 290X is seeing it's boundaries with a single ultrawide 2560X1080 monitor on new games. With two 21:9 2560X1080 monitors you'll be pushing a few more pixels(over 5.5M) than 3440X1440(4.95M).
2X 1920X1080 is a bit over 4.1M pixels.
That all may not seem like much, but I saw a noticeable performance drop going from a single 1920X1080 (~2.07M) to a 2560X1080 (~2.76M)
A little help with thermal paste as I am building my first gaming PC in a while. I have an Intel i7 6700 CPU and compatible Z170 motherboard. I purchased a heatsink that would fit my case as well as some arctic silver thermal paste.
When the heat sync arrived, it already had a square of thermal past applied to the bottom. Do I just use this as is? Do I clean that paste and use the arctic silver I bought? Do I just add a little of my past in the middle of the existing?
Is it possible for me to build an HTPC or a Mini ITX for a high end rig like with a 980Ti ?
I assume SLI is out of question due to heating concerns, but even a single card would be enough.
Also I am thinking of buying either MSI Gaming M5 or Gaming M7 due to them being future proof and really cheap. I don't really know what the M7 offers over M5,someone once said it's M.2 support but M5 already has that no?
A little help with thermal paste as I am building my first gaming PC in a while. I have an Intel i7 6700 CPU and compatible Z170 motherboard. I purchased a heatsink that would fit my case as well as some arctic silver thermal paste.
When the heat sync arrived, it already had a square of thermal past applied to the bottom. Do I just use this as is? Do I clean that paste and use the arctic silver I bought? Do I just add a little of my past in the middle of the existing?
Option 1 - This would be the ~$600 build I mentioned previously, with an i5-6500, GTX960/R9 380. This is a pretty nice build that would play most of the games well at 1080p/30fps at medium to high settings. This would be more what I would call a mid-tier build so its not going to play the latest games at 1080p at high/ultra settings. The CPU runs up to 3.6Ghz (base 3.2ghz) and is still a much better CPU than the one in the PS4/XboxOne so it should at least last till the end of the generation for most games. You could buy a better graphics card to this build a year or two down the line and give your computer a boost.
Option 2 - If you want your PC to last a little bit longer, consider a build with overclocking. You'll have to get a 'Z' motherboard and a 'K' CPU plus a new cooler for overclocking. However this will run you maybe $100-150 more than Option 1. In terms of performance, you could overclock an i5-6600k to around 4.5ghz. In real world terms you won't get 20% extra performance, but it will help in relieving any bottlenecks and give better performance in CPU hungry games. Then again at this budget range, you'll get much better performance gains if you were to put the $100-150 towards a better graphics card like a GTX970 which will get you close to 1080p/60fps high/ultra settings for many games.
I think in the position I am now, I should probably avoid the K/Z combo because, like you said, it changes the value quite a bit. The only thing I decided to change was the graphics card to try and get a bit more juice out of it and the RAM to save a few bucks. I went with the R9 380X because of the value, but do you still recommend a GTX970? And how about that RAM choice?
Here's what I've landed on (including everything like peripherals, monitor and OS):
It's a bit over where I wanted to take this, but I guess I didn't take into account the OS and peripherals. I also want to get an El Gato for streaming, so pushing past a grand here.
Any glaring things I should change on this list? Monitor? RAM? GTX970 over R9 380X?
It's not exactly user friendly, seeing as temperatures can't be monitored and it's not quite as easy to overclock with just the base clock. I'd actually recommend it more for people who already know how to overclock, but it's not as if it's too hard for people who don't know anything about overclocking to do it.
Oh right, I spoke to you before about you wanting to upgrade the graphics card. What sort of prebuilt PC do you have? You also said it was new? If you're worried, there's nothing wrong with taking pictures first, but most cables are designed to only fit where they're supposed to go, although it's not impossible to plug something into the wrong spot if you apply too much force.
I wouldn't recommend AMD FX processors, they're a couple years old now and already on a dead platform. The usual consensus is to go with Intel for better support for newer features. Here's what I recommend:
This build should offer stronger performance all around, except for video editing and 3D rendering which take a bit longer. I think gaming performance and framerate be higher and smoother is more important than having your video and 3D model rendering finish faster, though. It supports USB 3.1 and USB type C. A CPU cooler isn't needed because a basic one already comes with the processor and the i5 processor runs cooler than the FX-8350, but you could still add the 212 Evo CPU cooler to that list for less noise while running and it'll still cost less in total compared to the AMD FX based parts list.
I have previously mainly been a console person (I own all three current gen systems) but I have been curious about PC gaming. Right now, I am tempted by the idea of getting to play Dark Souls 3 at 60 fps and a higher degree of graphical fidelity (and I take it this configuration would likely be able to provide that?), as well as games like Witcher 3 and GTA V with better performance and graphics than on console; and I could certainly see myself moving much of my multiplatform gaming to PC if I had a better machine.
The main thing I'm wondering about, I guess, is whether the configuration listed above would be "future proof" for a while when it comes to serious gaming, or if it is likely to be outdated relatively quickly? Knowing myself, I know I likely wouldn't want to invest the time and money into upgrading it too quickly and/or too regularly. I hope the question isn't too vague or unclear, but PC gaming is a new and slightly daunting world..
Thx. It looks like the existing pre applied was machine applied in a perfect square and seems very "this". I know I dont want a TON of paste. I'm going to give it a go with existing and just keep an eye on the temps. Thanks for the help.
I wouldn't recommend AMD FX processors, they're a couple years old now and already on a dead platform. The usual consensus is to go with Intel for better support for newer features. Here's what I recommend:
This build should offer stronger performance all around, except for video editing and 3D rendering which take a bit longer. I think gaming performance and framerate be higher and smoother is more important than having your video and 3D model rendering finish faster, though. It supports USB 3.1 and USB type C. A CPU cooler isn't needed because a basic one already comes with the processor and the i5 processor runs cooler than the FX-8350, but you could still add the 212 Evo CPU cooler to that list for less noise while running and it'll still cost less in total compared to the AMD FX based parts list.
Since he said the main things he does is video editing and 3D rendering, are there any other builds you'd recommend? I feel like the FX-8350 is significantly better for those purposes than the i5 you mentioned since the i5 only has 4 cores without hyperthreading and has a lower clock speed.
I guess I'll post this in here instead of making a new thread. Recently my PC games have been CTD a lot. Fallout 4, The Division, and Elder Scrolls Online are a few recent examples. Sometimes I can play for hours fine and other times it's like every 10 minutes.
Drivers are updated, my CPU and GPU are not overheating. Not really sure what could be causing the issue. Besides the above two things should I check anything else to troubleshoot?
Need some screen recommendations. I currently have two pretty old and shitty monitors and I'm in the market for an upgrade. The focus of the screen should be gaming, since that is almost exclusively what I do on my pc. I'm gonna drop the two screen config and go for one larger screen, preferably 25-27".
My current pc specs are: i7 4790k, gtx 970, 16gb ram.
Is g-sync/high refresh rate worth it even though I don't really have the most powerful card to support it? Is 1440p worth it even though my gfx card might not be the optimal card for gaming on a screen like this?
Have read/heard great things about the Acer XB270HU, would this be a good solution for me? That screen is around my price range (600-700 euros).
I guess I'll post this in here instead of making a new thread. Recently my PC games have been CTD a lot. Fallout 4, The Division, and Elder Scrolls Online are a few recent examples. Sometimes I can play for hours fine and other times it's like every 10 minutes.
Drivers are updated, my CPU and GPU are not overheating. Not really sure what could be causing the issue. Besides the above two things should I check anything else to troubleshoot?
Need some screen recommendations. I currently have two pretty old and shitty monitors and I'm in the market for an upgrade. The focus of the screen should be gaming, since that is almost exclusively what I do on my pc. I'm gonna drop the two screen config and go for one larger screen, preferably 25-27".
My current pc specs are: i7 4790k, gtx 970, 16gb ram.
Is g-sync/high refresh rate worth it even though I don't really have the most powerful card to support it? Is 1440p worth it even though my gfx card might not be the optimal card for gaming on a screen like this?
Have read/heard great things about the Acer XB270HU, would this be a good solution for me? That screen is around my price range (600-700 euros).
Oh right, I spoke to you before about you wanting to upgrade the graphics card. What sort of prebuilt PC do you have? You also said it was new? If you're worried, there's nothing wrong with taking pictures first, but most cables are designed to only fit where they're supposed to go, although it's not impossible to plug something into the wrong spot if you apply too much force.
its a cyberpowerpc,
i5 6500
came with 4 gb cheap avirex ram, swapped that out for hyperX 8gb
psu is some turbolink junk that I am getting rid of. atx500W .......... just bought EVGA 500B
current GPU is still GTX 720 1 gb for now...
My motherboard is dying and getting more buggy every day. As a result of this, my CPU has become a pain in the ass to overclock. I have a 2500K which ran @ 4.4Ghz for a while, but alas, I'm down to stock speeds (3.3 Ghz) as of now and the future. I've had my Motherboard and CPU for a good long five-six years, so I decided that now would be an oppurtunity to invest and upgrade to Skylake. So, most of all I need a new motherboard and, while I'm at it, might as well upgrade to Skylake too. Couple questions:
- I haven't really been following the news concerning new motherboards or advancements in motherboard technology, so I'm completely in the dark when it comes to making the best price/value choice. So what are the popular models with LGA 1151 sockets nowadays? And are there any motherboards that perform "better" or have any other advancements once paired with a Skylake processor? Basically, I'm requesting recommendations haha.
- I currently have 8 GB DDR3 Memory sticks @ 1600Mhz. Is it worth upgrading to DDR4?
- What CPU to choose? Obviously the 6700(K) would be the "best" and most expensive choice. I haven't even looked up pricing yet, so I don't know if this would fall in my budget or not. Or how about a 6500 or 6600? One of the differences is buying a i5 or i7. Basically, all I want to know on this point is: how do I decide which CPU I want?
- How is Skylake and overclocking? Admittedly, I gained an extra 1-1.5 years of lifespan when overclocking my 2500K. But it also took me a lot of time, reading, and delving into the finer details of how a CPU and MOBO works (it was my first time overclocking). I wouldn't really consider overclocking "fun", but I had to 'cause I didn't want to upgrade so soon yet. So I was wondering if I should buy an unlocked "K" CPU again. Ideally, I would never want to have to overclock, 'cause that's just the easiest and saves me the troubleshooting and trial/error that usally accompanies it, but I also want my new processor to have the same lifespan as my 2500K did. Maybe someone could shed some light on this dilemma?
- Any other issues/pointers I should take in mind?
Here's my setup as it is today:
i5 2500K @ 3.3 Ghz + third-party cooler (Scythe Mugen 2 rev.B SCMG-2100)
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 - LGA1155 Socket - Z68
2 x 4 GB -1600 MHz - DDR3
700W PSU
SSD and HDD
GTX 980 4GB
playing at 2560 x 1440.
Going from what I've seen, your current processor should be good enough to hit 60FPS in The Division, as long as the graphics card is also capable of it and not bottlenecking the performance. Your GTX 760 definitely can't handle high and ultra settings, though.
What are your system specs? How much would you want to spend on upgrades? A decent new processor would be in the $200~250 range, but you would also need to buy a new motherboard ($50~100 minimum) and perhaps new RAM (cost depends on how much you want). On the other hand, you could spend just $200~300 and get a good boost to performance.
Pretty sure if I upgrade my CPU, I gotta upgrade my mobo. When I looked into it a few years ago, I'm pretty sure I found out that I didn't have much room to move up in regards to the CPU. I've been holding off on a whole new build because of that, haha.
