Upgrade my gaming pc

Forums › Gaming › Upgrade my gaming pc

1 | 2 | 3

lagbort

263 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 73

ID Verified

#1493311 16-Feb-2016 15:55

iDruid:

Hey fellas,

Just a question as i am soon to do a new pc also whats the benefit, of 16gig over 8gig ram, ive been

reading that it provides little if any benefit when gaming.

Very few games will even approach 8gb of RAM usage, but you have to take into account other programs running on your PC at the same time.

I run a Plex server on my main PC as well as usually running a movie/youtube video on my second screen while gaming. It is not uncommon for me to see 4-5GB of RAM used before I even fire a game up.

RAM is really cheap now so I would just throw 2 8GB sticks and be done with it.

shortcircuit

86 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 11

#1493338 16-Feb-2016 16:24

I can't talk for gaming, but I got an I7 6700 and 8 gig of ram (also from Playtech) last week. Today I got another 8 gig and it's definitely made things snappier with Win10 opening programs and also noticeable improvement for graphics work.

I'd say for the price of extra ram it's worth giving it a go.

f0xhoundnz

6 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#1521927 28-Mar-2016 22:13

Hi All,

I need to give my 5 year old rig a refresh, before thinking about a new build. I am hoping to finally get around to The Witcher 3 (yes, I am that far behind), and maybe No Mans Sky when that is released.

It is an i7 2600K 3.4GHz, two Corsair 4GB DDR3-1600, Intel 80GB SSD for the OS (still running Windows 7, may upgrade to 10 soon), and an AMD HD6970 2GB OC on a Gigabyte Z68Z board. These are all fairly out of date, but I'm guessing the bottleneck here is the GPU? I was thinking about dropping in an AMD R9 380 4GB card - will this get me through?

Appreciate any thoughts or advice!

sidefx

3775 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1295

Trusted

#1521934 28-Mar-2016 22:44

f0xhoundnz:

Hi All,

I need to give my 5 year old rig a refresh, before thinking about a new build. I am hoping to finally get around to The Witcher 3 (yes, I am that far behind), and maybe No Mans Sky when that is released.

It is an i7 2600K 3.4GHz, two Corsair 4GB DDR3-1600, Intel 80GB SSD for the OS (still running Windows 7, may upgrade to 10 soon), and an AMD HD6970 2GB OC on a Gigabyte Z68Z board. These are all fairly out of date, but I'm guessing the bottleneck here is the GPU? I was thinking about dropping in an AMD R9 380 4GB card - will this get me through?

Appreciate any thoughts or advice!

I'd definitely start with a new GPU. I picked a 970 as best bang for buck when I upgraded (from a 7950) but if you want to stick with AMD and spend a bit less I reckon the 380 looks like a good choice, though if you don't mind a change to nvidia, the 960 looks like it has an edge on performance and efficiency.

I'd then look at a larger SSD (80GB sounds painful, especially if you want to put a game or to on there for improved load times) and 8GB more RAM, probably in that order.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#1522193 29-Mar-2016 13:36

What's your screen resolution? Assuming 1920x1080 then Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390 are basically best price/performance at the moment.

Can go wrong with either really, the Nvidia option is massively more popular in marketshare though.

If you don't want to spend ~$500+ the GTX 960 or R9 380 are the cheaper options at~$300+ that are still passable/ok for 1080p.

Lias

5655 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3978

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1522253 29-Mar-2016 15:16

As above.. really can't go wrong with a 970 for 1080p gaming.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

richms

29101 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10216

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1522274 29-Mar-2016 15:30

I'm seeing terrible drops in framerate on my 970 in fallout 4 in parts, I have upgraded the nvidia drivers and changed a few other things since I last played it, but its really made this new DLC quite unpleasant. And that is with the quality backed off from what they recommend since those settings struggled to even maintain 60, but now I will be seeing a solid 120 in one place, walk outside or into another area and then its jumping around like a flipbook at 16fps. 32 gigs and its all on a SSD raid that does over a gig a second so no excuses about loading stuff, just somethings whack now.

Thinking of getting a 980ti and seeing how that helps.

Richard rich.ms

lagbort

263 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 73

ID Verified

#1522288 29-Mar-2016 15:37

richms:

I'm seeing terrible drops in framerate on my 970 in fallout 4 in parts, I have upgraded the nvidia drivers and changed a few other things since I last played it, but its really made this new DLC quite unpleasant. And that is with the quality backed off from what they recommend since those settings struggled to even maintain 60, but now I will be seeing a solid 120 in one place, walk outside or into another area and then its jumping around like a flipbook at 16fps. 32 gigs and its all on a SSD raid that does over a gig a second so no excuses about loading stuff, just somethings whack now.

Thinking of getting a 980ti and seeing how that helps.

I'm running a 970 and getting 60+ fps constantly on ultra in fallout 4.

I have noticed though the latest DLC seems to have introduced some micro-stuttering every now and then, frame rate stays high but frame timings go out of whack.

I wouldnt be buying a 980ti now though, new cards should be showing up around September.

Smix

111 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 21

Trusted

#1523086 31-Mar-2016 08:41

If you're looking at the 970, I would recommend the R9 390 instead. The extra VRAM will future-proof yourself, it slightly out performs the 970, and apparently AMD cards mature better due to ongoing driver support. Currently playing Rainbow 6 Siege with the ultra HD texture pack, and regularly seeing 4.5gb of VRAM+ being used at 1080p. Be aware that the 390 is more power hungry than the 970 so you'll need a ~650W PSU (although I see people do use 550W).

If you do go for a newer processor, be aware that you'll need a new mobo as well.

reven

3748 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 874

Trusted

#1523106 31-Mar-2016 09:22

Another +1 for a 970. brilliant card, havent noticed any issues on fallout 4 myself with it.

I always recommend nvidia over AMD due to nvidia game streaming, I can stream using moonlight to a raspberry pi, a tablet, or a fire tv. thats pretty cool IMO.

1 | 2 | 3