Making my PC perform better with 3D Vision Upgrade CPU or GPU for better frame rate?
Hey guys,
I'm currently running a Dual Quad Core 2.5, 8gb Ram, and quadro 4800, and 3d vision. Over the past year newer games e.g. metro 2033 have been slowly pushing my system to the limits and i'm having to greatly drop the graphic quality to keep the frame rate up. Since getting 3D vision this appears to have become a greater problem.
My question is, should i update my graphics card to the latest Geforce to get top performance, or should I upgrade the CPU first?
I'm currently running a Dual Quad Core 2.5, 8gb Ram, and quadro 4800, and 3d vision. Over the past year newer games e.g. metro 2033 have been slowly pushing my system to the limits and i'm having to greatly drop the graphic quality to keep the frame rate up. Since getting 3D vision this appears to have become a greater problem.
My question is, should i update my graphics card to the latest Geforce to get top performance, or should I upgrade the CPU first?
Undoubtedly graphics card in this case. If you are finding performance drops as you increase resolution (i.e. doubling it to run 3D vision), then the GPU is the bottleneck.
Undoubtedly graphics card in this case. If you are finding performance drops as you increase resolution (i.e. doubling it to run 3D vision), then the GPU is the bottleneck.
Intel i7-4770k
EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC
ASRock Z87 Extreme4
8GB DDR3, 240GB Intel SSD, 3TB HDD
Cooler Master Siedon 120M Liquid Cooling
Dell 3007WFP-HC 30" 2560x1600
Alienware OptX AW2310 23" 1920x1080 with 3D Vision
Acer H5360 720p Projector with 3D Vision
ONKYO HT-S5300 7.1 Sound System
Logitech G19 Keyboard, G9 Mouse, G25 Wheel
Saitek X52 Pro and Rudder Pedals
When I change resolution there appears to be no visible difference. It's mainly when I turn on shadows, motion blur, ambient occlusion, all that sort of stuff that kills it, without 3D vision it's better. So I would agree that all evidence would point to the graphics card, although part of me thinks that my dual quad core isn't actually getting used properly, I wonder if a single CPU would give any noticible performance increase.
Do games these days take full advantange of multiple CPU's?
and does my GPU know to use all my CPU's when using 3D vision?
When I change resolution there appears to be no visible difference. It's mainly when I turn on shadows, motion blur, ambient occlusion, all that sort of stuff that kills it, without 3D vision it's better. So I would agree that all evidence would point to the graphics card, although part of me thinks that my dual quad core isn't actually getting used properly, I wonder if a single CPU would give any noticible performance increase.
Do games these days take full advantange of multiple CPU's?
and does my GPU know to use all my CPU's when using 3D vision?
No, unfortunately games these days are not taking full advantage of your cores (if I understand, you have 8 total). The vast majority of the games don't get any help over 2 cores and the ones that do usually show incremental increases at irrelevant framerates (e.g. I don't care if I have 150fps or 170fps). You would be better of having less cores at a higher speed (you could try overclocking your existing cores).
However, all those features you mention are also computed on the GPU, again giving evidence to this being the bottleneck in your system.
No, unfortunately games these days are not taking full advantage of your cores (if I understand, you have 8 total). The vast majority of the games don't get any help over 2 cores and the ones that do usually show incremental increases at irrelevant framerates (e.g. I don't care if I have 150fps or 170fps). You would be better of having less cores at a higher speed (you could try overclocking your existing cores).
However, all those features you mention are also computed on the GPU, again giving evidence to this being the bottleneck in your system.
Intel i7-4770k
EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC
ASRock Z87 Extreme4
8GB DDR3, 240GB Intel SSD, 3TB HDD
Cooler Master Siedon 120M Liquid Cooling
Dell 3007WFP-HC 30" 2560x1600
Alienware OptX AW2310 23" 1920x1080 with 3D Vision
Acer H5360 720p Projector with 3D Vision
ONKYO HT-S5300 7.1 Sound System
Logitech G19 Keyboard, G9 Mouse, G25 Wheel
Saitek X52 Pro and Rudder Pedals
Yea... definitely the GPU. as far as i'm aware, Quadro's aren't really meant for gaming all that much.... being targeted more towards the workstation market for intense graphic design or stuff like that.
Yea... definitely the GPU. as far as i'm aware, Quadro's aren't really meant for gaming all that much.... being targeted more towards the workstation market for intense graphic design or stuff like that.
[quote name='Andy Mac' post='1094388' date='Jul 27 2010, 05:17 PM']My question is, should i update my graphics card to the latest Geforce to get top performance, or should I upgrade the CPU first?[/quote]
Since you mention [i]"top performance"[/i] in your "wish-list", you might need to take a deeper look into upgrading. It all depends what you really mean with top performance;
- compared to what you are used to right now
or
- getting a [b]Top score[/b] on various benchmarks
And also the standard question which you always hear when planning an upgrade;
what do you want your computer to do for you?
Roughly, there are 3 scenarios;
- gaming
- programming
- a little bit of both
Unless you are an extreme gamer or programmer you should end up with the "little bit of both" category, but at the same time you should go for more of a gamer pc. Reason for this is that a good gamer pc is also capable of doing programming at a certain level. At least much more than the opposite solution.
Also remember that if you only upgrade your video card, it might not give you the effect you are looking for.
At least not if you really want top performance, as you say.
A good gamer pc needs to have components which are operating well together. In other words, a good GPU alone wont guarantee a good result if you only have (lets say) 1GB of RAM and a motherboard that is not capable of supporting the specifications of the video card.
But of course, you can always start with a good GPU (like GTX 470 / 480) and see how it goes.
If youre still not happy, you can upgrade the rest.
[quote name='Andy Mac' post='1094388' date='Jul 27 2010, 05:17 PM']My question is, should i update my graphics card to the latest Geforce to get top performance, or should I upgrade the CPU first?
Since you mention "top performance" in your "wish-list", you might need to take a deeper look into upgrading. It all depends what you really mean with top performance;
- compared to what you are used to right now
or
- getting a Top score on various benchmarks
And also the standard question which you always hear when planning an upgrade;
what do you want your computer to do for you?
Roughly, there are 3 scenarios;
- gaming
- programming
- a little bit of both
Unless you are an extreme gamer or programmer you should end up with the "little bit of both" category, but at the same time you should go for more of a gamer pc. Reason for this is that a good gamer pc is also capable of doing programming at a certain level. At least much more than the opposite solution.
Also remember that if you only upgrade your video card, it might not give you the effect you are looking for.
At least not if you really want top performance, as you say.
A good gamer pc needs to have components which are operating well together. In other words, a good GPU alone wont guarantee a good result if you only have (lets say) 1GB of RAM and a motherboard that is not capable of supporting the specifications of the video card.
But of course, you can always start with a good GPU (like GTX 470 / 480) and see how it goes.
If youre still not happy, you can upgrade the rest.
I'm currently running a Dual Quad Core 2.5, 8gb Ram, and quadro 4800, and 3d vision. Over the past year newer games e.g. metro 2033 have been slowly pushing my system to the limits and i'm having to greatly drop the graphic quality to keep the frame rate up. Since getting 3D vision this appears to have become a greater problem.
My question is, should i update my graphics card to the latest Geforce to get top performance, or should I upgrade the CPU first?
Thanks,
Andy Mac
I'm currently running a Dual Quad Core 2.5, 8gb Ram, and quadro 4800, and 3d vision. Over the past year newer games e.g. metro 2033 have been slowly pushing my system to the limits and i'm having to greatly drop the graphic quality to keep the frame rate up. Since getting 3D vision this appears to have become a greater problem.
My question is, should i update my graphics card to the latest Geforce to get top performance, or should I upgrade the CPU first?
Thanks,
Andy Mac
Intel i7-4770k
EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC
ASRock Z87 Extreme4
8GB DDR3, 240GB Intel SSD, 3TB HDD
Cooler Master Siedon 120M Liquid Cooling
Dell 3007WFP-HC 30" 2560x1600
Alienware OptX AW2310 23" 1920x1080 with 3D Vision
Acer H5360 720p Projector with 3D Vision
ONKYO HT-S5300 7.1 Sound System
Logitech G19 Keyboard, G9 Mouse, G25 Wheel
Saitek X52 Pro and Rudder Pedals
When I change resolution there appears to be no visible difference. It's mainly when I turn on shadows, motion blur, ambient occlusion, all that sort of stuff that kills it, without 3D vision it's better. So I would agree that all evidence would point to the graphics card, although part of me thinks that my dual quad core isn't actually getting used properly, I wonder if a single CPU would give any noticible performance increase.
Do games these days take full advantange of multiple CPU's?
and does my GPU know to use all my CPU's when using 3D vision?
Mac
When I change resolution there appears to be no visible difference. It's mainly when I turn on shadows, motion blur, ambient occlusion, all that sort of stuff that kills it, without 3D vision it's better. So I would agree that all evidence would point to the graphics card, although part of me thinks that my dual quad core isn't actually getting used properly, I wonder if a single CPU would give any noticible performance increase.
Do games these days take full advantange of multiple CPU's?
and does my GPU know to use all my CPU's when using 3D vision?
Mac
However, all those features you mention are also computed on the GPU, again giving evidence to this being the bottleneck in your system.
However, all those features you mention are also computed on the GPU, again giving evidence to this being the bottleneck in your system.
Intel i7-4770k
EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC
ASRock Z87 Extreme4
8GB DDR3, 240GB Intel SSD, 3TB HDD
Cooler Master Siedon 120M Liquid Cooling
Dell 3007WFP-HC 30" 2560x1600
Alienware OptX AW2310 23" 1920x1080 with 3D Vision
Acer H5360 720p Projector with 3D Vision
ONKYO HT-S5300 7.1 Sound System
Logitech G19 Keyboard, G9 Mouse, G25 Wheel
Saitek X52 Pro and Rudder Pedals
Since you mention [i]"top performance"[/i] in your "wish-list", you might need to take a deeper look into upgrading. It all depends what you really mean with top performance;
- compared to what you are used to right now
or
- getting a [b]Top score[/b] on various benchmarks
And also the standard question which you always hear when planning an upgrade;
what do you want your computer to do for you?
Roughly, there are 3 scenarios;
- gaming
- programming
- a little bit of both
Unless you are an extreme gamer or programmer you should end up with the "little bit of both" category, but at the same time you should go for more of a gamer pc. Reason for this is that a good gamer pc is also capable of doing programming at a certain level. At least much more than the opposite solution.
Also remember that if you only upgrade your video card, it might not give you the effect you are looking for.
At least not if you really want top performance, as you say.
A good gamer pc needs to have components which are operating well together. In other words, a good GPU alone wont guarantee a good result if you only have (lets say) 1GB of RAM and a motherboard that is not capable of supporting the specifications of the video card.
But of course, you can always start with a good GPU (like GTX 470 / 480) and see how it goes.
If youre still not happy, you can upgrade the rest.
Since you mention "top performance" in your "wish-list", you might need to take a deeper look into upgrading. It all depends what you really mean with top performance;
- compared to what you are used to right now
or
- getting a Top score on various benchmarks
And also the standard question which you always hear when planning an upgrade;
what do you want your computer to do for you?
Roughly, there are 3 scenarios;
- gaming
- programming
- a little bit of both
Unless you are an extreme gamer or programmer you should end up with the "little bit of both" category, but at the same time you should go for more of a gamer pc. Reason for this is that a good gamer pc is also capable of doing programming at a certain level. At least much more than the opposite solution.
Also remember that if you only upgrade your video card, it might not give you the effect you are looking for.
At least not if you really want top performance, as you say.
A good gamer pc needs to have components which are operating well together. In other words, a good GPU alone wont guarantee a good result if you only have (lets say) 1GB of RAM and a motherboard that is not capable of supporting the specifications of the video card.
But of course, you can always start with a good GPU (like GTX 470 / 480) and see how it goes.
If youre still not happy, you can upgrade the rest.