Need to match with a Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz, 1080p

Currently have a Gigabyte GTX560ti SOC, runs basically like a stock 570.

I'm wondering how good of a GPU I can get before my Q9650 can't push it anymore. Well, becomes a bottleneck. At 1080p, I was looking at a 960 4GB. I'm assuming my CPU can push that just fine? Is there a point in even looking at the 970? I'd prefer not to spend more than the 960 anyways, but...

I've just recently gotten back into gaming. I play CoD and BF, only. I took a break for a while, and I currently only own BC2 and BO2. They both run fine, but I know the newer games are a ton more demanding. I'm not concerned with hitting "Ultra" settings. I know I couldn't in BF anyways.

Maybe next tax return, ill upgrade the whole thing, finally.

Thanks.

 

A cpu will mostly cause a bottleneck, if you try to get higher fps.

Meaning, if you get 60 fps now, and still aim for 60 fps, just with higher image quality, then your cpu shouldnt cause a bottleneck.

However, if youre having 60 fps now, and your aim is to get 120 fps, then your cpu will likely cause a bottleneck.


With the above in mind, you could really throw any gpu on it, if youre just looking to increase image quality

The golden buy atm is ofc the 970 from nvidia - fairly low Price, very good performance. Id personally advice against the 960 for several reasons - the main reason being tiny bandwidth of its 128 bit bus. If youre looking at the 960 Price range, id advice you to look at amd - their 280x is similarly priced, yet offers a much better product on all parameters.

 

I had a qx9650 4Ghz back a few years and it bottlenecked an old 580. Put the 580 in my current rig and fps improved greatly, though I sli`d the 580 after testing out a single 580. My suggestion is to spend your money on a more recent cpu, mb and ram and then upgrade your video card later. Any card you pair with that cpu is going to be bottlenecked pretty good. If you do not want to go this route do not get anything more expensive than a 2 gb 960. I think the 960 would probably be limited by that cpu though.

 

I wouldn't consider anything higher than a 260/750ti with that rig, which aren't really upgrades for you anyway. I'd highly recommend looking into upgrading to a more modern CPU.

 

I agree with TK, system upgrade first..

Maybe look into second hand cards for your current rig if you're going to stay with it for awhile.

 

Again depends if he is looking for higher fps, or higher image quality - if he is purely looking for higher image quality, and is satisfied with his current fps, then he could throw in a new gpu, and crank up the Graphics settings.

If he wants higher fps, he will ofc need to upgrade the entire system.

 

I assumed higher IQ wasn't a priority.

 

A GTX960 should improve both framerates and IQ in most proper DX10 and 11 games. It's not going to help much, if at all, in most DX9 games.

Upgrading the entire system would be a better move, but there's really no proper argument against starting with the GPU.

 

No, but he doesnt really state exactly what it is he wants.

Anyways, as battlefield handles multithreading exceptionally good, his old quad core should perform at least equally to the low end i3-2100, which is tested to average 145 fps in battlefield hardline.

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/battlefield-hardline-test-gpu.html

Based upon that, id say he is good to go as far as a faster gpu goes, regardless of what it is he wants from his upgrade.

 

I'm guessing that test is based on single player, multiplayer is much more demanding on the CPU.

 

Not unlikely - lets say its twice as demanding, then it would still average 73 fps, which would still be very decent... and thats quite low set as far as fps goes.

 

I just can't upgrade my CPU and Mobo right now. Hopefully, I can get those next year.

I'll be playing BF4, but I dont have it yet. I doubt my current rig could pull 60fps at High on 1080p, so I would want frames. I realize CPU is the obvious choice, I just can't buy a complete rig, right now.

 

If thats the case maybe buy a used gpu.

 

Possibly more depending on what you're playing, large maps with lots of players on BF4 can be ridiculously heavy on system resources. It's difficult to measure for obvious reasons, but considering he's running an effective 570 (guessing his 560ti is a 448 core) I suspect he'll see a bigger improvement from a CPU upgrade as a whole. Assuming of course he mostly plays multi, which is highly likely with the titles he tends to play.

 

Well, I know this CPU at my clock can push 570/580's decently. Admittedly, its an old enough setup, most people aren't using that CPU with newer cards so I haven't came up with alot of info...

 

Ok then lets look at bf4 specifically

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/battlefield-4-final-stand-test-gpu.html#comments

This is a test of final stand, which is the last expansion pack in bf4... looking at cpu performance, is equal to what you see in bf hardline as mentioned before.

In other Words, id say your cpu is fine. Then its just a matter of how much youre willing to spend on a gpu, to be able to increase image quality settings.

 

No, it isn't fine. Whatever GPU he gets will be bottlenecked. Either get a proper GPU now and upgrade CPU and mobo very soon, or upgrade the whole system at once.

It's a bad idea to assume any quad core older than a first gen i7 will get him to stay anywhere near 60FPS most of the time on multi, no matter how far it's overclocked.

 

If you read my post pertaining to core 2 quad and a 580, the 580 as old as a card as it is was bottlenecked by that cpu a 4ghz an extra 200 mhz is not going to make much of a difference.

 

Have you tried it, since you are so certain? Or do you know of any reviews / test done of the old quadcores in bf4 ?

Cause only comprehensive test ive found, is the one ive linked to... and its very reasonable to believe that an old quadcore clocked to 4 ghz will perform equally or better than a lowend i3-2100... especially in a game that takes fully advantage of all cores, like bf4 does.

 

Sure, but I just said run it decently. There's going to be a bottleneck, at one end or the other, regardless.