Help: New Graphics card or New Chip?

[warwickm]

Good Morning

I am looking to upgrade my PC again. However at a bit of loss as to which bit to upgrade as finances do not stretch to both.

I currently have a 2.4 Intel Quad Core (with matched foxconn motherboards) running an Nvidia 9600 512mb graphics card & 4 gig ram.

I have been offered an unused factory overclocked Intel Core i3 530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz @ 4.00GHz / Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel H55 Motherboard / Corsair 4GB DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz DDR3 Bundle. For just £280

However would I get more impact if I spent the same money on a top end graphics card?

Any input appreciated

Regards

Warwick

[jnrjim67]

Your in at a bit of a dilemma here, depending on what you buy GPU wise for your current setup the CPU @2.4ghz will be holding it back although something like a GTX 250 will be better than what you have now and as for the other setup its good but 9600 will be holding it back. If you know how to overclock you current setup it would be decent with a GTX275/285 I remember my old Q6600 ran great at 3.6Ghz. 

Cheers

[Atomic_Sheep]

Aren't i3's dual core? If so, then I would recommend to not bother because even with my i7 930 (quad core, 8 threads) at 2.93ghz... I get pretty average fps on all the settings close to maxed out. I'm pretty certain that your current Q6600 would be quicker than the computer you were talking about. My dad has that chip and it's no slugger. If I were you, I'd simply over clock it. FSX utilises 4 cores and I simply don't think 2 cores will cut it even with severe over clocking. I think in your situation I'd go for a new graphics card.

I've got a GTX 260 SO and although it's pretty good, I really want to see whether it's slowing down my FSX once I overclock the comp a bit. Based on GPU-z, I'm pretty sure most of the time the 260 SO is more than enough to run FSX. If you're wondering... the SO is very similar in performance to a GTX 275 but costs around 60-80 AUD cheaper than the 275. Usually loses out on average by 1fps and in some tests actually has an upper hand. In my honest opinion... if I were you I'd go GTX 470 (this will definitely give you enough headroom for FSX), then I'd put 285 on the list and then GTX 260 SO. I wouldn't consider anything else. So out of those three pick the one that suits your budget best and don't look back. FYI, I'm currently planning on upgrading the 260 to a 470/480 in a year or two but that will only happen if while over clocking I notice that the video card is indeed holding me back which I'm pretty sure is the case but only rarely and slightly but I'm anal.

[MarkH]

Sadly you will need both in my experience. I'd say go for the CPU/mobo/RAM deal, which sounds exceptionally capable, and add a card later. Or look for a 2nd-hand 9800. Maybe you can sell your Quad CPU to recover a bit of capital, they're great for desktop PCs.

[TenBlade]

Make sure you get a 1GB gpu, there´s a nice cfg-tweak to take advantage of that. Don´t use a dual gpu (i.e. two gpu´s or the GTX 295), it´ll most likely decrease performance.

The CPU is the primary bottleneck. You can´t have a sluggish CPU and make up for it with the worlds greatest GPU. OC the quad and get a decent 1GB gpu, preferably nVidia based (to take advantage of nHancer settings).

Bjorn

[marshkop]

I am a firm believer in building your own comp. The fastest cpu, the fastest ram that you can afford and a 1gb videocard, but if you dont have the right mboard then you cant oc. If you can oc the dualcore to 4ghz thats faster than your qcore. Unless you can oc the qcore to 4ghz. There is so much info about this that you should be able to use the search option. Oh and no dual gpu fsx doesnt support them or sli.http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=21388.0

[TenBlade]

Had my C2D E8600 oc´d to 4gigz, but my Q6950 @ 3,6 runs FSX smoother and with much improved FPS. I don´t think they are comparable frequency to frequency. There sure is a lot of potential in a C2D @ 4gigz, undoubtedly, but the quad performed a miracle for my particular setup.

Bjorn