Few Questions re Upgrades

[cjc1984]

Hi guys

Bought my PC from you about 12 months ago, and it has been absolutely top notch. Not done as much gaming as I thought I would have done but that will be changing soon. Just have a few questions regarding some of the upgrades I have in mind. Core Specs are

Intel Core i7 950 3.07ghz
6GB 1333MHZ RAM
1TB WD Caviar Black HDD
NVidia GTX 460 2GB

Looking to purchase Battlefield 3, MW3 and Skyrim, maybe Arkham City if it goes on the cheap although have that on PS3 at the moment.

1) Graphics Card: This is the priority upgrade at the moment. Currently can run Crysis 2 on high settings at 1680 x 1050, and can run Dirt 2 on top settings at this resolution. However, Dirt 2 does stutter a bit at 1920 x 1080. And the graphics card is alot noisier than what I thought it would be.

Was looking at the GTX 570 (this model from overclockers). My questions are
- How much of a jump is there between that card, and the card I have at the moment?
- Would you say its worth upgrading now, or waiting for the Kepler line of cards?

2) Memory: How much of a difference would I be likely see in gaming performance if I upgraded the RAM to 12GB of 1600MHZ RAM?

 

[Rakk]

2) Memory: How much of a difference would I be likely see in gaming performance if I upgraded the RAM to 12GB of 1600MHZ RAM?

For gaming, an extra 6GB of RAM would make no difference at all, the 6GB you already have is perfectly fine.
As for the 1600MHz instead of the 1333MHz, unless you're overclocking you wouldn't really see a difference either.

 

[cjc1984]

Cheers Rak, thats what I was thinking, will put the money I have I think into a graphics card update.

 

[tom_gr7]

If you can push for a 580 go for that as its the best out, but the 570 are very good too, I'd avoid overclockers, had a bad experience with them, sent me a faulty product then ignored my requests for rma for weeks. But thats my experience yours may differ, i'd either buy from pcs as you are already a customer, or amazon.

 

[cjc1984]

I think the 580 would be overkill? The 570 isprobably more than adequate for gaming at 1080p resolution?

I have read somewhere that Kepler is meant to be more power efficient than the Fermi cards, as well as offering a pretty substantial performance increase, anyone have any idea when abouts in 2012 to expect them?

 

[tom_gr7]

Depends how much gaming you wanna do? I love gaming, and wanted the best, so went for the 580.....but also got the argument that it will last me longer, more future proof.

A lot of gamers/enthusiasts (myself included) on here will probably suggest you get the single best gpu you can afford. if you dont wanna push for the 580 thats cool, go for the 570, but have a look around at different models with different brands. Personally i'd go for one that has two fans for good cooling.

 

[cjc1984]

My Power supply Is a CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU, would that be able to handle the power requirements of a single GTX580?

 

[Rakk]

Other things to consider of course are what power supply do you have cjc1984?

Edit: ack, I was slightly too slow posting that, d'oh! Nevermind, ignore my question

 

[cjc1984]

As said above Rak, its a Corsair TX650W. I don't ever intend to do SLI, would only ever be single card.

 

[vanthus]

My Power supply Is a CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU, would that be able to handle the power requirements of a single GTX580?

That will be fine.

 

[Tehmoe]

570 is a great card should max out all games . also my personally experience with OCUK is great never had a problem with them before, for CS there as good as PCS as both have answered all my questions right away and I feel very assured with my purchases (future purchase with PCS xD).

 

[cjc1984]

Ta

Well I bought Dirt 3 this weekend for a tenner, and the card i have plays it at a fairly solid 60fps at 1080p with 4x AA and vsync on. Also plays Crysis 2 fairly well on high settings at 1680 x 1050 with the DX11 patch installed (tried the high res texture map but it did stutter in phases).

Decided I am going to see how well battlefield 3 runs on it, but chances are I think am going to wait for the kepler cards as they are supposed to be a significant improvement over fermi in performance, and lower power requirements.