PC Gaming Thread

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Burninator

This seems like an appropriate thread to ask. It is worth while to upgrade my PC or just start from scratch?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5K Deluxe
GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
8GB DDR2 RAM
Corsair 620W

Is it worth it to get something like a GTX 600ti or will the processor / RAM be the bottle neck? Motherboard doesn't support DDR3, so I am guessing the only thing I could reuse would be my power supply.

Keep the PSU, scrap the rest. A new GPU would be bottlenecked pretty badly by that CPU. My wife's PC has a GTX 570 that was being bottlenecked by an e8500, after an upgrade to my "old" i5-2500k (I bought a 3570k) last year we saw a jump of almost 250% in FPS.

[Hemi-Cuda]

i really, really want a Nvidia GeForce Titan. and i'm a position where i could afford it

but still, that's a huge chunk of change to drop for a video card. i wonder when the rest of the 700 series GeForce cards are going to be out and what kind of performance the regular consumer models will offer in comparison

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i really, really want a Nvidia GeForce Titan. and i'm a position where i could afford it

but still, that's a huge chunk of change to drop for a video card. i wonder when the rest of the 700 series GeForce cards are going to be out and what kind of performance the regular consumer models will offer in comparison

I feel you. I was holding off from buying a 680 last year since I usually wait 2 gens between card upgrades (580 right now), and can afford the Titan, but I'm basically just biting my lip fretting about it wondering when the 780 will be out.

I spent nearly the Titans cost only once though, on a 7950 GX2 ($800) like...god...uh...7? years ago?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Burninator

This seems like an appropriate thread to ask. It is worth while to upgrade my PC or just start from scratch?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5K Deluxe
GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
8GB DDR2 RAM
Corsair 620W

Is it worth it to get something like a GTX 600ti or will the processor / RAM be the bottle neck? Motherboard doesn't support DDR3, so I am guessing the only thing I could reuse would be my power supply.

You don't need to start from scratch.

That's actually a very decent computer. The Q6600 at stock speeds is too slow but overclocked, is comparable to a modern 4 core CPU. With a Asus P5K Deluxe, 3.0GHz is almost 100% guaranteed (IIRC, possibly even at stock voltage) with 3.2-3.4GHz also in the realm of possibility. My old Q6600 was at 3.6GHz.

At those speeds, it stops being a GPU bottleneck and you can upgrade to a modern mid-range video card.

[Brannigans Law]

For those who play Skyrim do you recomend doing the add ons thru steam or downloading? I subscribed to the add ons on the steam link for the workshop but I swear none of them are actually working!

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

Orcs Must Die 2 adds much more in terms of upgrades. You can upgrade everything from traps to weapons to trinkets. You get special upgrades that let you set up for instance, an arrow wall on a roof or a scorcher on a wall. Plus the second adds coop play and endless mode which is really challenging.

Damnit!! I knew I should have purchased both! I only got the first one as I didn't know if I would like it all that much. Turns out I do but the only thing I figured it was missing was coop play.

Ah well....an easily corrected mistake.

[CubicleGeek]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i really, really want a Nvidia GeForce Titan. and i'm a position where i could afford it

but still, that's a huge chunk of change to drop for a video card. i wonder when the rest of the 700 series GeForce cards are going to be out and what kind of performance the regular consumer models will offer in comparison

Whether the flagship 7series ends up coming close to the Titan is moot. There's really only a few reasons to buy a Titan that I can think of:

• Quad SLI running 4x680 or 2x690 isn't fast enough and you plan to run 3-way or 4-way SLI Titans.
• Power/noise/thermo matters - maybe you're trying to stuff that thing into a mini-ATX/ITX case.
• Bragging rights <-- Nothing wrong with that btw

The thing costs twice as much as a 680 for 50% better performance and the 690 outperforms the thing by about 20% for the same price.

I'm actually eyeing the Titan for bullet 2. I've always wanted an HTPC that can run all the games I play with gamepad at max settings, 1920x1080 without breaking a sweat - I want the thing locked at 60+ fps. The problem has always been noise. I'm currently running 3x6970's on my main rig and it sounds like an aircraft when it is pushed - I would not want that thing in my living room.

[Top Shelf]

Been playing Far Cry 3, and its a really good game. Excellent graphics, story line and game play

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

You don't need to start from scratch.

That's actually a very decent computer. The Q6600 at stock speeds is too slow but overclocked, is comparable to a modern 4 core CPU. With a Asus P5K Deluxe, 3.0GHz is almost 100% guaranteed (IIRC, possibly even at stock voltage) with 3.2-3.4GHz also in the realm of possibility. My old Q6600 was at 3.6GHz.

At those speeds, it stops being a GPU bottleneck and you can upgrade to a modern mid-range video card.

I very much beg to differ. The e8500 (in an Asus P5N-D) I swapped out of my wife's PC was overclocked to 4.0 on air (yes it was loud), and was literally getting 25-30 fps @ 1680x1050 in most modern games with a 570. Switching to a modern mainboard, a modern CPU and DDR3 had such an intense change to the overall effectiveness of the videocard it can't be understated. This goes double for games that are more CPU intensive like MMOs and Civ 5 (or Sim City upcoming).

This is also keeping in mind that an e8500 (esp at a 4.0 OC) has better gaming performance than a q6600. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=55

Hell, look at the FPS differences between a q6600 at stock (worse for OCing) to a 2500k at stock (can OC up to 4.5 without breaking a sweat). http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=288

It's almost a 50% difference with the same hardware other than the CPUs, and those tests were done at stock speeds with a GTX 280, which certainly has much less bandwidth than a modern GPU.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

For those who play Skyrim do you recomend doing the add ons thru steam or downloading? I subscribed to the add ons on the steam link for the workshop but I swear none of them are actually working!

I did a quick search for you. Apparently Steam Workshop has some issues. Check to see if this works:

http://www.giantbomb.com/the-elder-s...ot-ins-540477/

If not there is a thread on the Steam forums which may have an answer for you.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...2531565&page=3

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by CubicleGeek

Whether the flagship 7series ends up coming close to the Titan is moot. There's really only a few reasons to buy a Titan that I can think of:

• Quad SLI running 4x680 or 2x690 isn't fast enough and you plan to run 3-way or 4-way SLI Titans.
• Power/noise/thermo matters - maybe you're trying to stuff that thing into a mini-ATX/ITX case.
• Bragging rights <-- Nothing wrong with that btw

The thing costs twice as much as a 680 for 50% better performance and the 690 outperforms the thing by about 20% for the same price.

I'm actually eyeing the Titan for bullet 2. I've always wanted an HTPC that can run all the games I play with gamepad at max settings, 1920x1080 without breaking a sweat - I want the thing locked at 60+ fps. The problem has always been noise. I'm currently running 3x6970's on my main rig and it sounds like an aircraft when it is pushed - I would not want that thing in my living room.

that's actually not entirely accurate. the 690 offers higher peak FPS in some games, after Nvidia works on SLI profiles for them. but the Titan offers a more consistent, smoother framerate and will always outperform dual-GPU cards on newly released games that don't have SLI profiles created. that's exactly why i'm eying it, i have dual 460's right now and SLI just isn't worth it

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

I very much beg to differ. The e8500 (in an Asus P5N-D) I swapped out of my wife's PC was overclocked to 4.0 on air (yes it was loud), and was literally getting 25-30 fps @ 1680x1050 in most modern games with a 570. Switching to a modern mainboard, a modern CPU and DDR3 had such an intense change to the overall effectiveness of the videocard it can't be understated. This goes double for games that are more CPU intensive like MMOs and Civ 5 (or Sim City upcoming).

This is also keeping in mind that an e8500 (esp at a 4.0 OC) has better gaming performance than a q6600. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=55

Hell, look at the FPS differences between a q6600 at stock (worse for OCing) to a 2500k at stock (can OC up to 4.5 without breaking a sweat). http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=288

It's almost a 50% difference with the same hardware other than the CPUs, and those tests were done at stock speeds with a GTX 280, which certainly has much less bandwidth than a modern GPU.

The Anandtech games are using old games that don't take advantage of more than two cores (if even one!). That was from back in the era when people were still giving out the advice to stick to dual core CPUs because quad cores made no difference in gaming. It's the other way around these days...BF3 is a good example of that.

I own a Q6600, E8400 (and a dozen more s775 CPUs), and several 2500Ks (all doing about 5GHz). If I was still on my Q6600 and never went to a 2500K, I honestly would still be happy with the performance with the overclocked Q6600, especially if the budget is important.

In my testing with the Q6600 @ 3.6GHz, e8400 at 3.8GHz, and 2500K at 5.0GHz, the Q6600 beat the E8400 and gave a comparable experience to a stock 2500K in modern games that utilize multiple cores well. In ancient games, the Q6600 doesn't shine as much. I doubt he's playing ancient games. These experiments were done with a single ATI 5870 back then. I wouldn't recommend anything more powerful than that with an overclocked Q6600. When I added an additional 5870 in Crossfire, the Q6600 did bottleneck. A single 5870 however is already twice as powerful as his 8800 Ultra.

Overclocking + small investment in mid-range card = $150-$200 cost.

Throwing out entire system because the old architecture isn't good enough = $1000 cost

That said, if you are going for a dual card setup or higher end modern card, the CPU would still be a bottleneck but the point is that a Q6600 still has plenty of life left in it for gaming and especially with modern games that more effectively use multiple cores, it's still a damn good CPU.

You could buy a higher end GPU, pair it with an overclocked Q6600 and be a happy gamer for quite some time. Then later on when you have more funds, you could build a new rig and carry the GPU over.

That's just my opinion from a budget-minded and non-wasting good hardware point of view. That said, if you have the $$$ today, upgrading to a modern CPU and motherboard would be awesome too.

Ultimately, the overclocking option is a free option you can try right now to see if it gets you to a level where you don't have to throw out the old system and spend $1000. The rest is up to you but I honestly think that an OC'd Q6600 plus a midrange card that is about twice the speed of the 8800 Ultra would be fine.

[Brannigans Law]

One thing I would suggest too is when you are upgrading to a nice gaming rig your also getting a vastly superiour windows experience. my computer loads in 6~ seconds and everything is so crisp and excellent. its like a new girlfriend every few years.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

One thing I would suggest too is when you are upgrading to a nice gaming rig your also getting a vastly superiour windows experience. my computer loads in 6~ seconds and everything is so crisp and excellent. its like a new girlfriend every few years.

Keep in mind, that has to do with the SSD more so than anything else. A modern computer without an SSD is going to take about as long.

[SebC]

I'm very interested in this Q6600 debate... I have a Q6600 paired with a 560 Ti. Sounds like I might get some pretty big FPS gains from overclocking?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by SebC

I'm very interested in this Q6600 debate... I have a Q6600 paired with a 560 Ti. Sounds like I might get some pretty big FPS gains from overclocking?

I believe we already had this discussion a year or two ago

I did notice a good benefit going from 2.4 GHz (stock) to 3.6GHz but that's to be expected given the massive clockspeed increase. The benefit applied most to games and engines that could take advantage of all four cores.

If anything, it's totally free to try. I could hit 3.0GHz at undervolt! (lower than stock voltage) and my chip is one of the bad original batch Q6600s that are power hungry.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I did notice a good benefit going from 2.4 GHz (stock) to 3.6GHz but that's to be expected given the massive clockspeed increase. The benefit applied most to games and engines that could take advantage of all four cores.

Well, if we're talking a % increase in performance equal to the % overclock, I don't care too much. If it could somehow synergize with the GPU and giver me a % performance boost greater than the % overclock, that would get my attention.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by SebC

Well, if we're talking a % increase in performance equal to the % overclock, I don't care too much. If it could somehow synergize with the GPU and giver me a % performance boost greater than the % overclock, that would get my attention.

I don't understand what you are saying. Overclocking is free. Just try it out and benchmark before and after.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Overclocking + small investment in mid-range card = $150-$200 cost.

Throwing out entire system because the old architecture isn't good enough = $1000 cost

That said, if you are going for a dual card setup or higher end modern card, the CPU would still be a bottleneck but the point is that a Q6600 still has plenty of life left in it for gaming and especially with modern games that more effectively use multiple cores, it's still a damn good CPU.

You could buy a higher end GPU, pair it with an overclocked Q6600 and be a happy gamer for quite some time. Then later on when you have more funds, you could build a new rig and carry the GPU over.

That's just my opinion from a budget-minded and non-wasting good hardware point of view. That said, if you have the $$$ today, upgrading to a modern CPU and motherboard would be awesome too.

Ultimately, the overclocking option is a free option you can try right now to see if it gets you to a level where you don't have to throw out the old system and spend $1000. The rest is up to you but I honestly think that an OC'd Q6600 plus a midrange card that is about twice the speed of the 8800 Ultra would be fine.

$1000 is what I figured a new build would cost. I don't have that money today. So I was curious if buying a new GPU would be worth it all. Seems like it might be. I found your post about overclocking. So I will try to do that this week and see how it goes.

What kind of card would you recommend for mid and high? I would prefer to have a Nvidia card but if the savings are enough I would go ATI.

[vektor]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

For those who play Skyrim do you recomend doing the add ons thru steam or downloading? I subscribed to the add ons on the steam link for the workshop but I swear none of them are actually working!

Which addons? The mods? If you want mods use nexus mod manager, it installs and uninstalls files seemlessly and takes away 100% of the hard work if that's what you're looking for.