# Jump to intel



## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 4, 2012)

im looking to make the switch from AMD to intel.

here is what I have so far... any suggestions? I dont want to go over 500.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

*CPU:* Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
*CPU Cooler:* Noctua NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM  CPU Cooler  ($59.99 @ NCIX US) 
*Motherboard:* ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
*Memory:* Mushkin Blackline 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($88.98 @ NCIX US) 
*Total:* $463.95
_(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)_
_(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-04 16:50 EDT-0400)_


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## Fourstaff (Sep 4, 2012)

So what are you going to do with the FX8150 then? You can reuse the Hyper 520 and the ram if you wish, and get 3570K if its the same price as the 2500K


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## erocker (Sep 4, 2012)

I don't see the point unless you plan on using more than one GPU.


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Sep 4, 2012)

Ditch the 2500k, and get a 3570k or better.


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## Fourstaff (Sep 4, 2012)

TacoTown said:


> Ditch the 2500k, and get a 3570k or better.



But 2500K and 3570K are the same


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## erocker (Sep 4, 2012)

Fourstaff said:


> But 2500K and 3570K are the same



No they aren't. Check reviews as clock for clock the 3570K is faster.


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## Athlon2K15 (Sep 4, 2012)

if you need a cpu cooler i have two you can choose from and ill give it to you for the cost of shipping


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## Soup (Sep 4, 2012)

I'd get 8GB of faster ram instead of the 16GB


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## Crap Daddy (Sep 4, 2012)

Get a new GPU.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 4, 2012)

Keep your memory and cooler and just get a Ivy Bridge 3570k and motherboard. Or screw going intel right now and just get a new GPU. It'll help you more in gaming then doing a CPU/platform change.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 4, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> Get a new GPU.



see the thing is, half the time people tell me to upgrade my GPU. the other half of the time people tell me to keep the 5850 and swithc to intel cause it will improved my FPS by 5-10 FPS. the big issue i have right now is with Arma II bottlenecking. Hence why Im interested in switching from my FX-8120 to intel.


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## Soup (Sep 4, 2012)

660Ti or 670 will be far more helpful than a new cpu


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## Dent1 (Sep 4, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> im looking to make the switch from AMD to intel.
> 
> here is what I have so far... any suggestions? I dont want to go over 500.
> 
> ...





Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> see the thing is, half the time people tell me to upgrade my GPU. the other half of the time people tell me to keep the 5850 and swithc to intel cause it will improved my FPS by 5-10 FPS. the big issue i have right now is with Arma II bottlenecking. Hence why Im interested in switching from my FX-8120 to intel.




Keep what you've got. The FX-8120  is still pretty high end, it can't bottleneck a single GPU. 

Switch to Intel you'll probably get the same frame rate, maybe a slight improvement like <5FPS average, I doubt any improvement noticeable to justify spending $500. Not sure how multi threaded Arma II is but you might even get less FPS.

Upgrade just the GPU. It's the only way to guarantee a FPS improvement in high double digits.

(also it's not the best time to be switching sockets. Piledriver is a few months away. It might be a quick and cheap upgrade solution if you decide to change the CPU alone)


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## Crap Daddy (Sep 4, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> see the thing is, half the time people tell me to upgrade my GPU. the other half of the time people tell me to keep the 5850 and swithc to intel cause it will improved my FPS by 5-10 FPS. the big issue i have right now is with Arma II bottlenecking. Hence why Im interested in switching from my FX-8120 to intel.



How would you explain that bottleneck? Isn't your 5850 under 99% load in game?


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 4, 2012)

Ducky you hould have just listened to everyone in team speak telling you to send your msi GTX670 back for a refund to buy the Non Reference gigabyte.


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## Fourstaff (Sep 4, 2012)

erocker said:


> No they aren't. Check reviews as clock for clock the 3570K is faster.



But 2500K clocks higher runs cooler etcetcetc... 

They are more or less the same, similar enough for me to recommend getting the cheaper of the two or 3570K if price is within spitting distance.


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## cadaveca (Sep 4, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> How would you explain that bottleneck? Isn't your 5850 under 99% load in game?



Why does an AMD A8-3800 APU beat out an 1100T?







Can you explain THAT bottleneck?




Fourstaff said:


> But 2500K clocks higher runs cooler etcetcetc...
> 
> They are more or less the same, similar enough for me to recommend getting the cheaper of the two or 3570K if price is within spitting distance.




2500K DOES NOT RUN COOLER.

Yes, 3570k reports higher temperatures, but it is against physics for 3570k to run "hotter", when it consumes less power.

That drop in power consumption is pretty big, too.


Ivybridge CPUs have far higher memory speeds possible, too, and memory performance out of the box is faster, which si a big part of why Ivy excels VS Sandy.


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## erocker (Sep 4, 2012)

Regardless, the CPU he currently has is fine for ArmA 2 and Battlefield 2, etc. http://www.guru3d.com/article/battlefield-3-vga-and-cpu-performance-benchmark-test/3

I'm quite sure the performance issues that are going on are due to a driver/software issue, graphics settings are too high for the video card or the servers being played on have some networking/memory leak issues.


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## Durvelle27 (Sep 4, 2012)

your setup is perfectly fine for a single or multi gpu set up just upgrade the HD 5850 you'll get more of an improvement


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## Benetanegia (Sep 4, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Yes, 3570k reports higher temperatures, but it is against physics for 3570k to run "hotter", when it consumes less power.



Not really. Less power but concentrated on a smaller area results in higher temps. 

However it's the crappy paste instead of solder what makes temps high afaik.


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## Fourstaff (Sep 4, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> 2500K DOES NOT RUN COOLER.
> 
> Yes, 3570k reports higher temperatures, but it is against physics for 3570k to run "hotter", when it consumes less power.



I will have to disagree with you there, 2500K does indeed run cooler than the 3570 due to the poor heat dissipating powers of the 3570K. My 25w soldering iron is far hotter than my 65w cpu, care to explain that? 

But yes, the 3570K is superior compared to the 2500K in almost all measures, only if you choose to utilise them. Getting 1600Mhz ram? Not too much different between 2500k/3570K. Using 1866Mhz ram? 3570K wins hands down. You have a good heatsink? 3570K clocks almost as good as 2500K, and wins hands down. Sticking with stock clocks? 3570K stock is better than 2500K stock.


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## Soup (Sep 4, 2012)

http://www.techpowerup.com/165882/TIM-is-Behind-Ivy-Bridge-Temperatures-After-All.html


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 4, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> How would you explain that bottleneck? Isn't your 5850 under 99% load in game?


Actually for some reason most of the time the GPU lists as running under ~14% load with graphics set high with AA off and AF maxed. 



MxPhenom 216 said:


> Ducky you hould have just listened to everyone in team speak telling you to send your msi GTX670 back for a refund to buy the Non Reference gigabyte.



I would have but my laptop died and I use that for school. School is more important than a GPU.


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## Durvelle27 (Sep 4, 2012)

is your cpu overclocked


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## Benetanegia (Sep 4, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> Actually for some reason most of the time the GPU lists as running under ~14% load with graphics set high with AA off and AF maxed.



That is not CPU bottleneck. It's something else. Have you tried different drivers?


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 4, 2012)

AthlonX2 said:


> if you need a cpu cooler i have two you can choose from and ill give it to you for the cost of shipping



what coolers do you have? I think my current one is a bit dated for my CPU. Might make it run better if i can keep it cooler.


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Sep 4, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> That is not CPU bottleneck. It's something else. Have you tried different drivers?



It's because Arma 2 Is utter shit, thousands of people all have this problem, and there is almost nothing the user can do to fix it. It seems to go away after a while anyway.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 4, 2012)

Durvelle27 said:


> is your cpu overclocked



nope it is stock clocked. I dont think my cooler can support OCing the 8120.


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## Athlon2K15 (Sep 4, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> what coolers do you have? I think my current one is a bit dated for my CPU. Might make it run better if i can keep it cooler.



Arctic i30,and Arctic Freezer 13 Pro


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## Benetanegia (Sep 4, 2012)

TacoTown said:


> It's because Arma 2 Is utter shit, thousands of people all have this problem, and there is almost nothing the user can do to fix it. It seems to go away after a while anyway.



It might be.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 4, 2012)

Ok so, which GPU is better bang for buck that should last me another couple of years (my 5850 is ~3 years old) the 660 TI or the 670?


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## Durvelle27 (Sep 4, 2012)

a FX can be oced to 4.2GHz on stock so you should be fine. to get the most performance out of a FX cpu you must oc. a HD 7950 would be the best bang for your buck 

edit: i had my cpu oced @4.4GHz on stock with no problems upgraded to a hyper 212+ so i could go higher but board wouldn't let me


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## Fourstaff (Sep 4, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> Ok so, which GPU is better bang for buck that should last me another couple of years (my 5850 is ~3 years old) the 660 TI or the 670?



7870, 7950, 7970, 660Ti, 670, 580 look at your shop, compare price/perf with wiz's charts, and then get one. Adjust accordingly if you are thinking CF/SLi, power consumption etc.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

Durvelle27 said:


> a FX can be oced to 4.2GHz on stock so you should be fine. to get the most performance out of a FX cpu you must oc. a HD 7950 would be the best bang for your buck
> 
> edit: i had my cpu oced @4.4GHz on stock with no problems upgraded to a hyper 212+ so i could go higher but board wouldn't let me



On my current cooler I just OC'd to 3673 Mhz @ 237x15.5

Any higher and it fails.


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## erocker (Sep 5, 2012)

Buying new hardware isn't going to fix your problem. First, follow this guide: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502

Make sure Windows is up to date.
Make sure your motherboard chipset drivers are installed: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

erocker said:


> Buying new hardware isn't going to fix your problem. First, follow this guide: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502
> 
> Make sure Windows is up to date.
> Make sure your motherboard chipset drivers are installed: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx



windows is up to date and all the drivers are too. i just updated the GPU drivers again just to make sure.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Just get this card and be done with it. GTX670 with GTX680 PCB for $390 Free Shipping.

EVGA 02G-P4-2676-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE 2GB 256...

Along with some CPU overclocking.


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## Durvelle27 (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> On my current cooler I just OC'd to 3673 Mhz @ 237x15.5
> 
> Any higher and it fails.



ok try this FSB 200 and multiplier 21x


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Durvelle27 said:


> ok try this FSB 200 and multiplier 21x



He may need some voltage tweaking on other things other then the vcore now though too.


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## MT Alex (Sep 5, 2012)

What in the heck?  I thought you already purchased a 670 that wasn't running right?  You didn't get a new one and just returned it?  Why do I constantly find myself asking you these type of questions?


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

MT Alex said:


> What in the heck?  I thought you already purchased a 670 that wasn't running right?  You didn't get a new one and just returned it?  Why do I constantly find myself asking you these type of questions?



Because he doesn't listen to anything we tell him directly in TS. LOL


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

MT Alex said:


> What in the heck?  I thought you already purchased a 670 that wasn't running right?  You didn't get a new one and just returned it?  Why do I constantly find myself asking you these type of questions?


you dont listen on TS when i tell you. ^_^



MxPhenom 216 said:


> Because he doesn't listen to anything we tell him directly in TS. LOL



Actually i do. If you read or listened to anything i say ( like usual you dont), you would have noticed that i mentioned that my laptop for school died so when my GPU failed because it was factory underclocked instead of factory overclocked, I sent it back to newegg for refund and replaced my laptop instead.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> you dont listen on TS when i tell you. ^_^
> 
> 
> 
> Actually i do. If you read or listened to anything i say ( like usual you dont), you would have noticed that i mentioned that my laptop for school died so when my GPU failed because it was factory underclocked instead of factory overclocked, I sent it back to newegg for refund and replaced my laptop instead.



No i read and know about all of that. What I don't know and don't remember you ever saying is did you even attempt to fix the underclocking issue. I had the same issue with my 680 till I updated to newer Beta drivers and updated to the new version of Evga Precision X. It would cap at about 750mhz in games and everything else till I did all that. Now it runs at 1200.


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## erocker (Sep 5, 2012)

Folks telling you to upgrade your hardware have no clue what they are talking about here. 14% GPU usage is not a bottleneck, it is a problem with your system and most likely software/driver related.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> No i read and know about all of that. What I don't know and don't remember you ever saying is did you even attempt to fix the underclocking issue. I had the same issue with my 680 till I updated to newer Beta drivers and updated to the new version of Evga Precision X. It would cap at about 750mhz in games and everything else till I did all that. Now it runs at 1200.



yes i tried new drivers with no luck


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> yes i tried new drivers with no luck



Did you try updating what you were using to monitor the GPU clocks? Like i said updated Precision X corrected it.


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## cadaveca (Sep 5, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> Not really. Less power but concentrated on a smaller area results in higher temps.
> 
> However it's the crappy paste instead of solder what makes temps high afaik.




Try popping the lid, and it's fine. 

I find most reports of high temps are running 1.3 V through these chips...THAT is why they "run hot". 




Fourstaff said:


> I will have to disagree with you there, 2500K does indeed run cooler than the 3570 due to the poor heat dissipating powers of the 3570K. My 25w soldering iron is far hotter than my 65w cpu, care to explain that?



Really? Why don't YOU explain it? 


Ivybridge doesn't have ANY heat issues. It's even got a higher tjMAX, yet lower TDP. Have you even used one of these chips?




Fourstaff said:


> But yes, the 3570K is superior compared to the 2500K in almost all measures, only if you choose to utilise them. Getting 1600Mhz ram? Not too much different between 2500k/3570K. Using 1866Mhz ram? 3570K wins hands down. You have a good heatsink? 3570K clocks almost as good as 2500K, and wins hands down. Sticking with stock clocks? 3570K stock is better than 2500K stock.



Again, memory write performance with some workloads, at all speeds, is much better on Ivy then Sandy...to the tune of 33%.



erocker said:


> 14% GPU usage is not a bottleneck, it is a problem with your system and most likely software/driver related.



This ^.

Figure out why you are only getting 14% GPU usage instead of much more, and you'll find the problem affecting ARMA II performance.

Your CPU does in fact bottleneck your GPU a bit, in comparison to Intel chips, with their higher memory bandwidth, and yes, it affects framerates in a few games. However, as I psoted above, F1 2010 performs FASTER, with a much "slower" CPU, so don't choose a single title as the reason to just write off your current system.



If I was you, I'd save up until I could buy a COMPLETE new system...motherboard, GPU, memory, PSU, HDD...ALL OF IT. What you have now is not optimal, but it's more than fine for what you need it for.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Ducky if your getting 14% GPU usage in games I think you should just reformat your system and install windows cleanly. Theres something really messed up going on that I dont think jsut updating drivers is going to change. You most likely still have your nvidia drivers(from 670), old AMD drivers from however old ago, etc that is causing your issues. And no amount of Registry changes, Driver Sweeping can't really change.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Ducky if your getting 14% GPU usage in games I think you should just reformat your system and install windows cleanly. Theres something really messed up going on that I dont think jsut updating drivers is going to change. You most likely still have your nvidia drivers(from 670), old AMD drivers from however old ago, etc that is causing your issues. And no amount of Registry changes, Driver Sweeping can't really change.



I can assure you it is not that (old GPU nvidia drivers). but if you are sure it is that I'd be more than willing to let someone poke around remotely.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> I can assure you it is not that (old GPU nvidia drivers). but if you are sure it is that I'd be more than willing to let someone poke around remotely.



Did you do a clean windows install when you put the HD5850 back in? Id not then the nvidia drivers may be cause your problem.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Did you do a clean windows install when you put the HD5850 back in? Id not then the nvidia drivers may be cause your problem.



it was a clean one


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

eh, regardless you said in TS that it was only DayZ and that one server. I wouldn't worry about it if its just one game you play, and that one server out of 4000.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

So out of this discussion (which has been extremly helpful) I have found that the only 2 things currenly holding back my system is:

My Graphics Card aka ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
My CPU Fan aka CoolerMaster Hyper N520

Suggestions for staying under 500 and still getting best performance?
The CPU cooler upgrade is to support increasing CPU clocks safely for a nice boost. 
My current CPU cooler is > 2years old now. i got it back when i purchased my 955BE.


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## Fourstaff (Sep 5, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Really? Why don't YOU explain it?


Rate of heat dissipation is lower, so the temperature gradient needs to be higher to dissipate the same amount of energy. Physics, y u no learn them? 



cadaveca said:


> Ivybridge doesn't have ANY heat issues. It's even got a higher tjMAX, yet lower TDP. Have you even used one of these chips?


No I haven't used both chips at the same time, only playing with one and the other a year apart or so. They are sufficiently similar to me to warrant getting the cheaper of the two if I am doing the shopping, and if the price difference is below $10 get the Ivy Bridge. 



cadaveca said:


> Again, memory write performance with some workloads, at all speeds, is much better on Ivy then Sandy...to the tune of 33%.


I will take your word for that, given that you do run much more tests than I do. Not sure how they translate to real life performance though, I haven't used any application which is memory bottlenecked.


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## Horrux (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> see the thing is, half the time people tell me to upgrade my GPU. the other half of the time people tell me to keep the 5850 and swithc to intel cause it will improved my FPS by 5-10 FPS. the big issue i have right now is with Arma II bottlenecking. Hence why Im interested in switching from my FX-8120 to intel.



I dunno man, I had problems with ArmA II with a 2600k and GTX 570 SLI. The GPUs were somewhere around 50% utilization... Then I updated my graphics drivers, and the GPU utilization jumped, and now I'm running 60 fps pretty much all the time, with vsync on. It is true that ArmA II, as complex and ambitious a piece of code as it is, lacks optimization and has many problems that will never be fixed by anything other than the devs themselves, in a perfect world. And it ain't.

So I dunno, your need for higher performance might be driver-related, or simply bad-software-related, seriously. My other system runs ArmA II fine and it's a Phenom II x4 965 with 4gb of DDR2 ram and a GTX 460 768mb.

Frankly, I think if you are going to upgrade your CPU, you should get a piledriver, which is going to be 30% faster than the current FX series. Plenty of good power there, and possibly a cheap upgrade.


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## brandonwh64 (Sep 5, 2012)

ducky, I love ya brother but we tried to get you to get a intel setup when you built yours but you wanted to stay AMD since you were already 965BE. I really think you need to go back 670 and get a good reference card like gigabyte, sapphire, ASUS, or XFX.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

Horrux said:


> I dunno man, I had problems with ArmA II with a 2600k and GTX 570 SLI. The GPUs were somewhere around 50% utilization... Then I updated my graphics drivers, and the GPU utilization jumped, and now I'm running 60 fps pretty much all the time, with vsync on. It is true that ArmA II, as complex and ambitious a piece of code as it is, lacks optimization and has many problems that will never be fixed by anything other than the devs themselves, in a perfect world. And it ain't.
> 
> So I dunno, your need for higher performance might be driver-related, or simply bad-software-related, seriously. My other system runs ArmA II fine and it's a Phenom II x4 965 with 4gb of DDR2 ram and a GTX 460 768mb.
> 
> Frankly, I think if you are going to upgrade your CPU, you should get a piledriver, which is going to be 30% faster than the current FX series. Plenty of good power there, and possibly a cheap upgrade.



Thanks for the input. i love AMD for the low cost and good performance it offers. The last intel i owned for desktop was P4. 



brandonwh64 said:


> ducky, I love ya brother but we tried to get you to get a intel setup when you built yours but you wanted to stay AMD since you were already 965BE. I really think you need to go back 670 and get a good reference card like gigabyte, sapphire, ASUS, or XFX.


I plan on getting a 670. i just dont know ANYTHING about Nvidia cards anymore. I can not select a good card (my last card i selected was a dud). If i get a 670 soon, i need someone to select one for me that will last me as long as my 5850 has.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Get a better GPU and then if you really want to, get a better cooler so you can play with overclocking.

Get this GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2676-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE 2GB 256...

Your last card was a dud because it was a MSI and reference. Reference 670s are cheaply designed like the whole 570/580 thing.

Get a 670 that is non refernece with either a custom PCB like the Asus DirectCUIIs or Evga GTW cards wit hthe GTX680 PCB with the 670 GPU on it.


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## erocker (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> So out of this discussion (which has been extremly helpful) I have found that the only 2 things currenly holding back my system is:
> 
> My Graphics Card aka ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
> My CPU Fan aka CoolerMaster Hyper N520
> ...



Nope. Driver/software conflicts/problems. That being said going from a 5850 to a 670 is a good upgrade regardless.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Get a better GPU and then if you really want to, get a better cooler so you can play with overclocking.
> 
> Get this GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2676-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE 2GB 256...
> 
> ...



Is EVGA a good Nvidia Card company? I noticed some said to go with Sapphire, XFX, Gigabyte, or ASUS.


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## cadaveca (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> So out of this discussion (which has been extremly helpful) I have found that the only 2 things currenly holding back my system is:
> 
> My Graphics Card aka ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
> My CPU Fan aka CoolerMaster Hyper N520



Uh...how?

I'll tell you my son uses a 5850 to game on @ 1080p, says it's great. He's almost done every single quest in Skyrim on that card.


Specifically when it comes to ARMA II...ARMA II came out in 2009. GUess when the 5850 was new?

You might want ot try a driver form back then to fix your ARMA performance issues.

OF course, you could buy a new VGA, stick it in the rig, and be stuck with the same issues..oh wait..you already tried that.


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## TheMailMan78 (Sep 5, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Uh...how?
> 
> I'll tell you my son uses a 5850 to game on @ 1080p, says it's great. He's almost done every single quest in Skyrim on that card.
> 
> ...



He using my old 5850?!


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> Is EVGA a good Nvidia Card company? I noticed some said to go with Sapphire, XFX, Gigabyte, or ASUS.



Evga is the only company I go to for Nvidia cards.

And Sapphire and XFX don't even make Nvidia cards. I ussually go Asus and Evga. Evga more often. Mainly because of their customer service and ive never had a bad Evga GPU.


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## johnnyfiive (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> im looking to make the switch from AMD to intel.
> here is what I have so far... any suggestions? I dont want to go over 500....




1) Get a EVGA 670 (they have the best customer service and warranty service for graphics cards, hands down).
2) Get a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for $25.
3) You should still have $75-$100 left. Maybe get some faster memory 1866 or 2133 8Gb kit.
4) Reinstall Windows.
5) Throw your expectations of ARMA II (DayZ) running 100% bug free and smooth because its probably using the worst coded game engine known to mankind.

*Fact:* A 2500k or 3570k easily beats a 8120 or 8150 in basically every game. Everyone knows that. When you initially bought the 8120, you should have considered the benchmarks and known you're buying an inferior gaming processor. At 1080p, the increase in _most_ games that Sandy and Ivy Bridge provide is usually 5-10fps. In heavy CPU games (like StarCraft 2), the Intel offerings look MUCH better. But again, we all know this.

Upgrading your GPU should help plenty with any modern CPU. Theres no real need to flip your entire rig for today's games. When Crysis 3 comes out though, that'll change.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Uh...how?
> 
> I'll tell you my son uses a 5850 to game on @ 1080p, says it's great. He's almost done every single quest in Skyrim on that card.
> 
> ...



Ah, I was not stuck with the same issues. the card was a dud so I was not able to test it for the same "issues". I like my 5850 for being a solid card for so long. i will most likely hang on to it for a backup or hook up one of my friends with it. Most of my friends are not Hardcore PC gamers. Mainly sticking to titles like WoW and AoE or Red Alert. Perhaps even a game or 2 of Civilization ^_^



johnnyfiive said:


> 1) Get a EVGA 670 (they have the best customer service and warranty service for graphics cards, hands down).
> 2) Get a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for $25.
> 3) You should still have $75-$100 left. Maybe get some faster memory 1866 or 2133 8Gb kit.
> 4) Reinstall Windows.
> ...



Thanks for the tip on cards and coolers. I have toyed with the idea of running 2133 kit but am not sure how much difference in performance i would see. 
AlsoI dont expect DayZ / Arma II to be flawless. I have just noticed recently that I get tearing on the screen  (horizontal going up) and I would love to up the eye candy of the environment.


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## johnnyfiive (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> ...Thanks for the tip on cards and coolers. I have toyed with the idea of running 2133 kit but am not sure how much difference in performance i would see.
> AlsoI dont expect DayZ / Arma II to be flawless. I have just noticed recently that I get tearing on the screen  (horizontal going up) and I would love to up the eye candy of the environment.



Memory speed won't really be that noticeable, but it will increase the overall speed of the system, just not at the same level that an SSD would. Another plus for choosing nvidia over amd  is active sync. It should rid of the tearing issues you're having (Normal vsync should as well).


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

johnnyfiive said:


> Memory speed won't really be that noticeable, but it will increase the overall speed of the system, just not at the same level that an SSD would. Another plus for choosing nvidia over amd  is active sync. It should rid of the tearing issues you're having (Normal vsync should as well).



thanks for the info. I currently run an M4 128GB SSD so i have the SSD covered. ^_^


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 5, 2012)

johnnyfiive said:


> 1) Get a EVGA 670 (they have the best customer service and warranty service for graphics cards, hands down).
> 2) Get a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for $25.
> 3) You should still have $75-$100 left. Maybe get some faster memory 1866 or 2133 8Gb kit.
> 4) Reinstall Windows.
> ...



This get that Evga GTX670 FTW LE card and a cooler. Reinstall windows and call it a day.


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## cadaveca (Sep 5, 2012)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> Mainly sticking to titles like WoW and AoE or Red Alert. Perhaps even a game or 2 of Civilization ^_^



Then you really don't need to upgrade your VGA.  Maybe buy a new pair of shoes, or something.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Sep 5, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Then you really don't need to upgrade your VGA.  Maybe buy a new pair of shoes, or something.



they play those games not me


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