Should i Upgrade?

[Froger]

Hi, iv got a Asus Z68 MOBO and i was wondering if i should upgrade to Z77 if im going to buy a i5 3570k and a AMD hd 7950 (going to do 2-way Crossfire)
for gaming and photo editing, most likely going to watercool but deciding whether to upgrade mobo before watercooling.
Spec right NOW:
Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3
Intel i3 2120
crucial 1333mhz 4Gb (1 dimm)
coolermaster 450w PSU (getting it upgraded aswell)
3x HDD
64Gb SSD
some optical drive thing
thanks in advance

 

[RadeonHDx]

If you waited a couple of months you could get Haswell?

 

[Froger]

how would that compare to ivy bridge? but considering thats a new socket, in theory, once that comes out, then the price of ivy bridge and sandy bridge will go down.

 

[airdeano]

cant assume that on pricing.. when AMD BD came out then Vishera the pricing
didn't really move around a lot.

as to Z68 to Z77 switch from your components it'd be a lateral move, but be poorer.
that GEN3 has ivey support and PCIe 3.0 so just add your IB CPU and done.
cant swing a new IB CPU, then a used 2500k and you are running with the dogs.

whats making you consider upgrading? ill frame rates, bottle-necking, or time
change?

you'd be better to wait for the reviews on 1150 to make a better cost effective
choice. but if you have to have something now.. i5-2500k and your CFX 7950
is pretty upper tier hardware.

but you'll deffo look into better support hardware RAM, PSU and cooling.

 

[s3ns3]

Hi, iv got a Asus Z68 MOBO and i was wondering if i should upgrade to Z77 if im going to buy a i5 3570k and a AMD hd 7950 (going to do 2-way Crossfire)

Nope,a Z77 board is not needed ,get just the i5 and whatever card.z68 is a good OC chipset and i don`t know why do ppl buy these boards for an i3?WHY ? for a later upgrade to a K cpu ,right? so yeah.

 

[Froger]

Nope,a Z77 board is not needed ,get just the i5 and whatever card.z68 is a good OC chipset and i don`t know why do ppl buy these boards for an i3?WHY ? for a later upgrade to a K cpu ,right? so yeah.

the only reason i got an i3 is because ram, mobo and cpu were all put together in a bundle.

also, i only thought about it as if i watercool, then it would be hard to change any components, so it would be better to do it now, but if it doesnt matter then il keep what i got.
and on the AMD's BD thing, BD was really bad when it first came out so didnt the prices drop like stones quickly, and so couldnt go much lower for vishera, but what about the prices drop when going from lga 1156 to 1155?

 

[alienware]

and a AMD hd 7950 (going to do 2-way Crossfire)

I've got a better idea. Why don't you take £225 in fresh five pound notes and take it down to the bottom of your garden before pouring on some petrol and setting it on fire?

Have you read and understood the runt/dropped frame article?

You may aswell piss your money away on hoes and beer than spend it on Crossfire.

 

[alpenwasser]

how would that compare to ivy bridge? but considering thats a new socket, in theory, once that comes out, then the price of ivy bridge and sandy bridge will go down.

As deano mentioned, can't count on that. Where I live, Sandy Bridge prices
have remained pretty stable since Ivy was introduced. They've dropped a bit
but not significantly.

I've got a better idea. Why don't you take £225 in fresh five pound notes and take it down to the bottom of your garden before pouring on some petrol and setting it on fire?

When I read "fresh 5 GBP notes" I expected something involving a stripper to
follow; not sure why :lol:

Have you read and understood the runt/dropped frame article?

I think there are quite a few people out there who have not yet done so.

You may aswell piss your money away on hoes and beer than spend it on Crossfire.

Well, we got some hoes instead of strippers, that will do :lol:

 

[alienware]

:lol:

 

[Froger]

I've got a better idea. Why don't you take £225 in fresh five pound notes and take it down to the bottom of your garden before pouring on some petrol and setting it on fire?

Have you read and understood the runt/dropped frame article?

You may aswell piss your money away on hoes and beer than spend it on Crossfire.

may i refer you to an article in which i was comparing buying a 660 ti to a 7950, and alot of people said that the 7950 was better performance and better overall, i am not going to get the second card soon, i am saying about crossfire to give information on what my plans might be to help.
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=52120
i have not bought the video card yet, but leave you opinion in that thread about the crossfire thing and id like to see what other people have to say about it.
but crossfire might improve by time i get the second card for crossfire (if i do get a 7950)

 

[alpenwasser]

may i refer you to an article in which i was comparing buying a 660 ti to a 7950, and alot of people said that the 7950 was better performance and better overall, i am not going to get the second card soon, i am saying about crossfire to give information on what my plans might be to help.
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=52120
i have not bought the video card yet, but leave you opinion in that thread about the crossfire thing and id like to see what other people have to say about it.

The first article on frame rating by pcper.com came out on 2013-MAR-27, so it's
probable that many people who gave you advice in that original thread had not
yet found out about the frame rating issue (I suspect that there are still many
who are not aware of it, it's only been about two weeks, after all).

What was said in that thread is still true for the most part: the 7950 does have
better performance/money than a 660 Ti, at least for single card use. Crossfire
is however an entirely different story.

but crossfire might improve by time i get the second card for crossfire (if i do get a 7950)

That is true, however the guy who made the frame rating articles (Ryan Shrout)
has said that AMD have told him they expect to fix this issue over the summer,
so a solution for this problem is still a few months away (that is, provided it will
then actually work as intended).

 

[alienware]

may i refer you to an article in which i was comparing buying a 660 ti to a 7950, and alot of people said that the 7950 was better performance and better overall, i am not going to get the second card soon, i am saying about crossfire to give information on what my plans might be to help.
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=52120
i have not bought the video card yet, but leave you opinion in that thread about the crossfire thing and id like to see what other people have to say about it.
but crossfire might improve by time i get the second card for crossfire (if i do get a 7950)

A 7950 is much better than a 660ti. In fact, the 7950 actually out performs the 670 in a good few tests so comparing it to a 660ti is a bit off.

Crossfire as of now is a complete bust, hence my post. I was being jovial. However, what I said was true. Setting up Crossfire now is like burning money because it just doesn't work properly dude.

Maybe AMD will fix it? maybe they just can't. Ryan is going to test some older set ups soon to see how long this has been going on. Once he does that we can garner a good idea as to whether it has always been like that.

However me personally? I ain't holding my breath mate. AMD absolutely and utterly must know about this. End users and board partners? I doubt it. Companies such as MSI would not bother with this but AMD design the boards and surely they test them at low levels.

One thing AMD are good at with their GPUs is providing excellent value for money per performance. Sure, they totally took the piss at the start but prices are now where they should be. Sadly, for all that performance you can't really expect the drivers to be anywhere near as good as Nvidia's. With Nvidia you pay for a lot more than just raw performance and it really shows.

The very fact they pitched into FCAT and became involved just goes to show you the level at which they care about their drivers and insuring that what they are selling to people works 100% no matter what.

 

[Lakers]

If you waited a couple of months you could get Haswell?

Pointless.. As any newly released product, I assume Haswell will be expensive.

I've got a better idea. Why don't you take £225 in fresh five pound notes and take it down to the bottom of your garden before pouring on some petrol and setting it on fire?

Have you read and understood the runt/dropped frame article?

You may aswell piss your money away on hoes and beer than spend it on Crossfire.

So you're not a fan of Crossfire, be a man and suck it up.

 

[alpenwasser]

So you're not a fan of Crossfire, be a man and suck it up.

The problem is that crossfire has serious actual issues at the moment: read here.

It's a lot of reading, but it's as well documented as it can be, besides doing it in person
yourself. AMD have said they are working on it, but don't expect a solution for this until
sometime in summer or later.

The guy who did the test was interviewed on Linus' live stream a few weeks back and
explained the situation pretty well. There are also other sites who have been doing
similar tests, google for "frame rating" and related terms.

 

[Lakers]

Oh I see. I won't lie I didn't read the whole blog, but let's just hope they fix that soon then. And with that being said then I guess OP: Don't go with Crossfire. v_v