Advice on PC component upgrade

[chang]

Looking to upgrade my current set up. Its a couple of years old but with the plethora of options out there I am kinda out my gourd with it all

Attatched is a summary of my set up. 2 things have changed from the list. First is I've upgraded to a 160gb intel SSD and my display is an Asus MX299Q.

I do enjoy gaming on the PC but always opt for console gaming as anything I play on PC whilst runs at max specs there is always this flickering tearing going on. I tried installing program that hooks on when you start games and forces some sort of voodoo magic and these go away, but the downside to this is that while its operational Google Chrome crashes.

Google doesn't crash when I exit the program but I always forget to start it up again when I want to game.

Any advice that can be given much appreciated.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8JpB8qEkugE/U8PodJ5R0NI/AAAAAAAAB6k/eDJeAE7Ysus/s800/components.jpg

[eastyy]

the graphics card is still pretty good comparable to the amd 270x and nvidia 760. Would probably take a amd 280x or a nvidia 770 to give a bump but even then depending on the game would look at 10 to 20fps extra

Could not find to much information on the processor but seem its not to bad either. Might be a idea to at some point upgrade the motherboard and processor but i really doubt would be that much better.I had a quick look to see if there were better processors for the motherboard and there are but they were stupid prices ?400 +


Oh what happens when you AMD catalyst control center and set v-sync to always on ?

To be honest i would wait and see what happens with this whole adaptive sync/free sync/g-sync things that's what i am waiting for which i hope will eliminate screen tearing and stuttering

[Brad]

I don't think a hardware change is the solution to the tearing problem. For 99% of games (well, everything except Mass Effect in my case) turning on V-Sync in the game's settings = no screen tear and a steady framerate.

[chang]

the graphics card is still pretty good comparable to the amd 270x and nvidia 760. Would probably take a amd 280x or a nvidia 770 to give a bump but even then depending on the game would look at 10 to 20fps extra

Could not find to much information on the processor but seem its not to bad either. Might be a idea to at some point upgrade the motherboard and processor but i really doubt would be that much better.I had a quick look to see if there were better processors for the motherboard and there are but they were stupid prices ?400 +


Oh what happens when you AMD catalyst control center and set v-sync to always on ?

To be honest i would wait and see what happens with this whole adaptive sync/free sync/g-sync things that's what i am waiting for which i hope will eliminate screen tearing and stuttering

Thanks for posting mate. I had looked at getting another GPU the same and xfire them but I'm led to believe that it wont affect the memory in the set up much at all. The price of a card out of the 78XX series is relatively low but is it a false ecomony changing over for sake of an extra GB of memory?

If I set the settings you mentioned to always on it makes not a blind bit of difference, there is still the flickering tearing

[eastyy]

would not recommend cross fire some games work well but not many to give you a few examples

thief/hitman/ no difference

Skyrim was actually worse ....and there are games which seem to have high frame rates but they suffer from microstuttering which i really hated

What i did anyway for graphics card was i used dabs.com and got a used one a lot cheaper and you get a 6 month warranty i would have been really disappointed in performance if i paid full price

[chang]

Thanks for the advice guys. Quickly beginning to see that unless I put more money than is sensible (well for my needs anyway) that I wont get much of an improvement if any. Ill take a look at dabs.com used section. The R9 280X is cheaper than what I paid for my current card and a 3 game bonus haha.

[VR46]

Some decent deals on (new) R9 280 cards on HotUkDeals of late

http://www.hotukdeals.com/search?action=search&keywords=r9+280x

[eastyy]

thing is could probably stick the 7850 on ebay and get a reasonable price for it aswell

oh and the 280x is a little bit bit faster then the 280 (which is only a bit faster then a 270x)

I upgraded my 6950 (which i had in crossfire ) to a 270x

[Asura]

I don't think a hardware change is the solution to the tearing problem. For 99% of games (well, everything except Mass Effect in my case) turning on V-Sync in the game's settings = no screen tear and a steady framerate.

This.

If screen tearing is your main issue, turn on V-Sync. You can turn it on in most games and force it via your graphics card settings (though the latter option many cause crashes or other problems).

The problem with V-Sync is that while you have it on, you won't be able to have games render at an FPS higher than your monitor's refresh rate - so no 200fps games. However, your computer will almost certainly have a refresh of 60 or higher, meaning that you'll get 60fps as a maximum.

I tend to have it on, as I hate screen tearing.

There's a new range of cards and monitors incoming that sync the refresh rate of the monitor to the graphics card, I think it's called G-Sync? But those are probably still stupidly expensive.

[speedlolita]

You can get DIY g-sync kits for $200 currently.

[Digfox]

With regards to original question I would not upgrade that set-up personally but as ever it all depends on what software and games you are running etc. At that resolution ideally I would want to aim for a 780/780ti or 290/290X. However the 280X is a good upgrade choice if funds are limited (it's the 7970 rebadged).

I still use a i7 920 (slightly slower than your first gen iCore CPU) which for me is fine for playing at 1080p resolution on the games I play (not always the most demanding games but includes; FC3, Skyrim, BL2 etc.). I did buy a MSI 780 on the 23rd Dec which was a huge leap up from the AMD 6950 it replaced.

Personally I would wait for X99 (due later this year; LINK here or hold off until the next CPU refresh. Although you can always wait for something better, DDR4 has the potential to bring big performance gains and if you're fine on your current set-up why not squeeze some more life out of it. There are new graphic chips from Nvidia and AMD coming before the end of the year, but we don't know much about these.

With regards to V-Sync I used to always run it before my last monitor upgrade. However I didn't use a separate program and either forced through the AMD/Nvidia control panel or within the game itself. However when I purchased this 120hz Samsung monitor just over 2 years ago I have never felt the need to run V-Sync again. Simply put I don't notice tearing even when my PC struggles to hit 120FPS.

[eastyy]

my old monitor packed in using a back up one which is only 1280 x 1024

Waiting to see what monitors come out but never thought of a 120 hz one is it that much different ?

[Digfox]

It's a significant step up yes. I bought the Samsung S23A700D when Overclockers had them on offer 2 years ago (worked out at ?166 after the VAT cashback) which shared the same panel as it's more expensive cousins. The difference is essentially increased smoothness and responsiveness, even in simple desktop operations. It's not as noticeable as the jump from 30 to 60 FPS but even so it's very noticeable. In addition screen tearing is largely gone. You just don't notice it even when the PC can't match the 120hz display.

I have a iMac next to it (IPS panel) which produces better colours, contrast and viewing angles than the TN display in this Samsung. But as a gaming PC I couldn't care less and that's the biggest compliment I can place on this, that I will find it hard to go back to 60hz display (if at all). The benefits simply outweigh the negatives.

If I was using my PC predominantly for 2D work then I'd probably buy a Dell or one of those LG 34" superwide monitors. But as my PC is a gaming machine I'll only look at 120/144hz+ monitors next.

If fact I've posted this monitor here before but this is the one I'll likely buy assuming funds let me in the next few months:

http://pcmonitors.info/asus/asus-pg278q-2560-x-1440-g-sync-monitor

Early indications/review suggest is the best gaming display out bar none. Expensive particularly for the first batch but for me probably worth it. At the moment I wouldn't consider a 4K display. There are quite a few posts on the Overclockers forums giving people's impressions on 120/144hz monitors that are worth taking time to read.

[eastyy]

i plan to wait for display port 1.2a monitors to come out which have built in adaptive sync (though not seen how it compares with g-sync yet) they are planned to come towards the end of the year

Hoping they will be cheaper then g-sync monitors

[Digfox]

Fair enough although if the slow delivery of G-Sync is anything to go by it might be 2015 before those new screens appear. That said it's encouraging to see this tech begin to filter through with the recent arrival of G-Sync screens. I prefer the openness of FreeSync although I thought Nvidia's solution would arrive sooner. Either way it looks like both are competing standards and you'd need to take into account on purchase.

More important to me though is: 144hz, 8-bit TN panel, 27" screen size and that super fast 1ms response time. I'm curious about the flicker-free mode too (turned off when G-Sync runs).

Still lots going on; 4K, super-wide screens, 144hz 27" 1440p screens. I think whatever you buy might not have that long on the cutting edge atm.