Advice for an upgrade

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breadbox

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Hello folks. I use my pc mainly for multiplayer gaming purposes (Diablo 3 / CS:GO / Dota 2) and recently it seems I am dying a lot because of lag (Random jitters and stutters mostly). These are my PC specs:

CPU - Intel i7 860 @ 2.8GHz
RAM - 2 x 2GB ddr3 1333
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon 1gb 5750
Motherboard - Not sure (Lost the motherboard box / cd ect). It is a socket 1156 board though.
HDD - Western Digital 2TB @ 7200rpm
Power Supply - 600W

I have a 5k - 6k budget. So far I have decided to upgrade the Ram to 8gb. This will cost about R1k for 2 x 4gb sticks. Now I am left with 4k - 5k. I have done some research on GPU's and it seems it boils down to these 2 choices:

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolor-axr9-290-4gbd5-ppdhe-r9-290-pcs-oc-4gb-512-bit-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card-includes-3-free-games-amd-golden-tier.html

or

http://www.wootware.co.za/gainward-...bit-28nm-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

I guess the advantage with going the first one is obviously it is 1k cheaper. I could perhaps put that money towards a SSD to speed up the pc.

http://www.wootware.co.za/intel-ssdsc2cw120a310-520-series-120gb-2-5-mlc-sata-6-0-gb-s-ssd.html

Any advice regarding this upgrade would be appreciated thanks.
 
I think you just need an upgrade kit (mobo, CPU and RAM) instead of buying ram and a GPU.

Because your GPU is more than powerful for the games you mentioned, they are very lightweight games.

I recommend this.

That poor CPU will bottleneck that brand new GPU.
 
Rickster said:
I think you just need an upgrade kit (mobo, CPU and RAM) instead of buying ram and a GPU.

Because your GPU is more than powerful for the games you mentioned, they are very lightweight games.

I recommend this.

That poor CPU will bottleneck that brand new GPU.
Click to expand...

His CPU is fine.

He should rather spend money on GFX card plus SSD.

So:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/7751-sap...x-edition-2gb-256bit-ddr5-core-memory-91.html

and:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/797-ocz-...25-sata6g-read-write-480-430mb-s-random-.html
 
His kit is fine for those games I think it's your Internet. Upgrade the interwebz.
 
Your ram is your problem. It's not enough. If you can't add more, optimise your pc with an app like tuneup utilities in turbo mode.

Your gpu, cpu, psu is still good enough.
 
Chevron said:
His CPU is fine.

He should rather spend money on GFX card plus SSD.

So:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/7751-sap...x-edition-2gb-256bit-ddr5-core-memory-91.html

and:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/797-ocz-...25-sata6g-read-write-480-430mb-s-random-.html
Click to expand...

An SSD is a perk that will shorten load times. It can't fix "stuttering". A GPU won't stutter either. Your FPS will go down intelligently. This is a pc running out of RAM or a bad connection. I have the same CPU, more RAM and I had the same issue. I run SLI GFX. Windows services was my problem.
 
That CPU won't help him much, unless he runs DOTA2 via Source2.
Haven't tried it in ages, but try downloading the workshop tools for DOTA2, and running the Source2 executable.

No idea how functional it is atm.
 
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D3athD00r said:
Your ram is your problem. It's not enough. If you can't add more, optimise your pc with an app like tuneup utilities in turbo mode.

Your gpu, cpu, psu is still good enough.
Click to expand...

He has 4Gig, I'm running those games with 3 gig...
Just gonna need more information:

What graphics settings you running DOTA2 at currently, if possible post screenshot.

Check your core usage, if only 2 cores are utilized with your i7 and they at 90% plus that might be part of the problem.
 
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Those are some monster gpus, big step from your 5750.

If you decide to get a new cpu and board check the carbonite forums for an unlocked cpu, even an old cpu like the 2500k is mighty at 4ghz plus. 2 grand can get you that cpu with a board.
 
Looks like "normal" DOTA2 uses 4 cores. Which means a LGA775 Q6600 will out perform that CPU by about 150%

That means in terms of DOTA2's performance, your stuck with graphics cards scoring between 2000-3000 because of the bottleneck that's gonna be caused.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

How is your future plans?
That 290 way too power hungry, wouldn't recommend it.

GTX 970, great card, uses a lot less power, is very powerful.
But unless you have an i5 2500k minimum or planning to get one, it's gonna go to waste.
 
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D3athD00r said:
An SSD is a perk that will shorten load times. It can't fix "stuttering". A GPU won't stutter either. Your FPS will go down intelligently. This is a pc running out of RAM or a bad connection. I have the same CPU, more RAM and I had the same issue. I run SLI GFX. Windows services was my problem.
Click to expand...

If the stuttering is when textures get loaded from a corrupt sector on his hard drive it can cause stuttering. And considering he only has 4GBs RAM it probably happens a lot.

If his GPU is damaged it can cause stuttering or artifacts.
 
Chevron said:
If the stuttering is when textures get loaded from a corrupt sector on his hard drive it can cause stuttering. And considering he only has 4GBs RAM it probably happens a lot.

If his GPU is damaged it can cause stuttering or artifacts.
Click to expand...

DOTA loads everything in at once into the RAM, otherwise you would see constant texture loading when clicking on the map. So it won't be that. The last stuttering you get is right after the game starts with your hero being picked.

Bad connection can be tested via just using different ISP, and checking for packet loss.
 
Last edited:
breadbox said:
Hello folks. I use my pc mainly for multiplayer gaming purposes (Diablo 3 / CS:GO / Dota 2) and recently it seems I am dying a lot because of lag (Random jitters and stutters mostly).
Click to expand...

How recent is "recent" in your case? A few weeks? Days? Months?

Rickster said:
I think you just need an upgrade kit (mobo, CPU and RAM) instead of buying ram and a GPU.

Because your GPU is more than powerful for the games you mentioned, they are very lightweight games.

I recommend this.

That poor CPU will bottleneck that brand new GPU.
Click to expand...

You're on drugs.

HideInLight said:
Looks like "normal" DOTA2 uses 4 cores. Which means a LGA775 Q6600 will out perform that CPU by about 150%
Click to expand...

You're on even stronger drugs.
 
Rickster said:
CPU and mobo are limited to PCIe 2.0 while the GPU is PCIe 3.0, what a waste.
Click to expand...

K7G.gif
 
Rickster said:
CPU and mobo are limited to PCIe 2.0 while the GPU is PCIe 3.0, what a waste.
Click to expand...

I think with that statement you've just proved that no one can ever take you seriously with regards to PC advice.
 
Ok Q6600 scores 3k, not 4k.
Messed up with threads vs cores. Both are actually 4 cores, one just has hyper-threading. Tried halfing the score...

But that i7 scores 5k and it has hyper-threading helping it out. Even without Hyperthreading it should beat the Q6600 significantly.

R1700
A GTX750 class card, if there's no plans on upgrading the CPU.
http://www.takealot.com/all/?qsearch=gtx+750&_sb=1&_dt=all&_r=1

R1100
or you could grab a second hand card like this:
http://carbonite.co.za/f40/msi-560gtx-ti-twin-frozr-ii-oc-84307/

That should already double your GPU's performance.
 
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