Upgrade now or wait?

NomNom

NomNom

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I game Batttlefield 4 and the FPS drops now and then which is driving me crazy, the settings for video are all on low, changing the resolution down doesn't help either, so I have concluded that the CPU is at fault.

I am using the following at the moment:

i3-2120
Gigabyte H77-D3H-MVP
8GB RAM
AMD HD 7850

Looking at getting the following upgrade:

ASRock Z97 Extreme 4 or Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H, the Gigabyte is $20 more, not interested in the feature difference, most looking at brand quality, which would you choose?
Intel i5-4690K or i7-4790K, the i7 is $120 more I know that it isn't worth it but I want this "upgrade" to last as long as possible, would you get the i7 over the i5?


Or should I just wait for the new motherboards coming out with DDR4 ect, not X99 but the more consumer based boards.
 
I would get the i7
Although the i5 would probably be fine, but on my previous rig the cpu was running 100% with battlefield 3 MP. There are a lot of things to keep track of in BF Multiplier taxing the CPU
Currently I have a i7 4770k and in BF4 MP runs around 50% usage

Personally I think I would wait for DDR4 although it will be a long while before the prices stabilize and I noticed the first kits coming out have bad timings.

Perhaps, depending on your cooler, you could overclock the CPU slightly to improve the current situation a bit?
Open resource monitor in the background and you could alt tab to it to make sure it is the CPU?
I did however before play bf4 fine on medium with a 5850 so I also think it is the CPU
 
Just get a i5 for now, it will be fine.
Your cpu is severely bottle necking your system.
 
i will say the i5
and use the money towards a better graphics card,for later on as they cost alot of money :/
 
Just some random thoughts. I'm not an expert but maybe this will help you.

I bought a Gigabyte Z68 board a few years back. It failed after close to a year twice in a row. Luckily it has a 3 year warranty, but the weeks it takes to send it back to supplier and have them test, then send a new one irritated me so much that I bought a cheap Asus board the last time. Reinstalling the OS every year is also not much fun. I read something about some manufacturers having problems with the Z68 chipset boards, so I am not sure it is only their problem. But I wouldn't buy Gigabyte again because of this problem, and that I now have a mobo I don't want to use because it will probably fail again.

As far as i5 vs i7, I bought an i5 since games don't really make use of more cores. So for the same money rather get a faster frequency i5 processor. I always check tomshardware, they have nice comparisons of cpu's and graphics cards. To replace your card you would have to get a fairly high level new card to make it worth it. I still have a GTX460 and play all games on 1080p. Maybe not 60fps but good enough for me ;)
 
If you get a good i5 you'll still be set for a while.
New GPU and you'll be really happy.

I still game very happily on an i5 2500k and a 660 TI 2gb OC.
 
I would wait a bit until Haswell E to release because it's just around the corner. The benefits of the newer architecture bar DDR4 can actually be found in the Pentium G3258. Have a look at the video at the bottom:
[video=youtube;WIVi6EDmuIQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIVi6EDmuIQ[/video]
 
NomNom said:
I game Batttlefield 4 and the FPS drops now and then which is driving me crazy, the settings for video are all on low, changing the resolution down doesn't help either, so I have concluded that the CPU is at fault.

I am using the following at the moment:

i3-2120
Gigabyte H77-D3H-MVP
8GB RAM
AMD HD 7850

Looking at getting the following upgrade:

ASRock Z97 Extreme 4 or Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H, the Gigabyte is $20 more, not interested in the feature difference, most looking at brand quality, which would you choose?
Intel i5-4690K or i7-4790K, the i7 is $120 more I know that it isn't worth it but I want this "upgrade" to last as long as possible, would you get the i7 over the i5?


Or should I just wait for the new motherboards coming out with DDR4 ect, not X99 but the more consumer based boards.
Click to expand...

You could upgrade to the Core i5-3470 if you'd like more CPU muscle. Sandy Bridge Core i3 chips still have a lot of legs in them, but it may be the case that the older implementation of Hyper-threading in those chips doesn't stand up well to Battlefield 4. This way you're only changing out two components (CPU and cooler) and don't have to swap out or fiddle with anything else. If you go this route, make sure your BIOS is updated to the latest version.

As for complete upgrades, you're going to need to set aside at least R5000 for a Core i5-4690K and a decent Z97 motherboard (the ASRock Z97M OC Formula is my favourite go-to ATM).

Don't worry about DDR4 or Haswell-E, you're shopping nowhere near that price bracket to warrant consideration. Skylake and DDR4 next year might fall on to your radar, but it'll be a while before a Ivy Bridge or Devil's Canyon chip becomes obsolete.
 
NomNom said:
I game Batttlefield 4 and the FPS drops now and then which is driving me crazy, the settings for video are all on low, changing the resolution down doesn't help either, so I have concluded that the CPU is at fault.
Click to expand...
CPU do not slow down unless it detects insufficient cooling. Therefore I suggest to refresh CPU (and GPU) assembly, clean old debris and apply new thermal paste. Post results.

It must be excuse for upgrade, read accordingly... :)
 
Running BF4 with a I5 2500K is a breeze, its my GPU that's limiting me to play on high. :(
 
Last edited:
If you can wait a little longer, the Maxwell cards are coming out rumoured to be in Nov 2014.....some say as early as Sept 2014
 
no get i7 , i built a 3570k rig the other day , bf4 still have bug where it maxes a cpu which has only 4 core/ 4 threads .

Even oced 2500k was still almost maxing out in cpu usage!
 
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