Piggy Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Hi all, It's been a long time since I even looked up processors and motherboards so I need help. My current setup is as follows: i7-920@4.0 Ghz Asus Rampage II Extreme X58 M/B 6 Gigs of DDR3 Corsair 620W Modular PSU EVGA GTX 760 Intel SSD 520 Series I'm assuming my bottleneck right now in games is more the CPU, rather than my GPU, right? What's a decent upgrade under $800 for motherboard, CPU and RAM? I'm in Seattle, so Amazon and Newegg work well. Cheers, Piggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ci7 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 i don't think 920 would bottleneck the system , your gpu is kind weak for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZakO Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 What resolution are you playing at, and what games do you think you're experiencing a bottleneck in? A i7 920 @ 4.0GHz won't be bottlenecking a GTX 760. Up until recently I had a i7 920 @ 3.8GHz paired with a GTX 980 and even then there was barely any bottleneck. Upgrading to a i7 4790k (didn't do it for gaming) made less than 5% difference to min/avg/max fps in most games I tested. I'd get a new GPU instead. Shaun N. and Aergan 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aergan Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 If you're at 4.0 GHz, I don't think you'll see much of an improvement in all honesty - some yes, but unsure it's worth the investment. I would look into a silly high end GPU first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setnom Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 To be honest, that OC'ed 920 is still a very good processor. What games are you experiencing bottleneck? Like they said above, maybe upgrade you graphics card? GTX 970 is a beast, despite the whole 3.5 GB fiasco. Shaun N. and Aergan 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockingbird Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I am also still happy with my Intel Core i7 920. +Warwagon 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forjo Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 It's not your CPU -- it's your motherboard. It only supports PCI Express 2.0. The newer GPUs all require 3.0. If you want to see a real difference you'll need, as others have mentioned, a newer GPU -- and in order to get that, you'll need another motherboard. Have you considered getting a second 760 for SLI? I'm in the same boat -- I have an i7 950 not overclocked, but I'm limited on GPUs. I have a pair of GTX 580s which work REALLY well. I run everything in 60 FPS. But if I want to get any better I'm forced to add a third 580 (which is still expensive) or change out everything to get PCI Express 3.0. EDIT: actually, I might be wrong about this. Can anyone confirm? I'm seeing that you can use PCIE 3.0 cards in a 2.0 slot. Is this true? -Forjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiracyX Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I am still rocking my i7 920 since 2009 and the only upgrade I'm considering myself is the GPU as it's still really fast. Depends on what you are doing with it. If its gaming I would look at an upgrade to the GPU as the 920 is still fast enough at that clock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted March 23, 2015 MVC Share Posted March 23, 2015 I am still rocking my i7 920 since 2009 and the only upgrade I'm considering myself is the GPU as it's still really fast. Depends on what you are doing with it. If its gaming I would look at an upgrade to the GPU as the 920 is still fast enough at that clock. Isn't it amazing how this CPU has withstood the test of of time? I mean going on 5 - 6 years. Can you remember a 6 year old processor from 2004 . I7 920 is what drives my main machine too. PiracyX 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piggy Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 It seems like a consensus about the CPU being fine. I just got the 760 a few months ago so maybe another one along side with it might be the way to go. I just can't believe my processor, as old as it is, is still fine. I'm not playing anything crazy. 1920x1080 For Diablo 3 or Dreamfall Chapters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 The 920 and 760 are passable. I'd hold that setup til Skylake at this point. It might not change too much for gaming, but it'll be a great upgrade nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ci7 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 It's not your CPU -- it's your motherboard. It only supports PCI Express 2.0. The newer GPUs all require 3.0. If you want to see a real difference you'll need, as others have mentioned, a newer GPU -- and in order to get that, you'll need another motherboard. Have you considered getting a second 760 for SLI? I'm in the same boat -- I have an i7 950 not overclocked, but I'm limited on GPUs. I have a pair of GTX 580s which work REALLY well. I run everything in 60 FPS. But if I want to get any better I'm forced to add a third 580 (which is still expensive) or change out everything to get PCI Express 3.0. EDIT: actually, I might be wrong about this. Can anyone confirm? I'm seeing that you can use PCIE 3.0 cards in a 2.0 slot. Is this true? -Forjo yea PCIE is backward compatible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted March 26, 2015 Global Moderator Share Posted March 26, 2015 i used to have a 920 @ 3.6GHz. it was a great CPU. the only real reason i upgraded was for the other features like USB3.0, PCIe 3.0, etc. The 760 is fine, but it's nothing great. That being said, 19x10 isnt exactly taxing these days. not sure what to tell you. i'd throw some money at a new GPU if you have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+devHead Subscriber² Posted March 26, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted March 26, 2015 Is that i7 a quad core processor? If so, I'd say you have a sweet CPU, maybe upgrading your motherboard. I just upgraded my 2009 rig to a i5 4660 quadcore and a nice Gigabyte G1 Sniper gaming board and 8 GB of RAM for all around $440. But hey, if you want to spend $800 or so, enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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