Assuming your Mobo is an LGA 1055 slot, The new 4th generation i7's were just released. And your Video card isn't all that bad.
Comment has been collapsed.
He has an i7 970, so his mobo is socket 1366, and there's no LGA 1055. Haswell(4th gen) uses socket 1150.
Comment has been collapsed.
There's no point in upgrading the CPU unless you do heavy video editing or very heavy multitasking, something i doubt in all honesty.
As for the GPU, you need to specify what's your current GPU.
Comment has been collapsed.
Why would you want to upgrade the CPU? That's more than enough for today's standards, and even then, if you want to get a 3870, you'd need a different socket, that means, a different motherboard as well.
Also, what GPU do you have now?
Comment has been collapsed.
Then yeah, the GPU upgrade will be worth it, the CPU one won't though.
Just make sure you have a proper PSU to handle that 7970.
Comment has been collapsed.
For a graphics card, I suggest Nvida. Also man, you have to make sure the sockets all fit and that the case is big enough.
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't know what's wrong with your old cpu. I have a Core 2 Quad Q6600 cpu OC'd to 3.0 GHz (I'm about to get a better cooler so i can make much more tuning on it) and I'm still fine with. If you want to play games + stream it to others or you're a video maker then it's a different story. Anyway the GPU is good enough.
Comment has been collapsed.
ATI doesn't exist. AMD bought them in 2006 and discontinued the ATI brand name in 2010.
Comment has been collapsed.
What are your current specs (GPU & PSU)?
Also if you only plan to do gaming, watching movies and browse the internet, you don't really need an i7. An i5 is more than enough for such things. And like some people already said, your current CPU is still good enough.
Comment has been collapsed.
Your GPU will be fine for a long time. You can add more of them and run in crossfire, as long as your motherboard supports it. If you don't mind paying excessively, switch to Nvidia for the top-end cards. They're not worth the money for their minimal performance boost over the best AMD cards, but Nvidia offers the highest performance cards around.
Comment has been collapsed.
Nvidia cards also have CUDA and PhysX, used for serious work as well as some games. That is something that is added to the price in the case of Nvidia cards. They also have better drivers.
Comment has been collapsed.
You're the kind of person that wouldn't know... It's not much for a gamer, I know. I personally used CUDA in After Effects and Blender for rendering. In Batman Arkham City PhysX looks badass. Thanks for the thoughtful comment by the way.
Comment has been collapsed.
CUDA does not aid a gamer unless the game uses it, and there is no reason for any game to do so. Therefore, ignore CUDA.
PhysX is only useful for the games of each generation that make use of it. Unless the game specifically blocks it, any brand of GPU can use it. Nvidia cards are not the best choice in most situations if you don't need PhysX.
Comment has been collapsed.
Just Cause 2 uses CUDA for water simulation. So there is a reason for a game to use CUDA. Thanks for the additional info.
Comment has been collapsed.
I've just looked at YouTube videos comparing the effect on and off.
The effect in Just Cause 2 is impressive.
The effect is barely noticeable in some games.
Depending on the game, the effect may not be worth it. Check out some YouTube videos to know in advance of your purchase.
I have heard that PhysX relies on CUDA, but it enables on Batman Arkham Asylum just fine with a 4 FPS drop on my AMD card. So maybe some games either use CUDA/PhysX hardly at all, or they are not the massive performance hit on non-Nvidia cards as Nvidia would claim.
I have also heard that Metro 2033 requires PhysX to even run, but my AMD runs it just fine.
Nvidia tried to disable PhysX on non-Nvidia cards several times, but seems to have abandoned all attempts after users repeatedly patched Nvidia drivers to disable the block Nvidia enforced.
Comment has been collapsed.
PhysX is separate from CUDA. Cuda is designed for Software and PhysX is designed for Games. Both CUDA and PhysX use the GPU Shaders to process data in parallel at higher speeds than a CPU could.
And Nvidia has every right to disable use of PhysX code on AMD Shaders, since it is Nvidia's hard work. AMD didn't try to code this functionality for their drivers and users seem to want that, so they try to adapt the code to AMD. It's a form of piracy. And I'm not entirely sure but I think CUDA/PhysX need hardware support (they might need the actual Video Card to be built different/optimised)
TL;DR: Nope.
Comment has been collapsed.
A general-purpose processor, which is what GPU and CPU both are in a PC, are fully allowed to be programmed in any way desired by the purchaser of the hardware. Thus, it is not piracy to enable CUDA or PhysX on an AMD product. Not that PhysX is blocked anymore anyway. And CUDA defaults to CPU when an Nvidia product is not present, unless the program specifically refuses to try the CPU.
Also, piracy is a term used to describe stolen programs, not altered programs.
Comment has been collapsed.
It is piracy to take PhysX and reverse engineer it to find a way to make it work on AMD.
And it's a weird thing to say that CUDA defaults to CPU when there is no Nvidia. Only if a program was made CUDA only it would not default to CPU and it would not run without Nvidia. CUDA offloads the CPU. Of course when there is no CUDA device it is not used...
Comment has been collapsed.
I am only reading what I'm coming across, checking on both sides of the argument. Games that are supposedly CUDA-only programs or PhysX-only have worked for me. Why they work, I cannot say for certain. I do not have an Nvidia card installed.
You are correct to say that CUDA offloads to the CPU, but as far as requiring a CUDA-compliant GPU, this seems to be becoming unnecessary.
CUDA's benefit is due to multicore processing. Due to multicore CPUs becoming the norm, the benefit of GPU-only CUDA is weakening.
If Nvidia is not careful, their PhysX and CUDA could become just like Glide was for the 3dfx company.
Comment has been collapsed.
GTX 670 has 1344 CUDA cores, each one running at 915 MHz (as an example)
Here is a comparison video, the shortest I found, between CPU (first half of video) and GPU using CUDA(second half).
The comparison is made in Blender.
You can see the GPU is alot faster, however CPU was unoptimized at that time, and it is a bit faster today. Still CUDA is the most efficient in Blender. For most setups GPU is still like 10 times faster than CPU. Also After Effects renders using CUDA, but I know no statistic info about it.
Comment has been collapsed.
No Software or Game is CUDA only. CUDA and PhysX are like add-ons which the game can work without. I thought you understood this basic concept...
Comment has been collapsed.
Its never a good idea to consider SLI or CrossfireX as upgrade options. You will always have to deal with increased heat and certain games do not support SLI or CrossfireX. Plus adding another card to a single GPU machine does NOT double your performance.
Comment has been collapsed.
Absolutely. There is nothing I hate more. Vsync seems to fix that if you want to take a performance hit.
Comment has been collapsed.
Indeed. They're improving, but not quite there yet. Minimum FPS still dips. Vsync feels like a cop-out, even if it does provide a smoother experience than a single card with or without Vsync.
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm back, and tbh I forgot about this post, anyway let me just clarify something: The GPU and CPU I posted first are the ones I want to upgrade to, the second CPU I just listed is the one I have right now, now the reason why I didn't post what GPU I have was because I am kind of ashamed since it's so old right now, its a ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (I think the lowest one, like 4830 I think) and the gpu is starting to lose its awesomeness with new games (it can't even run Saints Row 3 tbh, and CoH 2 barely manages on minimum) but me being a total idiot when it comes to hardware, I also thought I would need a brand new CPU since this I have now is pretty cheap
Comment has been collapsed.
depending on your power supply buy an AMD Radeon HD 7870 LE which is based on Tahiti or AMD Radeon HD 7950. if you prefer nVIDIA buy a nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or nVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
Comment has been collapsed.
25 Comments - Last post 5 minutes ago by tuguinha
46,857 Comments - Last post 25 minutes ago by MeguminShiro
462 Comments - Last post 26 minutes ago by MeguminShiro
25 Comments - Last post 47 minutes ago by madsession
47 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by TacoTues
1,443 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by UltraMaster
22 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Nocolicious
85 Comments - Last post 7 minutes ago by DrPower
74 Comments - Last post 13 minutes ago by Swordoffury
222 Comments - Last post 14 minutes ago by malabagaa
15,208 Comments - Last post 20 minutes ago by adam1224
2,741 Comments - Last post 24 minutes ago by KPopPoyehavshiy
124 Comments - Last post 38 minutes ago by LaVolpe99
26,594 Comments - Last post 49 minutes ago by softbearcas
Intel Core i7-3820
AMD Radeon 7970
I got enough cash for about both of these, how hard could I up the graphics? Will I be able to play the newest games today? :)
NOTE: I have an I7-970 right now, somebody tell me just in case how good can it run newer games
Comment has been collapsed.