How long until my PC won't be good enough?

[BustinJustin]

OK, so here are specs:

 

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula

AMD Phenom II x6 1100T oc to 3.8ghz - cooled by CM Hyper212 Evo

16GB Kingston HyperX 1600mhz ram

ASUS 7850

 

That's pretty much all you need to know for gaming. I do have a SSD I boot from but that's storage and that's just whatevs.

 

So my question is: how long until I won't be able to fully enjoy PC gaming? I mean playing the latest titles. And to me, "good enough" means better than console. And, let's face it, by "better, we mean "better looking". 

 

Next question: which part should I upgrade first? Or would it be best just to do mobo/cpu first, then graphics? Personally, I think my 6 core cpu at 3.8ghz will be good for a long time. Until it quits, anyways.

 

 

Thoughts?

[bennyino]

id say the first thing you would upgrade would be the gpu but you would need to upgrade cpu and mobo shortly after imo, it'll probably play stuff the same as next gen consoles given thats what they have pretty much regarding the gpu, its about a 7850 from what i've seen around the web

[unidentical]

The 1100t is a great chip.

 

Video card first probably, wait and see what steamroller is like when it drops, if it's good you've got a direct upgrade path without switching mobo.

 

For games it's tricky. I run a 670 and skyrim plays at liek a million FPS but far cry is 40 with all the settings cranked. 

 

But some of those settings can be turned down and still look a lot better than console quality.

 

It also depends what resolution you game at. at 1080p it will start to struggle sooner than 720p.

 

There are a lot of factors that have to be considered.

 

Really what you should do is start saving up, and when you notice that it's not good enough for you anymore, then it's time to upgrade.

[Snickerzz]

The 1100t is a great chip.

 

Video card first probably, wait and see what steamroller is like when it drops, if it's good you've got a direct upgrade path without switching mobo.

 

For games it's tricky. I run a 670 and skyrim plays at liek a million FPS but far cry is 40 with all the settings cranked. 

 

But some of those settings can be turned down and still look a lot better than console quality.

 

It also depends what resolution you game at. at 1080p it will start to struggle sooner than 720p.

 

There are a lot of factors that have to be considered.

 

Really what you should do is start saving up, and when you notice that it's not good enough for you anymore, then it's time to upgrade.

i have a 660 and i have fc3 maxed and i get 50+ fps, though im playing at 1280x1024

[unidentical]

i have a 660 and i have fc3 maxed and i get 50+ fps, though im playing at 1280x1024

Y, see I'm playing at 1920x1200, more work for the card.  All these variables.

[Wiz Khalifa]

The thing is, we can't tell you when exactly your hardware will become unable to play games on ultra, but I can tell you that when that point comes across, I think you should upgrade your video card. I think that your card will still be able to play games on ultra even in 2 years. But technology is still changing and who knows? Maybe companies might make a new engine where even the gtx 680 couldn't handle it. I say that you should be prepared for when this happens. Not now but in the following years. Hope this helps.

[Snickerzz]

Y, see I'm playing at 1920x1200, more work for the card.  All these variables.

yup :p

[BustinJustin]

_{So...you think I should wait until the 8000 series comes out and go for a 8850? I'm guessing that's what it would be called...}

[Guest GRRigger]

"how long until I won't be able to fully enjoy PC gaming?"

Well you got 7850, that is actually worse than in console, since console gpu and games will be heavily optimized.  Best to wait for 9000 series in december, then you can decide to buy whatever you want to. At launch, prices will be high up obviously. Depending on the P/P, you could choose card from 7000 series if you want. I think something like 7950. Alltho best choice would be to buy new mobo + proc + gpu then... if you want to play games maxed out.

 

But i think its way to early to speculate anything. There is even Euclideon Unlimited 3d rendering engine coming out for games [ consoles(xbox720, ps4) and pc] that uses only cpu to render those cuple million pixels on the screen. First games will be out about 1 year after release.

So, trying to "futureproof" your pc wont help really much without having a crystall ball infront of you, only people like me that follow developments in industry closely can tell what COULD come. We will still be rocking good old polygons for cuple more years . When Euclideon releases videos about their product, and requirements for hardware we can then build rig that will fit. Until then, there is no ultimate recipe but I say buy what it can play most current games at native resolution with maxed out settings with more than 30 fps. 

 

Graphene processors with 100ghz+? Yup, about 10 more years to go. :) 

[Br00dley]

(I'm guessing that your not considering a money cap for the upgrade as you would have to consider the upgrade to be worth the money in the first place.)

 

I would say your gpu first especially as not that many games are cpu heavy (so would depend on what game your playing as well) but its always best to kinda have everything a similar level to minimize bottle necking so might be worth waiting and do one big upgrade. Are you oc the gpu? You could always crossfire for a quick fix i guess.

 

At the moment I'm waiting to do a big upgrade in a year or 2 it will depend on the next lot of hardware how long I wait (might skip a generation and what not), to see if it will be worth the money and so on. I would sli at the moment though if i could but my motherboard cant do sli, which sucks. (I have a 680 so its fine on its own to be honest at the moment).

 

As GRRigger said it will be hard to say for sure but we might have a better idea after the xbox announcement which is tomorrow by the looks of it. To see what the consoles will be running but if xbox is doing what ps seam to be doing with having basically a pc build for the console then making the game for pc then optimizing them back to the console. Its also hard to say as games get better looking and more demanding they also made better, having better optimized code and better engines ect. 

[YouRezz]

_{So...you think I should wait until the 8000 series comes out and go for a 8850? I'm guessing that's what it would be called...}

the 8000 series is gonna be skipped for desktop, so the 9000 series is what i would go with. I also have a 7850 and i regret buying it as i could've spent a little more and gotten a 7950 so when the next gen comes out 9970 is what i'll go with, or if nvidia makes something thats better for the buck i'll go with that

[BustinJustin]

I found an open box Asus Crosshair V formula for under 200 bucks online. Good buy or wait?