mderbs311

@wemibelec90: Yeah that would be awesome, thank you! Im pretty what ill do is buy the new GPU, put it in my rig just to see how it performs and just very quickly save up to buy the rest of my new pc, but I would like to see what other duders with a similar setup get in performance gains with just the GPU upgrade!

@qawsed: Oh im sure the improvment in performance would be huge and easily noticeable, to be sure. Its just a matter of how much it would help my system in the short term until I save up the money to get the rest of the components. Thanks for the input!

@MordeaniisChaos: Yeah, ive read up a little on the "libraries" issue and being able to change the paths and stuff and where it saves stuff to. And thanks for the reply! Given the responses here I am definitely leaning on just saving a bit longer and building a new gen intel build. Im sorry you had so much trouble with your 5770 but I gotta tell you mine has been running like a champ! It was touted as the best mid range card at the time I bought it, at 200 bucks then, and I have never had any problems running games smoothly at 1080p! Its still chewing through newer titles at high settings too, barring the occasional dip in frames when stuff gets crazy! Im currently working my way through Spec Ops: the line and its awesome!

Wow! Thanks everybody for the response! This community never disappoints!

@Winternet: Yeah, im probably going to suck it up and do that, thanks!

@Inkerman: Thanks for the reply! That makes me a lot more confident in going the SSD route!

@AndrewB: Will definitely be buying the best graphics card I can afford!

@Bourbon_Warrior: Duder thanks so much for the detailed reply! Will definitely look into the 965 if I decide to upgrade my cpu with this current motherboard, as it seems to be the best offering for gaming with my socket type. Looked at the Phenom II six cores and they are super hard to find and also way lower clocked with less overclocking potential, so the 965 seems to be the best option. It all depends on how much free cash I have come February! And yeah, that 3 free game deal with a 7970 definitely caught my eye!

@WasabiCurry: Yeah, future proofing is nigh impossible these days for sure! Also good luck with your build when you go ahead with it! Let me know how it turns out! Yeah, im kind of limiting myself to 400 bucks for the GPU, and since the 680 and 7970 GHZ edition are so neck and neck, and I can get the 7970 for a hundred less, its my pick! Although, if the 680 manages to drop a hundred bucks between now and Feb I would have to reconsider!

@Devildoll: Awesome, thanks for the info regarding the SSD thing! And its good to know the RAM situation isnt as bad as I thought, I was looking up info on RAM clock speeds and how much difference running at different frequencies would hurt performance and didnt get a clear cut answer!

@Mirado: Im not totally sure how much I will have to play with, but I will for sure be getting the GPU. If I have the money I would for sure love to upgrade everything, and may just do so anyway even if it takes me a bit longer. And I was definitely looking at doing an intel build with my new rig, probably going the standard i5-3000k series of CPUs. Was just trying to see if there was a cheaper way to upgrade what I had and eke out a little extra life from current parts!

So a few more question! Since I installed an OEM copy of Windows 7 on my rig, wouldnt replacing the CPU automatically require me to buy a new copy of windows, since it would think it was a "new" PC? That was one of the main reasons to see if the GPU upgrade would be justifiable on its own. If it requires me to buy windows again, then that kind of makes the decision to build a new rig for me, not that im complaining, mind! On that note, does anybody know what would happen if I upgraded my current rigs OEM copy of 7 to Windows 8? Would there be a way to transfer that to a completely new rig? Or is that upgrade of Win 8 tied to my current Mobo since its coming from an OEM copy.

Aaand, once my new rig is complete, is there an easy way to transfer my steam library (Saves, Installed games etc.) from my old HD to the new SSD? I really dont want to have to download and reinstall EVERY single one of the games I am currently playing. Stupid US Data caps!!!!

Again, thank you SO MUCH for all your replies and advice! You guys are awesome!

Hello fellow PC gaming duders! As many around here are prepping to do, I will be upgrading my gaming PC come tax return time. While I would love to build a brand new from-the-ground-up PC, financially that may not be viable. So I would appreciate some advice on whether or not my current rig would benefit from a few small upgrades, and if it would hold me off until I have the funds to replace everything! And now specs!

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 440 @ 3 GHZ

MB: Biostar TA870+

RAM: 8 Gigs 1666 DDR3 (Only operating at 1033 due to me not realizing it was specialized for intel boards, ima derp)

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GHZ

HD: Western Digital 500 Gig 7200 rpm

PSU: Coolmax 600 Watt psu

Now I should state that I built my rig in mid 2010 and it has performed admirably this entire time, and continues to do so. Ive been able to run pretty much every game I have (That I have installed and tried, my steam library is...big) on Max/High settings gaming on a 23 inch 1080p monitor, getting perfectly acceptable framerates, at least as far as I can tell. Im sure im not getting 60 frames in a lot of games, but i game with V-Sync on anyhow due to lots of screen tearing, and they run smooth enough for me. Even newer titles like Skyrim, Battlefield 3(only the single player, havent touched the multi), Saints Row the Third, Max Payne 3, Hard Reset and Spec Ops: The line, all run at High settings. And the titles I havent bought yet, like Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored and Borderlands 2 Im sure would all run well enough, and STILL look better than their console counterparts!

But even though I am happy with my performance so far, I know that some of the newer titles coming out and over the course of the next year will bring my rig to its knees, such as Assasins Creed 3 and Farcry 3. And I do have that itch to play my current games cranked to 11, SO! Im looking into acquiring a Radeon HD 7970 GHZ Edition with my tax money. Im a bit of an AMD loyalist, and would consider the GTX 680 as well, but ive read some benchmark tests, and the GHZ edition amd card seems to run a bit faster and better than a 680, and I can get one for about a hundred bucks less than the 680. Would I benefit from it greatly? Enough to maybe get me through the next years titles at high settings? Or is the rest of my system too much of a bottleneck?

Am also thinking of adding a 256 Gig SSD to my setup, whether this one or my eventual new build. Im very interested in the speed gains ive read about, but truth be told it kind of sounds SUPER annoying to set up! I Would like to put the OS on it and run games and my my art programs from it, but how do you set up the drives so that everything else is on the secondary HD? If the OS is installed on the SSD, wont all my music and video folders be there as well? Ive heard you have to really manage them so that it doesnt fill up with miscellaneous files and what not. I know about Steam Mover so that would help me keep games installed no matter what and just keep the ones I am currently playing on the SSD, but everything else would be on a 1 TB drive. Any good links to tutorials about properly setting up a gaming system with an SSD?

Thank you in advance to anybody taking the time out to read this diatribe! And thanks for any advice I recieve! Going to bed now, will check back later!

Spot on. Spot. Fucking. On!

So heres a question about the free games. Are the free games advertised in the current deal free to play still once NEW games are added? Like, just recently ive seen inFamous 2 and DD Neon as free, but when PS changes the deal and switches to a NEW set of free games, can I still play inFamous and DD, or is it only while they are the current deal?

I just dont have time to play all the free games they offer if theyre only available for a limited time, but if i can download them and play them later as long as im subscribed, even if they arent the current deal, then thats damn enticing.

@xyzygy: Nice, I love my HD7 as well, just an all around great phone. I would LOVE to get the LUmia 920, but have a feeling that Tmo wont get it, but its younger sibling the 820, which is still sexy as hell. Between it and the Ativ s, I might actually go with the Ativ.

@wewantsthering: I too am a win pho 7 user, a happy one at that, and Im just curious as to why people still use this as an argument or reason against getting a win phone. I currently am using an android phone (HTC amaze) due to an accident with my HD7, and i transferred over to my win pho from an iphone 3g, so ive had all and I think windows is the best OS out there, and they all have their perks and pros and cons, whether it be more exclusive apps and games, slicker UI or more customization, and I agree that windows app market is small compared to the other big 2, but other than a few "big" games on android and iOS, i was able to get windows versions of pretty much ALL the apps i had on my iphone, and a lot of games as well. my Bank of America app, twitter, reddit reader, TED talks, soundhound, FML, IMDB, amazon and kindle, flixter, netflix, i mean other than instagram ( which is coming to win phone 8), theyre all there and if not an acceptable facsimile can be found, even with some missing games too. Plus, since win phone 7 wasnt compatible with the Unity engine and microsoft used a closed environment, it was very difficult to port your games to win pho 7. since 8 uses an entirely different kernel, and the Unity devs have said that it will be on win pho 8, the disparity of apps that dont come to the windows marketplace should shrink enormously, as its very simple to port your app to the win ecosystem, and wouldnt be such a risk. I am absolutely not ragging on you for your opinion, and this is not meant to be a hostile post at all, i really am just curious as to why you feel there are "no" apps in the marketplace, what do you think is missing app wise that made you dislike it enough to recommend not getting it? functionality wise? I personaly cant wait for win pho 8 (obviously), will be getting the Ativ s or 920, depending on which comes to T-mobile.

Hmm...I love Duke Nukem, some of the earliest PC games I ever played in fact. I think if Gearbox is really intent on taking that franchise and running with it and making it relevant again, I see it happening with a Duke Nukem Jr. Make a "new" Duke, like his nephew or something, who resembles and plays like a more modern action hero with modern gameplay mechanics, but has all of his uncles attitude just with a current timelyness. And have OG Duke as his crazy mentor "set in his ways" on how to be an action star, just falling flat every time, thereby referencing how out of time he is. I think it could work that way.

@LiquidPrince: umm...is it the cast of Chuck?