What specs would be good for the next 3-4 years of gaming?

[Raestloz]

My current specs:

MB: ASUS P5GC-MX/GBL

CPU: Intel E4600 [email protected]

RAM: DDR2 2GB @ 667MHz

GPU: GeForce 9800GT 512MB

Display: 1280x1024

 

As you can see, it's... well, it's sub-par even for the past 2 years' title. Of course, I can run them, but the experience simply isn't fantastic. Low texture resolution, stutters, lags during heavy combat, stuff like that.

 

I'm thinking of an overhaul. I tested a GTX 460 to replace my 9800GT and the upgrade is beyond stunning, but looking back, I think GPU is the least of my concern right now (relative to other parts)

 

I want to get a rig that can play intensive games for the next 3-4 years, with high settings. My budget isn't fantastic either (currently hovering around $1000) but can be negotiated

 

So, what kind of specs do you people recommend? Preferably something that fits my initial budget

 

I also need to buy a new tower to house the new stuff, as my current one barely fits my 9800GT

 

 

I don't intend to use SLI/Crossfire

I don't intend to run RAMDISK

I don't intend to get an SSD

I don't intend to have 1080p display

I don't intend to run 3D vision or multi-monitor setup

I do intend to get a wide-screen display, although it's pretty much the one part I can always do without. If I do, I think about 1366x768 would work just fine

I do intend to get about 8GB of RAM

I do intend to get a GPU with 2GB VRAM or more. I took a look at GTX 650Ti, but its bus is only 128bit

 

 

But that's about as far as my knowledge of PC parts go. I especially can't judge CPUs and RAM, I'm a sucker at those

[Sartori75]

Def get a card with 4 gig Vram, I'm regretting settling for 2 gig when I could have spent a few extra bucks on the extra memory

[JimboUK]

An i5 should see off the next generation of ports, a minimum of 8GB of RAM and a GPU with 3-4GB of RAM would be ideal. The next generation of games will be GPU heavy unlike the current gen which tends to lean on the CPU very heavily. You'll also be wanting a 64bit version of windows.

[Raestloz]

Yeah, PS4 and XBOX One both has similar setup, which in turn is similar to generic PC setup. I think the CPU bound issue of current gen is because of PS3.

 

i5 has quite a few varieties, which one do you recommend?

 

Also, what GPU do you think I should get? PhysX seems to be not important in most video games, so I suppose it's not going to matter much between brands

[JimboUK]

Others would be better placed to recommend a CPU, I've not been taking much notice of them, my old i7 is still snoring it's way through games so I've no reason to update it. Both consoles use AMD so that might be the way to go, the 3GB 7950 should be more than enough at those resolutions.

[hoofhearted4]

as ive recently found out, you can have your CPU handle Physx if you have an AMD card (which i do, a 7950) however youll need at least a decent CPU for this, i have a 3570k (not OCed) and it works beautifully, even handling Borderlands 2 Physx at max settings.

[FMod]

Def get a card with 4 gig Vram, I'm regretting settling for 2 gig when I could have spent a few extra bucks on the extra memory

Would it give you higher fps somewhere (where exactly?) or just a fuller sense of satisfaction?

 

An i5 should see off the next generation of ports, a minimum of 8GB of RAM and a GPU with 3-4GB of RAM would be ideal. The next generation of games will be GPU heavy unlike the current gen which tends to lean on the CPU very heavily.

Don't forget that they've all got narrow memory buses.

 

One of the reasons large amounts of RAM remain poorly used is bus width. GTX680 had a bandwidth of 192 GB/s and responded well to overclocking. Per frame, 192 GB/s is 3.2 GB. At the same time, 680 responds poorly to extra RAM.

PS4's bandwidth is even lower, which means the chip will have an even more limited response in this regard. The purpose of this much unified ram is computing.

 

What's more important is that any card you buy today will be somewhat outdated when PS4 comes out. It won't support the OpenCL code required for the compute operations PS4's and Xbone's chips are meant to do. So don't bother chasing PS4; you'll be able to catch up in full when it comes out and then new cards that support the new code come out.

[JimboUK]

Chances are those chips will be custom so will never see the light of day on the PC, they have good reason to keep hardware custom, they won't want people running console games natively on the PC. A 7950 will be fine at that resolution, it's not far over 720p.

[Raestloz]

 

Def get a card with 4 gig Vram, I'm regretting settling for 2 gig when I could have spent a few extra bucks on the extra memory

Would it give you higher fps somewhere (where exactly?) or just a fuller sense of satisfaction?

 

An i5 should see off the next generation of ports, a minimum of 8GB of RAM and a GPU with 3-4GB of RAM would be ideal. The next generation of games will be GPU heavy unlike the current gen which tends to lean on the CPU very heavily.

Don't forget that they've all got narrow memory buses.

 

One of the reasons large amounts of RAM remain poorly used is bus width. GTX680 had a bandwidth of 192 GB/s and responded well to overclocking. Per frame, 192 GB/s is 3.2 GB. At the same time, 680 responds poorly to extra RAM.

PS4's bandwidth is even lower, which means the chip will have an even more limited response in this regard. The purpose of this much unified ram is computing.

 

What's more important is that any card you buy today will be somewhat outdated when PS4 comes out. It won't support the OpenCL code required for the compute operations PS4's and Xbone's chips are meant to do. So don't bother chasing PS4; you'll be able to catch up in full when it comes out and then new cards that support the new code come out.

 

More VRAM would allow you to use higher resolution textures, use higher level of anti-aliasing, and generally load more content. It has more to do with stuttering and less with general fps (that's what the processors are dealing with).

 

And yes, the narrow bus-width is a problem too. That's why I decided not to get a GTX 650Ti: it sounds like a good deal until I realized it has 128bit bus. That's a downgrade from my 9800GT (256 bit), and that thing is just old tech rebranded.

 

I don't think catching up with console technology is possible. XBOX One, for example, already uses a custom CPU and PS4 utilizes a semi-custom GPU. Any feature developers use would be cross-platform, methinks. It's perhaps why nobody has utilized nVIDIA PhsyX on console yet lol

[FMod]

More VRAM would allow you to use higher resolution textures, use higher level of anti-aliasing, and generally load more content. It has more to do with stuttering and less with general fps (that's what the processors are dealing with).

 

Frametimes (that determine stutter) remain the same too. Games simply don't use that much texture variety and all. And if you force the memory issue, 680's GPU and bus still start choking first, before memory amount becomes an issue.

 

There's precious few finely cherry-picked circumstances where it makes an actual difference. Ever since they went past 64 MB, most times people bought "twice the RAM" editions of video cards, their GPU became obsolete well before it choked on the standard amount of memory.