Computer system Specs help

[Davewave]

Hi All I am looking at buying either a new GFX card or CPU but not both ($$$).

I've looked at all the comparative benchmarks between my system and the new hardware and I am wandering, at least for A10C, am I better off buying the best CPU or best GFX.

 

For example, I have a B150 motherboard (so only one GFX slot)

I have a core i3 6100 and a Radeon AMD R7 360.

Plenty of DDR4 RAM.

 

From what I can tell in the long run I could play more games with a better GFX because only DCS uses one core anyway, so ARMA,. fallout 4 etc, even VR and multimonitor.

Whereas if I get a better CPU with more cores and more GHZ I feel the comparative boost in performance all round will not be as noticeable.

 

Comments? suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Currently I get anywhere from 20 FPS in a busy combat situation and it can drop down to 11.

[majapahit]

best bang for buck card seems to be GTX 970 if you can afford it but CHECK if it will work on you motherboard / has BIOS issues / or make sure you can return

[Davewave]

Was going to get the 1070

[majapahit]

Was going to get the 1070

well there you have it

[Xavven]

Hi, Davewave*!

 

In your case, you will probably see a greater performance increase by upgrading your graphics card. You already have a Skylake processor, and even if it is a Core i3 (and i5 is the usual go-to for mid-range gaming), it's actually your AMD R7 360 that is the bottleneck.

 

I recommend looking at Passmark benchmarks here: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

You will see that your video card has a score of 3,137. A GTX 1070 has a score of 11,604. The 1070 is between 3 and 4 times as powerful as your current card. That's a very significant difference.

 

If you look at the CPU charts, you have to dig a little to get the i3-6100's score, but it is averaging 5328 right now, compared to a Core i5-6500 scoring 7015, and is about $200 on NewEgg.com right now. A Core i7-6700 is scoring 9980, however that's not indicative of how DCS is going to take advantage of the hyperthreading. i5 vs i7 doesn't make a big difference in a lot of games.

 

So a $200 Core i5 might get you 50% more performance, but a $450 GTX 1070 is going to get you 300% more performance. That's a better price per performance gain IMO.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Xavven
Addressed wrong name - whoops

[Davewave]

Thanks so much for that info. It's really hard to find this stuff it and make the right decision. The last thing I want is to buy a new GFX card and have nothing significant happen. I look forward to my new card as soon as I can buy one. Thanks again.