Recommended upgrades for Skyirm with STEP

[nico53laval]

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP, ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

[Besidilo]

Even if you load up on powerful GPUs with lots of VRAM Skyrim will still be CPU limited due to the heavy scripting involved. If you use a lot of mods that have add to the CPU's workload, like Economics of Skyrim, then you will still get performance issues regardless of VRAM. In other words, it is just as wise to upgrade to Ivy Bridge as it is to upgrade to Kepler.

Or Sandy Bridge, if you can find that cheap.

 

Got me a nice i7 2600K upgrade here for £165, overclocked to 4.6GHz and uses less power than my previous CPU. :)

 

8GB of RAM these days is a must have. Take advantage of the low prices and upgrade.

I concur, having 8GB RAM has crash issues with a few other games to, like BF3.

[frihyland]

RAM is super cheap here's some good choices at the $50 range

 

If your not gonna overclock your CPU get this lower CAS is better, if you are gonna overclock get this more speed is better.  And if you got the cash get 2 sets, 16GB will give you more options for a pretty reasonable price.

[stoppingby4now]

You only need higher speed RAM if you are going to overclock the ram as well. I'm currently running a SandyBridge i5 2500K which easily overclocked to 4.5GHz, and using 1600 RAM. No need to overclock the RAM at all.

[frihyland]

Yeah it depends on the cpu and motherboard really, there are a lot of options out there these days for overclocking.

[Farlo]

You only need higher speed RAM if you are going to overclock the ram as well. I'm currently running a SandyBridge i5 2500K which easily overclocked to 4.5GHz and using 1600 RAM. No need to overclock the RAM at all.

I have the 2500k also and I was thinking about giving it a good OC (currently running at 3.6 I believe), but I'm afraid to push it on the stock cooler.  Could you recommend a good one for less than 50 or so?  I've had my eye on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, but if I can do better for not that much more, that'd rock.

[stoppingby4now]

 

You only need higher speed RAM if you are going to overclock the ram as well. I'm currently running a SandyBridge i5 2500K which easily overclocked to 4.5GHz and using 1600 RAM. No need to overclock the RAM at all.

I have the 2500k also and I was thinking about giving it a good OC (currently running at 3.6 I believe), but I'm afraid to push it on the stock cooler.  Could you recommend a good one for less than 50 or so?  I've had my eye on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, but if I can do better for not that much more, that'd rock.

 

The Hyper 212 is one of the best coolers you can buy for price/performance. But i would recommend the Evo version for overclocking as it has more contact between the heat pipes and the radiator. Even then it really depends on how far you want to push it. In a lot of tests with moderate overclocking, the Evo reduces average load temperature by about 3C compared to the Plus.

[Farlo]

 

 

You only need higher speed RAM if you are going to overclock the ram as well. I'm currently running a SandyBridge i5 2500K which easily overclocked to 4.5GHz and using 1600 RAM. No need to overclock the RAM at all.

I have the 2500k also and I was thinking about giving it a good OC (currently running at 3.6 I believe), but I'm afraid to push it on the stock cooler.  Could you recommend a good one for less than 50 or so?  I've had my eye on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, but if I can do better for not that much more, that'd rock.

 

The Hyper 212 is one of the best coolers you can buy for price/performance. But i would recommend the Evo version for overclocking as it has more contact between the heat pipes and the radiator. Even then it really depends on how far you want to push it. In a lot of tests with moderate overclocking, the Evo reduces average load temperature by about 3C compared to the Plus.

 

Oh! That's actually the one I was looking at.  It was a while ago I looked at them and I didn't remember the exact name when I Google'd it for that link.  That's pretty good for $5, look forward to some OCing :D

[Neovalen]

With all this Processor / RAM talk I've given some thought about upgrading my i7-920 @ 3.6Ghz / ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 to an Ivy Bridge setup. Especially with the pair of GTX 670's I have coming in soon.

 

I've thought about getting the following based on all I've read:

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

SOME DUAL CHANNEL MEMORY 8 to 16 GB *** Any suggestions for price/performance? (Approximately $100 going from the post earlier in this page)

SOME Z77 MOTHERBOARD *** Any suggestions for a good overclockable board? (Approximately $125-$175 available for this)

 

My main goal with the upgrade is of course to not bottleneck my pair of GTX 670's and be able to run my rig hard for whatever might come my way in a surround setup.

I've already got an SSD that I'm under-accessing due to my mainboard, so I figure doing this will give me the maximum bang for my buck and I won't have to upgrade anytime soon once this is done.

[stoppingby4now]

With all this Processor / RAM talk I've given some thought about upgrading my i7-920 @ 3.6Ghz / ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 to an Ivy Bridge setup. Especially with the pair of GTX 670's I have coming in soon.

 

I've thought about getting the following based on all I've read:

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor <<< This one appears to be the sweet spot. ($240)

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler <<< Based on the recommendation above. ($35)

SOME DUAL CHANNEL MEMORY 8 to 16 GB *** Any suggestions for price/performance? (Approximately $100 going from the post earlier in this page)

SOME Z77 MOTHERBOARD *** Any suggestions for a good overclockable board? (Approximately $125-$175 available for this)

 

My main goal with the upgrade is of course to not bottleneck my pair of GTX 670's and be able to run my rig hard for whatever might come my way in a surround setup.

I've already got an SSD that I'm under-accessing due to my mainboard, so I figure doing this will give me the maximum bang for my buck and I won't have to upgrade anytime soon once this is done.

I would recommend doing a search for Ivy Bridge and try and find recent reviews. I haven't kept up with it, but reviews from just over 2 months ago were reporting not that much of an increase in performance over SandyBridge, and general inconsistencies with overclocking and heat issues.

[frihyland]

The general recommendation is that if you already have an overclockable sandy bridge there is absolutely no reason to buy an ivy bridge, any pre sandy bridge chips could receive substantial benefit from an upgrade.

[Farlo]

With all this Processor / RAM talk I've given some thought about upgrading my i7-920 @ 3.6Ghz / ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 to an Ivy Bridge setup. Especially with the pair of GTX 670's I have coming in soon.

 

I've thought about getting the following based on all I've read:

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor <<< This one appears to be the sweet spot. ($240)

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler <<< Based on the recommendation above. ($35)

SOME DUAL CHANNEL MEMORY 8 to 16 GB *** Any suggestions for price/performance? (Approximately $100 going from the post earlier in this page)

SOME Z77 MOTHERBOARD *** Any suggestions for a good overclockable board? (Approximately $125-$175 available for this)

 

My main goal with the upgrade is of course to not bottleneck my pair of GTX 670's and be able to run my rig hard for whatever might come my way in a surround setup.

I've already got an SSD that I'm under-accessing due to my mainboard, so I figure doing this will give me the maximum bang for my buck and I won't have to upgrade anytime soon once this is done.

I would recommend doing a search for Ivy Bridge and try and find recent reviews. I haven't kept up with it, but reviews from just over 2 months ago were reporting not that much of an increase in performance over SandyBridge, and general inconsistencies with overclocking and heat issues.

Most of the deal with Ivy Bridge is smaller chip sizes and reduced power consumption is it not?  That said, I've seen a decent jump in performance from Bloomfield to Sandy Bridge, so making the jump to a 2500k/3570k should help there.

 

For RAM, I'd recommend Kingston or Corsair, but anything with a heatsink, decent reviews, and "gaming" in the description should be fine.

[stoppingby4now]

 

With all this Processor / RAM talk I've given some thought about upgrading my i7-920 @ 3.6Ghz / ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 to an Ivy Bridge setup. Especially with the pair of GTX 670's I have coming in soon.

 

I've thought about getting the following based on all I've read:

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor <<< This one appears to be the sweet spot. ($240)

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler <<< Based on the recommendation above. ($35)

SOME DUAL CHANNEL MEMORY 8 to 16 GB *** Any suggestions for price/performance? (Approximately $100 going from the post earlier in this page)

SOME Z77 MOTHERBOARD *** Any suggestions for a good overclockable board? (Approximately $125-$175 available for this)

 

My main goal with the upgrade is of course to not bottleneck my pair of GTX 670's and be able to run my rig hard for whatever might come my way in a surround setup.

I've already got an SSD that I'm under-accessing due to my mainboard, so I figure doing this will give me the maximum bang for my buck and I won't have to upgrade anytime soon once this is done.

I would recommend doing a search for Ivy Bridge and try and find recent reviews. I haven't kept up with it, but reviews from just over 2 months ago were reporting not that much of an increase in performance over SandyBridge, and general inconsistencies with overclocking and heat issues.

Most of the deal with Ivy Bridge is smaller chip sizes and reduced power consumption is it not?  That said, I've seen a decent jump in performance from Bloomfield to Sandy Bridge, so making the jump to a 2500k/3570k should help there.

 

For RAM, I'd recommend Kingston or Corsair, but anything with a heatsink, decent reviews, and "gaming" in the description should be fine.

Good read here on Ivy Bridge that talk about some of the likely causes of hotter temperatures.

[Neovalen]

Thanks for that read sb4n. So from what I've read I've learned:

 

1. Ivy Bridge runs a little hotter than Sandy Bridge when overclocked, so will not achieve same Ghz level but performance will be the same-ish with less power draw.

2. Ivy Bridge has a few extra features such as built in graphics (great for those times when your video card goes out to test), more PCI-E 3.0 lanes, etc.

 

So I think Ivy Bridge is the right way to go instead of buying a generation back, even if I don't quite get the same Ghz numbers as Sandy Bridge. That sound about right?

 

Additionally, due to my wife wanting my old system minus Hard Drive and possibly selling her system the budget has increased slightly but so has the need list.

 

Updated Build List:

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (with LEDs) x2 (total 16GB)

EVGA 04G-P4-2673-KR GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked+ w/Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card x2 in SLI

Z77 Motherboard *** ($?)

Power Supply ***  ($?)

Case **** ($?) I currently use a Cooler Master HAF932 for my existing system.

OCZ Vertex 3 Series - MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

[z929669]

The general recommendation is that if you already have an overclockable sandy bridge there is absolutely no reason to buy an ivy bridge any pre sandy bridge chips could receive substantial benefit from an upgrade.

Whish is awesome as I am a sandy guy :D

 

And it does handle Skyrim quite nicely ...

[frihyland]

Here's the cheapest motherboard I could find that would properly support your videocard investment. (You want x16/x16 pci3 support).

And heres a power supply that could feed that SLI.