Worth upgrading?

kaliyama

Hi,
These are my relevant specs:
AMD X64 6000
4 GB ram
Radeon 4850

Is it worth upgrading my core components right now? It seems like there's no new "killer app" that requires extra computing power, though i've had my current system for quite a while. Why would people upgrade at the moment if they could run, say, crysis satisfactorily?

Chalkbot

I'm not sure what you're asking exactly. Are you wondering why other people are upgrading their PCs or if you should upgrade your own?

If you are running everything to your own satisfaction on your current machine, then no, there is no reason to upgrade. That applies regardless of what hardware you have. If you have a 486 that is doing everything you need it to, no reason to upgrade. Simple as that.

Jasconius

You have a decent computer. The RAM and the video card are recent. The CPU isn't horrible.

I mean. This is the weirdest question I've seen.

If you have no reason to upgrade (and you seem to not have one) then DON'T UPGRADE.

For reals.

Sipex

Unless you're getting a free, limited time offer that's legit...always go for that.

kaliyama

Of course, one should never upgrade unless they need more computing power. I'm just trying to figure out what people have been upgrading for. I mean it would be fun to be able to run crysis harder than I am now, but what I have does fine with it. So i'm trying to figure out what people are doing with their computers. If I see everyone around me doing something (i.e., upgrading), and i'm not doing it, I wonder why. So I guess my questions were a) "what am I missing that everyone else should be upgrading so", and b) are we on a sensible point in the price-power ratio curve for video cards and CPUs?

Topweasel

kaliyama wrote: »

Hi,
These are my relevant specs:
AMD X64 6000
4 GB ram
Radeon 4850

Is it worth upgrading my core components right now? It seems like there's no new "killer app" that requires extra computing power, though i've had my current system for quite a while. Why would people upgrade at the moment if they could run, say, crysis satisfactorily?

This is were I was as a kid. I was putting a new upgrade into my machine every couple of months. Most of the time it seemed like I needed it because games were constantly putting a strain on my computer (though some of that was me just trying to have everything at top settings all of the time.) So its important to figure out why upgrading a machine is useful to you. If your a gamer and nothing is putting pressure on your machine then I would let it sit. In fact set aside any money you would have used to upgrade it and save it. Then next time you get antsy do the same thing till you get to a point where you do feel your machine is just too slow or under powered and that money will get you a better return.

If you want your machine to feel like it doesn't have 2 years of physical abuse on it. Wipe it and reload windows. You would be surprised how snappier it feels and in some cases will let you run games at a higher settings.

Dman

Some people spend their disposable income unwisely. If it makes them happy, good for them, doesn't mean you have to do the same.

If your computer does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.

I'm sure some people get a kick from having the latest tech and playing the latest games at the highest settings but I assure you your computer can run any game currently available at settings and frame rates good enough to enjoy playing.

Cabezone

Dman wrote: »

Some people spend their disposable income unwisely. If it makes them happy, good for them, doesn't mean you have to do the same.

If your computer does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.

I'm sure some people get a kick from having the latest tech and playing the latest games at the highest settings but I assure you your computer can run any game currently available at settings and frame rates good enough to enjoy playing.

I'll just add if you're satisfied with how well your computer runs, don't mess with it.

Dark_Side

Well, I think he's just trying to figure out where he sits on the spectrum of computer hardware, and whether or not he's way behind on the CPU or video card, or etc. I basically ran into the same thing not more than a week ago, as my box had very similar specs to the op's and I had a motherboard go out. I ended up replacing both the gpu and mobo since I at first just thought the card had went.

Basically op, after doing some research, I realized that there isn't a whole lot worth upgrading for right now in computers. I couldn't really justify a new CPU, as the 6000 I have in my box now is perfectly fine, and I've heard a lot of people comment that 4 cores are hard to even keep busy most of the time, so no phenoms for awhile yet. (Though the 6000 is a rather power hungry chip, the new ones are more efficient I believe.)

My 8800 GTS did turn out to be pretty ancient, though I had no idea since it played every game I had at max settings, except crysis, but even crysis ran at pretty high settings, just not max. I switched over to an ATI 5770 which is a small upgrade, but a good mid range card right now regardless. I only have 2 gig of DDR2 dual channel memory, but that seems to serve me fine, I'm not really noticing any bottle necks at any rate.

So you're still plenty current to be able to play almost anything that comes out in the next year or two, so I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading right now. The only thing you might hit the wall on is the video card, but I think your probably pretty safe with that for awhile now too.

All this is assuming you use your rig for basic web, apps, and then video games, for stuff like video editing...that's not really an area I know very well.

Edit: Thinking a bit more about it, there's probably a few big developments I would wait for in PC's before spending a lot of cash; the first one on the horizon seems to be multiple gpu's on one card, and the other is the GPU/CPU combo where your GPU can share CPU work, or vice versa, I'm not to sure on the specifics anymore.

TurboGuard

Wait on the video card.

Nvidia is releasing GF100 in March, and the hype around it is huge.
Even if it falls short, it will provide good competition and lower the prices of other good cards.

TychoCelchuuu

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

Jasconius

How about this Kali.

Upgrade your video card


and send me the old one

tsmvengy

Cabezone wrote: »

Dman wrote: »

Some people spend their disposable income unwisely. If it makes them happy, good for them, doesn't mean you have to do the same.

If your computer does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.

I'm sure some people get a kick from having the latest tech and playing the latest games at the highest settings but I assure you your computer can run any game currently available at settings and frame rates good enough to enjoy playing.

I'll just add if you're satisfied with how well your computer runs, don't mess with it.

Not enough lime in the world. Don't spend money just to spend money.

Casual

Cabezone wrote: »

Dman wrote: »

Some people spend their disposable income unwisely. If it makes them happy, good for them, doesn't mean you have to do the same.

If your computer does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.

I'm sure some people get a kick from having the latest tech and playing the latest games at the highest settings but I assure you your computer can run any game currently available at settings and frame rates good enough to enjoy playing.

I'll just add if you're satisfied with how well your computer runs, don't mess with it.

Computers are temperamental. If everything you have now works fine why change anything? Your friends may just be upgrading because they had lower spec PC's to begin with.

In short, if it ain't broke don't fix it.