Asus r9 270 - core 2 duo - performance/upgrade path decision

I don't care how anyone wants to class it, the 970 is a beast for that price! I spent nearly double the cost on a 780 a few months ago, wish I had waited as the 970 is actually a better performer, MUCH cheaper and uses less power.

Anyway I think the 970 is out of the OP's price range at this moment so it's pointless having a flame war.

 

It`s ok.It`s interesting to read, from what i`m seeing we have some really knowledgeable people here that`s cool

 

so..i have decided on the configuration ..opinions are more than welcome
Intel I3 4330 @ 3.5 ghz
ASUS mb ( i like asus :d) and they have fancy bios while other similary priced competitors dont have
4gb ddr3 1600 mhz - this will do just fine for my needs
and i need most of the help here..the PSU

http://www.emag.ro/sursa-thermaltake-litepower-500w-lt-500p/pd/E8C6NBBBM/

please tell me this psu is decent, fingers crossed

 

Ideally I'd say you really need quad core for Assetto Corsa, I'm not sure an i3 is going to give you the performance you're looking for with other cars on the track in multiplayer. The i3 is for general computing and light loads.

That PSU is old, is it even 80+ certified? Only a 2 year warranty as well, which always worries me lol, do they not think it is going to last longer than that or something?! I have seen reviews for the Thermaltake Toughpower but not the Litepower PSU's -Toughpower supposed to be quite good.
What are the prices like on the Corsair 500/600/700W units in Romania? I picked up a couple of 500 and 600W units from them for less than £50 and they were very good.

 

From Corsair i can have this one : http://www.emag.ro/sursa-corsair-550w-atx2-3-cp-9020050/pd/EQNMNBBBM/

or but this is kind of expensive http://www.emag.ro/sursa-corsair-500w-atx-2-2-500cx-bonze-cp-9020047/pd/EMDQKBBBM/

EDIT : or this psu http://www.emag.ro/sursa-thermaltake-smart-se-530w-sps-530m/pd/E9K0NBBBM/

 

I think it will depend on how well AC utilises hyperthreading, per core performance is soooo much stronger with the i3 but then that could be completely negated if AC doesn't utilise the extra threads provided by hyperthreading well; of which I have absolutely no experience so I can't say.

 

CX over VS any day Both made by CWT but I think the VS was victim of some corner cutting with cheap caps. I know your budget is tight but honestly get the best quality you possibly can from a PSU, you won't regret it in the long run

I don't have much experience with this either, all I know is that with a full grid my quad core goes nuts! There is a guy on here who I did see complaining about low fps with an i3 but I think that was an older model, possibly Sandy/Ivy - for hotlapping and average grid size it might be ok though.

 

Yeah, AC is a bit... erratic right now over multiple cores lol. One core can literally be at ~10%, another at ~75% and another at over 95% and the one core almost maxing out will cause the 95% occupancy thing so it's really hard to say at this point whether an i3 will suffice in the long run or not.

 

I noticed that on my mates FX8350, it's all over the place, not so much on my i5 though really. I wonder if it's an AMD thing and that's why CPU occupancy errors seem to happen more on the 6 - 8 core chips? I'll see a steady 60-70c on all cores fairly evenly with a full grid in SP races.

 

Ok guys.Im postponing the purchase for about a week.Hopefully it will be worth the wait and i will be able to buy a gpu also.Meanwhile i`m using an old notebook

 

Still set on the i3?

 

What you may not know is that when driving alone ac may be more focused on gpu. But online it could be both. If you want to know where your bottlenecks are you can do this:

On my own computer I get lower fps online as well even though I'm 100% sure my cpu is not bottlenecking me. After all I have ati 6950 (old gpu) and i5 4440 which is kinda new.

 

if everything goes as planned, in about a week i may order and i5 4590/4690, 4gb ddr3, and ati r9 270.Fingers crossed i`l announce it here, im really excited about it but i will have to pay monthly a fixed price for the gpu since i cant afford it right now, but if everything is staying as it is now, i will be able to do that from the little money i make as a student lol

 

@rzr1 congratz if you can get it!

@mike9572 i clearly showed off how NV is setting/ranking their cards.
GM204 is Performance Class not HighEnd which means that the price for such a small DIE is little bit overpriced.
But looking at your comment with the LaFerrari i doubt you understand something about GPU at all.
If it would start with a price, lets say 280 bucks - it would be fair.

 

I disagree with you there, you're basically saying that Nvidia has to stick to some pricing scheme because of a naming convention? It's just my opinion but ~£280 for the performance you get from a GTX 970 is worth every penny; it is the current price to performance winning card for good reason and just for reference, the 2GB GTX 770 had a UK launch price of £329, but Nvidia are scammers when they release a much more powerful card in the same class (not that I care what class) for £50 cheaper?

 

Nvidia are scammers to AMD fan boys

 

The naming scheme and pricing is dependent on the DIE size!
If you dont understand this, you wont understand my point.

Its not about the performance, its about the advertising as Highend and their price.
Just look what i stated on Site 2:

You see the GTX 580 was the last expansion before NV started the "scam" like mike tried to say it
It had a fair price.
GTX 680 is Performance Card for HighEnd Price, but they produced the 680 very very cheap as the DIE size is nearly only the half of the GTX 580!!!!
GTX770 is just a labeled GTX680, but got "released" later...still overpriced thing if you noticed the 280.. and know the Die Size and so on.
Whoever bought a midclass GPU for 500 bucks (see 980 price or 680 price) it was just scam from NV.
780 and 780ti had fair prices, but AMD with their 290 from Sapphire was just the better in price/performance.

@mike9572
Sorry but i own both (AMD and NV).
AMD 5750
NV GTX 670M
and i am happy with both.

Will update 2016
Next Card will be Big Maxwell aka 980ti or similar or AMD 390(x).
I was just stating that NV is scamming their customers with these cards.
They could bring Big Maxwell with Die Size over 500mm for the same price!

and AMD is also scamming their customers, but thats another topic.
Just look at 7970 = 280x renaming. Pure **** aswell!

 

I was in exactly the same boat as u this week..chuggin along with an arl e8400 lg775 c2d with a ati 6870 1gb..and as u hotlapping was fine albeit for micro stutters but online or ai racing...forget it. I had an upgrade budget of £450 an had 2 options..new or a used rig from classifieds. New I was gonna go for amd 8320 with a r9 280 8gb ram setup only to see a watercooled i5 3760k with an nvidea 670 gtx 2gb ssd for £450. I bought the i5 rig and all I can say is WOW. Av been an amd ati user forever but will say that the image quality and sheer eye candy from this combo is stunning. With max settings and 15 AI at Silverstone my fps didnt drop below 120fps...silky smooth no stutters and no annoying shadow that followed the car 100 yds infront. Am now very content with this setup and can recommend it...the new equivalent gpu would be a 760 gtx and i5 2400s are cheap on ebay...just a suggestion. .gl

 

@Deatroy, it's not scamming customers, AMD and nvidia are money making companies, that's what they do. The prices aren't just based on die size, there are many factors such as the current market and their competition at the time.

Anybody can see that the 970 is far from a scam, the 970 wipes the floor with the high end cards from the last 18 months for like half the price! Die size is only important when talking facts and figures, facts and figures which mean absolutely nothing when it comes to real world applications - as long as it saves us, the end user, money and performs even better than the last generation of very expensive cards then we have nothing to complain about.

I spent about £440 on a GTX 780, it was high end for about 10 minutes until the Ti came out, and then the 970 came out with better real world performance and power consumption for less than £250 a few months later, I feel annoyed about this but that's the way it goes in computer hardware, it isn't a new thing. I remember 150MHz CPU PC's with Voodoo graphics cards costing over £800 back in the (good?) old days.

 

Hey Half-life from a software k6 2 chip to a hardware voodoo 2 is the good ole days