Is this normal, help?/Upgrade advice

[Fitzad]

Hi guys,

So I've just been messing around with 3dmark to see whether my laptop or pc is better and for some reason my PC CPU score was 5629 and 3dmark says its should be around the 10000 mark? Is it suppose to be like that.

These are my current PC specs:

CPU: i5 750 @ 2260MHz
MoBo: Gigabyte P55A-UD3
GPU: HD4870
RAM: 2 x 2048 MB G.Skill 9 @ 667 MHz
3dmark: Overall P7192
CPU 5629
Graphics 9149

Surprisingly my PC smoked my laptop :/

Laptop specs:

CPU: i7 2630QM @1596
GPU: 6770M 2GB
RAM: 8GB
3dmark: P4424
CPU 17539
Graphics 3542

With those spec's in mind, should my PC have beaten my laptop so convincingly?

I was going to switch to my laptop for gaming for awhile but now with these scores I'm contemplating upgrading my PC. I'm thinking my GPU is in most need of upgrading but I haven't been keeping up to date with what is going on in the GPU market. What's the best value for money card atm? I don't really want to spend more than $200 but can stretch to $300 if I really have too.

Thanks in advance.

**I used 3dmark vantage for both tests as the 4870 can't handle dx11

[steve_rogers42]

3d mrk is whats known as a synthetic benchmark, so take your results with a grain of salt, another thing it does when it compiles the information given to you is it present it in a format to show you what people wiht the same setup have achieved.

In your case it looks like your 750 is at stock clocks (not overclocked) whilst the vast majority of people who would hve been benchmarking vantage with a 750 would have had it overclocked, the 750 was a very decent overclocker in its hey day.

It looks like your 4870 is still going strong, it and the performance of the cpu combined is what made the score so vastly different. Laptop cpu's tend to be more energy efficient and this means they use a lower voltage so tend to not clock as high for general or turbo use. whilst the processor is a lot more efficient at lower clocks it looks like the 6770 is letting it down, the 4870 is a strong compute gpu whilst the 6770 is basically a gpu refresh of the 5770 which was an ok performer but i would put it under the 4870 in terms of compute ability...

With your current setups, your desktop is would be more balanced for gaming but the performance might not be up to par, a new gpu and a slight overclock would help lift its game a little.

Because of the bottleneck at the gpu end in your laptop, it should be ok for most gaming, but maybe not on external monitors/3d/aa+/high settings etc, the cpu will be able to make up for the short comings of the gpu, but you will only get so far.


for your price point, your a bit in luck, as due to the keplar domination, AMD/ATI prices have dropped, so price wise you have high-end 560 Ti's from nvidia in the same price bracket as a 7850, which is between the 200-300 price points. The 7850 isnt too bad but gets the edge on the 560, plus if you can stretch it a 7870 should be ok to. Both these cards should perform fine on a single 1080p screen, regardless of settings. If your looking at going multiscreens i would highly recommend a cpu cooler and overclocking the 750 for a few more mhz inorder to release those frames!

[Fitzad]

Thanks for the info steve.

I was using my laptop for gaming while I was overseas and it was a great performer but as you said as soon as I started using with external monitors its kinda shows that the hardware if kinda lacking. Now if only i can get the CPU out of the laptop and put in the PC lol.

Do you think that the 7850 is worth the extra 30 or so dollars? Found a Gigabyte GTX560 Ti oc for around $230, good value?

[steve_rogers42]

Have a look HERE RE: 560 Ti vs 7850

If you pay attention to the games you play and then look at the resolution you play in, it should justify the price point....due to the price drop its well worth looking into.

[Fitzad]

Thanks Steve.

I'm going with the 7850 since from what I have seen it can OC to almost the speed of the 7870. I also got a Cool master evo 212 so I can OC my CPU better.

Now that I've been looking at prices I've noticed that I can get another 4 Gb of the same RAM I currently have for $33, do you think its worth it?

[tranquil]

Now that I've been looking at prices I've noticed that I can get another 4 Gb of the same RAM I currently have for $33, do you think its worth it?

Absolutely, for only $33 going from 4gb to 8gb is worth it imo. Will give you a bit of breathing room for newer games.

[steve_rogers42]

its worth it, but if your overclocking with new fans/heatsinks i hope your case if up for it, gonna need airflow sorted!

[Fitzad]

Ending up getting a Sapphire 7850 OC and another 4gb of ram

OC'd my CPU up to 3.8 Ghz, was aiming for 4.0Ghz but couldn't keep it stable so came back down to 3.8 Ghz which is a massive improvement anyways.

Thanks for you help guys, pretty much have a new comp now

[steve_rogers42]

congrats