PC Upgrade Advice

Yes, the benchmark has been around for a while, but let's get some discussion going! (Link is to forum discussion about specs and scores.)

[If you don't have the benchmark yet, download it here!]

I'll assume most people who check this blog often are people who will be playing on PC at release time. If you are anything like me, you probably want to upgrade your PC to be up to snuff! I did a little ballpark-figure upgrade for my PC on Newegg recently, and it came out to be over $1000 USD. I had intended on getting a new CPU, a new Video Card, and a small but fast Solid-State Drive to install the game onto.

My advice for anyone hell-bent on upgrading their PC for launch day is simply this: Don't do it!

Wait until September. Prices will fall, if only slightly. Octuple-core CPUs are coming (sometime). Video card technology is constantly changing.

Unless you need the equipment right away for other purposes, it's prudent to wait until after you have played the game on your current setup before committing money to improving it. That way, you can decide how much of an upgrade you require, roughly; or if you even need one at all -- perhaps the cost won't be justified when you see that it actually runs nicely on your current rig.

As the adage goes, "haste makes waste." Ordering your upgrade blindly, or based loosely upon your benchmark scores, will almost certainly result in overspending and buyer's remorse.

Make yourself wait those extra two or three weeks after launch, maybe even a month or more, to decide whether the game is running smoothly at the setting level you desire. Updates will likely be rampant after launch; not everything is perfect after beta! There could be performance boosting updates due to rewriting wasteful code.

You can argue that if you did overspend, that you have at least gotten a leg-up on future games that will be more demanding. That very well may be true, but to me it's just a rationalization.

Don't spend your money before you know what it's being spent for!

Did you already drop some cash on an upgrade? Let me know what you spent it on, and how much your benchmark changed!
Satisfied with your current benchmark score? Post your rig and score in the thread!
Waiting for release to upgrade, like I am? Tell me what you have your eyes on for your upgrades!