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need some advice
anthonyc999
Member Posts: 18
in Hardware
I have a budget of $500 and i want to upgrade my computer currently i have
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
System Model: MS-7388
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8192MB RAM
Page File: 2047MB used, 14332MB available
Windows Dir: C:Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 465
Display Memory: 4050 MB
Dedicated Memory: 978 MB
Shared Memory: 3072 MB
i was thinking of buying 2 geforce gtx 550s and a cooling system
Comments
What else do you have? More to the point, which power supply and which case?
Don't get a GeForce GTX 550 Ti. It's slower than the card you have now. You can't use two in SLI, as your motherboard doesn't support SLI. Well, the motherboard does support SLI in hardware, but Nvidia disables it through drivers to spite you for buying an AMD chipset.
Why exactly are you looking to upgrade in the first place? Is there some particular game where your current system doesn't perform well enough?
If you don't have a good solid state drive already, then that's a worthy upgrade.
Well would be interesting to know what case and PSU you have.
Also wouldnt do sli 550s when a single 560ti/570 will do a similar or better job for the same price and without the hassle of sli, there are also a few ATI cards that may also be worth a look.
Quoting from the great man himself "Sli/Xfire should only be used when 1 single card is not enough"
Also why do you want to upgrade? Are games not playing quite as smoothly as you like? Is the system showing some other issues?
At the moment the order of upgrades i would suggest:
GFX >> Based on what you have said i would suggest a minimum of a 560ti
HDD >> SSD - the price is just getting nice and you now have some nice discounted drives that are making SSD very affordable
Maybe a new case and or PSU dependent on what you have got a may be needed for the new GFX card.
Right down at the bottom would be CPU upgrade as you would spend the most money here for what i would think would be the least noticable upgrade, as looking at your mobo although you could use it again you wouldnt want to, and this would then mean new mobo, ram, and CPU and maybe even OS. Added to this you already have 8gb which in most cases is more than enough ram atm so again changing this would be pretty pointless.
And talking about the great man himself he beat me to the post...............................
i have a 850w PSU and a very large cooler master case also the is a custom rig not a brand and i am FPS addict as well so performance is key for me
That answers nothing. Which case do you have, and which power supply? For the case, I'm mainly interested in how much airflow you've got. For the power supply, I want the exact brand name and model. The "850 W" is a marketing number that doesn't necessarily have any engineering meaning.
Well as long as you are happy with your PSU, imo you basically have 2 choices:
i5 + mobo + ram
or
gfx + ssd
Really depends on what you want to be doing and what your performance is like atm. However what ever you dont replace now you really should in the next 6-12months.
Now is prob a better time to change your CPU than your gfx, however if it is the gfx card that is causing the bottle neck then its a no brainer.
But if its not your gfx card then consider that SSD prices will fall a little more and the fall range of nvidia cards wont be out for another few months............................
ahh ok i have like 2 exhaust fans and its a gaming case so air flow is really good and the exact make of the PSU is
XION PowerReal AXP-850R14N 850W ATX 12V v2.2 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
also im not exactly set on SLI either if i can get more performance from single gfx card i go with that also i dont not have a SSD
and i mostly play mmorpgs and right now im playing age of conan( i know the issues with the dreamworld engine) and i really dont a a preference for ati or nvidia if that helps
The power supply is rather bad. Here's the conclusion to a review of the 700 W version:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=109
So I'm going to recommend that you get a new power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
and a new SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236
and save the rest of your budget until you come across a game where the processor or video card clearly aren't good enough. Which might be a while.
Or, if you only have one monitor, you could consider buying a second monitor. That can be a great convenience.
if i got those replacements would i notice a increase in performance this is my first gaming rig
In short no..............
However, updating the other parts and with the games you are playing you wouldnt see much difference anyway.
What it will mean is:
a) You wont fry any new parts you buy in the future
b) Your system will from the os side of things feel much quicker and game zones will load quicker
Then as Quiz says save up and do a more complete upgrade - as you are currently caught in the position that neither your gfx or cpu are so bad that they need to be replaced with something that you would see a significant difference within your budget constraints
The system you have will be fine for age of conan, and to be fair even things like BF3 will be fine just dont try to rack the graphic options up too high but will still be very playable
what i am trying to get is a steady 60 fps on high for age of conan as low as 30 fps during raids if that helps also a estimate of how much dough i need to do this would be great
You should be able to run high setting on DX9, even in a raid.
I wouldn't plan on playing DX10 on the highest settings, there are random slow downs and specific area's also slow the DX10 down. If your using DX10 in a raid, almost everyone has to make adjustments. (Turn off godrays and wind in the trees, it makes a big difference but not sure why- Also people say enhanced ocean waves boggs them down but I dont have that problem)
For raids almost everyone turns magic effects down or off, theres just to much going on and you wont be able to see much.
Most play DX9 maxed as its just smoother, also I play AoC on max DX9 settings and your computer is much better then mine.
(I played TSW on semi high settings also, so I would say its just the DX10 on AoC is the problem)
Well to be fair, unless something has drastically changed with Age of Conan you should already be getting close to this. What type of performance are you getting? What type of lag do you see?
Might be worth checking to see if there are problems with Age of Conan itself as i have a little voice in my head saying there were some issues with AoC and no matter how much money you throw at your system you wont get that great a performance but that is more to do with the game itself - though please dont take my word for it, would be well worth checking the forums here.
Regarding the whole how much money question the most common gaming rig would be something along the lines of:
i5 3570
560ti/570 or 7870 there or there abouts
4-8gb of decent DDR3 1600mhz
Mobo
And ofc a decent power supply and maybe a new os
If you want to go the full hog a ssd as well (this is next on my shopping list)
Which graphics card is basically how much money you want to put in but as a minimum i would say a 6870 - check to see what is the best price available at the time of purchase.
so if i got say a nvidia geforce 580 to replace my current card i would see no increase in fps
Quite possibly, some games can be badly coded that it doesnt matter what hardware you throw at it still doesnt run as your current specs are way above the recommended so like i have said before, check to see if there are any known issues, and try as the other poster has suggested moving to dx9 and turning some things off. Also it worth checking other games, do you play WoW? If so how does that perform........if not try downloading the trial and see how it fairs.
ive played wow and i was on med setting in stormwind and got like 30-50 fps
also could my HDD act as a bottleneck?
but what im trying to do is get 60 on high settings on anything
Use DX9 or try adjusting the Dx10 settings- Your Comp spec is above the recommended.
Yes youll get a little more FPS, but it wont stop the Slow downs or the specific areas to run better.
( I think the only real boost youll get is in dungeons, Open world maxed I sit about 60FPS, In a dungeon it jumps to over 100FPS which dont even make sense to me. So it has to be the way the games coded)