Graphics card upgrade time?

Since 7576 Days

BF3's Alpha was actually one of the first games to push my system past 4 gigs. The game itself "only" uses like 1.5gb if I remember correctly, but then you have everything else :D

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Since 7570 Days

what's "everything else"?

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Since 7576 Days

Windows.. and everything else.. but Windows mostly. I have Chrome, Pidgin, Steam, Origin, Kaspersky and Spotify open right now. That's like 500 megs of ram split between them, I think.. with Chrome way out in front (with several tabs open). That's putting me at about 2.75gb already. I can't use two of my ram banks because my CPU cooler is blocking them too or I'd get 8 more gigs.

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Since 7570 Days

oh, nice. So that's, like, a worse than usual case scenario for me.

1.5 gig's eh? That ain't much.

btw, how is your cooler blocking your ram? Physically blocking them?

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Since 7576 Days

Well that's from memory and the alpha.. not set in stone or nothin.

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Since 7570 Days

hope for the best, expect the worst!

like you said though, framerate is everything. In the past I've always sacrificed graphic quality for control, and I'm fine doing it now too.

Of course I'm speaking about Multiplayer, which is everything in a game like Battlefield.

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Since 6688 Days

Okay so dilema as regards to the card resolved, I think I'll get the EVGA NVIDIA Geforce GTX 580 / 1.5GB GDDR5 / PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card from Play.com at £363.49 IF it will work with my pc.

Which is where I'll need your help again either Grift or Fr0sty. Is there anyway I can use windows (XP) to tell me the specs of my PC so I don't have to open her up and physically check everything? After that I'd appreciate some advice on what needs upgrading =)

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Since 7576 Days

diag.exe

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Since 6688 Days

Okay so I have:

Intel Core 2 Dup CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz (2CPUs)
2046MB RAM
DX9
NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB

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Since 6688 Days

Posted by Sephiriah

Okay so I have:

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz (2CPUs)
2046MB RAM
DX9
NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB

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Since 7576 Days

So.. what's your question? I wouldn't pair a GTX 580 (or.. 5anything to be honest) with that CPU. To really step into this generation of stuff you're going to need a quad, at least 4 gigs of ram, and Windows 7.

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Since 7577 Days

Posted by GriftGFX

Don't forget: Get the 64bit version of Windows 7 if you are going for more gigs of ram..

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"First come smiles, then comes lies. Last is gunfire"

Since 7576 Days

I'm not even sure why there is a 32bit version of Win7...

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Since 6688 Days

Any recommendations then for any quad core CPUs or RAM manufacturers?

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fr0sty

Since 7027 Days

If the new core-i range is superior in performance to the old core2duo range, then thumbs up, as the last rig I ever built had a core2duo and it flew! I had upgraded ram in the past, as well as gpu`s etc and notice some improvements overall, but when I installed that chip it was faster than anything I`ve ever had before and blew my mind!

Even though my current Alienware desktop houses an AMD chip, I`d much rather have an Intel due to the above and remember that Core i7 processors come with four or six cores too, so perhaps an OTT upgrade to a 6-core beast would suffise? ;0)

Some people have said in the past, (on the internet etc), that dual core chips would benefit users over quad core (+) chips for gaming etc as they give faster results. Is it true that there are only a handful of games at the moment that take full advantage of a quad core cpu`s? If so, then try to base your choice on what games you`ll be playing not only next week, but also over the next couple of years.

Either way, I`m hoping that my current setup keeps going for a while longer. I`ve missed so many new innovations recently, that I`ll wait until 2012+ before I build a new pc. DDR-3 Ram is out, (and cheap now), SSHD`s are slowly falling in price and USB 3.0 should be standard across the board when I next upgrade.

I`d say to stick with Intel though and look at the new i7`s. They can be expensive, but if you fancy a cheaper alternative, then look at the i5`s. An i5 is primarily quad-core in it`s architecture, whereas the i3 is dual core only.

I`ve been away from building pc`s for a while now, so if any of my information is incorrect then I apologise in advance.......only trying to help.

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Even though my current Alienware desktop houses an AMD chip, I`d much rather have an Intel due to the above and remember that Core i7 processors come with four or six cores too, so perhaps an OTT upgrade to a 6-core beast would suffise?  ;0)

Some people have said in the past, (on the internet etc), that dual core chips would benefit users over quad core (+) chips for gaming etc as they give faster results. Is it true that there are only a handful of games at the moment that take full advantage of a quad core cpu`s? If so, then try to base your choice on what games you`ll be playing not only next week, but also over the next couple of years.

Either way, I`m hoping that my current setup keeps going for a while longer. I`ve missed so many new innovations recently, that I`ll wait until 2012+ before I build a new pc. DDR-3 Ram is out, (and cheap now), SSHD`s are slowly falling in price and USB 3.0 should be standard across the board when I next upgrade.

I`d say to stick with Intel though and look at the new i7`s. They can be expensive, but if you fancy a cheaper alternative, then look at the i5`s. An i5 is primarily quad-core in it`s architecture, whereas the i3 is dual core only.

I`ve been away from building pc`s for a while now, so if any of my information is incorrect then I apologise in advance.......only trying to help.

"This zombie is so tough! - I just threw a grenade at him and I think he swallowed the fucker"!

Since 7576 Days

Sandybridge is so much faster than any Core 2 Duo. I went from an overclocked E6600 (3.2Ghz) to an overclocked i7 2600k (4.5Ghz). Even if you added two cores to the E6600 and magically made it run 1200Mhz faster, it would still be behind :)

Ivybridge will be out next year too.. and honestly, even though I bought a 2600k, the i5 2500k is essentially the same beast sans-hyperthreading, which you definitely don't need for games.

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Since 7570 Days

Every time I look at user reviews for new Nvidia drivers, they keep downgrading back to the 270 or 275's for stability.
I'm afraid to even get a new card now as I wouldn't get all the functionality out of the old stable drivers, yet upgrading to the new ones seems to be full of system failing nonsense, e.g system won't boot, crashes constantly.

Hmmm. Hopefully a temporary low point.

In reply to

Inflatable

Since 8214 Days

Posted by GriftGFX

I'm not even sure why there is a 32bit version of Win7...

To allow people to upgrade from a 32bit Vista maybe? Not everybody likes to do a clean install which means lose all your programs and settings etc..

I agree they should have ditched 32bit alltogether, 64bit with more memorysupport etc is the way to go now..

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Since 7576 Days

But why was there a 32bit version of Vista? ;)

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Since 7577 Days

Posted by GriftGFX

But why was there a 32bit version of Vista? ;)

Inception!

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"First come smiles, then comes lies. Last is gunfire"

Since 7577 Days

So here we go again

At the moment I'm thinking about upgrading to:

N570GTX Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC
Cooler: Twin Frozr III
GPU: GTX570
Core Clock: 770MHz
Memory Clock: 4000MHz
Memory Size: 1280 MB
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Interface: 320 bit
Interface: PCI Express x16 (PCI Express 2.1)
Output: Dual DVI-I + mini HDMI
TDP: 180W

After a quick look at the price it's going to set me back about 320 euro's....
I think this will be a significant upgrade from my 2 year old 4870 X2 and will allow me to play most of these new games on 1900x1200 with most advanced options on..

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"First come smiles, then comes lies. Last is gunfire"

Since 7576 Days

That's what I have... runs quite awesomely cool at 930Mhz too.

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Isomac

Since 7344 Days

Are you going to upgrade CPU too? Oh and upgrading GPU for Batman is worth it :P

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Hail to the king, baby!
Victory needs no explanation, defeat allows none.