Prepare me for Watch Dogs...

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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Apr 18, 2013
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Hi, I have pre ordered Watch Dogs on Steam because I will have it on steam forever, so even though I probably can't quite run it yet, eventually I know I will. I want to ask what is the most cost effective way I can prepare for running watch dogs at a reasonable level before it comes out.

My specs right now:
CPU i5 750 2.67GHz
GPU Radeon HD 6750 1GB GDDR5
RAM 4GB don't know brand or anything
PSU 550W don't know brand, says hec on it ('HIGH-QUALITY EVOLUTION COMMITMENT')
MOBO ASUS something or other...

I also have a tiny case, with limited airflow. If there's anything else you need to know in order to help me, let me know, I can even take pics if need be. Just note I am on a very limited budget so I want as much potential for as little investment as possible.

Thanks!
-WBC

(edited title because wtach... thanks firefox spellcheck for not telling me >< )

Also I should probably add, I don't care too much about perfect quality, as nice as that would be. I thoroughly enjoyed FarCry 3 with most settings around the high mark, on a low resolution and about 27 FPS. I can forgive a lowish framerate and lowish number of pixels if the shaders and detail etc still look nice.
 
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You can have your ram at 8GB if you want or 12GB with the 4Gb you already...
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cabudinen

cabudinen

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Apr 25, 2013
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Upgrade your ram to 8GB they are pretty cheap nowadays. and get a new graphics card at least a GTX 760 if you want to see any improvements over your radeon. CPU is fine! and your PSU should be able to power a single GTX 760!
 
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Suztera

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I don't trust HEC power supplies. I would upgrade PSU to a better quality. 550-650W is enough. Good brands are Antec, Corsair(not CX or CS series, they uses cheap caps and is mediocre ), Seasonic or XFX.
You will need to upgrade your graphic card to at least R9 270 or a GTX 760 if you want to play at high settings at 1080p.
You probably want 8GB ram as well.
What case you you have?
Budget?
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Apr 18, 2013
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Cool I'll probably get on the RAM, any recommendations? should all sticks be the same brand or anything, or will they work just fine regardless? Is the CPU really fine? I want an i7 so bad but the cost is just far beyond me. I know 550W should be enough, but I am worried about the brand, someone else also mentioned as such, although I've had it a fair few years without any problems...
 
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cabudinen

cabudinen

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Here's a few, make sure to select the answer as solved. They dont have to be the same brand and would work fine.
Corsair
Kingston
Kingsmax
PNY
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Apr 18, 2013
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I don't really have a number lol, it's kind of a case of I shouldn't spend anything, but I know I kind of need to spend SOMETHING



My PSU has treated me well thus far, what sort of problems would expect me to have if I kept it as it is? Corsair is a brand I have heard good things about and would probably trust, what would you recommend as a cheap upgrade on that front?

I have mentioned above, I will upgrade RAM, but I'll ask you the same, should I upgrade all sticks, or just add 2 more? Do they need to be all the same brand or any other restrictions like that? Any recommendations?

GPU is the real barrier here I guess. I used to have a 5750, but the fan died without my realising, and it got fried. I got a new cooler and fan which extended it's life a few more months, but eventually I had to cave and get 6750 as it was cheap, and is noticeably better than the one before, but I know it's still kind of low end. Should I really switch to an nVidia card? I kind of hate the way they made PhysX propietary, and as much as I want to enjoy physx effects in things like bordelands 2, I don't know if I want to give them the satisfaction. Is the 270 about on par with 760? If I did upgrade to 270, what would then be the tightest bottleneck on my machine?

I don't know the case specifics, it is just a small black box with everything very tightly packed inside, it has the MESH stamp printed on the front which is where I originally got the thing, has a couple of small vents on the front sides, and one case fan on the back. I also bought a slot fan to kick hot air out from the under the gpu, but due to small case/mobo, its a veeeery tight fit and I doubt it's actual effectiveness anyway.


EDIT:
is this a good buy for a 270? not as expensive as I feared, and I read somewhere that XFX give lifetime warranty, if you card ever dies, they will repair, or replace it with the closest equivalent at the time. It says Computer memory type GDDR5, but the graphics ram type says DDR3... which is it and what is the difference? Would the stock cooler on this be effective? also, side question, WHY DO MOTHERBOARDS MAKE YOU PUT IN GPUS WITH THE FAN FACING DOWN?? surely the heat just rises back up into the thing?? >< lol
 
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Suztera

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If you give the whole budget, i can see what items you can pick out to buy. Budget? Currency used?
 
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Suztera

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A r9 270 is slightly weaker. When overclocked, it will trade blows with a GTX 760. A 760 is slightly faster by 1-5 fps depending on the games you play.
What is your motherboard model and size? Is it ATX, M-atx or mini-ITX?
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Currency is GBP £

I don't really have a budget, but I think a couple hundred quid is my absolute maximum. My post above links to a r9 270 for £145 which seems reasonable.
 
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cabudinen

cabudinen

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Well, he wants to play watchdogs, which it has Nvidia features that's why I recommend it.
 
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stainedclass

stainedclass

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If you have a single 4gb stick, then upgrade it with another 4gb one. With your i7 the better choice would be nvidia card, but amd one will be fine as well. I would recommend GTX 750ti>r9 270>r9 270x>gtx 760
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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I will happily add a little overclocking, for my 6750 I go up to 700:1150 using ATI Tray Tools (I needed it to increase the idle clock speeds to 256:300 to stop flickering when using multiple monitors). A couple FPS won't make a difference to me as long as it is plenty playable.
 
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Suztera

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The thing is at that price a R9 270 is achievable with a 750ti which a R9 270 will definitely beat a 750Ti. Especially when overclocked.
I agree with upgrading another stick of ram if he hasn't gotten dual modulus for 4GB.
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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What specific features does nVidia add? I would love to be able to use PhysX in Borderlands 2 and Batman etc, but not at the cost of my moral compass ;P



I have two sticks so I can only assume they are 2GB each. should I get two more 2GBs or one 4GB? I don't have i7 I have i5.
 
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Suztera

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If you have a £200 budget i would try to get this:
If you can't past the £200 mark, i suppose you can still run the gpu on your old psu but don't overclock anything. I had my R9 270 running on a 500W power supply rated at 380W on the 12V rails. It was fine.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£122.03 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£45.98 @ Dabs)
Total: £217.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-10 10:48 BST+0100)

If you had £300:
The power supply is a 750W which is overkill but the price from 650 to 750 was worth it.
You can also fit a GTX 760 in this build

R9 270 gpu
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£122.03 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.78 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £241.79
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-10 10:57 BST+0100)

or GTX 760 build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£169.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.78 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £289.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-10 10:53 BST+0100)
 
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stainedclass

stainedclass

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You are not going to play watch dogs on ultra high settings anyway, so buy one more 2gb stick. 6GB should be enough for medium settings. If you have got the money, get the gtx 750ti.

Suztera i meant: 750ti<270<270x<760.
The 750ti is the weakest of those 4, but it still does a good job and comparing to your 6750 you will notice a difference.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-6750-vs-GeForce-GTX-750-Ti
750ti also will not be that heavy on your average PSU.
 
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cabudinen

cabudinen

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Also you will need a 64-bit OS to be able to run the game, and get 2 2GBs more. Watchdogs Nvidia features can be found here.

http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/watch-dogs
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Apr 18, 2013
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OK I've looked at my funds, and I possibly CAN stretch to £300, so with that in mind, should I get:
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£122.03 @ Ebuyer)

And which PSU specifically?

Also, with this new 8GB of RAM, can I still use my existing 4GB to have like 12? does it work like that? or would it create more problems than it's worth?

I gotta run to work now, I'll check back later, thanks everyone for your input so far! =]
 
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Suztera

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Ram would run best in dual channel so two sticks. I wouldn't bother running 12GB ram with three sticks.
This power supply:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1750xxxb9
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Sorry I thought it went without saying but I have to only OS I would have, Windows 7 64bit Home Premium. Windows 8 can jog on. Thanks for the list, I'll take a look at that in a bit.



It wouldn't be 3 sticks it would be 4. I currently have two 2GB sticks, so would I be okay to add two 4GB sticks, so 12GB accross 4. Also, if I do do that, does it matter where in the ram slots they are fitted. I assume at least the spacing is important, but also the order? so like
|4| |2| - |4| |2|

or something like that?
 
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Suztera

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You can have that configuration as long you have the same pair of ram in the same colour slots. Consolidate your motherboard manual to make sure.
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Apr 18, 2013
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so is everyone in agreement that this is a good 3 things to buy for a decent increase in performance? and what sort of increase are we talking, considering also cpu etc? what settings can I expect to use and get around 30FPS (or more) in most games, like FarCry 3, Tomb Raider, Assassins Creed etc.

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£146.98 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.78 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £266.74

and again, can I (or should I) install the 8GB RAM in addition to my existing 4GB?
 
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Willium_Bob_Cole

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Apr 18, 2013
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That's what I meant, that's cool then, the more RAM the better, especially if I get back into video editing etc. Thanks
 
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