Slow Graphics

[dgbb10]

Hey guys! This is my first post on this forum and I have a small question. I have a decent computer and its specs should be enough to run world of warcraft on ultra settings with a 1920x1080 moniter. I will list my system specs and I am wondering what I could do to speed up the graphics?
Thank you!


<<<System Summary >>>
> Mainboard : MSI Boston
> Chipset : Intel G31/G33/G35
> Processor : Intel Pentium E5300 @ 2600MHz
> Physical Memory : 4096MB (2 x 2048 DDR2-SDRAM )
> Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 210
> Hard Disk : SAMSUNG HD321HJ ATA Device (320GB)
> DVD-Rom Drive : Hewlett-Packard DVD-RAM GH40L
> DVD-Rom Drive : MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM
> Monitor Type : Samsung SM2333T - 23 inches
> Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8101 PCIe Fast Ethernet Adapter
> Operating System : Windows 7 Home Premium Home Edition Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
> DirectX : Version 11.00

 

[Supernova1138]

Your problem is the video card. The Geforce GT 210 is an incredibly weak video card, not designed for gaming so much, more for playing video or handling 2D applications. Even though WoW is not a really graphically demanding game, the GT 210 is simply not up to ultra settings at 1080p, it probably couldn't do ultra at 1280x1024 even. If you want ultra settings you are going to have to upgrade your video card. For 1080p gaming with high settings enabled you should have something like a GTX 460 1GB or a Radeon HD 6850 at least in order to get good framerates on most titles. If you could post what power supply you have, we could determine if your computer could support one of these cards.

 

[Overclocked Toaster]

supernova is right. also the second worst component is your cpu. you could upgrade it to a core 2 quad or a fast core 2 duo. Or if you want to play more demanding games you might think of a complete system overhaul with new mobo+CPU+GPU+RAM

 

[dgbb10]

Hey Thank you for the replies. I have an ATX 250 12Z 250 Watt power supply. Also you could probably figure this out but the CPU must be an LGA-775 so if you could also reccomend a CPU that would be awesome.

 

[josephb65]

CPU:
Since you have a G33/35 compliant board you should be able to go all the way up to the top of the Quad cores's. The Q6600 (a 2.4 ghz) is as cheap as $120.00 and up to about $150.00 on the top end. Alternatively the Q9650 (I just installed one two days ago on a similar board) runs about $350 on the high end. Either is a sizable upgrade for you and brings you into the midrange of PC gaming performance (discounting the card of course). I'm finding the Q9650 is truely amazing but the price can be a bit forboading for some. Whatever you choose make sure you top it with a nice fan, stock fans are just a recipie for chip faliure, I would recomend you select something that's a cross between cooling and quiet. On my Q6600 that I just replace I had a super high end cooler, you could hear the fan running down the hall... truely annoying.

Video Card:
The graphics card, A cheap radeon would suffice for this I'm using the 5750 1 gig and kick ass with most games including the new Witcher2 and Crysis 2, Price was around $125.00 about 6 (?) months ago, I believe though the 5800 series is now in a comparable price range but haven't looked. These are considered "Enthusiest" gaming cards and do more then fine for the pricing.

Power Supply:
Okay, your power supply sucks balls dude. AQ6600 processor use's about 120W, the Q9650 is lower with a faster FSB to boot at about 95W I believe (from memory but close as I was reading this about two weeks ago now). Some video cards run in excess of 130W!!! My Radeo runs between 16W and 122W under load. So my advice is of course to upgrade that PS, cheapest item we discussed here and it is in some ways the most important as the others don't work without it.

So,

Low end? about $300.00 to pop it up to quality gaming.
High end? Say around 600.00 - 700.00.. but!
I guarentee you'll be pleased with the Q9650 I benchmark up near the i7 920's, and for me it was just the cost of the chip. But you'll also be fine with the Q6600 for the lesser money, it's just with that you HAVE to upgrade your PS and you use a slower FSB.. an alternative so you can lower the power suck and use the faster FSB would be the Q8400 for around $130.00 (plus I just looked at Q6600 prices again and they are about $30 higher this month then two months ago .. le sigh), but you lose half of your L2 cache.


Here are a few usefull links

Video card power usage:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=289&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=13

CPU performance:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
Plus this site has decent video card and HD benchies.. alternatively Tom's here does a mighty fine job on this front as well, just dig

And if you need any help please feel free to shoot me a PM or some such...

JosephB65

Edited for dumass gramercial/spelling errors

 

[Supernova1138]

For any real graphics card upgrade you are going to need a new Power Supply. 250 Watts is simply not enough to run any graphics card that can handle high settings at 1080p. You're going to need at least a good quality 400 Watt unit to power your upgraded system.

As for CPUs, your chipset does support 45nm Core 2 CPUs, so something in the Q8xxx series or some of the Q9xxx would be compatible quad cores, the E7xxx and E8xxx series are compatible dual cores, check the CPU compatibility list for your motherboard to ensure your selected CPU will work before buying. If you go dual core make sure it is a faster one, preferably around the 3 GHz range. You may also want to avoid some of the really slow quads as well, as they perform poorly in applications that don't use many processor cores. Also, if the new CPU turns out to be quite costly, say around $200 and up, you may want to consider a new mobo, CPU, RAM setup. Sandy Bridge significantly outperforms Core 2, and the LGA 1155 platform does have an upgrade path, unlike LGA775.

 

[dgbb10]

Best answer selected by dgbb10.