Is this sufficient?

[myfunkychannel]

Hi all, is this good enough to run Black Ops? Also how would you rate this computer? Do I need to upgrate anytime soon?

* Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS4P
* CPU: Core 2 Duo. 3Ghz / 6mb / 1333FSB
* Memory: 2x2GB Kingston DDR2 800Mhz
* Graphic card: Gigabyte Geforce 9500GT 1GB overclock 650MHZ

quick question. 1GB ddr2 vs 512 ddr3, difference is being speed but ddr2 is 1GB vs 512MB. but people still get ddr3 yet it being smaller. what does the size have effects on?

 

[ern88]

You should be ok. Maybe your GFX card will hold you back a bit.

 

[notsonoobPCguy]

If you can get it the more ram the better. I have 5gigs of DDR3 and its great, just make sure your mobo supports it. You will be able to run Black Ops, max i dunno but close to.

 

[cjl]

I would say that everything there is fine, although the graphics card is definitely the low point. Everything else is completely fine, but the graphics are relatively low end and a couple years old.

 

[4745454b]

The reason is bandwidth. Might be 1GB, but because its DDR2 is moves slower (500 actual, 1GHz effective.) and is probably on a narrower bus as well. By moving down to 512MBs of DDR3 ram, you gain speed (750 to 1GHz actual or higher) and bus width as well. (128 bit)

So why does this matter? If your memory bandwidth is to low, your GPU's chip will be spending to much time idle waiting for information. The chip itself might be able to render 60FPS, but the memory is so slow that it can only do 45FPS. 512MBs is usually still enough to render most games fine without having to grab system memory, but you won't have enough for AA, etc. If I had to chose between a 1GB DDR2 card and a 512MB DDR3 card I would get the DDR3 card without even thinking about it.

 

[myfunkychannel]

ok thanks. i want to make my computer faster without changing cpu or motherboard. so im thinking of changing my ram...is it better to have less memory but more speed or the other way around for my ram.
running on windows xp pro so i think 4gb is the limit i have.

cause i notice someone say videocard needs to change but they didn't say if ram was sufficient. i know ram has enough memory but its slow aint it? cause i want to make my computer really fast

 

[4745454b]

You have 4GBs of ram. Assuming 32bit windows XP, you need a video card upgrade for gaming.

 

[ern88]

I have an E8400 oc'd to 3.6 ghz and 4 gigs ram ddr2, with a ATI 5850. And black ops plays fime since the last patch was released.

 

[mavroxur]

Everything seems fine, except the video card. It *will* work, but a better card would make a huge difference.

 

[cjl]

ok thanks. i want to make my computer faster without changing cpu or motherboard. so im thinking of changing my ram...is it better to have less memory but more speed or the other way around for my ram.
running on windows xp pro so i think 4gb is the limit i have.

cause i notice someone say videocard needs to change but they didn't say if ram was sufficient. i know ram has enough memory but its slow aint it? cause i want to make my computer really fast

If you want to change anything, you should change the video card. System RAM speed really doesn't matter very much, especially on a Core 2, and you already have 4GB. I sincerely doubt you'd see a difference if you replaced your current RAM with 1200MHz RAM of the same capacity, but you'd see a huge difference from replacing the video card.

 

[ern88]

Again, I agree bigt ime. I went from a 9800 GTX to a 5850. And there was a huge difference for me. Like I said in my first post. Your GFX card is the biggest looser of your rig.

 

[myfunkychannel]

running on stock cpu fan...any suggestion for a not so expensive cpu fan so i can overclock? running 550w powersupply. willing to pay ~$200 for the new card. So was thinking either geforce gtx 465 or geforce gtx 460. thoughts?

 

[Psychoteddy]

Barely playable on Medium I'd say. If you can somehow fanaggle the settings to use DirectX 9.0 only that will help a lot.

 

[Psychoteddy]

^
???

Sometimes there are commands that you can insert into the "target" field of the shortcut to force certain modes when launching the application. HW Acceleration, Custom Resolution, DX mode, etc. You'd have to do some Googling to see if these are available for CoD:BO but I've done it successfully with some games.

Forcing DX 9.0 would take a lot of load off the GPU and make it playable. That card can only *barely* handle DX10 applications.

 

[Psychoteddy]

Figured it was a miscommunication issue

Yay internet

 

[myfunkychannel]

i dont get the diference between gtx 460 standard to gtx 460 overclock. couldn't you just buy a standard gtx 460 and overclock it yourself. whats the point wasting extra $$$ for something that you can do yourself?

someone please explain