Forced SLI and FFXIV still chugging... time to upgrade?

[frizzit]

I posted earlier about a low benchmark on FFXIV and the huge interface lag I was facing. I forced SLI, but the game still is aggravating to play. I know my rig is not great, but I'm looking for some advice on what to upgrade to make FFXIV run smoothly. I imagine it will be GPU, but I'm no genius at this stuff so I'll try to give as much infor as possible.


Dell XPS 630I
ACPIx86

Intel Core2 QUAD CPU Q6600 @ 2.4GHZ 2.4 GHZ
4 GB RAM (1x4 1GB Corsair 800M "DDR2?")

Vista 32 bit OS

2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTs SLI'd

PSU - Dell 750W


I was thinking maybe upgrading the GPUs, but I'm not sure if that's too complicated (or expensive) with the SLI setup.

My budget would be $500-$700.

I'm open to any gear that will work, but I'm affraid if I just buy new stuff on my own that it wont be effectively utilized becasue of the older board or RAM.


Thanks for all the help!

 

[notty22]

For about 450 dollars if there are combo deals like at newegg you could do a
cpu: I5 760
m/b: gigabyte p55a ud4- sli http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.520578
ddr3 ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226154&cm_re=ddr3_1600-_-20-226-154-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144436&cm_re=ddr3_1600-_-20-144-436-_-Product

What resolution are you gaming at ?

 

[frizzit]

My Monitor is native at 1680X1050 so I try to stick to that.

Are you recommending a new motherboard? Is this because mine won't support the DDR3?

I know my 4GM RAM is outdated, but whats the real difference between 4x1GB DDR2 RAM vs. 2x2GB DDR3 RAM?

Also, with the above recommended upgrade could I plug my 8800GTs into it and expect good results? I read that the I5 chips are better for single GPU so debating whether I should spend the last part of my budget on a good graphics card.

I was looking at this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510

All together with the Mobo, CPUs & RAM above it would be right at my $700 budget. Thoughts?

 

[yanje03]

My Monitor is native at 1680X1050 so I try to stick to that.

Are you recommending a new motherboard? Is this because mine won't support the DDR3?

I know my 4GM RAM is outdated, but whats the real difference between 4x1GB DDR2 RAM vs. 2x2GB DDR3 RAM?

Also, with the above recommended upgrade could I plug my 8800GTs into it and expect good results? I read that the I5 chips are better for single GPU so debating whether I should spend the last part of my budget on a good graphics card.

I was looking at this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510

All together with the Mobo, CPUs & RAM above it would be right at my $700 budget. Thoughts?

only choice for you is a new PC. 460GTX is best choice for graphic card on this game. if you want to cover few more year. could add $150 for i7 build.

 

[frizzit]

only choice for you is a new PC. 460GTX is best choice for graphic card on this game. if you want to cover few more year. could add $150 for i7 build.

So my "only" choice is a entirely new PC? What qualifies as a new PC? I figured that a new mobo, CPU, RAM and GPU was a large step forward. My PSU at 750W isn't great, but is sufficient. Should I get new DVD drives too? I was thinking that I have a good case, decent HD, PSU and drives.... why replace those?

 

[jerreece]

I don't play FFXIV. However, it seems to be a bit CPU intensive, so a Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz could be a limitation. Also, I read in another thread once that perhaps SLI doesn't work well with this game. So you may or may not be taking full advantage of your SLI 8800GT's to begin with.

notty22's suggestion of the i5-760, Gigabyte P55 motherboard, and new DDR3 RAM is a great idea for the long term.

However, you could also simply try overclocking your Q6600 to like 3.2Ghz (fairly common OC for that CPU) and see if that frees up some performance.

 

[frizzit]

Best answer selected by Frizzit.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey