About a year ago, I bought a new computer: a Dell Inspiron 580. It has an Intel Core I3 processor at 2.93ghz, 4 gig DDR3 RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, and integrated sound and graphics. In the past year, I have started playing LOTRO and WoW. Needless to say, I have been terribly disappointed with the overall graphical performance.
With WoW, I either have to deal with Low to Fair graphics at around 20-30 fps or I can turn them up a bit and suffer at around 7-12 fps. With LOTRO, DX10 won't work, so I have to stick with DX9. I can either play on Medium graphics settings or turn it up to something decent and chug along at unrealistically low framerates with about .25-.5 seconds UI lag. I am not content.
So now, an interesting question pops up. My friend has a computer that's about 4-5 years old. On LOTRO, he can play on Ultra-High settings and hit some very nice framerates. On WoW, his computer performs only slightly worse than mine. This doesn’t make any sense considering how old it is compared to mine. To try and understand the reason, I ran some tests on processor speed. Surprisingly, it turns out that even when I dip to 4 fps, my processor usage never goes above around 40-60%. I think it hit around 75% one time, but it hasn't done it since. It tends to sticks around 45% usage no matter the framerate. This leads me to believe the low framerates are attributed to my integrated graphics.
My solution to this problem initially was simple: buy a better graphics card. But then I got to looking into the system requirements, and it turns out my puny 300w power supply won't do the job. So the solution would be getting a bigger power supply, right? Well, if I do that, I'll probably need a better cooling system (this is beginning to remind me of a popular children's book about a mouse and a cookie...). This is my dilemma.
So now that we are all acquainted with my current condition, let's get down to the problem. If I wanted to upgrade the graphics of my above-mentioned computer to the best they can possibly be, what would I need? I would like to stick with the Nvidia Geforce graphics cards. So, what would be the best card that an I3 at 2.93ghz could handle, what power supply would I need to handle it, and what cooling system, if any upgrade is needed, should I get?
With WoW, I either have to deal with Low to Fair graphics at around 20-30 fps or I can turn them up a bit and suffer at around 7-12 fps. With LOTRO, DX10 won't work, so I have to stick with DX9. I can either play on Medium graphics settings or turn it up to something decent and chug along at unrealistically low framerates with about .25-.5 seconds UI lag. I am not content.
So now, an interesting question pops up. My friend has a computer that's about 4-5 years old. On LOTRO, he can play on Ultra-High settings and hit some very nice framerates. On WoW, his computer performs only slightly worse than mine. This doesn’t make any sense considering how old it is compared to mine. To try and understand the reason, I ran some tests on processor speed. Surprisingly, it turns out that even when I dip to 4 fps, my processor usage never goes above around 40-60%. I think it hit around 75% one time, but it hasn't done it since. It tends to sticks around 45% usage no matter the framerate. This leads me to believe the low framerates are attributed to my integrated graphics.
My solution to this problem initially was simple: buy a better graphics card. But then I got to looking into the system requirements, and it turns out my puny 300w power supply won't do the job. So the solution would be getting a bigger power supply, right? Well, if I do that, I'll probably need a better cooling system (this is beginning to remind me of a popular children's book about a mouse and a cookie...). This is my dilemma.
So now that we are all acquainted with my current condition, let's get down to the problem. If I wanted to upgrade the graphics of my above-mentioned computer to the best they can possibly be, what would I need? I would like to stick with the Nvidia Geforce graphics cards. So, what would be the best card that an I3 at 2.93ghz could handle, what power supply would I need to handle it, and what cooling system, if any upgrade is needed, should I get?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram