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Mnms67

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Mar 17, 2010
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Hey guys, built my gaming rig about a year ago and pretty happy with it overall... I don't have a set budget at the minute but was just wondering what area should i target for better games performance. I havn't had any problems with games except the witcher 2. Most games i run everything on very high/ultra but the wither 2 only runs medium (1920x1080) and sometimes struggles at that. So if you could point out where i should upgrade that'd be helpful.

CPU: Phenom II X4 965 BE
MoBo: Asus M4A79XTD EVO
GPU: Saphire HD 5870
Memory: I'm currently running 2 gig RAM but another 2g is being repaired.. Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 cl7
PSU: Corsair 750W

let me know if i've forgotten something... thanks

 
striker410

striker410

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Mar 10, 2011
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That build is a sweet one, even by today's standards. There isn't a clear upgrade path without doing a total rebuild. I personally would sell that 5870 (try and get like, $300?) and buy a 6970. But if you don't want to deal with that, I would grab an SSD for fast load times and super speed bootup.

You can also grab a Sapphire 5850 and Xfire it with the 5870: http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-Express-Graphics-100282XTREME/dp/B004W75ATI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306953930&sr=8-1 It's out of stock, but if it comes back in, grab one.
 
boiler1990

boiler1990

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Dec 21, 2009
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I wouldn't upgrade a ton of stuff, since a good CPU/mobo upgrade will require you to switch to Intel's platform or wait for AMD's Bulldozer CPUs (which IMO is still not going to perform well for the price).

You could upgrade to a high end 6000 series GPU. The 6950 is the best GPU for the buck @ 1920x1080, and can handle pretty much anything you throw at it.

That 2GB of RAM will probably help somewhat; some games are RAM dependent to a degree.
 
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
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If your game runs well only on a lower resolution or eye candy, then a gpu upgrade is in order.
The cpu should be adequate, particularly with a modest overclock.

You could buy or sell a 5870 for $200 to $250.
Either get a second 5870 for crossfire, or sell your 5870 and get a GTX580.
I replaced a 5870 with a GTX580 and was very pleased. It was not a huge jump though.
Anything more is a bit crazy unless you have a good budget.

You could also get a SSD for the os and apps. 64gb to 80gb would be the minimum.
 
jackofhearts495

jackofhearts495

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Mar 27, 2011
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What are the clock speeds on your CPU and card? You might be surprised how much a little tweaking can boost your computer.


...and I'm also not sure why that build has a problem with that game at 1080p, my (lesser) rig runs it fine.
 
redgarl

redgarl

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Jun 4, 2009
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You really don't need another built. Get another 5870 and bingo, you will run the Witcher 2 easily at ULTRA setting with ubersampling off.

I got 2 6850 in CF OC and a PII X3 720 @ X4 20 OC at 3.6 GHz and I run the game at a constant 45-50 FPS on Chapter 2 at 1080p.

Still, there is a bug in the latest ATI hotfix and a lens flare is always visible with CF for the moments, but the fix is going to be released in one or 2 days.
 
redgarl

redgarl

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In canada, you can get a 6870 for 170$... get 2 and CF them. RIght now your only option is going multi GPUs. I would not recommend buying a big card when you can get better performance with awesome scaling now a day. Yeah, you need to wait 1 or 2 weeks before having the fix sometime, but you save a lot by doing CF or SLI with middle-high end cards.
 
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Mnms67

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could it be needing more than the 2gig RAM?
 
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