For Diablo III

[audiologymuzik]

I need help figuring out what I need to do. Currently my processor meets the reccomended requirements:

Recommended: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
You Have: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E6300 @ 2.80GHz

But as you can see I am barely sliding by. Im on a D343NB intel mobo with 4 gigs of RAM, and Im currently stuck with the inetegrated GFX. THere is no question about the GFX card situation. The question is, do I spend around 400 dollars to buy a quad or eight core AMD proccesor and mobo with a decent gfx card ... or do I try and save a lil money and go with a 250 dollar price range GFX card? I would like to play the game on max settings .... but Im worried that I will spend a big chunk of money on a card just to have my processor slow me down. Im on a 19" flatscreen monitor and I dont plan on maxxing out the reso ... just want is visually comfortable.

Will my proccesor affect my gameplay even if I have a uber gfx card?

 

[audiologymuzik]

By the way .. thanks in advance for any help!

Edit: Mobo = Dg43Nb

 

[subcutaneous]

If you spend 150$ on a GPU(6850 or 6870) you will easily max out the resolution offered by a 19" LCD. We are talking about maximum on every setting, and your processor is going to be "just right" for a graphics card around that speed too.

Edit: If you wanted to buy a better card now in anticipation of upgrading your CPU/MOBO I would suggest dropping 250 on a 7850. This would max out the game even if you decided to get a nice high resolution larger screen, assuming you did the CPU/MOBO upgrade along with it.

 

[audiologymuzik]

I have 225$ to spend on newegg.com ... do you have any reccomendations?

 

[Pherule]

Yes, D3 isn't out yet, so you can afford to wait a bit. Wait for the GFX price war for the current gen to happen, then look for a 7800 series card.

 

[audiologymuzik]

Ok so going the gfx card route. Next questions are ...

1. How nuch of a performance gain would I get over 2gb ram vs 1?
2. Also how much of a gain would I get over 256 bit vs lower or higher?
3. Do pci express 3.0 x16 work with 2.0 slots?

Keep in mind these questions pretain to d3 only.
Thanks guys

 

[Pherule]

1. Depends on your resolution. 1GB should be fine at 1920x1080 for Diablo 3, but if you can get 2GB, go for it.
2. Anything less than 256-bit is junk imo, and you shouldn't even consider it.
3. No idea, but I'm guessing it's backwards compatible.

 

[Guest]

diablo 3 is rather low with its requirements. a decent card for ~$150 will be fine. spending more than that will be a bit of a waste because your cpu will bottleneck it.

XFX HD-679X-ZRFC Radeon HD 6790 $129.99
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150564

btw, what PSU do you have?

 

[farrengottu]

1. diablo 3 wont use textures, filters, effects complicated enough to need past 1 gig of v-ram. but 2 gig wont hurt for other games.
2. for D3 i doubt it will have large requirements for memory bandwidth but its always just a few dollars more for the better version so just get it..
just to indicate how much it affects it, I've never seen performance of a card be more than 10% different between the available buses.
3. pci express is fully backwards and forwards compatible. though you only get the performance of the slowest part. so if your card is pci-e 3.0 and your slot is 1.0 you get 1.0 speeds or if your card is 1.0 and your slot is 3.0 you get 1.0 speeds.

 

[audiologymuzik]

1. diablo 3 wont use textures, filters, effects complicated enough to need past 1 gig of v-ram. but 2 gig wont hurt for other games.
2. for D3 i doubt it will have large requirements for memory bandwidth but its always just a few dollars more for the better version so just get it..
just to indicate how much it affects it, I've never seen performance of a card be more than 10% different between the available buses.
3. pci express is fully backwards and forwards compatible. though you only get the performance of the slowest part. so if your card is pci-e 3.0 and your slot is 1.0 you get 1.0 speeds or if your card is 1.0 and your slot is 3.0 you get 1.0 speeds.

Awesome thanks man. So basically for my 19" monitor I won't need to upgrade my mobo and proc to plat d3 if I just buy a decent gfx card correct?

Btw what does psu stand for?

 

[Guest]

Power Supply Unit.

 

[audiologymuzik]

I'm at work so I'm not sure. All I know is it' a BFG. Thanks again guys for all of your help. I will post the psu when I get home tonight.

 

[cbramasco]

I am currently running the Diablo 3 beta with a Sapphire 6870. I run it at 1920 x 1200 and it never dips below 60 fps.

I am pretty sure a gtx550 will even do the same.

Also check out this page:
http://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/video-card-support-for-diablo-iii