New GPU and not satisfied for gaming.

[reload098]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here so please have mercy!

I have a hp p6654y pre built computer. I have recently wanted to get back into some gaming.
Counter-Strike:Global
League of Legands
StarCraft 2. - (havnt tried to play yet)

i could play l.o.l. on low just fine no problem. and i could play CS:go on LOW LOW LOW setting and it was still no good. So i went out and bought a PNY GeForce GTX 650, and a Corsair TX 650M power supply.

(lol not being a problem) Im still not satisfied on CS:GO. My FPS being 30-60 depending on settings. I figured id be getting 99.9 frames constant. (apparently you can get upto 300fps now a days though)

was this Graphics Card a bad choice for what i want. Or do i need to upgrade something else?

 

[emperor piehead]

its a entry level card and does not have huge graphics power what you probably want would be a radeon 7850 it is a great card for under $200 it will play games you like at good settings just don't try Battlefield 3 at ultra settings kind of thing. you still won't get your 99.9 frames it all depends on what you want to pay. you will notice about 20-50fps more with the 1 i suggested it just depends on the game.

link- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

 

[reload098]

Thank you much.

So will my rig support that graphics card?
being a -
Athlon II 630 x4
4GB DDR3
750 GB hard drive
windows 7 64 bit.
now with the tx650m power supply.

My bro suggested another stick of ram, but since im not using my on board graphics anymore, that has freed that space right? So i didn't buy any more.

Does your monitor have much to do with FPS/game speed quality? i have a 5ms refresh rate i think, on the stock hp 2010i lcd. it has DVI and AVG but no HDMI.
i think my max res is 1600x900. But i cant go run 1080p, 1920x1080, or the 720p.

 

[techgeek]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here so please have mercy!

I have a hp p6654y pre built computer. I have recently wanted to get back into some gaming.
Counter-Strike:Global
League of Legands
StarCraft 2. - (havnt tried to play yet)

i could play l.o.l. on low just fine no problem. and i could play CS:go on LOW LOW LOW setting and it was still no good. So i went out and bought a PNY GeForce GTX 650, and a Corsair TX 650M power supply.

(lol not being a problem) Im still not satisfied on CS:GO. My FPS being 30-60 depending on settings. I figured id be getting 99.9 frames constant. (apparently you can get upto 300fps now a days though)

was this Graphics Card a bad choice for what i want. Or do i need to upgrade something else?

For gaming I would have gone with a 660 or 660Ti or a HD7870. Those are all pretty decent cards.

I had a look at the model of your computer and if the info I pulled up is correct, you have an Athlon II X4. I don't thing CS will be CPU bound and I don't know anything about League of Legends, however I know SC II will lean heavily on your CPU. You may find the experience less than rewarding. I could be wrong however, I guess you'll find out once you start playing it.

When playing CS, what were your frames before the upgrade and after? Was there a significant increase with the same settings? If not, you could be CPU bound, or you didn't uninstall the old drivers properly.

The procedure I use (and it appears to have fallen out of favor lately) is to uninstall the old graphics drivers completely. Then I reboot into safe mode and run a program called Driver Sweeper (which I just found out seems to be replaced by Tweexy Driver Fusion) to remove the last remnants of the old driver. Once that's done I shutdown, install the new card, and reboot into windows. Install the latest drivers from nVidia's site (don't use the ones on the CD it came with, they are often outdated) and reboot. With this done you can be confident that all the traces of your old driver are gone. This procedure can be used to update drivers as well (minus the installing the card of course).

If you follow this procedure, and you don't see an improvement either your GPU is underpowered or you are CPU bound. Being CPU bound isn't the end of the world as long as the boundry is high enough to be fluid. If your are bound at 30FPS, that would suck, but if you are bound at 60FPS that would be OK. Lot's of people get worked up about being CPU bound but it really isn't bad as long as you are bound at a playable framerate. To those people I say you have plenty of room to crank your settings so that it starts to become GPU bound.

 

[techgeek]

Thank you much.

So will my rig support that graphics card?
being a -
Athlon II 630 x4
4GB DDR3
750 GB hard drive
windows 7 64 bit.
now with the tx650m power supply.

My bro suggested another stick of ram, but since im not using my on board graphics anymore, that has freed that space right? So i didn't buy any more.

Does your monitor have much to do with FPS/game speed quality? i have a 5ms refresh rate i think, on the stock hp 2010i lcd. it has DVI and AVG but no HDMI.
i think my max res is 1600x900. But i cant go run 1080p, 1920x1080, or the 720p.

4 Gigs should be enough, that's all I run. The only thing the refresh rate limits is the number of frames your card actually displays. So you have 1600X900 @ 60Hz. If your graphics card can produce more than 60 FPS, it will just discard the ones it doesn't need. Also running 1600X900 is an advantage in your case where your GPU limited. If you had a 1080p monitor your GPU would really struggle to produce playable framerates and you would have to lower your detail settings even more.

 

[reload098]

Hrm ok i was looking at the 660 but i was talked into the 650 being more than adequate. Now don't get me wrong, the 650 is playing with an amazing difference. i can play on high settings with 30-40 fps depending on map, or lower setting up to 60 depending on map and, location in the map.

i don't know my FPS before i upgraded, but it was bad. choppy, didn't even think to look cuz. i just stopped playing.

When i installed the new GPU i was under the impression that i did not have to uninstall anything from the radeon 4200 (onboard graphics) becuase, it is an onboard card. I stalled drivers from the CD, then went to nvidia and installed the latest drivers.

really i guess what im asking is. what would it take to get me to my 99.9 FPS like the old days? (or atleast into the 80s.... =/)

 

[reload098]

ok and thank you techgeek, ill cross monitor off my question list.

 

[techgeek]

Hrm ok i was looking at the 660 but i was talked into the 650 being more than adequate. Now don't get me wrong, the 650 is playing with an amazing difference. i can play on high settings with 30-40 fps depending on map, or lower setting up to 60 depending on map and, location in the map.

i don't know my FPS before i upgraded, but it was bad. choppy, didn't even think to look cuz. i just stopped playing.

When i installed the new GPU i was under the impression that i did not have to uninstall anything from the radeon 4200 (onboard graphics) becuase, it is an onboard card. I stalled drivers from the CD, then went to nvidia and installed the latest drivers.

really i guess what im asking is. what would it take to get me to my 99.9 FPS like the old days? (or atleast into the 80s.... =/)

Well I should have added that your refresh rate can have an affect, but not performance wise. If the refresh rate on your monitor is too slow, you can get what's called ghosting. This has nothing to do with framerate. What happens when a monitor is ghosting is it has trouble displaying frames that change drastically from one to the next. This effect can be seen in fast paced games and movies that have a lot of action. The effect can be quite disturbing to some people. If you are experience smudging and unclear frames during very active scenes, then you are experiencing ghosting. The only remedy for this is to replace the monitor with one that has a faster refresh. That said some manufacturers aren't too forthright when reporting these numbers because there isn't a set standard. The most reliable way to report refresh rate is called grey to grey or GtG. Some will use black to black which isn't an accurate representation and can lead you to believe the monitor is better than it is.

As for uninstalling your drivers, whether it's built in or not, the drivers must be uninstalled. Not doing so can lead to performance and reliability issues. If I were you, I would at the very least uninstall the old AMD drivers. However if you were as anal as me, you would uninstall both drivers (AMD and nVidia) and then reboot into safemode and proceed with using Driver Fusion. Run both the nVidia and AMD display (only display) and nVidia Physx scripts. This will obliterate any left overs from the uninstall. Then reboot and install the latest nVidia drivers.

CAUTION: Be sure that when you are removing your drivers from the control panel that you only remove the display drivers for AMD and the display and Physx drivers for nVidia. The reason I say this it that in all likelihood, you have AMD drivers for your motherboard (SATA, USB, etc), these you don't want to remove.

Edit: Also if your looking to get higher than 60FPS, make sure that you have V-SYNC shut off in the graphics settings for your games. CS will have it somewhere. SC II is bound at 30FPS if I remember correctly, so you'll never get more than 30FPS, which is OK for this type of game.

 

[reload098]

O sweet thank you very much. appreciate the help!
one last question please

So perhaps ill return my 650 and go for the better GPU. at that point i will uninstall all GPU drivers, and install only the correct ones.
with that said.
do you suggest the 7770, the 7850, or the 660ti? looking to stay under 200$ and my 650 came from frys. should i return and buy? or return, and order (newegg)

 

[techgeek]

O sweet thank you very much. appreciate the help!
one last question please

So perhaps ill return my 650 and go for the better GPU. at that point i will uninstall all GPU drivers, and install only the correct ones.
with that said.
do you suggest the 7770, the 7850, or the 660ti? looking to stay under 200$ and my 650 came from frys. should i return and buy? or return, and order (newegg)

I would say that you can't go wrong with either the 7850 or the 660 Ti. With the 660 Ti you get Physx, if that's something that interests you, then get it. However you may find as good as the 660 Ti is, with Physx turned on, it may be too big a sacrifice in FPS. I have pretty much stayed to nVidia cards, but I've got a 7950 and I really like it. AMD/ATI has really been doing a pretty good job of driver releases.

As for Fry's over Newegg, I'm from Canada, so no experience with Fry's. I guess my suggestion is you have to weigh how long you are willing to wait for your card to arrive from Newegg versus the price difference. If Fry's is close in price and you can get it the same day, I'd go with Fry's, I'm impatient.

EDIT: I was looking at my e-tailer for the price of those cards, and assuming a scale of economy, the 660Ti maybe out of your $200 price range. The 7850 is around $200 though. Unless you meant you have an additional $200 beyond what you'll get back from the 650 in which case the 660Ti should be within your price range.

 

[reload098]

thanks again!

 

[techgeek]

thanks again!

Hey no problem. Let us know what you decide and how you make out. If you run into any trouble or have any further questions just post back here and we'll see if we can't help you out.