Pereformance Upgrade for Skyrim

[bpatters55]

Seems like I just built my rig and now it appears to be unworthy! Oh the shame... not. I am running Windows 7 64 bit and I want to run Skyrim. I do not need top graphics performance but I would like it to run Skyrim on Medium graphics well.

First off Specs:

Mobo
Asus P5 DH Deluxe
Graphic Support for Crossfire
Board has two PCI Express 16 Slots

Ram
4GB

Video Card
Nvidia 7950 512MB

CPU
Intel Dual Core 6600 2.4Ghz

So my choices are to upgrade my existing video card to a better card, install Crossfire Cards, upgrade my CPU to Quad Core, overclock the CPU, etc. I want to keep the cost to $150 or less but I would consider up to $300. What is your advice? Thx

 

[bpatters55]

Thanks Big Mac. Have to ask a question. Do you know if my mobo would support a 7700? Is PCI Express 2.1 backwards compatible to a plain PCI Express x 16 slot? If it is, your idea sounds great. I like NVIDIA but I am open to changing.

 

[GI_JONES]

PCI express 2.1 is backwards compatable with PCI express 1.0. The only place I can see a potential problem is with you power supply, depending on what you have and which card you pick

 

[bpatters55]

Really appreciate the feedback. I have either a 625 or 650 watt power supply. Can't remember which.

 

[bpatters55]

I see that many of the newer cards are SLI ready. I know my motherboard can support cross fire. I believe it supports Crossfire in 8X mode or something like that. Anyway, do I care if a card supports SLI? I cannot use SLI so I would think it makes more sense to buy something that does not have SLI or else I would be paying for an un-needed feature and a feature which might compatibility issues....?

 

[bpatters55]

Best answer selected by bpatters55.

 

[bpatters55]

Not that I was going to run dual graphics cards but the documentation does say that it can run two cards. Oh well. So much for advertising! To your pointt, perhaps it says something about having a more powerful CPU if you want to run dual cards in the documentation somewhere.

Just want to be sure, you are saying it does not matter if a graphic card supports SLI or Crossfire as I am not running dual cards?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey