My first post here on the forums, but I have used your site a LOT when looking for PC advice. I already asked on Yahoo! Answers, but that's kind of an "answer then never look back" kind of route, so there's not much ongoing support there. I'll just copy&paste here.
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So I've got an Alienware x51 desktop PC.
I know, I know, I could build one for at least $1,000 less but before you start on a rant telling me how stupid I am for buying an Alienware, Dell is the only place I could get financing for a desktop that let me customize parts for gaming. I didn't have over $1,000 to drop on individual parts at the time.
Now that that's out of the way, here are my current specs.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
8GB RAM
64bit Windows 7 OS
NVidia GeForce GTX 555 ~1GB RAM
I'm not really sure what else is relevant but here's my predicament.. I can run most games (Skyrim, Fallout 3 & NV) at max settings with AA turned off and sometimes other settings tuned down a bit. Then, with BF3, I have to have my settings on medium or sometimes high if I'm lucky. With Far Cry 3, I had to turn it down to low-medium.
Needless to say, I want to max out everything on most (if not all) modern games, so what would I need to do that?
I would assume a better graphics card, and I'd prefer to stay with NVidia.
My budget is about $500 for a graphics card, and one that fits in that price range is the GeForce GTX 680.
Will this suffice? Will I be wasting $500?
Also, when upgrading the graphics card, do I need to upgrade anything else, apart from installing new drivers, or will my system be compatible already when upgrading from a GTX 555 to a 680?
I've also read that some computers need to have the correct power and cooling features and I have no idea how to find out the current values nor do I know how to find out the required values.
If anyone can help me out, I'd be very appreciative. I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to software but I've never been too great with hardware.
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So that's it.
Also, I was told I'd need a new PSU because the x51 has a pretty bad one. After reading the "best card for the money" post, I'm also thinking about getting the Radeon HD 7970. I've read that the 680 requires a 550W PSU, and the 7970 requires 500. So, can anyone give me some information on some PSUs as well?
If anyone managed to stick through my long post, I thank you for that.
If you need any more information, please let me know.
----
So I've got an Alienware x51 desktop PC.
I know, I know, I could build one for at least $1,000 less but before you start on a rant telling me how stupid I am for buying an Alienware, Dell is the only place I could get financing for a desktop that let me customize parts for gaming. I didn't have over $1,000 to drop on individual parts at the time.
Now that that's out of the way, here are my current specs.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
8GB RAM
64bit Windows 7 OS
NVidia GeForce GTX 555 ~1GB RAM
I'm not really sure what else is relevant but here's my predicament.. I can run most games (Skyrim, Fallout 3 & NV) at max settings with AA turned off and sometimes other settings tuned down a bit. Then, with BF3, I have to have my settings on medium or sometimes high if I'm lucky. With Far Cry 3, I had to turn it down to low-medium.
Needless to say, I want to max out everything on most (if not all) modern games, so what would I need to do that?
I would assume a better graphics card, and I'd prefer to stay with NVidia.
My budget is about $500 for a graphics card, and one that fits in that price range is the GeForce GTX 680.
Will this suffice? Will I be wasting $500?
Also, when upgrading the graphics card, do I need to upgrade anything else, apart from installing new drivers, or will my system be compatible already when upgrading from a GTX 555 to a 680?
I've also read that some computers need to have the correct power and cooling features and I have no idea how to find out the current values nor do I know how to find out the required values.
If anyone can help me out, I'd be very appreciative. I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to software but I've never been too great with hardware.
-----
So that's it.
Also, I was told I'd need a new PSU because the x51 has a pretty bad one. After reading the "best card for the money" post, I'm also thinking about getting the Radeon HD 7970. I've read that the 680 requires a 550W PSU, and the 7970 requires 500. So, can anyone give me some information on some PSUs as well?
If anyone managed to stick through my long post, I thank you for that.
If you need any more information, please let me know.