Upgarde or rebuild to run games on max with great fps

[Thomas Stanford]

I've come to the conclusion that my current PC may need to be rebuilt or maybe I could get away with a upgrade.

My Current Build i have is,

Mobo: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R rev 2.0
CPU: i7 950 3.07GHZ
Ram:3x2Gb DDR3 1600 C8
HD: WD 2Tb
GPU: AMD Radeon Sapphire HD 6950
Case: Thermaltake Chasar MKI
PSU: Corsiair HX850

I'm unsure that my current system has enough power to support a new GPU or maybe a second 6950 as I have to drop my game settings in METRO LL to Medium to get good frames in some parts of the game, Or do I need a few little upgrades plus GPU. This will be my third build/upgrade and as I have moved to Melbourne I do not have a network of mates to help me as much as I use to any tips or guide would also be helpful

Thank you for your time

 

[clutchc]

What resolution is your monitor? The 3GHZ Bloomfield processor should still be a viable solution with a decent gfx card. I would have thought the HD 6950 would game at high-ish settings in most all of today's games at 1080p.

 

[Thomas Stanford]

What resolution is your monitor? The 3GHZ Bloomfield processor should still be a viable solution with a decent gfx card. I would have thought the HD 6950 would game at high-ish settings in most all of today's games at 1080p.

I run it at 1080p finding any new 1366 chip is starting to be an issue to track down yeah the 6950 dose runs most on high would more ram and cpu power run it better, when I'm running BF3 it uses 100% of the GPU when I use resource monitor in task manager or is that the norm

here a quick link on spec of monitor
http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/acer-s243hl/4507-3174_7-33826419.html

 

[clutchc]

6GB of DDR3 memory should be enough for any game on the market today. Strange. Does BF3 do this in single player too, or just online MP? Have you kept your system clean of junk files and registry errors? Not too much stuff trying to run in the background when gaming? Check your start up folder to see if anything is starting with Windows. Also check msconfig/startup to see how many items are checked. I only have about 6 or 7 for comparison. Maybe run CCleaner and do the Clean and Registry both. Run it until it comes back clean.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

If Metro Last Light is anything like Metro 2033, it will bring most systems to their knees. The rig in my sig would not let me play Metro 2033 at max settings @1080p. I imagine Metro LL may be even more demanding. I have had it installed on my system ever since I got my first GTX 660, but haven't played it yet. But I expect it to be a killer.

If you expect to play it at max/near max settings at 1080p, then yes, you may want to upgrade to a newer system.

 

[Thomas Stanford]

cool thank you for your help I had 18 running lol I have not checked msconfig for a while I think Ill do a format its been a while, Single player is fine but MP is a bit harsh with 65 people running about, I think Ill get a new CPU if I can find one SSD and maybe a second GPU prob more ram to because BF4 need 8GB of ram Recommended so they say.

Do you know much about using a nvidia graphic card in the 2nd pci slot to run just physics

 

[clutchc]

No, I've never added a card just for PhysX when I had an AMD card as my GPU. I never thought it would be worth it. PhysX doesn't seem to be a deal maker or deal breaker for me. I literally have to view the identical scenes side by side to tell the difference of having PhysX or not. And in the heat of gaming, that's the last thing on my mind.

 

[manofchalk]

Same opinion as Clutch, that rig should be fine for gaming at 1080p. Maybe throw on a next gen graphics card and see if you can do a bit of an overclock on that CPU, you should be set.

Hybrid PhysX (AMD Primary card, Nvidia PhysX card) requires the use of some hacked drivers, and from what I understand they are pretty outdated as well. The only justification for a dedicated PhysX card would be if you were upgrading from an Nvidia card to a newer/better Nvidia, its not worth buying a card just for PhysX.
Getting a cheap card (Like a GT640 or so) would only drag the performance of the primary card down, they just dont have the CUDA cores to handle PhysX. I would think you need a 560Ti minimum for a dedicated PhysX card that wouldnt bottleneck.

 

[jessterman21]

Your system is fine - I would recommend a GPU-upgrade if anything - looks like you should be able to get at least $150 for your used video card. The GTX 760 should be out sometime in the next week or so at <$300. If you don't want to wait, or you're like me and can't convince your wife to let you spend more than $200 on any computer part, go ahead and get a GTX 660. Should be a good 30-40% boost.