Looking at upgrading my computer for Crysis 2 late this year/early next year, Current specs:

i7 920 @2.66ghz
6gb RAM @ 2000mhz
Asus P6T mobo
2x Seagate Barracuda 500gb HDDs in RAID-0
1200W Thermaltake Toughpower PSU (Dont comment on this - technologically inept and very rich ex-girlfriend bought it for me)
Nvidia GTX 260, OC'd to 650mhz engine, 1352mhz shader, 2160mhz memory.

I'm thinking about an EVGA superclocked 470:

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=012-P3-1472-AR&family=GeForce%20400%20Series%20Family&sw=

Worth it? Worth looking to upgrade in other areas? I also currently have a script in place that lets me use graphics acceleration in CS5 and Maya, not sure how effective it is though, and as this is a working computer I want that extra power.

Do you experience lag in your programs and games?

Not much really, but I have noticed that my rig can still struggle at top-end settings, and I'm not even using an HD screen at the moment. Maybe I've been flogging my graphics card a little too much, I dunno.

I don't see a logical reason to upgrade now for a game that will be released next year and can also work on 390 and ps3. I would wait till the time is right.

Overclock your Cpu, & get a new Graphics card.

A single 480, or
2 x 460 (not sure if your motherboard supports sli), or
wait for Ati revised cards towards the end of the year.

+1 to bobby OC the CPU first m8...at 3.6 you will see a big difference to the GPU speed also.

Gtx460. 2 of them are cheaper then a single 480

I'm gonna wait til i actually get Crysis2 before I consider upgrading. If I do it'll be again on a budget of $1000 which should be plenty for a good box then, as I won't need new monitors, keyboard or mouse (though considering a new mouse).

Given my computer can still play everything alright and it could play Wars at decent framerate, I should be okay.
Otherwise I'll see if I can get an i7 or something, good graphics card (not sure on nvidia or ATI at the moment.. see how mine handles C2), 6 gb ram and run it on 64bit win7. Maybe even a solidstate drive if im feeling craaaaazy but that'll up the cost, so just a terrabyte HDD will do.
Of course, I'll still have my shitty net to play on so that'll make me suffer anyways. My current box can be for everyday stuff and the new one for more demanding tasks.

wat bob said is spot on, the new so called cards coming out from radeon are smicko, im a nvidia all the way but im thinking of going to the dark side for these cards, they look totally 480 destroying

oh and yea wait for the game, and get less ram, 6g of 1333 will do you sweet, for no diff besides the price

boots out

Yea i have heard about ears rig it was like a e 8400 with ddr2 and a GTX 260

Nice upgrade BTW

The only downside to running the new GTX 400 series is that they lag on like basic games like MW2 and some others going from a 9800 GTX + to a GTX 260 i was like WTF . This is due to to the realy high latency timing on the GFX card going from GDDR3 TO GDDR5

i have a GTX480 and i dont notice any kind of lag, when playing on the 260 i noticed alittle bit, but the 480 eliminated it.

Virtuoso X wrote:

i have a GTX480 and i dont notice any kind of lag, when playing on the 260 i noticed alittle bit, but the 480 eliminated it.

Na playing on 1 of nappy bois GTX 460 i was like WTF playing MW2, dunno if it was coz my i didnt have enough memory of some shit but i would have to say the best gaming experiese i had was with my 9800 GTX with Mw2 and all other game hands down.

I would do as Bob and cos have said with the Cpu, as for the Gpu, 260's in sli would be fine and the cheap way out but if you want to play in dx11 you need the next gen in cards.
With that Psu you have you could run 480's in sli no brob's and all setings on high. Just need the 1.3k to pay for them lol.

I did the OC, shits faster now but most things seem jittery as fuck. Vanilla Crysis runs nicely, everything max AA2x stable 30frames. Strangely though GTA4 is extremely jittery, even though its running at lower stats than Crysis. Also firefox has become a little jumpy.

All I did to overclock was change the CPU multiplier to 20x and my BLCK to 150. Is there something i haven't accounted for?

Earz.

Your RAM?

gta 4 was fucky with me as well, only managed a max frame rate of like 30 with most settings

I don't see how there could be any problem with RAM, I checked and everything else seemed fine to me.

gta 4 is real performance user. i'm assuming you would need a top of the range computer to run it normally.

or you could be normal and play it on xbox

Earz4life wrote:

I don't see how there could be any problem with RAM, I checked and everything else seemed fine to me.

idk if its with other processors but when i OC my cpu it OC my RAM with it, anything over the recommended speed will seriously play up.

what cpu you got earz?

Running an i7 920. Also there's no point in OC'ing the RAM, its already at 2150MHz

i was under the impression that to OC the cpu clock you HAD to OC the ram....

Yeah I dunno I dont do much overclocking, you're probably right.

Not sure on the i7 motherboards, but in general your Cpu clock is related to your memory speed. There should be an option for host:memory ratio in your bios. So increasing your FSB increases ur memory speed as well, pending on the ratio.

Simple check is to run Cpu-z and see what speed your memory is running at, as you may have overclocked or down clocked it. Overclocking too much will make your system unstable

Ive found that Overclcoking memory doesnt help speed your system up that much, better to get it to run close to its original speed.

Anyway im sure someone else can help you more, specifically for i7's cause im pretty sure they control memory differently.

Alrighty Earz, make sure your QPi link is set to manual, it might be at 7Ghz have a look input the value manuallty insted of it on Auto (6x or 8x).

Your ram Automatically OC with CPU but you can control that, Im assuming your ram can handle 2150 Mhz? you can manually input the value for the ram multiplyer, sometimes having it too high will cause system instability, what i usually do is also set the Ram voltage manually insted of Auto since ALL X58 boards MUST run ram at 1.65 V (or lower nothing higher )
ive got mine set to 1.64v also all your voltages should be on auto to test it out at start then decrease.


EIST, C1E, Hyperthreading = Disabled for best stablility and performance,

also known as speedstepping etc etc, anything "envirmentally friendly" needs to be disabled or itll be like your running stock.

Also what motherboard you got?