Ok so I'm bad at computer stuff and....

[Aylis]

There are cheaper cards sub $150 on the market as well, such as Nvidia GTX 1050ti and AMD RX460, but the performance would likely be only marginally better than your current video card, if not the same performance (honestly I haven't looked into the AMD HD card series in years so I don't remember any specs), and perhaps not worth the upgrade.

Obsessive Nvidia fan here o7 I wouldn't go with the 1050 TI at all. Its more or less Nvidia's new first time video card. It's a great budget card if you're upgrading from onboard graphics to a video card. Performance wise though it's about on par with the GTX 670 as I recall. The OP probably wouldn't see any real performance increase at all. It's better to sock the money away and spring for a 1070 at least for the best performance boost on a budget if they wanna go the Nvidia route.


To the OP, the score you got as many have said is a good score and I wouldn't worry at all. Deffo do like what was suggested and have all the dust blown out of the case and all fan blades wiped clean and the heatsink as well.

[KisaiTenshi]

It's better to sock the money away and spring for a 1070 at least for the best performance boost on a budget if they wanna go the Nvidia route.

When you upgrade a GPU, you always pick the option that minimally doubles the previous performance just to stay afloat. The 1050 is basically equal to "Intel's onboard GPU is a joke, has always, been a joke, why do they even bother?" alternative. It's better because it's a nVidia Geforce part, but that's about it. If the part in the system is equal to the 1050, then the next part needs to be the 1060 or better.


nVidia's cards scale rather linearly. Each next card is roughly double the performance of the previous. They also tend to be double the price.

so 1050 = 99, 1060=199, 1070=399, 1080=799 or so. The best value card is always going to be the one below the top. So the 1070 is currently the best value, but probably not justified unless you have a 120fps monitor, run the desktop at 4K, or play VR. Like you can run the desktop at 4K on the weakest parts, but you don't realize how bad it is until you put a better card in.

[Aylis]

So the 1070 is currently the best value

Yep! The 1070 offers the best value and best performance for its price out of all the current top dog Nvidia cards. Even then with everything out right now and whats coming in years from now pertaining to games. The 1070 will handle it. Even if its a bit overkill. I have a 1080TI and while I love it even I'll admit its overkill and that's with a G-Sync monitor. Also yes Nvidia's cards do scale kinda linear. It only gets kinda wonky when the TI models come into play. Like, from most of what I read if you're running a 980TI the only viable upgrade is the 1080TI. While if you're running anything but the 980TI. The choice is yours on how much you wanna spend. 1070,1080 or 1080TI

[KisaiTenshi]

I was wondering if any could provide some tips for me getting my computer to run a bit better for Stormblood. I got about 8300 for my score ...

The three things you can do to improve the score marginally (like in maybe double digits)

1. Turn off the computer wait about 30 minutes, blow the dust out with compressed air, slowly. Don't use a vacuum, and don't hold compressed air down too long or it will freeze components. If anyone smokes, has pets, or just has an exceptionally dusty environment, you need to clean it out more often.

2. Just close the web browser honestly, when you leave it running, things like ads, videos, and javascript (eg twitter, tumblr, reddit, disqus) will just keep bleeding your computer for memory. If you have a mobile phone or tablet and need to keep checking things, use that instead.

3. Uninstall software overlays. Geforce Experience, Steam, MSI Afterburner, etc. Basically anything that overlays also adds input latency due to the compositing requirement. It's very tiny, but noticeable when you turn on video capture.

More to the point, if you are trying to squeeze more out of the same hardware, just upgrade the cooling system. Most OEM systems (Dell, Alienware, etc) use the cheapest parts possible, that's why they make so much noise. If your system doesn't sound like a jet engine, then you're good. If it sounds like a jet engine taking off when the game runs, then the CPU/GPU is working too hard and probably needs a better cooler. That's the cheapest thing you can do.

Anything else involves replacing the GPU. That then may require replacing the Chasis and PSU if you pick something too big.

You can get a little more performance if you use a tool to change the CPU affinity for the game to avoid hyperthreaded cores, but that's so trivial that it barely matters except for people on i3 systems.

[File2ish]

More to the point, if you are trying to squeeze more out of the same hardware, just upgrade the cooling system. Most OEM systems (Dell, Alienware, etc) use the cheapest parts possible, that's why they make so much noise. If your system doesn't sound like a jet engine, then you're good. If it sounds like a jet engine taking off when the game runs, then the CPU/GPU is working too hard and probably needs a better cooler. That's the cheapest thing you can do.

Upgrading the cooling system in an OEM built computer isn't always feasible, many OEM motherboards don't use the standard mounting brackets for the CPU heatsink that are generally found per socket type on ATX and ITX motherboards. Also Dell owns Alienware :P



On a separate note, after looking at the computer specs again when not dead tired after work; it seems he's playing on a laptop (I don't recall there ever being an AMD HD 8870 video card, and the i7 3820 fits Intel's naming scheme for mobile CPUs).

There is no easy upgrade path for a laptop, the best way to get more performance out of a laptop would be to install an SSD (if you have a free 2.5" drive port) as your game drive to improve loading times. And, going back to my previous comment about thermal paste: if you know someone tech savvy enough THAT YOU TRUST WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT to tear down your laptop, you can have them clean off and replace the thermal compound on the heatsink copper pipe brackets mounted to the CPU and GPU. This will help with the thermal issues when running games on a laptop and likely help it so the cooling fan isn't ramped up to 100% all the time. Neither of these will give you direct performance gains, but it will help your laptop in the long run.

That's the best advice I can offer outside of purchasing a new laptop outright. But your benchmark score is good for the game, no need to upgrade unless you really really want to play with higher settings.

[Yurimi]

Snippity

Based on the naming and configuration he is running an Alienware Aurora R-4 Desktop PC, which is their "top end" desktop model and not a laptop. The 8870 was included in some OEM cards

Edit,

upon quick glance it seems this was the top end PC of theirs from 2013 though with the Radeon card rather than the GTX series (most likely for cost reasons?)

Looking up specs from the time it seems these were the mid range options of the R4 initial lineup from early 2013

[Aethaeryn]

On a separate note, after looking at the computer specs again when not dead tired after work; it seems he's playing on a laptop (I don't recall there ever being an AMD HD 8870 video card, and the i7 3820 fits Intel's naming scheme for mobile CPUs).

Nah, there's a desktop version of the 8870. They basically just went in Dell's computers (and he has an Alienware - Aurora R4 is a desktop PC). Performance wise, it's basically an HD7950 with higher clock speeds but less memory and memory bandwidth.

[BunnyChain]

I found this quite useful for picking a graphics card.

It would be really nice to have some use from submitting those benchmark results. Like make a database accessible via lodestone where you can see it all and sort by fps/score/hardware.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I'm sorry but you're f***ed, had you got a score of 8301 you would've been fine :P I suggest you go out and buy the most expensive rig possible and then you will be perfect for SB (j/k).

[Maliki_Ozari]

snip

I understand you're trying to make a point (in a poor way). The OP said he didn't know anything about computers. That is why he asked the community. I mean, he even said he isn't good with computers. Why would you post this? Does it make you feel better about yourself somehow? My score blows 8301 out of the water. Does it make me cool? No. Does it really matter? Maybe a little. Is it hard for you to ignore a post rather than be ignorant. It shouldn't be.

I just came back to the game after a long break, and the 'decent' community was a big part of it. I understand all games will have bad apples like yourself, but it's a shame you feel the need to be mean to someone asking for help.

I imagine if we had a real conversation about something more deep than a benchmark score or your hate for alienware that can be found in a google search, you likely don't know anything about computers. Your reply screams "I don't know what I'm talking about, but I need the attention".