graphics card/processor help!

[Dhalmel]

get off the amd processor, and keep the card if you wan to stay at 720p

[Davern]

Depends on what your ok with? Do you want an overkill gaming machine or something that can simply max all games at 30+ fps?

Right now I'm on a cheap Athlon 64x2 @2.7ghz, HD6770, 3Gb ram and I play with everything on max settings but with Ambient Occlusion and Depth of Field off, 4x MSAA and low shadows @ ~30fps. I would likely be able to turn that up and still keep above 30fps if my cpu wasn't so horrid (my bench score DOUBLED to over 3k when I switched to a amd Phenom II x4 965 BE). This rig is cheap and definitely not overkill but it pretty much lets me play at max settings. With that said my suggestions are this.

Cheap but max settings.

HD6870 $167.56 shipped

A good bit more but max settings, leaning towards overkill

HD6950 $230 shipped

Anything beyond the HD6950 isn't needed for any game unless your resolutions are beyond 1920x1080 and or multiple monitors. Keep your processor, it should do just find as my bro played 50+ fps on a the 965 BE I mentioned, 4gbs ram and a HD5850 with everything on max, Ambient Occlusion and all that included.

[Zorlin]

Can someone tell me how I have a pegged single core here?

http://i.imgur.com/ZjVDp.jpg

Because I see balancing of cores and no single core pegged, yet I see pegged gpu. Something tells me that those that say the cpu is a limiting factor don't monitor their cpu or gpu usage while playing.

For the record, I have never seen a single core pegged, let alone all the cores pegged, and I have my task manager up all the time, because it's pretty easy with 3 monitors.

Lol yr taxing yr GPU at 99% the cpu doesnt need to work harder if the card is getting all the data it needs from the cpu already. Try 1080p instead of 5kish set frame rate to 60 and look at yr cores one will be pretty taxed.

[Davern]

Just wanted to add that after setting everything (where it applies) to "application controlled" in CCC and lowering General Draw Quality to 8(standard) from 10(highest) I'm now getting 38-50 fps with max settings...I say max because Ambient Occlusion and Highest General Draw Quality do so little that I couldn't even notice the difference and Depth of Field makes it look worse to me so it's like 99% as good as it gets visually with 38-50 fps which I'm completely happy with considering how inexpensive my rig is in case you wanted to go with something cheaper like the HD 6770 $118 shipped or $97 after rebate.

[nasomi]

Lol yr taxing yr GPU at 99% the cpu doesnt need to work harder if the card is getting all the data it needs from the cpu already. Try 1080p instead of 5kish set frame rate to 60 and look at yr cores one will be pretty taxed.

That's with all settings maxxed, no AO or DoF. Not sure how to take it higher. The 580 outperforms the 6970, so how are you reaching a bottleneck on the cpu before the gpu if I'm reaching GPU bottleneck LONG before my CPU gets anywhere near cap. The game simply doesn't tax the cpu very much, how is that difficult to understand?

Do you know what 1080p is? instead of 5kish? What does that even mean? I'm running 1920x1200, which is "1200p", a higher resolution than you are running.

[nasomi]

Also, look at cores 1, 3, 5, 7, those are physical cores, 2, 4, 6, 8 are logical cores, so it's putting hte load pretty evenly between the 4 processors. Seems pretty balanced to me...

[Zorlin]

That's with all settings maxxed, no AO or DoF. Not sure how to take it higher. The 580 outperforms the 6970, so how are you reaching a bottleneck on the cpu before the gpu if I'm reaching GPU bottleneck LONG before my CPU gets anywhere near cap. The game simply doesn't tax the cpu very much, how is that difficult to understand?

Do you know what 1080p is? instead of 5kish? What does that even mean? I'm running 1920x1200, which is "1200p", a higher resolution than you are running.

You dont get what im saying yr maxing yr gpu therefore the cpu doesnt need to process more data for the card since it doesnt take anymore if you lower the res yr card will have less work and therefore yr cpu can bump more fps into yr card. Try it 1080p everything maxed no AO or DoF FPS cap in game to 60FPS. Then look at your cores. Honestly you have no idea how to nail down a bottleneck between cpu/gpu.

Bumping the res only makes the card work harder not the cpu. You can see this in the benchmark when some ppl get the same scores with 720p/1080p. For example if you have a 580gtx on a core2duo the cpu will cap you around 3k in both resolutions cause the cpu isnt able to process the data fast enough to keep with the card. The resolution work is all done within the gfx not the cpu so having the card load 100% at 5kish will make the cpu work less then at 1080p where at 1080p the card can pull more fps making the cpu work harder. Honestly just try it yrself.

[Zorlin]

If i use a res of 5kish the bottleneck would be the gfx. But at a standard res cause lets face it not many play at 5kish and triple monitor. The i7 2600k bottlenecks ff14 at 1080p cause the i7 cant pull 60fps while anything higher then a 6870 could take 60fps so yr gfx just sits there chilling with unused load while yr cpu core the one taking care of the main ff14 thread will be taxed.

[Zorlin]

Here you go i7 2600k stock ff14 at 1024x768 yes thats right it cant pull more fps even at that res while the card load is at 10%. Hope you understand it now. If dont well why not try it yrself?

http://imageshack.us/f/221/semttuloebu.jpg/ 1024x768

http://imageshack.us/f/88/semttulo2kg.jpg/ 1920x1080

Weird right? Reason CPU bottleneck.

[ninesunz]

To the OP:
I would get a 560Ti and a SSD, if you plan to upgrade your mobo/cpu later you can carry both over.

To the person who said you can't tell the diff between 30fps and 60fps:
Go ahead a cap the game at 30fps for awhile and tell me you can't tell the difference, its painfully ugly and the smoothness is completely gone.