Advice on Graphics Cards

[Abriael]

Still the cpu bottleneck is a valid point. That is going to cause a large drop in fps.
Not a hypothetical drop, a very real, large drop.
My system with that cpu, would loose about 4k points in the benchmark, on estimate.

Bottom line. The gpu is going to give you the most increase in fps, at the least overall cost.
You would need to entirely rebuild the system, to remove bottlenecking.
The mobo, cpu and memory would need to be replaced, to make as much difference as the gpu by it's self.

To the OP:

Get one of the GPU's recommended and call it a day, if you are not looking to spend a thousand dollars or more.

It was already brought up. Her mobo doesn't need to be changed. It's an AM3, and as such it supports a 965be which is plenty not to bottleneck a 660. The only problem is the PCI 1.0, but that's just a 5% loss for a 660.

I recently had to upgrade from 4GB cause TERA was using up all my free RAM (it is compiled with LAA, so it can use up to 3GB RAM.. which it does), leading to ugly stuttering and I can only see it happen more often in the future with x64 systems being commonplace now. I was usually advocating 4GB RAM is enough, but with a mere 10€ difference in price, it's safer to go with 8GB for dual channel nowadays.

In my experience it's actually better to have 4GB of good memory (IE: Corsair Dominator for instance) than 8 GB of 10€ memory, to be honest.

[Soukyuu]

In my experience it's actually better to have 4GB of good memory (IE: Corsair Dominator for instance) than 8 GB of 10€ memory, to be honest.

It seems you have misunderstood what I meant. I got the corsair xms3 8gb for 47€, 4GB was 37€. That's 2x more RAM for only 10€ more. That makes 5,7€/GB vs 9,25€/GB. The sticks run stable at 1600Mhz@CL8.

The Corsair dominator is similar, 4GB vs. 8GB. 8GB is just better value. What's supposed to be better about those anyway? 1600CL9 is pretty standard...

Besides, 4GB of expensive memory won't help you if they are full and your PC will start trashing the HDD...

[Soukyuu]

6GB of RAM are good only with a triple channel architecture (that depends on the chip). 4 GB are actually plenty for most gaming needs, and if your chip supports double channel, better than 6.

I recently had to upgrade from 4GB cause TERA was using up all my free RAM (it is compiled with LAA, so it can use up to 3GB RAM.. which it does), leading to ugly stuttering and I can only see it happen more often in the future with x64 systems being commonplace now. I was usually advocating 4GB RAM is enough, but with a mere 10€ difference in price, it's safer to go with 8GB for dual channel nowadays.

[Coris]

Are you talking with the OP or me?
°_° /confused

[Coris]

Are you talking with the OP or me?
°_° /confused

(Insert Edit-Button here. There's none for me on the mobile forums. Sorry for doublepost.)

Forget my Question xD
I was like "Huh, my CPU isn't that old" and I posted before checking the internets for a release date.
/bow

[Soukyuu]

Abriael, I owe you a drink. AMD replaced my 965BE with a 970BE which now runs at 28~48°C@4.1GHz without having to bump vcore. And the only time it really hits 53°C is when I let prime95 torture it for an hour. Yay~

[SkyeWindbinder]

Okay, so the 7870 I thought I was getting free was actually an HD 7850 1GB GDDR5. Not that I'm complaining, it's better than what I had. And I broke the bank and got my 550W power supply for it. Now I just have to find out how to put them both into my computer, lol. This should prove... interesting.

[Shura]

Okay, so the 7870 I thought I was getting free was actually an HD 7850 1GB GDDR5. Not that I'm complaining, it's better than what I had. And I broke the bank and got my 550W power supply for it. Now I just have to find out how to put them both into my computer, lol. This should prove... interesting.

I'm assuming the inside of your PC looks something like this:



If so what you want to do first is remove the zip ties off any set of cables tied to cables coming from the power supply. Based on the picture, it looks like the power supply is installed simply; does not look like any of the wires are being routed through the back of the case or anything. First just focus on installing the new power supply; once you do, turn it on and just make sure everything starts up fine.

The video card is pretty straight forward; If i remember right, think you mentioned you upgraded the video card once before so pretty much the same thing again. The one thing you want to keep in mind though is to remove the old drivers before installing the new one.

P.S. The above information is based on the info you provided on the first page, if the inside of your PC looks different or the power supply cables are routed differently and your at a loss as to how to remove it, would help if you can post some pics of the inside.

[Coris]

I'm assuming the inside of your PC looks something like this:



-snip-

That mobo... is it upside down? o_o

Mostly all the PSU cables are labeled (well, mine are xD") and maybe you can tell from the pins where to put 'em. Maybe it also helps to take a picture before removing the old PSU.
Otherwise, I bet there are some videos on Youtube which explain how to install a PSU/Graphics card

(Do not worry! Even I managed to get all the cables in their right places when I switched cases last year! Still, it took me a loooooong time to finish this because I was so nervous and afraid to damage anything. Never did it alone before @.@)

[Shura]

That mobo... is it upside down? o_o

Mostly all the PSU cables are labeled (well, mine are xD") and maybe you can tell from the pins where to put 'em. Maybe it also helps to take a picture before removing the old PSU.
Otherwise, I bet there are some videos on Youtube which explain how to install a PSU/Graphics card

(Do not worry! Even I managed to get all the cables in their right places when I switched cases last year! Still, it took me a loooooong time to finish this because I was so nervous and afraid to damage anything. Never did it alone before @.@)

It does look that way doesn't it lol, i honestly don't know, its the only decent pic i could find on google for the Compaq Presario CQ5320Y.