Advice on upgrading components!

Exogenesis

Exogenesis

Exogenesis

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Joined
31 Dec 2010
Posts
63
Hello,

First of all I must say I know very little about computer components these days!
I bought a gaming PC (the Titan Thor) from overclockers about a year and a half ago, I bought it as I thought it would solve all the low fps issues i was having with my old, ancient pc before that.

Anyway, i thought the new pc was good but not as good as i thought it would be for the ~£800 I paid for it. At the moment, games like Black Ops, Age of Conan, and the Rift Beta don't run too well at all (I know the Rift Beta is a Beta, but my friends all get good fps!). I have a few friends that have almost identical pc's to mine, but theres has a slightly better processor.
They don't seem to have any fps issues but my fps always seems to give me lots of slow down! I've done some research and found out about using the Driver Cleaner tool from 3D Guru, which has improved my fps slightly as I upgraded my ati drivers after cleaning properly before hand.

The only drivers I ever check for updates are for my graphics card. Should i be getting drivers for all of my pc componenets? (CPU, RAM...etc) I know very little about keeping pc's up to scratch after I've bought them.

I was hoping any of you might know any tips on what i could do to possibly increase my fps and how i can look after my pc abit better!

Finally - I plan on upgrading some of my PC in the near future, which components should I look at upgrading? I was thinking maybe getting an i7 or a new graphics card? I have a DDR2 motheboard at the moment, should i be looking at upgrading to DDR3, although this will cost me a lot?

My specs are:

CPU- Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 3.20GHz (overclocked from 2.66GHz by overclockers when I bought it)
Memory- Corsair XMS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2
GPU- Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4890 Plus 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Motherboard- GA-EP45-UD3LR
Case- Antec 902
OS- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

If you require any more information please let me know!

Thank you for reading! I know I've asked a lot of questions but I would be very grateful to hear from anyone in the know!

Oliver
 
Hey
Your PC shouldnt be struggling really
What resolution are you running?
The only updates you need are windows updates which I assume you have running
You could try a fresh install of windows, that normally speeds things up, there may be a conflict somewhere if youve downloaded something dodgy
If you do want to upgrade then gfx card would give best boost but you should be fine with a 4890, still good cards as long as youre not trying to max AA/AF etc
 
Thank you for the very quick response!
I run at 1680x1050, using a Belinea B102035W 20,1" monitor. This might be a silly question but would having a better monitor improve fps in anyway? (I hadn't really heard of Belinea before my brother gave me this monitor!)

I think perhaps I am pushing the computer too much, I do have the bad habit of putting all my game settings on max, including the AA/AF, and expecting it to run smoothly. Ill have to accept that it isn't going to :P

Thanks again!
 
The monitor won't make a difference no, if you turn down aa/af things should improve quite a bit, you'll still be able to have details on max, just tone down the above
 
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