Cheap upgrade for gaming?

SamG · 23 Sep 2009 at 08:46

Hi

My PC is having some minor FPS problems playing WoW in 25man raids and also major problems in PvP areas such as the last five minutes of Wintergrasp when there are what seems like hundreds of players in the courtyard. All the spells and players destroys my frame rate making it unplayable.

Here is my spec:

Q6600 @3.2
Asus P5Q E
ATi 4870 1GB
Geil 4GB RAM
520W Corsair PSU

I only have about £100 to spend so I was thinking of adding some more RAM or maybe another 4870 card.

I don't think WoW supports Crossfire so maybe I'll go with the RAM.

Would that help or anyone have any better ideas?

95thrifles · 23 Sep 2009 at 09:23

What resolution do you game at?
But tbh you have a pretty competent system that shouldnt really be struggling

SamG · 23 Sep 2009 at 09:39

That's what I thought. I play at 1900x1200.

95thrifles · 23 Sep 2009 at 09:47

Only thing I can think is ensure you have latest drivers installed?

Sasahara · 23 Sep 2009 at 09:54

The Wintergrasp problems are probably just as much server side as you machine.

4GB of ram should be more than enough if you haven't got any other large programs running.

Crossfire would have an effect as long as your cpu isn't the limiting factor. (That may be hard to find out, as wow isn't commonly used in benchmarks.)

Benchmark on a Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.33GHz
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3643&p=20

Since wow hardly gets any increase in performance from multi-cores the Q6600 isn't the ideal cpu for wow, but it's not terrible.

LittleChimp · 23 Sep 2009 at 10:35

Agreed wow runs like dog **** especially in wintergrasp your rig is more than fine.

Vir · 23 Sep 2009 at 10:43

My system is sometimes struggling as well. To be honest, it's ****ing me off as I have a rig that is more than capable. Grr. I don't think for 100 pounds you can get an upgrade that will help much...

dave_beast · 23 Sep 2009 at 11:36

Maybe change your hardrive for a WDR or SSD?

Vir · 23 Sep 2009 at 12:20

dave_beast said:
Maybe change your hardrive for a WDR or SSD?

Well, that's not really gonna help with gaming.. only the loading time

asoxedri · 23 Sep 2009 at 14:27

don't think there is a problem with your rig fella, its either server side or your isp connection.

Neural1 · 23 Sep 2009 at 15:03

Yea as has been hinted, that is a WoW issue, the main factor for lag I have found is actually addons, try disabling most if not all of them just to test it and see, and WG is just a a peice of crap, everyone lags in it.

SamG · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:24

Thanks for the advice all.

Hairybudda · 24 Sep 2009 at 13:52

WoW is written with multicore enhancements, google for tweakwow(addon) and play with the settings, turn off player shadows too, they kill. Your rig is fine.

varkanoid · 24 Sep 2009 at 16:59

sam garland said:
Hi

My PC is having some minor FPS problems playing WoW in 25man raids and also major problems in PvP areas such as the last five minutes of Wintergrasp when there are what seems like hundreds of players in the courtyard. All the spells and players destroys my frame rate making it unplayable.

Here is my spec:

Q6600 @3.2
Asus P5Q E
ATi 4870 1GB
Geil 4GB RAM
520W Corsair PSU

I only have about £100 to spend so I was thinking of adding some more RAM or maybe another 4870 card.

I don't think WoW supports Crossfire so maybe I'll go with the RAM.

Would that help or anyone have any better ideas?

Depends on how fast your RAM is you dont say. If its PC6400 or less then maybe sell existing and get faster unless you can O/C it to 1000mhz.