Looking for some help and advice for a possible upgrade pls (BF3 in mind)

Abacus

Abacus

Abacus

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21 Sep 2011
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Hi,

Thinking on trying to upgrade my machine to be able to play bf3. Tho I am not looking just to do it purely for this game it seemed as good a reason as any to have a look at trying to improve things a bit. My set up is a few years old and although I am looking to improve things a bit funds dictate that i can't buy any of the top end components so would be looking for a good bang-for-your buck approach. With all this in mind can anyone give me an idea of what to look into upgrading and perhaps give me some suggestions pls? I've posted in here before ( but not for a while as my components prob show and have since managed to lose my account details:( ), and have always been really pleased with the helpful feedback I have had, so hopefully i will come away with some sort of plan :)

Like i said the upgrade would not be specifically for bf3, but i do have that game in mind. The minimum/recommended specs for the game have just been released and read as follows (summarised):

Minimum System Requirements
PROCESSOR: 2 GHZ DUAL CORE (CORE 2 DUO 2.4 GHZ OR ALTHON X2 2.7 GHZ)
MEMORY: 2 GB
GRAPHICS CARD (AMD): DIRECTX 10.1 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 SERIES, WITH ATI RADEON 3870 OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA): DIRECTX 10.0 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 SERIES WITH NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)

Recommended System Requirements
PROCESSOR: QUAD-CORE CPU
MEMORY: 4 GB
GRAPHICS CARD: DIRECTX 11 COMPATIBLE WITH 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 OR ATI RADEON 6950)

At the moment my set up is
Processor: AMD Phenom II x4 955
Memory 4Gb Gskill 12800
GFX: Nvidia Geforce 8800GT
(Motherboard Gigabyte GA 770T usb3)

As far as I can tell my system should be able to run the game.....just...with the gfx being the main bottleneck. Do you reckon that my graphics card is the only thing i really need to look at or would it be a good idea to look into other parts as well? I dont expect to be able to play the game on full with everything on, but would like to be able to play it at a decent level.

Anyway rattled on enough for now, thanks if you got this far :) So would appreciate any advice etc that anyone could give me please.

Thanks a lot :D
 
I would go with the GPU upgrade fella. What resolution will you play at? And what's your budget?

Have you overclocked the 955BE? Worth checking your bios options. Simply upping the multiplier by 1 gives you a 965BE ;) With an aftermarket cooler you can push the CPU further.

I would wait for bulldozer before you swap the mobo and CPU out. If BD looks promising you will need an AM3+ mobo but on the upside it will still take that 955BE if you wanted to initially.

Also BF3 is now confirmed to support hyperthreading. We always say games don't need it so i5K's are spec'd instead of i7's. In your position I'd wait to see wether hyperthreading has any real impact and hopefully a choice of bulldozer CPUs to consider.

We just need to find you a GPU. What is the rigs PSU out of interest?
 
Hi, first off thanks a lot for your help. Your advice on the BD looks sound and is ideal :) Wasn't expecting a reply so quickly or I would have posted back sooner, apologies for that.

RE Overclocking the 955...I messed about a bit with it when i got it but have had it set at stock for the most part, might have another look at it :)

RE Monitor resolution....still got my OCUK DGM 24" running at 1920x1200...tho I am a little concerned it is on its way out, but will have to worry about that another day :p (willing to lower the res a bit for performance in games tho)

RE Power supply...I have a FSP Blue Storm AX500-P 500w psu

RE budget for gfx....prob looking at something in the £150 mark give or take, depending on what i can get for my money.

It doesn't have to meet the spec req for BF3 like i said that was just a good reason to look into improving things a bit, but would be nice to be able to play it :)
 
Thanks Ivan for the advice;), i might manage to push it to one of those cards. Are they equally good as I noticed that the 6950's appeared to be slightly more expensive than the 560ti's? Also is there a particalur model that stands out in either bracket?

Thanks again for your help :)
 
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