Question!

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 20:55

Hey guys, quick question.

My friend's looking to run Mineraft a bit better on his computer but doesn't want to spend much money, I know Minecraft isn't very resource demanding but I was going to ask you guys do you think buying a new Graphics card with his current computer would improve performance because at the moment he has this gpu: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/221/.html

but I was thinking upgrading it to something like this would make it better and the power supply will not be a problem;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-267-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1984

The other main pc specs are:
The cpu is a Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4000+ 2.1 GHz and he's upgraded it to 2Gb's of Ram.

Thanks Guys!

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:02

Anyone?

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:17

It's epxpensive fo what it's worth.

I was able to run minecraft on a mobility 5470, maxed out, smoothly, so in theory it should be fine with this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-277-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1985

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:26

Ok but he said he was thinking of running skyrim too and he says how is the CPU will it cause any problems in minecraft or skyrim? (he can't be asked to make an account on the forums and I dont mind asking questions for him.)

keithfa26 · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:27

The cpu is very out of date If hes wanting to run skyrim it will be in the lowest settings

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:28

keithfa26 said:
The cpu is very out of date If hes wanting to run skyrim it will be in the lowest settings

This. For Minecraft it's fine but for Skyrim he will struggle and should consider a new build instead.

Ceptic · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:30

I'm afraid if he was to try and run Skyrim on that current rig, with even a new graphics card that Orcvader suggested, it wouldn't go well at all xD

He would need an entire overhaul, and if he was, we would all say go for a i5 sandy/ivybridge system, with at least 4GB ram for Skyrim as it's CPU heavy because of Consol ports.

Otherwise, I'd go with Orc on the gfx option, there's nothing much else apart from a Nvidia equivalent http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-144-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1863 for a tad more.

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:38

Thanks guys, what is the nvidia equavilent of the amd 6770 because he said he needs a new gpu for minecraft anyway and hes going to get a new rig next year but he might Aswell buy it and run minecraft a lot better and *TRY* running skyrim

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:43

A 460 786mb I guess but that's not worth the money and is outdated. Pretty much anything under £200, AMD wins price/performance wise.

If he wants a cheap card that's still pretty capable next year there's a 6850 which can run Skyrim on max fine since it's CPU dependant: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-MS

Another thing to consider, what PSU does he have?

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:52

Ok but can this psu run it? Here are it's specs:

Ac Input (47-63hz)
100-127v/8a
200-240v/4a

+5v& + 3.3v shall not exceed 175w
+5v& + 12v shall not exceed 268w

Max power output 300w

I'm not that great on Psu's so I don't know what any of this mean...

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 22:56

What brand and model is it? From the looks of it I don't think it can.

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:04

It's not really branded it's more a standard cheapo one that comes with the pc however I've been told low end cards should run fine, I've been looking into the gts 450 for my friend since he prefers nvidia and I saw on YouTube someone running minecraft on an amd sepron single core at 1.8ghz with a gts 450 and they where getting from 40 fps to 50 fps and the CPU he has being stronger then that would most likely give a higher frame rate.

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:17

5770 crushes the 450: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/609?vs=538

And he will need a new PSU first before considering a new GPU, maybe get the 6450 I linked earlier, then when he gets a new build, also buy a new GPU as well. The 6450 is a cheap card anyway.

Minecraft is also more CPU taxing I find, so even with the lower 6450 your friend will get higher framerates due to the extra core/speed (depends which sempron model the guy was running though).

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:27

Okay sounds good but could he run any of those cards above on the psu ?

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:32

The 6450 and 6570 can, but as I said before, go for the 6450, the 6570 is not worth the price for it's performance.

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:35

Will the 5770 or gts 450?

Orcvader · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:39

No... I wouldn't risk it. If that PSU blows your friend can say goodbye to his system.

Sharplucas · 2 Aug 2012 at 23:51

Your correct actually but I've told him this and he says he might buy one of these cards for a week or and see how it runs, he used to have his own office so he has quite a few pcs lying around so he doesn't mind entirely if something goes wrong, however I've warned him. But he's thinking of buying a whole new system anyway since he will only be able to run minecraft, so what I'm asking is before I go to sleep could you whip up one system for £900 and one for £400 both without os or a keyboard mouse and monitor.

I'm also thinking of buying one of these video cards maybe a 5450 or a 6450 like you said since I play minecraft and I think I could use buying a cheap new video card too.

Thanks for all the help I'm really appreciate it and he does too thanks for all the help Orc!

Orcvader · 3 Aug 2012 at 00:02

£400:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £404.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

£900:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £194.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £94.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Silver Arrow £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £64.99
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £877.39 (includes shipping : £13.75).

I'm sure there are others who could come up with a better £900 build though.

Sharplucas · 3 Aug 2012 at 00:08

Thanks for that I really appreciate it thanks once again!