Slow Upgrade, D3 not smooth, help!

Chlorophyll_88 · 22 May 2012 at 10:34

Hi All!

Long time lurker first time poster. Diablo 3 not running smoothly and i need a cheap quick solution for it to run faster right now and over the next year slowly save to build a budget gaming rig.

Current system spec:

E6600 @ 2.4Ghz, cannot remember name but has an after market cooler
nVidia 9800 GTX+ 512Mb GDDR2
4GB Corsair Ballistix 1066MHz DDR2 RAM
Infinity Mobo (cannot for the life of me remember specs off top of head)
Enermax 1000w modular PSU (i'm doubting myself but I'm sure thats what I have)
256Gb generic cheap sata hdd for os
500Gb generic cheap sata hdd for data (converted from an old external drive so it has to boot before data loads from it)
Antec 900 case
Iiyama 24" HDLED monitor
naga mouse / reclusa keyboard
Win 7 Pro 64bit

Played WoW flawlessly on this rig for many years, built it about 5-6 years ago (gfx card was bought ~3 years ago). I know the e6600 has some overclocking potential, I've never really needed to overclock it though. Until now...

Playing Diablo 3 alone at max settings is fine, until more than 2-3 mobs appear then all hell breaks loose (no pun intended).

I just bought a 4bed detached house and an engagement ring for the other half so im strapped for cash and will only be able to save £100-£150 a month for the next few years so I'm looking to get an i5 ivybridge build completed in 1-2 years. However. I'm really into Diablo 3 and its tearing me apart having to constantly crank the settings down to off/low fx and still getting bad frames on it.

I'm thinking a 560 Ti "448" might solve the problem, along with some TLC given to overclocking my e6600 and having a go at playing with RAM timings. I'm pretty sure my PSU can handle a new card, and the 9800 GTX+ that I have at the moment is pretty huge, reviews suggesting the 560Ti is a few inches shorter, would give my HDD's some space to breathe. I know there's plenty of guides out there to follow to assist me with the overclock. What are everyones thoughts?

My aim is to fix bad fps in D3 asap (will be selling a gifted PS3+BF3 to cover cost of gfx card, or most of it), and then plan ahead for a slow build into the i5 ivybridge gaming spec's i've seen so many people spend £600-800 on.

olivier renault · 22 May 2012 at 11:05

You checked on the CPU usage when mobs pile in? You can run diablo in window / fullscreen windowed. Or just look at hte time graph for CPU usage to see if there are any spike coinciding.

You can also try afterburner / running at a lower resloution / lower settings for a while and see if it's GPU bound.

Would be a shame to spend on a GPU or CPU to see no improvement on spikes.

Personally, I would go for a 7850 for that price bracket. More power efficient, more VRAM, overclocks well, apparently they are very quiet (especially the Sapphire).

So, £150 / £200 for a 6950 2GB / 560ti 448 / 570 / 7850.
About £300 for a i5 SB/IB, a £100 motherboard, £40 RAM, and maybe a CPU cooler although they can be added later, especially if you have a motherboard tray cutout for the backplate (or else, you'll have to remove the motherboard or use something like the Nero 3).

Chlorophyll_88 · 22 May 2012 at 11:14

I've tried running in low/off settings, at the lowest 16:9 resoloution and when enough mobs are on the screen, the fps still drops. Have a friend running a q6600 and he just upgraded to a 560Ti 448 and says he's now happily running at max settings without fps drops. I'm not going to take a friends advice without testing though. I'll get cpu monitoring set up and see what the outcome is.

olivier renault · 22 May 2012 at 11:18

you 'might' get away with overclocking the CPU if it's struggling a little bit. That would be then around £200-£220 for a GPU and a CPU cooler, but I suppose you can start with the GPU and see how it goes.

The choice is pretty wide. Again 6950 / 6970 / 7850 / 560ti / 560ti 448 / 570 any should handle D3 comfortably. I would say even a 6850 would work at 1080p, but it would start to lag behind outside D3.

Chlorophyll_88 · 22 May 2012 at 11:25

I have an after market CPU cooler, no idea what model, I'll tinker with overclocking the e6600 and getting ram timings better to match the overclock. I figure 2.4 to 2.8 should be a solid increase (incremental ofc). What do second hand ps3 slims sell for (incl. BF3). Fingers crossed £100+

Idleman · 22 May 2012 at 11:32

Chlorophyll_88 said:
I have an after market CPU cooler, no idea what model, I'll tinker with overclocking the e6600 and getting ram timings better to match the overclock. I figure 2.4 to 2.8 should be a solid increase (incremental ofc). What do second hand ps3 slims sell for (incl. BF3). Fingers crossed £100+

Sorry mate, can`t give price checks outside the Members Market.

HeX · 22 May 2012 at 11:42

D3 really doesn't care about CPU, but cranking your E6600 to 3GHz+ is always a good idea. Then grab a cheap mid range GPU and you'll fly. A 6850 / GTX460 would be fine.

This is a bargain: MSI HD6850

Chlorophyll_88 · 22 May 2012 at 12:02

Holy crapsticks. I know you can't garuntee that that GPU will be the solution to my poor performances in D3, but for that price i'm ready to buy now. How certain can you be that this card will handle Diablo 3 at 1920x1080? Not overly bothered if i can't have full on max settings, just want stable fps.

olivier renault · 22 May 2012 at 12:03

HeX said:
D3 really doesn't care about CPU, but cranking your E6600 to 3GHz+ is always a good idea. Then grab a cheap mid range GPU and you'll fly. A 6850 / GTX460 would be fine.

This is a bargain: MSI HD6850

Looks like it cares in the low end. The Athlon X2 min fps takes a dive, and these have higher clocks than the E6600.

Secondly there is a major difference in how busy Diablo III gets, between playing act I single player, and playing act III co-op.

Just saying. Don't know how representative this benchmark is.

Idleman · 22 May 2012 at 12:07

As HeX has rightly pointed out, if you OC to at least 3Ghz and add the 6850 you will see a significant improvement.

HeX · 22 May 2012 at 12:13

olivier renault said:
Looks like it cares in the low end. The Athlon X2 min fps takes a dive, and these have higher clocks than the E6600.

Secondly there is a major difference in how busy Diablo III gets, between playing act I single player, and playing act III co-op.

Just saying. Don't know how representative this benchmark is.

I'm just saying that on the whole, D3 really isn't a CPU limited game, and even a 3GHz dual core is going to give you more than enough grunt to push whatever GPU you put in there.

And as the GPU benchies show anything around a 460/6850 is going to be fine.

My wife's PC is a Q6600 @ 3GHz with a stock GTX460 1GB and it's like a hot knife through butter.

olivier renault · 22 May 2012 at 12:27

And where in the game? Because it ramps up significantly sometimes.

HeX · 22 May 2012 at 13:11

olivier renault said:
And where in the game? Because it ramps up significantly sometimes.

It's handled Act I-III perfectly fine, we're just starting Act IV.

olivier renault · 22 May 2012 at 13:25

good to know. I'm just not trusting that tom's hardware review.

Orcvader · 22 May 2012 at 13:35

Grab the 6850 and try overclock your CPU to 3ghz, that should get the game running smooth.

Weird though, my Llano laptop with a 6620G seems to run the game happily on medium detail.

Chlorophyll_88 · 22 May 2012 at 14:05

Going to make the purchase this afternoon. First AMD card i've ever used, but i've read that they have the higher performance for this price range. Thanks for help so far guys

orcvader: i'm running at 1920x1080, llano probably at smaller res? (unless you're running on a seperate monitor in which case i'll shush

)

HeX · 22 May 2012 at 14:11

As for your CPU, just slap it at 9 x 333MHz, set your RAM ratio to 3x (or 3:1 whatever your BIOS says), and knock up the volts a couple of notches until you get it stable in IBT.

Don't think there was an E6600 made that couldn't do 3GHz.