Need advice on choosing a new graphics card

[khknight 3]

I have a dell Inspiron 546(not slim) with an amd Athlon II x4 630 processor, windows 7, 4 gbs of ram, an ati radeon hd 4350 graphics card, 1920 x 1080 monitor and a 300w power supply.

First I need to upgrade my power supply to a 400w since that's as high as my motherboard can take according to dell. I'm planning on doing it with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104096

The graphics card I'm considering using is this http://xfxforce.com/en-gb/Products/Graphics-Cards/AMD/ATI-Radeon-HD-5000/ATI-Radeon-HD-5570.aspx

Its cheap and it better then the reccomended graphics card for arma II.

But before I do anything I just wanted your approval, I'm only upgrading for dayz and dayz only so I want to know, will I be able to run arma 2 on high to very high settings with no problem on this card? Is it good, will it last? I'd like to hear what you have to say before I spend any money.

[foamy_d_squirrel 10]

I dont want to advice you on any model.

But i suggest not to take Arma 2 as benchmark for gfx card,

since the game is not exactly well coded in terms of performance.

[[email protected] 0]

First of all: You can take a 1500W power supply and your PC would run just as fine as with your current setting.

You will not "overload" your motherboard. The motherboard and the other components will just "TAKE" as much as they need. So if they need 250W, they will take 250W. the 1500W power supply would now just have a "Reserve" of up to 1250W (Not completely true as there are other factors like "loss" through heat generation/transformation and many other factors, but this is just meant to be an easy example) which means you can connect a TON of more powerful stuff to it.

GPU wise i would reccomend to take something more powerfull than a 5570. I would suggest you should look for a card in the price range of 120-150+ to be really "happy" with your new hardware.

But to be honest, even your CPU is not that powerfull anymore and might even be a bigger bottleneck than your current GPU.

You could do a little test and get a CPU and GPU "monitoring" tool and check the Load on each of them in the Games you usualy play. Then you should consider upgrading the one which reaches 100% load more often.

And yes, personally i would rather wait 2 or 3 month to save some money for better stuff, instead of going for cheap stuff which i can afford right now.

[guidez 180]

Don't see the point of "waiting": Better stuff is ALWAYS coming out. Just get it now. And could you find a more expensive PSU? Sheesh, here is what you need:

PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

Video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

[[email protected] 0]

I was thinking about making my point more clear. But i thought people are smart enough to realize what i was trying to say.

He chose a ~50$ GPU. Think about it.

Now please read my suggestion again:

"And yes, personally i would rather wait 2 or 3 month to >>>save some money<<< for better stuff, instead of going for cheap stuff which i can afford right now. "

I am NOT saying he should "Wait for better hardware in the same price range" which you think i did and which i agree with you is stupid.

Not everybody can afford PC Components of over 100$.

Edit// Maybe its my English knowledge which leaves me alone here. Doesn't "To save money" also mean to "collect 50$ for 3 month to then be able to buy something for 150$"?

[peddlerofpunk 0]

i have an xfx 6570 1gb gpu and overclocked with msi afterburner to max clock speed paired with a phenom ii x4 955 overclocked to 4.1ghz and i run dayz on high graphics just fine...

[deepfried 95]

no point getting less than a 500w PSU if you plan on having any sort of gaming gfx card in there, maybe more if you're going for one of the power hungry nvidia cards.

[Hetstaine 10852]

Yep, definitely get a bigger psu , it will not put more power into everything than you need and will future proof you a bit. A 400w psu is oldhat and going to struggle in this day and age, especially if you want to upgrade later.

You can pick up a 600w thermaltake psu for 69.95 from newegg. Dont go for all that gold edition bs.

Im an nvidia guy so i would choose an nvidia card simply because a lot more games are nvidia optimized and i dislike the catalyst panel, thats just a preference though. The 5770 is a low end card. My missus has a hd6770 and my gt560ti blows it out of the water when it comes to arma, specifically dayz. If you shop around you can pick up a good mid range card (GTX560TI) for around 200$ or a comparable ATI/AMD for about the same - would not waste my money on a 5770 :)

Motherboards..i am running a cheapie gigabyte that cost me 149 $ over a year ago, works fine with all of the latest gaming offerings, even creamed crysis 2 at ultra with a gtx460 nividia card, You dont need a bells and whistles gold edition sli board with eight million fancy bs options to be able to game well :) Been there , done that, wasted money.

Like someone above mentioned, you also have the option of overclocking..generally minimum benefit but it can boost frames a notch,best bet is to do some research at someone like Black Vipers site to learn how to optimize your system for gaming before you even worry about overclocking.

CPU, lots of options, an i5 @ 3.33ghz will run the game maxed and is fairly cheap , once again shop around . You dont need an i7 to run arma/dayz.

Ram , dont go for no name memory, but you do not need top of the range either. It is so cheap these days just make sure you get the best bang for buck that suits your hardware.

The main thing i have always found is to have a good optimized clean and lean system , start here at vipers site.. BLACK VIPER and check out win7 tips.

cheers

[khknight 3]

Waiting and saving up sounds good, but I really wanna play this game with better settings now. Especially because my first year of college starts in August and once that begins I wont have the time I would like to spend in day z. I'm on a really low budget so I would like to spend no more then 120 dollars on the psu and gpu. The CPU will just have to do.

This is gonna be my only upgrade and it's only for dayz. If there is ever another game on PC that I would wanna play then I would just wait until I can afford a new computer. So what are my options?

[SupaFly1983 52]

I would recommend estimating a spec for ArmA 3, as this is coming out soon and will save you having to upgrade twice.

I would also recommend expanding to more then 4GB of memory. Are you running Dual, Tripple or Quad Channel?

Power supply I would recommend 750W+

IRL these things cost a lot of money, but if you are short, try saving for a bit longer for future proofing reasons.

[Hetstaine 10852]

See if u can get some decent second hand items on ebay or gumtree or similar ?

I just had a quick look (aussie ebay) and found a 680 w atx psu for 19.95 and a gtx460 1gb card for 50$ so you should be able to come in under budget :)

[khknight 3]

I would recommend estimating a spec for ArmA 3' date=' as this is coming out soon and will save you having to upgrade twice.

I would also recommend expanding to more then 4GB of memory. Are you running Dual, Tripple or Quad Channel?

Power supply I would recommend 750W+

IRL these things cost a lot of money, but if you are short, try saving for a bit longer for future proofing reasons.

[/quote']

It's a quad core, amd Athlon x4<-----

[Hetstaine 10852]

Also..never...ever buy a new pc..you will get stitched. Lots.Besides getting ripped on price they are generally behind the curve the day they hit the shelf. Sometimes well behind.But still at top price. They are also full of manafacturer bloatware.

You can always buy all of the components and put it together yourself or have a pc shop do it for you cheaper (much) than you can buy a so called 'top of the line' rig from any of the suppliers.

[khknight 3]

So i've been using a cpu and gpu monitoring tool recently to see which of my hardware is doing most of the work.

Obviously my gpu is at 99% which is expected.

Surprisingly my cpu performance never goes about 60% which i think is good. But i noticed something that isn't right.

I notice a lot of cpu speed dips, i look at the bars for each core and the bars for all of them are constantly going up and down.

For example core 1,3, and 4's bar is really low but core 2's bar is really high and then it keeps shifting every second and its never really consistent.

Is there any way to keep the performance of each core the same so each of them are doing an equal amount of work and not cause any cpu speed dips?

[khknight 3]

I know people are suggesting that I wait until I can buy a better graphics card. But at this point, i'll just settle for normal settings, AA and post process effects disabled, at 1920x1080 3D resolution with atleast 30-20 frames per second in cities and forests. An ATI radeon HD 5570 should be able to atleast get that done right?

Edited July 12, 2012 by khknight

[Brew78 27]

I bought one of these around a year ago and have been *very* happy with its performance: http://xfxforce.com/...-695A-CNFC.aspx

I don't upgrade all that often, so when I do, I try to get something that'll last awhile. This one is powerful enough that if I need a graphics boost, I can always buy a second one and crossfire it, and it'll more than likely outperform anything new on the market anyway. And maybe the price would have come down a bit. Actually, looking on Newegg, the price really hasn't come down all that much yet for that series, $300 down to $250..

Either way, its really a matter of figuring out where your priorities are. Cheap now, high performance now, optimal point on the cost-to-performance curve, etc. Take a look at this chart, for example: http://www.videocard..._value.html . As of right now, my video card is rating fairly low because although it performs well, its expensive.

The only advice I might give on brand (AMD vs Nvidia) is that Nvidia does tend to have better driver support, and fewer driver related issues. I've owned both and never really had any problems with one or the other, but I do like the "Nvidia Control Panel" a lot better than the "ATI Catalyst Center". Actually... that's not 100% true... I have had some instances in DayZ where certain areas of Cherno, or sometimes along a railroad track, the graphics will get corrupted and the video turns into a bizarre Triangle World, radiating from the center of the screen. Hasn't happened in awhile though. And it may be a glitch in the Arma2 Engine. I dunno. Haven't seen it in any other game..

Anyway, your best bet is to give yourself a max budget, figure out where you want to be on the price/performance curve, pick a card, look up some reviews, and see if it fits within the budget you set for yourself. Same process as any other piece of computer equipment.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Brew78

[Brew78 27]

I bought one of these around a year ago and have been *very* happy with its performance: http://xfxforce.com/...-695A-CNFC.aspx

I don't upgrade all that often, so when I do, I try to get something that'll last awhile. This one is powerful enough that if I need a graphics boost, I can always buy a second one and crossfire it, and it'll more than likely outperform anything new on the market anyway. And maybe the price would have come down a bit. Actually, looking on Newegg, the price really hasn't come down all that much yet for that series, $300 down to $250..

Either way, its really a matter of figuring out where your priorities are. Cheap now, high performance now, optimal point on the cost-to-performance curve, etc. Take a look at this chart, for example: http://www.videocard.../gpu_value.html . As of right now, my video card is rating maybe middle of the pack because although it performs well, its expensive.

The only advice I might give on brand (AMD vs Nvidia) is that Nvidia does tend to have better driver support, and fewer driver related issues. I've owned both and never really had any problems with one or the other, but I do like the "Nvidia Control Panel" a lot better than the "ATI Catalyst Center". Actually... that's not 100% true... I have had some instances in DayZ where certain areas of Cherno, or sometimes along a railroad track, the graphics will get corrupted and the video turns into a bizarre Triangle World, radiating from the center of the screen. Hasn't happened in awhile though. And it may be a glitch in the Arma2 Engine. I dunno. Haven't seen it in any other game..

Anyway, your best bet is to give yourself a max budget, figure out where you want to be on the price/performance curve, pick a card, look up some reviews, and see if it fits within the budget you set for yourself. Same process as any other piece of computer equipment.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Brew78

[[email protected] 125]

if u got money, GTX 690 retail's at about $900+

[khknight 3]

if u got money, GTX 690 retail's at about $900+

A $1000 for just a graphics card? what planet are you from?

Edited July 12, 2012 by khknight

[khknight 3]

One other thing, why is the recommended graphics card requirements for arma 2 and arma 2 OA so different? We play on an arma 2 map so it shouldn't really affect anything right?

Edited July 12, 2012 by khknight

[khknight 3]

what kind of monitors do you guys play on?