Upgrading my PC for DayZ ONLY - feedback appreciated

[dangerous-d 2]

So I'm planning to update my PC purely to play DayZ comfortably. I've downloaded and played around with ArmA 2 free, but even on all low/disabled settings the "Benchmark Test" mission plays out at an average of 18 fps, which is diabolical to say the least.

Current Specs:

OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Make & Model - HP & SG3-320UK

Processor - AMD Athlon™ II X2 245 Processor (2 CPUs), ~2.9GHz

Memory - 2048MB RAM (will obviously need upgrading, however I'm capable in this area)

Video Card - ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics

Approx. Total Memory - 892MB

Current Display Mode - 1440 x 900 (32-bit) (60GHz)

Generic PnP Monitor

OK so I have already been to http://www.systemrequirementslab.com which has told me that I need to upgrade my CPU, RAM (expected) and my Graphics Card to meet the Recommended Requirements.

Video Card Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 5770 or faster with Shader Model 3 and 896 MB VRAM You Have: ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics

CPU Recommended: Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon Phenom X4 or faster You Have: AMD Athlon™ II X2 245 Processor

I should point out that I am trying to do this solely to play DayZ relatively comfortably, so with that in mind I'd like to save on cost.

I've found this CPU HERE that tickles my fancy, mainly because it is Quad Core, comes with a fan & heat sink and is low priced, however I wouldn't know if it is compatible with my system. Any tips for checking or opinions on the CPU itself?

As for graphics cards, there are so many out there and it isn't clear which card is the next in each particular series so I'm stuck here. Searches have shown me that the ATI Radeon HD 5770 is around 3 years old, so I'm in over my head here.

Any and all help is welcome and appreciated.

[fumigate 6]

6870 will be enough for med-high settings no AA, my GTX 670 OCed still doesn't run perfect with maxxed settings and thats a £400 card, so if you want maxxed settings you will need to SLI/crossfire

[fumigate 6]

and get at least 2GB virtual ram if you can

[DataPack 2]

6870 will be enough for med-high settings no AA, my GTX 670 OCed still doesn't run perfect with maxxed settings and thats a £400 card, so if you want maxxed settings you will need to SLI/crossfire

Are you stupid?

a 6870 can easy max out the game, its just the engine is built so fucking bad that the fps loss on some systems is just horrendous.

[fumigate 6]

6870 cant max something my 670 has problems with.

[fumigate 6]

if you turn the mouse just a little too fast on a 6870 on Very high settings you will freeze up

[dangerous-d 2]

6870 will be enough for med-high settings no AA, my GTX 670 OCed still doesn't run perfect with maxxed settings and thats a £400 card, so if you want maxxed settings you will need to SLI/crossfire

and get at least 2GB virtual ram if you can

Would the Radeon 6870 work with my PC without needing to do any upgrades or anything?

Also I've checked and currently I have 1.7GB allocated to virtual RAM, I believe I'd be able to up that to the 2GB you recommend.

[fumigate 6]

As long as your mobo has a PCIE socket and your PSU has 2x PCIE cables then your golden. If you want to upgrade your CPU on your current mobo you need to make sure its the right socket (not intel CPU) also that isnt the same ram im talking about. the 6870 only has 1GB (dedicated) virtual RAM

[DataPack 2]

6870 cant max something my 670 has problems with.

Didnt you read what i wrote?

The game it self is broken, its really crappy built, some beast systems out there can even lagg on the game..

..

Edited July 16, 2012 by DataPack

[dangerous-d 2]

As long as your mobo has a PCIE socket and your PSU has 2x PCIE cables then your golden. If you want to upgrade your CPU on your current mobo you need to make sure its the right socket (not intel CPU) also that isnt the same ram im talking about. the 6870 only has 1GB (dedicated) virtual RAM

Is this something I can establish without opening up my PC?

DataPack do you have any opinions man? They are welcome.

Edited July 16, 2012 by DangerousD

[schwifty 22]

I can run the game maxed out with max view distance on:

X4 965 BE

ATI 6950

Vista 64

8 gigs ram

None of it is over clocked yet cause I dont want to void any warrantees.

The frame rate is passable but if I turn off post processing, AA, AS (which Ido anyways cause the blur makes it harder to spot enemies at a distance) the frame rate is good.

When I upgraded I had to replace everything cause it was an old pentium 2 duo system. I went bang for my buck and ended up paying about $1300CA in upgrades all together if I remeber correctly. Most of it was bought at a place that charges a little more but they have wicked customer service and support. The one thing I did go as good as I could on was the motherboard. Getting a sweet mother board will make sure that if you upgrade again in a little while that it wont bottle neck the performance of any newer, faster components.

Also if you are just upgrading for Arma 2, getting 2 ATI cards to work in crossfire is a waste. You would probably end up having to disable cross fire to play arma 2.

Though this is just an Alpha. I would go a bit higher on the hardware asuming that eventually they will port DayZ mod to Arma 3 which when I checked last, should be out in the next 6 months. Which will also be the day I O/C my system.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Frostback

[fumigate 6]

Is this something I can establish without opening up my PC?

DataPack do you have any opinions man? They are welcome.

You cant do anything without opening up your computer :/

[Food 309]

I'd reccommend going with the Sandy bridge model i5, maybe just 2 more GB of ram as it really isn't that big of a deal in gaming and looking for a good $250-300 gfx card if your on a tight budget. Otherwise go with the ASUS GTX 670, I recently built my new PC and let me tell you this thing is a beast :P