Need some opinions on my PC specs and what to upgrade.

[K2kwarrior 2]

OK so as the titles says I need some opinions on my PC specs, I have been playing DayZ for a month now and in that time I have upgraded my Ram by 4G but it made no difference to the crappy 10-20 FPS I get in electro and other major areas I get around 20 FPS when I am not in the cities and as soon as a encounter a player that opens fire on me I don't stand a chance in hell of winning cause at this point my FPS drops to about 5-10 FPS in cities.

I have enjoyed this game on empty servers where I get slightly better FPS but not much difference but after a while killing zombies becomes boring and the little PVP I have managed to play 'without the FPS drop' I have enjoyed without it I begin to find the game pointless and boring simply due to it being unbearable to play.

Here are my specs.

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601)

Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ (2 CPUs), ~2.7GHz

Memory: 6144MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 3326MB RAM

Page File: 2625MB used, 4025MB available

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Display Memory: 1907 MB

I have a feeling that its going to be the GFX card but I want to be sure.

I am not very good with PC's so any help would be extremely helpful and you may end up with ma beanz. Also whilst looking through the forums I have seen a few people mention that they use certain programs to help boost their FPS so if anyone knows any that would be appreciated too.

Thanks in advance.

[SystemiK 366]

Your 8600 GT is definitely the weakest link. You should consider yourself lucky to be playing the game at all. Without knowing what motherboard and power supply you have I won't even bother making a GPU recommendation. Please post the rest of your specs.

[Alopex 46]

The CPU is fairly low end and a little dated. Unfortunately, being an AM2 socket CPU, it also means that in order to get a decent new CPU, you'll have to upgrade to a new motherboard also, unless you manage to obtain a faster AM2 chip, but due to the age of the socket and the processors designed for it, that's probably not a worthwhile investment.

In addition, as you proclaimed, the graphics card will have to go. The 8600GT is a fairly dated mid-range card, so replacing that will be necessary.

Theoretically, you could -probably- get by in DayZ with a new mid-range or high-end graphics card in the existing system, but the rest of the system would certainly bottleneck it fiercely, so I wouldn't expect miracles if this is your only option.

In summary; The graphics card is a must, but for optimal results and performance, the Motherboard, CPU, Graphics card, (and if you're currently sporting DDR or DDR2 memory) RAM also.

____I've decided that I have more to type :>____

That's basically a complete system rebuild, save for the HDDs, Optical drives, Case and PSU, so you may want to consider building a new system altogether, if that is an option, and reserving this particular system for other tasks. (media center PC, home server or whatever.)

Edited September 26, 2012 by Alopex

[K2kwarrior 2]

Im trying to find more info on my specs i used DX diag before anyway you know of a tool i could use so i can link more info.

[K2kwarrior 2]

Got this using Belarc advisor not sure if its helpfull.

Main Circuit Board ^b

Board: ASUSTeK

Bus Clock: 200 Megahertz

I am supporting DDR2 Ram and atm i can only get a new GFX card but if thats the case i might just grit my teeth for a while and buy a new PC.

But in the meantime any other tips that may help are always nice if there is any ofc.

Edited September 26, 2012 by K2kwarrior

[SystemiK 366]

If money is tight, a new GPU will definitely help (I'd be inclined to start there and see if it's enough).

Knowing what model of motherboard and power supply you have would definitely help in choosing one (or if you are better off upgrading everything at once). The easiest way to determine this, if you have a pre-built retail system, would be to post the brand and model number of your PC. If it was custom built, you could always take off the side panel and look for the information on the MoBo and PSU (Both of those make and model numbers are easily visible through the side window of mine).

[RazorPT (DayZ) 8]

I say you should get a hole new system as it's very outdated. Arma is a very CPU demanding game so make sure you get a good CPU (I would recommend an i5 2500 of you have the budget). As for your gpu, when it comes to arma it should run just fine with a radeon 6850 which is a really good budget card.