Hardware & Technical Upgrade suggestions needed

Matt168

M
I have been getting reasonable performance on ED from my present PC, but it's all four, if not five years old now and can get a bit juddery when things are getting busy.

The PCI slot on my motherboard is not a 3.0 version, so does that mean I won't see much benefit from a new graphics card or is the antique 336 core card currently in there so under-powered now that putting a 960 or 970 card would still provide a healthy improvement? I am hoping that if I spend £250 or so now, it might tide me over until finding a modern motherboard and CPU some time in 2016. Can anyone suggest if that's the a sensible way to go about an upgrade and which cards would be best to consider?

The main components I currently have are:
CPU - Intel i5 760 2.8Ghz
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
Graphics Card - 1GB Gainward GTX 460 GS GLH
 

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE
Matt168 said:
The PCI slot on my motherboard is not a 3.0 version, so does that mean I won't see much benefit from a new graphics card or is the antique 336 core card currently in there so under-powered now that putting a 960 or 970 card would still provide a healthy improvement?
Click to expand...

Just to cover this particular point - not even a Titan X can saturate all lanes of a PCIe 3.0 slot so for sure you'll see a benefit.
 

Porina

Porina
Agreed, don't worry about PCIe bandwidth. It is largely a non-issue for a single card.

Haven't used a 460 but did used to have a 560Ti. It was ok but not enough to run Ultra at 1080p. Moving on up to 960 was. If it is worth going a bit further to the 970 is up to your expected needs and budget. If your monitor is much more than 1080p, then even more power would help for sure.
 

Matt168

M
Thank you both for the input. It just helped cover the gaps that the reviews don't really cover if you fall behind on what's what in the world of PC stuff. Time for some shopping now.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
If I may emphasise, you are being let down by that GPU.

1Gb is never going to be adequate.

The GTX 460 on an i5 board is like putting flat tyres on a Sports car. Try to get a decent GPU with perhaps 4Gb memory if you can. (I've got 2Gb and it is excellent, for now).

The i5 is a pretty impressive piece of kit in itself. 2.8Ghz is fine. You might upgrade the CPU at some time, but no rush, wait till prices fall, and they will.

Check out the chart. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
 
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Zelos1983

Z
You only need a new GPU. Midrange, or lower midrange if you just play E:D
GTX 960 or 970 on the nvidia side should be good? Or something similar from team red (I don't know their product lines well)

I've been playing with a Q9550/8GB DDR2 RAM and a GTX 670 until this summer, worked very well in 1080p with full details. E:D doesn't have much requirements. Only exception is putting the game on an SSD to reduce stutter.
 

Matt168

M
I had thought as much... it's certainly like keeping the same set of tyres on a sports car for five years anyway. The only thing that had stopped me buying a more up to date GPU several months ago was the concern about the versions of PCI slots. That idea probably goes back to the days when the first PCI cards came out and if you only had a VESA slot it would be a completely different size. I had established V3 cards fit in a V2 slot, but didn't know if they would be held back significantly. To be honest, I'm amazed that ED has been running as well as it has with 1Gb of RAM on my card. A nice modern card (with 4Gb) has been ordered this morning, so I'm hopeful I can start cranking up those detail levels again very shortly.
 

Porina

Porina
What did you order? Some 960s come in 4GB although most are 2, but 970 would get you that as standard. Reason for asking is that you may be able to "turn it up to 11" as it were. If you end up having power to spare, consider enabling DSR in the drivers. 960 probably wont be enough to do this without impacting framerates, but 970 might be.
 

Matt168

M
Porina said:
What did you order? Some 960s come in 4GB although most are 2, but 970 would get you that as standard. Reason for asking is that you may be able to "turn it up to 11" as it were. If you end up having power to spare, consider enabling DSR in the drivers. 960 probably wont be enough to do this without impacting framerates, but 970 might be.
Click to expand...

I went for a 970 to get maximum lifespan out of the purchase. If I get a chance I will make a note of my current frame rates before fitting the new card and see what sort of a difference it makes.
 

Matt168

M
Delivery was super efficient and I spent last night sweating over the installation. Aside from my case being just large enough to accommodate the beast, which made it take at least three times as long to slot in, I can't get Windows to identify the card. The installation disk came with a driver update utility that (presumably using system properties) says that the graphics card is unknown.

I am working on the assumption that as the monitor is connected to the card the card is working at the most basic level. Next on my list of usual errors is not fixing the power cable securely, but they both appear to be firmly attached. While the diagram on the useless manual indicates that they should go on one way, when you look at the board the notches for the connector clips are the other way, so I am going by what's physically possible rather than trying to copy a doodle.

After that I gave up for the evening but considered the possibility that my PSU was underpowered. Tech specs indicate that my 650W supply should be more than capable.

When I get home tonight, I see on the tech specs that there should be a power cable adapter in the box, whereas I have just used the leads from my PSU (6 pin and a 6+2 pin) so potentially that is an area to double check.

I have removed the old drivers and installed the new ones, but I think this is about the card not getting power. Apart from the adapter thing, I suppose I should try running with the case off so I can confirm there are signs of life from the card. Are there any other things I need to consider?
 

Porina

Porina
At the risk of stating the obvious, but make sure the card is properly seated. I agree you should use the power cables from the PSU in a way that mechanically fits. Some cards come with adapter cables for those PSUs without enough correct connectors but it isn't needed if provided by PSU.

I think it is largely a matter of work or not work at all for power, so you can't be that far off if it boots at all. I'd download the latest drivers from nvidia and install those and see what happens. To check it is in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU?
 

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

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To be clear, are you saying the card does not seem to have power? Fan not spinning? (or is your model one that keeps the fan turned off until the heat hits a certain temperature?). Does it have LEDs?

Check that it's nothing silly like the PCIe slot is disabled in the BIOS. Also some BIOS have a PEG/PCI toggle so check that.
 
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Matt168

M
I am assuming it must have some power, but perhaps just as much as comes directly from the motherboard. The monitor is plugged in and displays at a 800x600 resolution rather than, say a 1920x1080. I think if it wasn't properly seated then there would be no video signal at all. It is just odd that the PC can't recognise that there is a card fitted yet there is a display coming from that card. A lack of power was the best explanation I could come up with for that.

The old card worked off the same slot (next to the CPU), so I would be surprised if the BIOS needed any change, but it's worth looking at before doing any more involved.
 

Matt168

M
I suppose the other naive question is should the card identify itself to Windows before drivers are installed, or would the description of the card only show when drivers were installed? Windows is able to put a name to most hardware before the drivers are installed, if only to work out which drivers it needs. In which case, perhaps I should reinstall from the disk, or even download them from Nvidia. The machine is running Win7 64 bit, so nothing out of the ordinary, but I did forget to remove the old Nvidia drivers when I ran the initial installation so they could have created an issue somewhere along the way.

At least I am up to three simple checks this evening before I start removing the card and swapping things over. Perhaps I will just substitute my Friday evening ED session with a few quick games of Minesweeper tonight.
 
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Zenith

Zenith
You say your 650W PSU should beer enough.
Do you know how many amps it can provide on the 12v rail?
It might be that your PSU's headline rating is OK, but the power delivery across the different voltage rails is deficient on the 12v rail.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
The points made by Main Sequence and Zenith are both excellent.

Windows should easily identify a new card with its new hardware routine.

Hope ypu will keep us all posted on this one. It is really frustrating, especially given the cost of these things. But my own experience is that most stuff these days is pretty tough.
 
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