Hardware & Technical Motherboard?

[Sir.Tj]

As I'm on the list for a Oculus Roft DK2 I'm considering upgrading my motherboard as at the moment I'm wondering if it's throttling my FPS.

Currently I've got a Asus m3n78-vm (I'll check this later as I'm at work.) with a AMD Athalon 2.5ghz Black Edition cpu which doesn't seem to really want to be overclocked.

It's running with 4.5 gb DDR2 atm and a Sapphire 7870 2gb GFX card.

Running SP I'm getting approx 45fps and down to 30 with OR enabled in the game options. The OR needs approx 75fps+.

Does this look like the MB&CPU throttling the GFX card? I've considered putting 2gbx4 in to make it up to 8gb (the boards limit) which will cost £50+.

So I'm wondering if a upgrade on the MB&CPU might be a better option, as ever I'm on a budget and wondered what would be the best way to go.

Any advice would be helpful and I'll promise not to ban anyone for at least 5 mins when they take the <AHEM> out of my system.

Cheers for any advice.

 

[psykokow]

4.5gb??? IS it sharing to an unused onboard video card? you should be able to grab back that missing ram...

I think to be honest, with DDR2 ram, the benefit of buying more Ram is price, but performance may be struggling with your cpu, and or GPU.

I would most likely upgrade to a new mobo, DDR 3 ram and a low end i5 cpu or if budget allowed i7.

Now I will check my spares piles and see if I have anything usable for you.

Will report back later when I find the box..

 

[Iain M Norman]

8gb is not a lot nowadays.

Mind you that's from my POV, which is having visual studio, illustrator and photoshop open a lot at the same time

 

[Sir.Tj]

Cheers lads, 4.5 is just because that's what I have available in chips atm.

The embarrassment levels are rising here.

Thought the GFX would be upto it though, only got it a few months ago.The kids piggybanks haven't recovered from the last attack yet

1050 MHz Core Clock
28 nm Chip
1280 x Stream Processors
2048 MB Size
256 -bit GDDR5
5000 MHz Effective

 

[Rog]

Think Psykokow is probably right on the mobo/RAM thing, the GPU looks pretty decent though.

Would personally be tempted by a new mobo, 8GB fast DDR3 and an Intel i5 (i7 if can stretch). At least then you'll have a good platform to stick a super-whizz-bang GPU in there in a year or so if needed.

I cringe when I think of the expense of all this though.

£75 for a mobo
£60 for 8GB fast DDR3
£130 for an i5

Or thereabouts.

 

[psykokow]

It is a tough ask, though looking through the bargain basement in big PC stores (ie older machine or exrepair) may be a cheaper way of finding that base system..

You can also find bundles like this..

Mobo Combos

 

[acr0b3rts]

8gb is not a lot nowadays.

For gaming 8GB should be more than enough. A lot of people seem to think that putting more RAM in their computer automatically makes it faster, which is only the case, if it's currently using up all the RAM it has (check Task Manager).

Any game that can eat 7GB of RAM (assuming greedy Windows eats 1GB), should be taken out to a field and shot between the eyes

Also ED is 32bit, which means that it can never use more than 3.2GB total.

Have you tried running a PC Mark (it's free) benchmark? Should give you an idea of what's hot and not.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Thanks for the info,

Seems as if the MB & CPU isn't up to the job then.

I'll have to wait until the DK2 arrives and see how it runs as I spent all of my pocket money for the next 10 years on that.

 

[Rog]

Thanks for the info,

Seems as if the MB & CPU isn't up to the job then.

I'll have to wait until the DK2 arrives and see how it runs as I spent all of my pocket money for the next 10 years on that.

I know what you mean and share your pain Tj.

My wallet whimpers if it sees me looking at PC/gaming stuff at the moment, and I've still got a whole new machine + OR CV1 + new monitor + additional GPU card to get.

How much can I get for a kidney?

 

[Asp Explorer]

+1 on new build.

Updating current machine counter-productive in my opinion. 8Gb i5 with ssd and your current graphics card will work wonders

 

[Sir.Tj]

How much can I get for a kidney?

A lot more than I'd ever get for my Alcohol sodden Liver.

+1 on new build.

Updating current machine counter-productive in my opinion. 8Gb i5 with ssd and your current graphics card will work wonders

I'm sure you're right there.

Does anyone want to buy a severly abused Liver???

 

[Cosmos]

Hi TJ..

I was using an older system with DDR2 until recently and upgrading really did improve things. Its not just the CPU but the motherboard, ram and bus speed that could be limiting you. I can't speak about the Rift related performance because I don't have one

Even when I overclocked my old q6600 to a whopping 3.8Ghz the performance increase, whilst very noticeable, wasn't really cutting it for the likes of Factions. Then again, that gear was 6 years old tech.

I'd expect its your CPU and DDR2 thats holding you back. However, if you are having problems overclocking it might be due to your RAM configuration. Perhaps you have put in an addition stick set that isn't as good as the other ones because when you overclock, the RAM is often required to be over-clocked a bit too. When I did my crazy over clock with the q6600 I couldn't get it higher than 3.2Ghz without taking out some of the lower spec RAM.

The graphics card you have is fine for the game imo, although you might want to upgrade that in future if you find the Rift is really that demanding, although I'd doubt you'd need to.

The good news is that you could sell your current stuff and put that money towards new gear. I've always found ebay quite useful for that sort of thing. At this point is does seem a bit counter productive to by more DDR2, even if it does aid an overclock it would be better price/performance wise to upgrade.

Assuming you are happy putting it all together, Toms hardware is a good resource for CPU's and Graphics cards. When it comes to CPUs I'd try to get an intel i5, you don't have to go nuts on a motherboard, and get yourself 8gb of ddr3.

Even an i3 would probably suffice.

That said perhaps even a cheaper AMD fx 6300 with DDR3 and new mother board could offer you the boost you need.

It all depends upon your budget I expect.

Hope that helps

 

[Sir.Tj]

Cheers Cosmos,

You've sort of confirmed my suspicions on that.

No problem putting a PC together, (it's my other use for the banhammer.)

A AMD CHIP WILL FIT IN A INTEL SOCKET EVENTUALLY IF YOU HIT IT HARD ENOUGH!!!

I'll have a look at that link.

 

[Cosmos]

A AMD CHIP WILL FIT IN A INTEL SOCKET EVENTUALLY IF YOU HIT IT HARD ENOUGH!!!

Pictures please hehe

The stuff might be a slightly different price for you, infact I'd expect it to be cheaper than the UK unless you too have 20% vat to have to pay in your country - so that was just a quick suggestion for the AMD combo to give you an idea.

 

[CMDR Texas Stu]

Cheers lads, 4.5 is just because that's what I have available in chips atm.

The embarrassment levels are rising here.

Thought the GFX would be upto it though, only got it a few months ago.The kids piggybanks haven't recovered from the last attack yet

1050 MHz Core Clock
28 nm Chip
1280 x Stream Processorso
2048 MB Size
256 -bit GDDR5
5000 MHz Effective

TJ,
I have a 7870 as well. It drops as low as 1 FPS recently a few times (Bond, Asteroids with many canisters) but usually hums along at 50-60FPS.
Right now though my GPU is my weak link with my AMD 8350 at 4Ghz, 16GB 1866 RAM, ASUS Crossfire MB & dual 256GB SSDs. I'm still waiting out these bit coin and GPU middlemen jacking up the high end GPU prices.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Mining on GPU is horribly outdated these days, it's all ASIC now, so the only thing holding up GPU prices are the GPU's themselves

 

[Cosmos]

Mining on GPU is horribly outdated these days, it's all ASIC now, so the only thing holding up GPU prices are the GPU's themselves

I thought the top end AMD cards were being snatched up by miners which is why the prices were so high atm.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Anyone think this is suitable etc?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-FX-63...0?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item338c6b956c

 

[Cody]

I know zilch about AMD kit, but those two components, bought separately, are a bit cheaper on ebuyer.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Indeed they are - QF: 395310 @ £36.87 & QF 409191 @ £77.99 = £114.86 with free 5 day shipping.

[edit] You'll need to add RAM to that as the motherboard uses DDR3 - QF 633806 @ £53.88 [/edit]