45 replies to this topic

[Vulpesveritas]

Morashtak, on 06 May 2012 - 05:57 PM, said:

Posting a bit early as the results won't be known until tomorrow but...

Friend at work did a lot of detective work and found he could upgrade his HP's PSU so he could then upgrade his GPU. Will check back tomorrow to report how it went but he had high hopes as the 700watt PSU was 1/2" shallower than his stock 300 watter is. He's going with the 6770 (iirc) so much anticipation as to how well it will turn out. He's doing it to run D.III so it will be interesting.

If he hasn't bought it yet, for the price of a 6770, he'd be better off getting a 7750 or 7770.
7750: $110-130 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102985
7770: $130-170 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102967

Just a thought. The 7000 series also gets a performance boost in DX11 CryENGINE 3.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 06 May 2012 - 07:49 PM.

[DeadPuppy]

So I'm also pretty worried about the game requirements. I'm still in college so I don't have much expendable money to make fancy upgrades, and I can only play on my laptop. Right now I can play Starcraft 2 online on medium settings without any problems (except for the occcasional craptacular internet connection), but I don't know if this is going to be harder on my computer...

These are my specs: It's a Samsung q430
Intel core i5, 2.4GHz (2.6 with turbo or whatever)
4GB DDR3 ram
512mb dedicated graphics memory
2234mb available graphics memory
450GB hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 310M

So there it is...think I'll be ok? I think I'm mostly worried about the graphics card, but I really don't know that much stuff about computers (I'm ME...the EE guys are all way to smart for me). I came to Mechwarrior a little late, but I loved it. MW3 was one of my first PC games and it and MW4 (every version) are still some of my favorites...I really want to be able to play this, even if I have to run lower graphics. It would still be nice to run mediumish graphics though. I know the difference between medium and low settings on Starcraft II is like switching from a Xbox 360 to an N64...it's ridiculous.

[Catamount]

DeadPuppy, on 07 May 2012 - 11:45 AM, said:

So I'm also pretty worried about the game requirements. I'm still in college so I don't have much expendable money to make fancy upgrades, and I can only play on my laptop. Right now I can play Starcraft 2 online on medium settings without any problems (except for the occcasional craptacular internet connection), but I don't know if this is going to be harder on my computer...

These are my specs: It's a Samsung q430
Intel core i5, 2.4GHz (2.6 with turbo or whatever)
4GB DDR3 ram
512mb dedicated graphics memory
2234mb available graphics memory
450GB hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 310M

So there it is...think I'll be ok? I think I'm mostly worried about the graphics card, but I really don't know that much stuff about computers (I'm ME...the EE guys are all way to smart for me). I came to Mechwarrior a little late, but I loved it. MW3 was one of my first PC games and it and MW4 (every version) are still some of my favorites...I really want to be able to play this, even if I have to run lower graphics. It would still be nice to run mediumish graphics though. I know the difference between medium and low settings on Starcraft II is like switching from a Xbox 360 to an N64...it's ridiculous.

It's by the skin of your teeth, but I think you'll be okay.

It won't be pretty, and the framerate likely won't be good, but I think it'll be playable. I'm guessing that on minimum settings, possibly with a reduced resolution, but it should be playable, partly thanks to the fact that mech games don't typically need 60fps to be quite playable (because mechs are relative slow and deliberate).


Still, that's ultimately just an educated guess, so try out Crysis 2 (http://www.shacknews...ultiplayer-demo) and see how it works for you. That'll at least give a rough idea.

[Morashtak]

Vulpesveritas, on 06 May 2012 - 07:28 PM, said:

If he hasn't bought it yet, for the price of a 6770, he'd be better off getting a 7750 or 7770.
7750: $110-130 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102985
7770: $130-170 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102967

Just a thought. The 7000 series also gets a performance boost in DX11 CryENGINE 3.

It came down to a matter of space, see below.

As an example of what can be done with an older computer for those on a tight budget;

Stock computer; HP Pavilion Media Center m8532f Desktop PC

PSU; stock 350 watt swapped out for a Coolmax 700 Watt Power Supply (CU-700B) from Best Buy Online $63.27 (Cad) - Note; If you need more square 4 connection just separate the 8 connector plug, it divides by sliding them away. this way you'll have 2 extra square connector.

Ram; 4GB PC2-6400 swapped out for 2 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB from Newegg $168.11 (Cad) shipped

GPU stock NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS swapped for a VisionTek AMD Radeon HD 6750 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E Video Card at Best Buy Online 124.29 $ Cad

This Changed his WEI score from;
Processor 5.9 to 5.9 (didn't swap it)
Memory(RAM) 5.7 to 5.8 (hmm... little change but at least he has 8GBs now)
Graphics 5.9 to 5.9 (onboard)
Gaming Graphics 5.4 to 5.9 (again, limited by the space restriction imposed by his stock case and connectors)
Primary Hard Disk 5.9 to 5.9 (didn't swap it either)

He spent $370 (Cad) for a fairly good improvement. I was impressed that he found a PSU that fit as well as it did. Oh yeah, the PSU is 700 watts because a 500 watt replacement was twice the price and didn't look like it would fit.

[Vulpesveritas]

Morashtak, on 07 May 2012 - 05:25 PM, said:

It came down to a matter of space, see below.

As an example of what can be done with an older computer for those on a tight budget;

Stock computer; HP Pavilion Media Center m8532f Desktop PC

PSU; stock 350 watt swapped out for a Coolmax 700 Watt Power Supply (CU-700B) from Best Buy Online $63.27 (Cad) - Note; If you need more square 4 connection just separate the 8 connector plug, it divides by sliding them away. this way you'll have 2 extra square connector.

Ram; 4GB PC2-6400 swapped out for 2 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB from Newegg $168.11 (Cad) shipped

GPU stock NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS swapped for a VisionTek AMD Radeon HD 6750 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E Video Card at Best Buy Online 124.29 $ Cad

This Changed his WEI score from;
Processor 5.9 to 5.9 (didn't swap it)
Memory(RAM) 5.7 to 5.8 (hmm... little change but at least he has 8GBs now)
Graphics 5.9 to 5.9 (onboard)
Gaming Graphics 5.4 to 5.9 (again, limited by the space restriction imposed by his stock case and connectors)
Primary Hard Disk 5.9 to 5.9 (didn't swap it either)

He spent $370 (Cad) for a fairly good improvement. I was impressed that he found a PSU that fit as well as it did. Oh yeah, the PSU is 700 watts because a 500 watt replacement was twice the price and didn't look like it would fit.

You... do realize both the 7750 and 7770 have a lower power requirement than a Radeon HD 6750. And a 7750 is smaller... and the 7770 is the same size as a stock 6750... and the 7750 doesn't require a power plug... and that WEI doesn't show really anything whatsoever...

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 07 May 2012 - 07:10 PM.

[Morashtak]

Vulpesveritas, on 07 May 2012 - 07:09 PM, said:

You... do realize both the 7750 and 7770 have a lower power requirement than a Radeon HD 6750. And a 7750 is smaller... and the 7770 is the same size as a stock 6750... and the 7750 doesn't require a power plug... and that WEI doesn't show really anything whatsoever...

It's what he wanted. Don't shoot the messenger.

He'll be putting together the funds to totally replace the rig later™.