17 replies to this topic

[Baron Cunedda Kell]

ok..I am not a computer junkie/geek, so I am coming to you guys... I have a friend who is trying to play Mechwarrior due to my encouragement of how much fun the game can be...

He has download and played, but it seems his video card sucks.... his birthday is coming up and I am considering surprising him with a new card, but I want to make sure, that his process will 1 be up to snuff for our game(mechwarrior)

His Computer is
Windows 7
Dell Computer
studio xps 7100
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Processor 2.80
8GB Ram
64bit

1... Is his computer processor and etc..strong enough...

2. If it is, then what would be a good video card that wouldn't break my back but yet get him online for a great gaming experience with me...

Humbly,
Baron Cunedda Kell

[Summon3r]

I'm not 100% on the cpu but I think it is barely enough. Be nice if he could overclock to 3+ghz. As for vid card I'm using a nvidia 660ti and I have no issues with game on Max settings.

[Trevor Belmont]

I was running something similar. I had a AMD Phenom II X4 2.6 Ghz with 8 GB RAM. I tried to upgrade my video card from a GTS 250 to a GTX 760 but it didn't help at all. The CPU was the bottleneck for me with a very similar setup.

[Goose]

Going for "surprise" will be a mistake, I'm afraid, as no one can be positive what the problem is without benchmarking of some kind: Occasionally we see someone with a GPU bottleneck, but mostly it's the physics thread on the CPU that hoses people down. There is also the issue of feeding a new GPU power, as factory power supplies are know to rather small for that sort of thing: Getting an nVidia from the Kepler family will help, but you are going to need to upon the box and see if the PSU lists it amps on the 12 volt rail. Then you'll need to go here: http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp

What you really want to do is have him install FRAPS, HWiNFO64, and GenericLogViewer, so he can make a few logs and look at them to see where the issues is.

I am shore there are a few tweaks taht will help some, but I don't know how much. Put all this in his user.cfg:

;thread stack
ca_thread0Affinity = 0
ca_thread1Affinity = 3
r_WaterUpdateThread = 1
sys_main_CPU = 2
sys_physics_CPU = 5
sys_streaming_CPU = 4
sys_TaskThread0_CPU = 4
sys_TaskThread1_CPU = 1
sys_TaskThread2_CPU = 4
sys_TaskThread3_CPU = 0
sys_TaskThread4_CPU = 3
sys_TaskThread5_CPU = 2
;--------------
d3d9_TripleBuffering = 1
sys_budget_sysmem = 4096
sys_budget_videomem = 2048
r_UsePOM = 0
r_vSync = 0
r_WaterCaustics = 0
r_WaterCausticsDeferred = 1
r_WaterGodRays = 0
r_WaterReflections = 0
r_WaterReflectionsMGPU = 2
r_WaterReflectionsQuality = 0
sys_budget_soundCPU = 5
r_ShadersAsyncMaxThreads = 5
e_AutoPrecacheCgfMaxTasks = 6
p_pool_size = 4096
sys_limit_phys_thread_count = 1
sys_physics = 1
sys_spec_Physics = 1
e_particles = 1
e_ParticlesCullAgainstViewFrustum = 1
e_ParticlesGI = 0
e_ParticlesPoolSize = 4096
e_ParticlesPreload = 1
r_UseGSParticles = 1

Because your guy is a hexacore, I can put out my "thread stack" for him to use; I tell everyone else to set it to all zeros, for lack of a better idea …

Taht "sys_budget_soundCPU" can be set lower, I think, if you have a sound card in the system, but I have no way to test it.



Be advised: You are now Officially a Swell Fella' for putting your money where your mouth is!

[Lord Letto]

6 Cores at 2.8 GHz I think Might be decent, but as Summon3r suggested, Try to OC it up to 3+ GHz, 4+ Would be a Bonus.
I Play using a 560Ti 2GB and I think it would be a OK choice to start with, I would recommend you find a used one for ~$100-120 instead of spending $300+ for a New one though.
BTW, my CPU is a FX-4100 (4 Cores) OCed to 4.4GHz and I get a average FPS Moving around in a match in the 30-40 FPS Range with dips into the 20s during Heavy Combat before todays patch (Patched but haven't tried it yet), 60s in Pre/Post game menus and Front End.

Edited by Lord Letto, 21 January 2014 - 01:05 PM.

[Baron Cunedda Kell]

Guys..you are all talking computer lingo...I am an old fat dude...who has no clue on all this talk.....don't get me wrong..I DO APPRECIATE the posts...but I just need to know..is his computer strong enough and if so...what card would get him playing? 100 bucks-150 is within my range...for my dear old friend from jr high...but nothing higher..LOL!

[Lord Letto]

Strong enough=Maybe, might need a new processor and motherboard though, and a case to put it in also as OEM cases got Fixed Hardpoints, Not Omni Hardpoints to mount the Motherboard
for a Brand new Video card between $100-150 From my own research, GTX 650Ti on the Nvidia side, on the ATI/AMD side, the R7 260X, overall though the R7 260X is a bit better then the 650TI.
According to Tom's Shared hardware Best Mid range Video card for January 2014 in the $120-200 Range is the 7790 for $130 and the R9 270 for $180: http://www.tomshardw...iew,3107-3.html

Edited by Lord Letto, 21 January 2014 - 01:57 PM.

[panzerkunst99]

Good news - that is one kick-*** processor, one of the best AMD have made. Theres no use in changing it. Overclocking? A bit risky, especially in a standard chassi without sufficient cooling.
This is comparison between your friends PCU and the fastest PCU according to toms hardware 2013.
http://www.tomshardw...od%5B5796%5D=on

Bad news - the power supply in this Dell machine, how much watt can it deliver? Hopefully enogh for a new graphics card. How does one find this out, well it should say how much "wattage this" PSU is rated for somewhere on the psu itself, or in some manual for the dell machine, online, or in some documentation of your friends. Lets hope it is a 750 watt or 650 watt, then we are in the green.

There is also the slight issue of what powercables does this PSU in the machine have especially for a graphic card? Theese can sometimes have adapters that make them fit different fance new graphics power cables (6 or 8 or 6+6 or 6+8 or 8+8 iirc), but definately best is if theres already ready cables from the existing powersupply.

What graphics would I recommend? Well an AMD graphic card would maybe fit the system well. As I am not on the lookout for a card myself atm I dont exactly know what I would recommend, but a quick check, leads me to consider: maybe 7770?
http://www.tomshardw...eview,3107.html

Good luck and if you have further questions, I will try help.

[panzerkunst99]

Oh, while I am on the subject, what graphics card does he have in it today? That answers alot of questions about available power and maybe powercables and speed today (one always want to go at least 2 tiers higher each GPU change I feel for it to be worth the money).

For reference found this page, about similar computer:
http://www.hardwareh...w-internal.html

Edited by panzerkunst99, 21 January 2014 - 02:15 PM.

[Egomane]

Baron Cunedda Kell, on 21 January 2014 - 01:04 PM, said:

Guys..you are all talking computer lingo...I am an old fat dude...who has no clue on all this talk.....don't get me wrong..I DO APPRECIATE the posts...but I just need to know..is his computer strong enough and if so...what card would get him playing? 100 bucks-150 is within my range...for my dear old friend from jr high...but nothing higher..LOL!

I'll try to make it as simple as possible. As you stated, that you have no idea about computer talk in general I'll not tell you anything about overclocking, clock speeds or such. It will only confuse you.

The processor is fine as long as you do not expect top-grade performance.

A fitting graphicscard might an AMD HD7870 or AMD R9 270X or an Nvidia GTX 660ti or GTX 760. AMD and Nvidia are the producers of the graphicschip on those cards. These bring good performance for their cost and are enough to handle MWO and most other games well.

The PSU (power supply unit, mounted in the top and back of the case) in the Dell XPS should be (but I can not guarantee it) able to handle one of those cards.

Edited by Egomane, 21 January 2014 - 02:20 PM.

[cSand]

Quick search shows that it has a 460w power supply... should be OK for adding a video card such as the 270x. Bare minimum I think, but should be OK..

125w processor, and up to about 150w (under heavy GPU load) on the 270x, leaving whatever is left over (depending on the efficiency of the psu) for everything else.

Edited by cSand, 21 January 2014 - 03:13 PM.

[Baron Cunedda Kell]

Thank you all... to the last two who posted...thats what i was looking for..could it do it..and what video card could go into that computer...I forgot about power supply...so he might need to upgrade his power, as I did..when I got a new card to play mwo...

[Catamount]

I would most definitely upgrade his power supply. Prebuilt machines skimp on them, and Dell seems quite notorious for being one of the more egregious companies for this. That "460W" power supply is probably really an incredibly lousy 300W power supply, and the chip and video card could easily draw more than that by themselves. Add in the other components, fans, hard drives, the mainboard, etc, and you might instantly blow that power supply while gaming and take something else out with it.

If you're going to do the upgrade, I would go ahead and just pick this up for him now before it goes off sale: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817182199

That doesn't just have more wattage, it's actually a pretty darn decent 530W PSU.

Edited by Catamount, 22 January 2014 - 07:03 AM.

[Hexcaliber]

panzerkunst99, on 21 January 2014 - 02:06 PM, said:

Good news - that is one kick-*** processor, one of the best AMD have made. Theres no use in changing it. Overclocking? A bit risky, especially in a standard chassi without sufficient cooling.
This is comparison between your friends PCU and the fastest PCU according to toms hardware 2013.
http://www.tomshardw...od%5B5796%5D=on


Good luck and if you have further questions, I will try help.

It is far from kick ***, it is quite mediocre, it’s actually a couple of generations old now as it was released in 2010, AMD's FX series are far superior being the current high end offering from AMD. Being one of the slower 6 cores from that range, in real terms, in a game such as MWO which will not make the most of it's two extra cores it will actually perform worse than the old Phenom II quad cores such as the 965 which had the same instruction set, only 4 cores but run at higher clocks.

Edited by Hexcaliber, 22 January 2014 - 03:02 PM.

[panzerkunst99]

To quote the Dude: "Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man".

Is it any use to upgrade the existing processor? My opinion is no:
http://www.tomshardw...ock,3106-5.html

[z00med]

Screw everything you heard. This Processor is completely sufficient for MWO (I am not claiming that Very High settings + external AntiAliasing will be enjoyable).

Although I dunno about how much optimized MWO is yet, the CryEngine 3 supports up to 8 cores, so it will get the best out of these 6 (its 6x2,8Ghz).
And if you/ your friend like fiddling with CPUs a bit
-> there you go, thats why one buys AMD .
I had exactly this processor and was running it at a stable 3,36Ghz (with turbo up to 3,96) for ~1,5 years without any issues.

edit: Of course its not the newest and fastest. It also has no fruit printed on it and doesnt come in shiny white. But as long as you dont wanna play in 4k on half a dozend screens... whats the thing?

edit2: Dont buy a "new" processor for an AM3 mainboard (if you can get a cheap AMD Phenom X4 955 somewhere, that would be a possibility, but I think they're out of production). The first step would be a newer AM3+ mainboard.

edit3: A Radeon R9 270X is also waaaaay to much money spend (considering we are only talking about MWO, and pretending money does matter^^). Friend of mine runs MWO (all settings on High (except Postprocessing=low)in 1920x1080. With a Radeon HD 6870... theyre out of production, but still on ebay etc. new in sealed box for ~60USD).

Edited by z00med, 05 February 2014 - 03:40 PM.

[Marauder3D]

This thread is of great interest to me because I have the exact same computer. They came stock with an AMD 5870 graphics card. While it was a while back, that card was pretty decent when it came out.

I've been told by intel fans (I'm a bit of a computer hick myself, don't know that much) that it is the slow clock speed that games like MWO or MW:LL really have problems running smoothly. Dell BIOS won't allow overclocking in any way. Baron Kell and I are stuck at 2.8 Ghz.

So would a 6870 really be a noteworthy improvement over the 5870?

Wouldn't the R9 270X be better? Or again, are we just processor bottlenecked?

I find computers interesting and confusing at the same time! >.<

[Goose]

Marauder3D, on 09 February 2014 - 01:13 PM, said:

So would a 6870 really be a noteworthy improvement over the 5870?

Wouldn't the R9 270X be better? Or again, are we just processor bottlenecked?

Until you hear Tom's Hardware say you can get a good price on an ATI again, you avoid ATIs.

Odds are you have a processor bottleneck: It would be hard to do, but you would probably be better off getting an new motherboard and a big CPU cooler; I can't tell from here, but this probably would involve replacing your case and PSU, also. I know little about AMD, so I don't know if you could find a new mobo for that CPU …

Marauder3D, on 09 February 2014 - 01:13 PM, said:

I find computers interesting and confusing at the same time! >.<

More fun then you wanted to have!