17 replies to this topic

[Zeede]

I'm looking to upgrade my computer soon, and was unable to really glean any useful information from Resource Monitor as to what my bottleneck is, so I'm appealing to the wizards here

Here are my specs:

20-50 fps depending on how busy the screen is. Most everything set to LOW or OFF except Textures which are at Medium
1600x900 resolution, DX9
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO 790X AM3 RT
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2G AM3 RT
GPU: HIS H685QNT1GD HD6850 1G R
RAM: 6 GB Corsair 1600 MHz (will be upgrading to 12 GB soon, all CAS latency of 8)

Thoughts?

[Modo44]

MWO is CPU bound on most rigs, so upgrading/overclocking the CPU would be the first order of business.

A GPU upgrade may help, but what you have should not have issues with MWO at this resolution. For reference, my 6950 runs MWO @2560x1600 with 30+FPS. I have a Core i5 2500 CPU, though.

Unless doing some work other than gaming, you have enough RAM already.

Edited by Modo44, 13 April 2014 - 10:34 PM.

[Zeede]

Well, it looks like my best option for now is to try and overclocking my CPU to 3.5 GHz. I think AMD has a utility for this, no? Does it also monitor the temp of the CPU?

[drizz786]

Hi, I agree with above but you may also want to look at vram (gpu) 1gig is not much these days.
To prove the point try pushing the vram a small amount say 20hz if this makes a differance then vram is the problem, the cpu you have should be fine.
FYI afterburner will oc your vram but also will show level of usage both vram and load which may shed some light on the issue.
Hope this helps , happy mech bashing :-)

[Anvil ZA]

If I can add my 2 cents, I agree with the above, but one thing I've noticed is that an OC on both the CPU and GPU helps. I used Afterburner to OC my cards (SLI GTX580) about 25%, and the difference was instant. Went from average fps in dx9 to 50+ with dx11 (all at 1900x1080). However, when there is a lot happening (10 or so mechs all smoking and shooting) then there is a noticable fps drop. I used my mobo's onboard OC utility to OC the CPU by 20% as well and the slowdowns are almost completely gone. The important thing to remember is to watch your temps carefully. Afterburner can monitor GPU temp, and a simple program (freeware) called CoreTemp can monitor your CPU. A 20% OC normally gives a 20% or more increase in temp. If you are already close to your limit that can be dangerous. If it was me, I would rather go for a CPU and GPU upgrade or OC, before looking at the ram.

Hope this helps, and good hunting!
Anvil

EDIT: One more thing, you can do serious damage to your CPU/GPU by overclocking too high. Start out in small steps and go up from there, watching temps and performance with each step. You can google your cpu specs and normally find a post somewhere about the OC limit it can handle, same for gpu. Screen flickering or glitchy graphics is another sure sign you've OC'd your GPU too high and it's becoming unstable.

Edited by Anvil ZA, 14 April 2014 - 01:54 AM.

[Goose]

Keeping that CPU means "overclocking," I fear, and that becomes a big homework assignment for you, including "what heatsink am I buying next," and "how big is my PSU."

You might be able to keep that video card, as your monitor isn't 1920x1080, where Medium Textures eats close to 900MB of a cards' RAM.

There are more then a few threads around with stuff to type into a user.cfg, and some of them even have cause'n effect listed, too: Read them.

Good luck …

[Odins Fist]

Current Specs: (changing soon)
Case: Coolermaster HAF-X
Mobo: Asus Crosshair V - 990FX
CPU: Phenom II x6 1100t OC'd to 4.27GHZ (could go a little higher but not even worried)
RAM: 8gb Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 2000MHZ
PSU: Corsair TX850-M 850 watt
HD: (1) 120gb Crucial SSD for boot and special programs + (1) WD Caviar Black 1TB
Optical Drive: Asus DVD/CD burner
GPU: Asus GTX 560 ti .. (Can't wait for my GTX 780 ti)

I have Zero Issues, and BTW your Phenom II x6 1090t is just fine, YES it does need to be clocked up, but it will run MWO just fine.. Your RAM can be clocked UP right along with your CPU.. Your Video card could use a replace with a GTX 770 2 or 4gb version.

As long as you can Clock your CPU to 3.7ghz or 3.9ghz, and you can get your RAM into the 1770 mhz range, you should be good to go for a while with MWO..

Two of the Phenom II x6 thubans have no problem performing just as well as almost ALL of the FX-series AMD CPUs in many apps (FX-8350 clocked to 5.0 ghz excluded).. And you have one of them, just needs a little tweaking.
For single threaded apps the FX-series CPUs come in below for perfomance Clock for Clock, and have to be overclocked anywhere from 300mhz to 500mhz higher then 2 of the Phenom II x6 Thubans to match them in single threaded apps, depending on which FX-series CPU you look at. Going from a Phenom II x6 thuban to a FX-6350 wouldn't be much of an upgarde at all, and you likely wouldn't see hardly any difference at all, that's EXACTLY why I have decided to skip The FX-series CPU, and switch over to intel for my upcoming build..

If you're going to Overclock, make sure you research it in depth, and you will most likely need better cooling.

Edited by Odins Fist, 14 April 2014 - 01:11 PM.

[Zeede]

So, it looks like my options are to do a lot of research into medium amounts of overclocking, which may encompass the RAM, the CPU and the GPU. Which will likely then lead into research into more cooling.

OR, since it's been over 3 years since I put my rig together, I could just go up to a 4th generation i5 processor, which should keep me going just fine with MWO (and anything else, really) for another three years.

[Odins Fist]

Zeede, on 14 April 2014 - 01:23 PM, said:

So, it looks like my options are to do a lot of research into medium amounts of overclocking, which may encompass the RAM, the CPU and the GPU. Which will likely then lead into research into more cooling.

OR, since it's been over 3 years since I put my rig together, I could just go up to a 4th generation i5 processor, which should keep me going just fine with MWO (and anything else, really) for another three years.

Or Haswell 4770k and don't look back with 2400mhz RAM...

Edited by Odins Fist, 14 April 2014 - 01:28 PM.

[Goose]

A well executed new build also involves a pile of homework …

What are you goals, and what are your means, and how do you sync the two up?

"Effort equals Results"
- Rodger Penske

[Goose]

Odins Fist, on 14 April 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

Or Haswell 4770k and don't look back with 2400mhz RAM...

http://www.xbitlabs....r3_7.html#sect0

[Odins Fist]

Goose, on 14 April 2014 - 04:41 PM, said:

http://www.xbitlabs....r3_7.html#sect0

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231589 - $189.99 - 16gb


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231685 - $749.99 - 16gb


WOW... That's some RAM there

Edited by Odins Fist, 14 April 2014 - 05:24 PM.

[The Flaxen Yeti]

Zeede,

I used to run a 1090T overclocked to about 3.6 on water. Now days it's real easy to buy a closed loop water cooling solution that will allow you easy overclocking with that chip. It really is still a great chip.

That being said, running that chip with an HD7970 I would get into the 80-90fps range on the high end with med settings. Which would drop to 40-50 in a brawl. Occasionally, some maps would yield 20-30 fps, lots of particles or fog or whatever.

Since then I upgraded...

AMD 9590 at 5Ghz on water, it's the same custom loop. R9 280x CF with 7970 (they are the same card really, I bought it cheap before the bit coin miners jacked the price up $230 was hard to pass up hehe) CF sucks in this, makes it jittery, don't do it. LOL

I run 3 monitors 3996x1024 windowed.

Net result? Same FPS.

I'd worry more about the vid card than anything in your case if you are keeping that CPU. If you are going to build a new rig for "this game" it does favor Intel and Nvidia over the AMD. But funny enough I have no problem running other Cry engine stuff. Mostly 60 FPS with eye candy and AA.

Good Luck,
LD

[Zeede]

Hey all!

Thanks so much for all the input! My Bios (which is up to date) has an auto-overclocking setting, up to 10%, and temps stayed under 48 C playing a couple of hours of MWO. Best of all, FPS did not drop below the low 30's!

I'm going to get an aftermarket cooler and then see if I can push the clock up to 3.9 GHz. I think that will tide me over for the time being.

[Smokeyjedi]

Zeede, on 15 April 2014 - 06:07 AM, said:

Hey all!

Thanks so much for all the input! My Bios (which is up to date) has an auto-overclocking setting, up to 10%, and temps stayed under 48 C playing a couple of hours of MWO. Best of all, FPS did not drop below the low 30's!

I'm going to get an aftermarket cooler and then see if I can push the clock up to 3.9 GHz. I think that will tide me over for the time being.

Excellent first choice, be sure to buy Artic silver 5 thermal paste for new cooler to maximize cooling effectiveness. after 200hrs paste will cure and temps will drop 2-4 degrees celcius on idle and load......

[Goose]

Smokeyjedi, on 15 April 2014 - 02:44 PM, said:

… be sure to buy Artic silver 5 thermal paste for new cooler to maximize cooling effectiveness.

http://www.tomshardw...hmark,3616.html

http://www.hardwares...nuary-2012/1468

http://www.maximumpc...mal_pastes_face

[Smokeyjedi]

Goose, on 15 April 2014 - 02:51 PM, said:

http://www.tomshardw...hmark,3616.html

http://www.hardwares...nuary-2012/1468

http://www.maximumpc...mal_pastes_face

I just love Artic silver 5, used it for close to 10 years IIRC, never had an issue, liked it even more than some ceramic paste's Ive experimented with a shame they don't agree......

[Odins Fist]

Artic Silver works well, I have been using it for years.