upgrading desktop for games

Computer Forum New Build / Upgrade Advice
1

Mainly because I have pre-ordered Battlefield 4, but also for future games, I want to upgrade my pc, but I have no clue on what is the most cost-efficient way to do so. I have:
Intel Quad core Q9650 @3.0 GHz
4 GB RAM (DDR2)
Radeon HD 7850 Royalking 2GB used to be (GeForce GTS 250 1.0GB)
Motherboard is P5Q- vm
OS:windows 7
(I also included snapshots of SystemRequirementsLab’s test on Battlefield 4)

will increasing my RAM from 4(min settings) to 8(recommended)GB improve performance, or only if I also improve my graphics card

bf4REQ.png
bf4REQ.png960×720 43.2 KB

2

PSU? 8 GB RAM and better video card should improve BF4 performance to acceptable levels. Also consider overclocking CPU.

3

how to look up my PSU, any example of how the needed info should look like, also what does it affect?
And if you have any suggestions on what video cards would work well my set-up(without overclocking my CPU preferably)

4

PSU model (exact model) is enough. Open case and look for label side of PSU.

Check out PSU first.

5

the PSU has a label with S/N D0718847 on it, that’s all i can find, but that’s probably just the serial number, no?

6

No results with google.

Take picture with camera from label and upload it somewhere, then link to picture?

7

That PSU should say something about the wattage if nothing else, but should probably have the +12V, 5V & 3.3V rails listed.

8

there is a label on the fan of PSU, it says :
DC brushless fan
model A8025M12s
DC 12 V 0.22 A
AC 230V
is this the right one ?

9

No, we need info from PSU, not fan. Example:

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/348/ocz600_label.jpg

10

ok this should be it then, I hope…
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45888867/1377294_10201542850647109_2019828277_n.jpg

11

Not the best but not the worst. I recommend getting Radeon HD 7850 or similar graphics card with 2 gigs of RAM.

12

Agreed. The 7850 is a great value right now. Depending on the memory size, I’ve caught them running for as little as $129 and they’re quite a bit of card. I just popped one in my main box recently and it runs Crysis 2 and Tomb Raider (2013) as smooth as glass.

13

knowing the performance of a PSU degrades, do you think my PSU will still have enough power if it’s at least 3 years old?
Also wondering about increasing up to 8GB RAM instead of 6, would this increase game performance further or is it bottlenecked somehow, and will my PSU support this as well

14

PSU should be able to handle Radeon HD 7850.

Unless you are using memory intensive programs in background, you won’t notice any difference in games with 4, 6 or 8 GB RAA.

15

thanks for the great help, going to order the Radeon this week :slight_smile:

16

hmm… I waited with ordering, because I compared the 2 graphic cards(GeForce GTS 250 and Radeon HD 7850) because:

  1. I wonder, it’s DDR5, will I be able to use this one?
  2. will it improve the performance significantly because the clock speeds are 750 vs 860 Hz, witch doesnt seem a big difference for spending this money.
    But there seem to be lots of other factors where the difference are much bigger, pixel rate and bandwith, but I don’t know what the effects are. Can someone please explain me.
17
  1. There is nothing that matters between motherboard RAM and video card memory. So yes, you can use it.
  2. GTS 250 would receive score about 35-40% there (top image): http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/images/perfrel.gif
    PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ 2 GB Review - Performance Summary | TechPowerUp

You will notice difference.

18

sorry for all the nagging, but another question, Battlefield 4 runs just so slow on my current setup, especially the loading times(this last also counts for other games), would switching to an ssd instead of a 5 year old hdd help much? Because some people say it can bottleneck the performance of the entire system. I always thought,however , that it just affected loading times.

19

SSD will most probably help load times, yes. It will also speed up almost all usage that has some HDD activity.

20

thank you for awesome advice, the game is finally playable on medium settings, haven’t tested any ohter games yet, but I’m probably going to test lots of games tonight :stuck_out_tongue: