Building a computer
 

I already have a good video card the EVGA Geforce GTX 560 ti
but can I get help getting good parts and my budget is anything around $1000.
The computer I have right now I spent over 2K back in 2007 now I need somthing new since new games are coming out.

My specs are:
Core 2 Duo E6600
3 GB OCZ
1.5 TB Harddrive
700 Watt OCZ power supply
Geforce GTX 560 ti upgraded from a 8800 GTX and thought video cards do all the gaming magic but when I tried Skyrim I am lucky to get 25 FPS in a battle.

Re: Building a computer
 

Keep your power supply, it's more than adequate for a good number of things today. So far I've really liked my 8Gb kit of G. Skill Snipers for RAM. Definitely recommend a processor that runs at least 3Ghz normally, aaaand get a motherboard that can run all these, personally I love my ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen 3. Most of this is preference though, I'm sure there's better.

Re: Building a computer
 

That was $2k in 2007? Did you buy prebuilt? That seems like way too much.

Unfortunately I don't really know much about Intel, not enough to recommend a gaming build. I'll second the G.Skill though, I have 8 GB of G.Skill Ripjaws, my second set of Ripjaws, and they rock, not to mention dirt cheap and with sweet-looking heat spreaders.

Re: Building a computer
 

Yeah almost 800 dollars on that 8800 GTX that served me well but I was a bit disapointed I couldn't max out crysis but bioshock was slikly smooth.

Re: Building a computer
 

With a 560 Ti and the rest of that spec mentioned the only reason you'd be getting such low FPS is if you're running very high res and/or lots of mods, including the high res texture ones.

I run vanilla Skyrim on a mere GTS 250 1GB and average 60 FPS at 1600x900 with High textures, Med shadows, and Max draw distance. I don't run AA because I feel it's not needed, nor reflections, which rarely show anything since most water is not flat surfaced.

Re: Building a computer
 

I run games at 1920x1200 native monitor resoultion I know today is all about 1080p.

Re: Building a computer
 

As I figured you probably did. The thing is though, despite 1920x1080 being roughly 44% more pixels than 1600x900, you're talking a GPU that performs roughly 48% better than even a 450, and that's at the same res, and the 450 outperforms mine. You have to keep it in perspective. It's relative to what you're using.

Re: Building a computer
 

You have a newer computer then I do mines old so the video card isn't going to perfrom the best called a bottleneck so I need a new system.

Re: Building a computer
 

Any AsRock/EVGA/MSI LGA 1155 socket motherboard. (Beware EVGA/MSI rebates if you get them on sale, they take decades to process)
i5-2500/i5-2500k/Wait for Ivy Bridge i5's.
8GB RAM, any brand.

Those are the important parts. I'd also think about replacing that power supply, keeping it as a backup and picking up a Corsair or SeaSonic power supply. You would probably have enough to buy a new case and an SSD (SSD's are getting so cheap nowadays, it's almost a steal if you find a good deal on one).

Re: Building a computer
 

Well of course there's going to be at least some amount of bottleneck with that old a CPU, but it's impossible to tell how much that's affecting performance without knowing what speed you have it clocked to, what in-game settings you're using, and whether or not you have any mods installed.

Re: Building a computer
 

At high it with 2xaa it was running a bit slow but when i put it too medium everything ran smoothly but it looks a lot better on high.

Re: Building a computer
 

You're talking Med vs High textures I assume, and vanilla vs modded? It sounds to me like you're only running stock speed on that CPU too, which I believe is just 2.66GHz?

I would try running it with no AA or water reflection and putting a good OC on the CPU. It's not advisable to do it with the stock cooler though.

The mostly natural vs modern architectural environment of Skyrim and the uneven surface of the water don't really benefit much from AA and water reflections anyway. Make sure you're running the patch version that has the optimizer in it too.

Note that some of the more popular CPU coolers will fit a wide range of CPUs from LGA 775 on up to 1155.

Re: Building a computer
 

Skyrim i can run maxed out with 4xAA for some reason and get 30-40 FPS. but in Battlefeild 3 i cannot.

Re: Building a computer
 

On the brightside, you can get one of the new i5's for about $240, and get a PCI 3.0 board. Just saying.

Re: Building a computer
 

I'm beginning to see what the problem is now. You started out actually specifically complaining about SKYRIM performance.Now you make it sound as if it's fine. That tells me you're probably not being very realistic about settings or expectations.

You acknowledge you're aware of a bottleneck with such a CPU, but my guess is you've not done anything to try and ease the severity of it via a hefty OC and reasonable settings, and for that matter you've yet to even state whether you're running the game modded or not.

You now say you're able to "run it maxed", using 4xAA (and God knows what else), but if your initial complaint indicates it's too laggy during battles, you need to rethink that claim.

Skyrim is a game where if you have mediocre and/or bottlenecked config, you want to be averaging at least 60 FPS or so when you're outside with no heavy shading (eg torches, fog, etc) and battles going on.

I've noticed that Skyrim can get a bit choppy indoors where there's torches and fog even when dipping to the 35-40 FPS range, and that's with an i7 950. Granted I have just a GTS 250 1GB, but it's OCed fairly high, and as mentioned, I keep the res to 1600x900 and don't use any AA or water reflections. With my current settings I generally don't dip below 45 FPS, and that's good enough to avoid noticeable lag.

IMHO too many people obsess over max settings. It's fine if you have an up to date killer beast of a rig, but for a lot of people it's impractical. A lot of games don't even need max settings to get decent image quality either.

Re: Building a computer
 

You might want to invest in a solid state hard drive. Their price has went down now and they offer a very good increase in loading speed and general computer day to day activity.

Re: Building a computer
 

Is that really money well spent when his main problem is lag while the game is playing, which has nothing to do with level loading speed. A faster drive won't do anything to fix lag during gameplay. He'd be better off spending that money on changing CPU/MB platforms, or even a CPU cooler to put a decent OC on it.

Re: Building a computer
 

I don't think that was directed to his in-game performance, but more so his overall performance. And he's right, solid state drives are getting really affordable nowadays, for the huge boost in performance (outside of gaming).

Re: Building a computer
 

Still, the fact remains, the thread started out being primarily about gaming performance, even stating concerns about new games coming out. Given that, it just seems natural the suggestions ought to prioritize gaming performance, rather than assuming he can easily afford an SSD as well.

Re: Building a computer
 

While it won't directly effect the game's gameplay framerate, an SSD will effect loading times and this can be really beneficial if a game loads frequently (like a deathmatch type multiplayer game). Anyway my post was more about general computer speed rather than gaming, so im sorry if I went out of thread :P

Re: Building a computer
 

Ivy Bridges are out! They fit in the 1155 socket, and look beautiful! I suggest shopping around for prices though, Newegg's got some people bitching about a higher price there than elsewhere.

Re: Building a computer
 

I don't get why Intel is putting so much emphasis in onboard video performance lately. Granted the HD 4000 is roughly twice as powerful as their last onboard graphics, but still WAY short of being able to do anything like current gen gaming well.

These CPUs are also WAY more than you need for a mere HTPC. They make sense in a hybrid laptop setup, if nothing else just to save power, but in the desktop arena the onboard video is next to useless, being only roughly equivalent to a GT 520.

Am I missing something? With a dedicated video card installed does the CPU sense when only the onboard video is needed and use just that? Seems to me your video card is still going to be drawing power, running it's fan, and even at idle, it's probably drawing about as much power as it would handling simple internet stuff.

That said, for around $20 more the 3770k WILL yield a couple FPS more than the 2700k in games. I have to agree with AnandTech's review on the IB chips though. If Intel had committed to more real estate for the GPU portion, instead of making it so small, they really could have given it performance equivalent to entry level gaming GPUs.

As is however, it's really only beneficial to laptop users for the most part. For desktop, it's a good chip to buy if you're building a new system, but not enough better than SB to be worth upgrading to if you're already on SB.