[WasabiPopcorn]

What's up everyone. I get paid soon and I'd really like to upgrade my computer. I should have around £450-£500 to spend, although if I sell my current graphics card I should have around £700.

I recently upgraded my computer to play games like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim, but I've been unsuccessful in maintaining a solid 60fps everywhere with medium settings on both games.

Currently I have:
HIS ATI Radeon 7950 3GB
Intel i5 2550k 3.4GHz
12GB RAM
Windows 7 64-bit
750W
1920x1080

I've been on a couple of forums already, but they say my system should be adequate to play both games at even higher settings than what they're currently on. Although that may be the case, I've done everything I possibly can, to no avail. I've reformatted my PC, installed/re-installed drivers, used optimization programs, and I still can't get any improvement. Maybe there's a possible interference between ATI and Intel? I have no idea.

I'm tempted to buy a GTX 680, or possibly an overclocked Intel i7 bundle.

I'd greatly appreciate it if you guys could link me to some components, I'm from the UK, so websites like Scan and OverClockers would be handy. Thanks in advance.

[Wolf68k]

That's odd that you can't get 60fps with those specs.
Look at my specs in my sig, I get 60fps on High settings. And yes the i7-2600K is hyper-threaded but in BF3 that doesn't matter.
From the reviews I've looked at the 7950 should be doing just as good if not better than a GTX 580 in BF3 on Ultra settings and only 1 of those reviews include the GTX 560 Ti which I have.
Yes, most of the reviews I looked at use an i7 Sandybridge Extreme but in games there is very little difference between a standard SB and SBE.


I think you need to look at issues on your end and not so much the hardware or upgrades.

[WasabiPopcorn]

Would you recommend purchasing a new CPU/Graphics card? I have no idea what I could do to solve the low performance. Some games are fine, such as All Points Bulletin, Max Payne 3 and Deus Ex Human Revolution, but Battlefield 3, and Skyrim do not run as they should. Are there any other fixes you could think of? My PC's receiving more than enough voltage, neither am I overheating or anything similar.

[Ryan]

There's really no need to purchase a new CPU or graphics card. What you have should be more than sufficient. Are all your drivers up to date?

[WasabiPopcorn]

My graphics card drivers are, I don't suppose CPU drivers exist?

[Wolf68k]

There are no CPU drivers.

Make sure all background programs are closed/exit/not running, things you don't 100% need just to run the game.
What anti-virus do you have? I've seen AVG in a few cases affect system performance. Try disabling or uninstalling your anti-virus and see what happens. If your anti-virus is the problem then get a new one and quick.

[WasabiPopcorn]

I removed AVG and installed KasperSky, no difference in performance.

Maybe I'm just hoping for too much? It's not ALWAYS under 60fps on medium, for instance, if I'm in the Metro tunnels, my FPS will usually be over 100. It's usually when lots of things are going on at once, such as looking into a main street on 64-player servers. It's over 60fps the majority of the time, but if lots of things are going on, it will dip.

I think I need to make that switch from ATI to nVidia. nVidia manage to bring out new drivers frequently, games such as Skyrim get significant performance boosts, plus disabling V-Sync in the menu actually disables it (only happens to me on specific games, e.g. Worms Ultimate Mayhem). If I was to purchase a new card, which one would you recommend me?

I'm tempted to buy an nVidia GTX 680. Will there be much of a performance boost between an ATI 7950 and a GTX 680? Cheers.

[Wolf68k]

Well no kidding when lots of things going on in BF3 it'll dip, the question is by how much. If it's dipping to less than 30fps then there is a problem, but make sure it really is 30fps and not just seem like it to you. Server lag can make it seem like a graphics problem.

I don't know about Skyrim. I don't play it and I never will, it's not my thing. So I can only speak of BF3.

The problem might be more software than hardware. I don't know about KasperSky compared to any other anti-virus as far as performance. Just because you don't see any performance difference between it and AVG doesn't mean that there isn't any. Like I said, try disabling it or uninstalling it to see if there is a real difference between having it and not having it.

[WasabiPopcorn]

After watching videos on YouTube, it seems I'm asking for too much. There's people out there with Quad-SLI GTX 680's, and they're getting like 60-80FPS on ultra in busy areas. On medium, I'm usually over 60, although it can go to the 40's-50's when lots of things are happening. Maybe I shouldn't even upgrade? For what I'm looking for, I'd need to blow around £2,000. If not, more.

[PrometheusX]

QUOTE (WasabiPopcorn @ Monday, Jun 25 2012, 17:33)

For what I'm looking for, I'd need to blow around £2,000. If not, more.

I'm pretty sure you can play those games maxed out at a playable framerate. No need to upgrade at all.

How are the other games' performance?

[illegal_luggage]

What is the exact brand and model of your PSU? Cheap PSU's which can't deliver the power needed by the system will decrease your performance in games. A member here named Exxon once had molex connectors plugged into his graphics card rather than the PCI ones and his performance in some games was really bad. Once he plugged in the right connections, performance improved.

[WasabiPopcorn]

In terms of FPS
Dead Island: 200+ (Highest Settings)
Deus Ex: 80+ (Highest)
Max Payne 3: 80+ (Highest apart from AA)
APB: Capped at 60FPS (Highest)

Now the bad games:
Skyrim: 40FPS+ (Medium)
Battlefield 3: 40FPS+ (Medium)

Edit: Recently swapped PSU's, no performance increase.

[Stinky12]

Actually CPU drivers do exist, not for Intel. AMD has them for their dual core running XP and 2003.
Update bios and make sure your hardware specs are detected correctly.

[Wolf68k]

Are you sure you're not thinking of OS patches for AMD?

[WasabiPopcorn]

Stinky, how do I update my bios?

[PrometheusX]

Try to force vsync and enable SSAA at BF3. It seems to work to some people.

[WasabiPopcorn]

V-Sync is awful. I'm just going to upgrade, I doubt there's a fix.

[PrometheusX]

QUOTE (WasabiPopcorn @ Monday, Jun 25 2012, 21:59)

V-Sync is awful. I'm just going to upgrade, I doubt there's a fix.

Did you try it? And again there's no point at all to upgrade.

[illegal_luggage]

Are you using molex to six pin adapters on your graphics card? What is the exact PSU you're using?

[finn4life]

QUOTE (WasabiPopcorn @ Tuesday, Jun 26 2012, 08:59)

V-Sync is awful. I'm just going to upgrade, I doubt there's a fix.

You're wasting your money, you can rarely tell the difference over 60FPS anyway so i don't even see the point, and i still doubt you are going to see much of an increase and you will be wishing you didn't blow your money.
I would recommend MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials), doesn't bloat your system at all, it's made by microsoft for microsoft, there are no advertisements, and it's free, try that at least if your so obsessed about it.

This post has been edited by finn4life on Tuesday, Jun 26 2012, 02:57