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Gaming machine, need advice

J

Jaedan

n00b
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
21
I currently have a Dell E510 with Pentium D 3GHz, Radeon x1900GT and 2GB ram.
The game in question is primarily WoW; generally, I have 30 fps, and when things get heated it dips down to 10ish. I want a computer that will run WoW at 60 fps in virtually any situation and allow frapsing with maintained high performance. I don't want to overdo it so, although I won't give a budget, please keep quality vs. price in mind. I look forward to any advice that you might give me; please include as much information as possible as I'm not very computer savvy and will be assembling my computer with the help of a more experienced friend. Thanks!
 
WoW isn't really a hardware-intensive game. Unless you're willing to scrap everything and rebuild from scratch the easiest way to get additional performance is to simply upgrade your videocard.

Swap out that X1900GT for something with a bit more oomph, maybe a 8800 GTS 320 or one of the new 2900XT's which will be competitively priced and available in about two to three weeks. I wouldn't buy a DX9 video card at this point in the game.
 
Unfortunately, that isn't possible. Anything bigger than the current Radeon x1900GT won't fit, so upgrading the video card basically requires upgrading nearly everything else. As it is now, I'll be selling the Dell and building a new machine from scratch.
 
first i think u mean the Radeon1900XT. but the only thing that bottle necks you right now is the fact its a pentium processor. depending on which one will make a large difference the first pentium d's were not that good. my advice would be sure you have all your background app's turned off.
 
Out of curiosity how much eyecandy do you typically have on?

I was raiding for 1.5 years on a Athlon 64 300+ and Geforce 6600. I think I averaged maybe 25fps lows in raids. You should be getting way better than that.

Either your processor is holding you back quite a bit, or you simply have way too much eyecandy turned on. What resolution are you playing at as well?
 
Jaedan said:
I currently have a Dell E510 with Pentium D 3GHz, Radeon x1900GT and 2GB ram.
The game in question is primarily WoW; generally, I have 30 fps, and when things get heated it dips down to 10ish.
Click to expand...

That concerns me..
I had a setup a lot like yours..

+3800 x2
1g of ddr400
x1900gt

On my native 19" wide res, I pulled 40-50fps EASY. During big raids or busy IF days, it dipped to 35ish.

Theres something wrong with your rig.

EDIT: Settings were maxed out in wow. Everything that could go up, was all the way up.
 
Maximusneo701 said:
first i think u mean the Radeon1900XT.
Click to expand...
It's a radeon x1900GT...

Neist said:
Either your processor is holding you back quite a bit, or you simply have way too much eyecandy turned on. What resolution are you playing at as well?
Click to expand...
&
lloose said:
On my native 19" wide res, I pulled 40-50fps EASY. During big raids or busy IF days, it dipped to 35ish.

Theres something wrong with your rig.
Click to expand...

Well, I have considered the idea that something is wrong with my rig, but what? I'm playing on Dell 2407WFP w/ 1920x1200 resolution, but it doesn't seem to be affecting my fps as I've tried lowering it and, while the quality goes down, my fps stays the same.
If there are other ideas on how to make this system work better they are welcome! Otherwise, please let me know which parts you'd recommend for my new rig. Thanks :)
 
I think the first thing you need to do is try some different drivers, you might have some buggy drivers.
 
comrad said:
I think the first thing you need to do is try some different drivers, you might have some buggy drivers.
Click to expand...
I'm using up-to-date drivers from ATI's website. Are there better drivers?
lloose said:
That pentium d is your bottleneck for sure.
Click to expand...
Any ideas for parts for the new rig? I'd like recommendations on all the components, so if there's some wizards out there, don't be shy! :)
 
That CPU is your bottleneck dude. In Wow it doesnt talke a super high end VC to have all the eye candy on at any res just about. Your cpu is holding you back big time.
 
Jaedan said:
I'm using up-to-date drivers from ATI's website. Are there better drivers?

Any ideas for parts for the new rig? I'd like recommendations on all the components, so if there's some wizards out there, don't be shy! :)
Click to expand...

Assuming you have a socket 775 board and ddr2 memory (crosses fingers) get this..
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4893660 <---- Yowza thats a good price!

Follow it up with an 8800gts (640 or 320mb, depending on budget). That should be enough to power that monster monitor of yours.
 
Just out of curiosity why the hell is everyone claiming his CPU is bottlenecking him at 1920X1200??!! man what the hell is everyone thinking?

Make sure VSYNC is off. There is something wrong with your settings somewhere because i can play wow at 1920X1440 on 100% max and get 30-40 consistantly rarely dipping into the 20s briefly and i know your setup is faster than mine.
 
He said lowering his res didn't help if I'm not mistaken thus hes cpu limited. Secondly your cpu OC'd as per your sig is faster than his read some benchies. :)
 
Your computer has more than enough power for anything wow will throw at it.
Your resolution is a little high but you should still be able to maintain very good FPS.

If you're dipping into the lower 10s then there's something wrong with your setup.
Start with standard driver cleanup and updates for you video card, chipset etc... do virus and spyware scans and so on.
If nothing works then a complete windows reinstall might be in order, although i wouldn't go through that until you've tried everything else.
 
trapilales said:
If you're dipping into the lower 10s then there's something wrong with your setup.
Start with standard driver cleanup and updates for you video card, chipset etc... do virus and spyware scans and so on.
If nothing works then a complete windows reinstall might be in order, although i wouldn't go through that until you've tried everything else.
Click to expand...
I've just recently reformatted; everything should be clean and updated. Maybe it's a hardware problem?
 
Savoy said:
He said lowering his res didn't help if I'm not mistaken thus hes cpu limited. Secondly your cpu OC'd as per your sig is faster than his read some benchies. :)
Click to expand...


On what planet does this take place? Maybe you should read some benches... 2.3GHZ athlon 64 VS. a pentium D at 3.0GHZ what bench would i possibly win... Not to mention the pentium D line is dual core and mine is single core.

I stick behind what i said earlier if people thing his processor is bottlenecking him at 1920X1200 then you need your heads checked.

Something is wrong with your settings i say again did you turn off VSYNC or not? Your hardware is more than up to the task for WoW something is up with settings or drivers.
 
Haha, that is more then enough for WoW. I can't believe people are saying that he needs to go get an 8800GTS 320, even AFTER he says that anything longer then his 1900GT won't fit.

Definately check out your drivers. That is a big resolution, yes, but you shouldn't be running that slow with that much muscle in your rig. You're reformatted, you've got the hardware...some miniscule setting like the guy said (VSync can screw with things, as said), or just the drivers overall.
 
pfunkman said:
Something is wrong with your settings i say again did you turn off VSYNC or not? Your hardware is more than up to the task for WoW something is up with settings or drivers.
Click to expand...
I tried turning it off, but I couldn't really tell if it increased my fps at all. If it did, it was by a very small amount (maybe 2 frames).

I think there are 3 possibilities:
1. WoW is underestimated, or
2. My computer is overestimated, or
3. Something weird and unknown is choking my system

Although, in regard to #3, to make sure I don't have driver problems or some weird virus, I reformatted but nothing has changed.
 
Saurian said:
Haha, that is more then enough for WoW. I can't believe people are saying that he needs to go get an 8800GTS 320, even AFTER he says that anything longer then his 1900GT won't fit.

Definately check out your drivers. That is a big resolution, yes, but you shouldn't be running that slow with that much muscle in your rig. You're reformatted, you've got the hardware...some miniscule setting like the guy said (VSync can screw with things, as said), or just the drivers overall.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Hell, my friend can run the game jacked up all the way, and he runs a (Dell XPS):

Pentium 4 660 3.6Ghz w/ HT
2gb of some no-name RAM
X800SE
some Dell motherboard

seriously, your system sounds like it's got problems, or you're exaggerating or not telling us something.

by the way, check your driver settings. Sometimes the ingame stuff might be setup, but the out of game settings are still overriding it. So your out-of-game vSync might be running even though your in-game vSync might be off... that might cause it too....
 
Jaedan said:
I tried turning it off, but I couldn't really tell if it increased my fps at all. If it did, it was by a very small amount (maybe 2 frames).

I think there are 3 possibilities:
1. WoW is underestimated, or
2. My computer is overestimated, or
3. Something weird and unknown is choking my system

Although, in regard to #3, to make sure I don't have driver problems or some weird virus, I reformatted but nothing has changed.
Click to expand...

WoW is not underestimated. I get better FPS than you on an Intel GMA950. What you're getting is horrible...

I know you said you just formatted but something seems horribly wrong if that's what you're getting. Dell Decrapifier app might help you out, google it.

It seems like something is failing to bring you down that low though.
 
Some of the comments in this thread make me lol..
First off, Your intel GSM chipset sure as hell isn't playing at his res. 2nd, World of warcraft can be trying on any machine with that huge resolution. ANY GAME at that resolution will have issues with FPS. World of warcraft isn't quake 2.. it takes a decent system to play it with the settings cranked at higher resolution.
 
First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for his/her input. The consensus seems to be that I need a new CPU, which will ultimately lead to a new rig . What I need now is a build, so please give me your suggestions on various parts.
 
Jaedan said:
First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for his/her input. The consensus seems to be that I need a new CPU, which will ultimately lead to a new rig . What I need now is a build, so please give me your suggestions on various parts.
Click to expand...

Price range usually helps :D
 
Let's say $1000 just to give an idea; however, I don't upgrade all that often so, while cheaper is better, I need something that won't be outdated very quickly. Overclocked and non-overclocked builds are both alright; I look forward to getting different opinions.
 
pfunkman said:
On what planet does this take place? Maybe you should read some benches... 2.3GHZ athlon 64 VS. a pentium D at 3.0GHZ what bench would i possibly win... Not to mention the pentium D line is dual core and mine is single core.

I stick behind what i said earlier if people thing his processor is bottlenecking him at 1920X1200 then you need your heads checked.

Something is wrong with your settings i say again did you turn off VSYNC or not? Your hardware is more than up to the task for WoW something is up with settings or drivers.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected for some reason when I posed that reply I thought your sig read a x2 3800, my bad. it was late . :)
 
Is your Dell ATX? mATX? Or proprietary? I can't remember if Dell is still using prop. motherboard/powersupplies.

You can reuse your ram and graphics card, if the case is ATX, then you can follow the advice below.

Gigabyte DS3 $115 Shipped

Intel E6320 4MB Core 2 Duo 1.86Ghz $173 Shipped

From there, you can change what you want. If your case isn't compatible, you can buy a new one. That's really your personal preference, too. You can go cheap with a crappy case, budget with a Coolermaster Centaurion or Elite, or bling with Antec 900/P180, or performance with a Coolermaster Stacker. If you upgrade your case, might as well upgrade the power supply. These guys will recommend the expensive stuff, but they're expensive because they're good. I myself am on a big budget, so I sacrifice. Look to spend another 30-100 dollars on a case, another 50-100 on a PSU. So, minimum is ~300 dollars for the mobo and proc, then 80-200 dollars for case and CPU. If you're going to be pulling it all apart, get yourself a descent fan combo like an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro for the C2D, a Zalman 9700, Tuniq Tower 120, whatever you want. Anything better then stock, you know? that'll run you 25-50 dollars as well. Then, if you find your graphics are still holding you back, an 8800GTS 320MB is ~275-300 dollars, depending on rebates and such you can get down close to 250 dollars there. So, how far do you want to go? :D
 
Before you go throwing down a bunch of cash try some different settings in wow turning on vertex animation shaders seemed to be a big difference for me.

Here is a screen of my settings with these i very rarely go below 30FPS give it a shot.



If that dont smooth things out for you then try buying new hardware but your system is better than mine and should be able to handle it at least as good as mine can.
 
Your in-game set-up is pretty much exactly the same as mine; I have vertex animation shaders on as well. I've also tried wiping my addon folder clean, lowering the resolution, as well as turning vsync on/off, none of which altered my fps. I really don't know what it is, but I think it all leads to upgrading!
 
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