Spent over $2K in parts, dissapointed

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vandit007

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Feb 9, 2010
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I bought following new parts in my sig: mobo, cpu, cpu cooler, case, ram, harddrive, power supply and acer monitor for a gaming rig. Overclocked my i7 to 4.2Ghz, yet lagging in BF2BC, medium settings, lagging in Napoleon Total War. I know my graphics card 275GTX is not the best, I plan on upgrading that to the new Fermi or 5970 but kinda dissapointing that I spent this much money on hardware and my performance is only slightly better than my previous
e8400 rig in BF2BC.

Granted performance is better in some games like TF2, but overall I was expecting more for the money. I guess this goes to show that a weakness in the system (GPU) hurts the whole rig and GPU is the most important part of gaming performance. Maybe I was expecting too much out of a quad? Overclocking and quads overrated for gaming?
 
Are you playing on your 3007WFP? You could definitely use some more GPU muscle if that's the case.
 
regarding Bad Company 2 performance, try messing with the RenderAheadLimit number in the settings.ini file (find it in My Documents > BFBC2 folder)

mine defaulted at 2 and works fine

suggest trying 0 through 3 to see if there is any difference in performance
 
Do you have MW2? If so how does it play on your new system? Im running MW2 on my old LGA 775 intel e6600 rig + 8800 gtx's in sli with no issues. I believe you may have a bad driver chocking your performance. Also, if you are running Windows 7, you could have too many processes running in the background eating away at your CPU and/or RAM. Media center was using up 98% of my ram!
 
Also I would trade in your Prelude for a Forte with the built in amp to power your Ultrasone's they will sound magnitudes better if you also use them for music.
 
My i7 and 275 run medium over 60fps constantly even on stock clocks at 1920x1080..
 
vandit007 said:
... I guess this goes to show that a weakness in the system (GPU) hurts the whole rig and GPU is the most important part of gaming performance. Maybe I was expecting too much out of a quad? Overclocking and quads overrated for gaming?
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Depends on the game, but mostly yes, for GPU limited gaming performance, it's best to upgrade the GPU. This is a widely mentioned piece of advice around here. I don't see a build thread from you, so I'm assuming you didn't ask for upgrade advice before you did the upgrade? If you had, this would have most likely been mentioned. Though, as mentioned above, have you tried different drivers?

Killing2Live said:
You spent 2k?
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Hehe, I was thinking the same thing, especially since he didn't buy a new vidcard. Not great bang for buck according to his part list.
 
Killing2Live said:
You spent 2k?
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Under 2k for the parts I listed but things like 120hz monitor ($400), bluray drive, wireless router push it over. Like I said this isn't the final build I plan on buying a new GPU decide between Fermi or ATI or maybe just SLI my 275GTX.

I heard Forte is better but gonna keep the prelude and get an external dac/amp for music.

I uninstalled 196.75 drivers I heard they have issues installed 196.21 performance a little better in BFBC2 running everything medium, 1x aa 1x af avg like 60 fps. I guess I'm used to higher fps when it goes to like 50 and under seems stuttery not as smooth.
 
vandit007 said:
Granted performance is better in some games like TF2, but overall I was expecting more for the money. I guess this goes to show that a weakness in the system (GPU) hurts the whole rig and GPU is the most important part of gaming performance. Maybe I was expecting too much out of a quad? Overclocking and quads overrated for gaming?
Click to expand...
Nah, overclocking and quads are not overrated for gaming when paired with an appropriate GPU.

With that said, you were expecting a bit much considering that for gaming, a Core i7 setup isn't that much faster than a C2Q based setup. However if you're doing a multi-GPU setup, that's when a Core i7 really provides a significant performance increase over C2Q based setups.

enginurd said:
Hehe, I was thinking the same thing, especially since he didn't buy a new vidcard. Not great bang for buck according to his part list.
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Yeah the Domininator RAM was a dead giveaway.

So the truth of the matter is this: you spent money on the wrong parts for a gaming upgrade.
 
On the other hand, it looks like a great computer for everything else.

but yea, upgrade the vid card and you'll be amazed.
 
Also, you might consider oc'ing your gpu (assuming you haven't already). It's easy, relatively safe, and can yield good results. I saw significant improvements with what was a very mild oc on my 260.

Here's a good intro. Use rivatuner.
 
You've got another problem because I can play BC2 comfortably (don't have an FPS number but it's smooth) with a 930 at stock and a GTS 250 also at stock. 1920x1080, very high settings on everything, 4xMSAA, 16xAF.
 
I wouldn't be so disappointed by your purchase of the Core i7 cpu upgrade. Reusing the same video card in this upgrade wouldn't give you big gains in fps. It will only help a little. But, If you upgrade to a faster GPU, the Core i7 will be less of a bottleneck than your previous Dual Core cpu. It will help maximize the full potential of the faster video card.

I find it strange though how a Core i7 920 O/C with a GTX 275 can't run BF2 at high settings. I don't think BF2BC is a really GPU intensive game
 
HardwareGuru said:
I wouldn't be so disappointed by your purchase of the Core i7 cpu upgrade. Reusing the same video card in this upgrade wouldn't give you big gains in fps. It will only help a little. But, If you upgrade to a faster GPU, the Core i7 will be less of a bottleneck than your previous Dual Core cpu. It will help maximize the full potential of the faster video card.

I find it strange though how a Core i7 920 O/C with a GTX 275 can't run BF2 at high settings. I don't think BF2BC is a really GPU intensive game
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Yeah there's something wrong with that.

**nvm I just read the post above smack me for just waking up and rolling in here before my caffeine fix. lmfao
 
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do you have another psu to test?

try cpu-z is your memory running at the correct speeds? what about your cpu, core/bus etc?

is memory running duel channel?

is vsync on or off?
 
LOL, i have a $800 rig Phenom X4 (2.6GHz stock clock), 4g ram (1066), and Stock EVGA 9800GTX+ and im running BF2BC2 & Crysis on high (1440 x 900 resolution). No idea how your failing with the hardware you have.
 
yeah something seems wrong here.

should also make sure you have latest drivers for all your hardware parts
 
jroe52 said:
yeah something seems wrong here.

should also make sure you have latest drivers for all your hardware parts
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watch out for the nvidia "drivers of DEATH" drivers that cause nvidia cards to explode...
 
yeah i heard aboot those, i think he was using those drivers...

i have switched to ati recently so i'm not sure the best nvidia drivers anymore. guru3d.com usually has good info on em
 
you should get a 5870, that's my opinion in this whole matter

if you've already spent $2k, another $400 for a 5870 won't kill you at least you have a 275 and not a 8800GT lol
 
m0ore4ustin391 said:
LOL, i have a $800 rig Phenom X4 (2.6GHz stock clock), 4g ram (1066), and Stock EVGA 9800GTX+ and im running BF2BC2 & Crysis on high (1440 x 900 resolution). No idea how your failing with the hardware you have.
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I was playing the Beta @ 2560x1600 on high, and had no lag or studdering. I say it has to be a driver issue.
 
With the rig in my sig i run BC2 at 1920x1080 everything on high, 4x aa 16xaf and hbao on. I get like 45ish fps.
 
if this guy doesnt bother to reply to us i think we should abandon the thread right? lol

throw more money at it don't fix the issue! that will work.
 
you are using your 2TB drive for your OS as well?
Try using a separate hard drive, maybe a raptor or SSD for your OS and Programs.

If it wasn't already mentioned, overclock your gpu/cpu a little, and overvolt your memory a little too.
 
i dont know if all this is needed:

1. shouldnt need to buy a new vid card
2. shouldnt need to overclock

he is having driver or other hardware issues. throwing money at it doesnt bring a dead hooker back to life.

have to fix the issues. if your an IT tech... and jsut add more ram instead of fixing the system issuse that cause it to crash due to drivers that wouldn't help.
 
Danny Bui said:
So the truth of the matter is this: you spent money on the wrong parts for a gaming upgrade.
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+1

You could have spend a lot less and gotten a lot further with what you already had; this is a massive spending fail if your intention was a gaming box first and foremost.

You already had enough cpu power for gaming; you could've bought a 5870 or (if you really wanted) a 5970, plus a psu upgrade if you needed it with a higher card...and you would be fine.
 
thats my guess. the way he described it is he spent 1500 and has 500$ saving for a new vid card
 
Here's my 3dmark vantage score 14314
CPU Score
54690
Graphics Score
11487

I think it's not my pc but BFBC2 because I changed renderaheadlimit command from 2 to 1 and the stuttering went away.
 
dude whats the point of posting here if your going to completely ignore anyone's responses?

3dmark scores wont fix your pc.
 
Already said I changed drivers to 196.21 pay attention. I also said I fixed my FPS by changing to DX9. Like I said I oced to 4GHZ, this is my 3rd PC build I think I know what I'm doing all my ram cpu harddrive settings are good. The problem is the game BFBC2 not my pc. Nothing a 5970 or Fermi shouldn't be able to squash.
 
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