TF2 and the cheapest upgrade path

A

Attean

Gawd
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Oct 24, 2004
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I'm currently sporting a beastly 3800 x2 oc'd to 2.2, 7800gtx, and 2 gigs of ram on a socket 939 board. I've recently really gotten into TF2 (and am about to play through left 4 dead) and really don't feel I'm getting the best experience at 1650 x 1050 (30-40fps without an fps config). What would be the best, cheapest upgrade for Team Fortress 2? Video card or CPU/RAM/Mobo?

I'd like it to be sub-200 but if you don't think one or the other would cut it feel free to say so.
 
I'd say the latter but those FPS seem low to me. L4D will more than likely run a lot better than TF2 because it's set up for multicores.

Getting a CPU/Mobo/RAM for 200 bucks isn't hard especially if you intend to sell the older equipment.
 
That sounds about right for that setup. A 4850 or 9800GTX will give you the biggest boost in performance. TF2 is CPU limited so it would also help to upgrade you setup sometime in the future.
 
SLI some 9600GTs or crossfire some 4830s. excellent $200 solution,
 
I went from a 7800GT to 8800GT and saw 0 gain b/c I was still on A64 (2.6Ghz Opteron). Upgrade to C2D asap to deal with the CPU bottleneck.
 
xBanzai89 said:
That sounds about right for that setup. A 4850 or 9800GTX will give you the biggest boost in performance. TF2 is CPU limited so it would also help to upgrade you setup sometime in the future.
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Yep, I just got a 4850 and get about 70-120 fps in left 4 dead..Haven't checked tf2 since i've only been playing left 4 dead lol....
 
hmm... Back when I had a single-core athlon and and the 8800 in sig, I was getting good fps at 1600x1200. I didn't ever measure them, but I never noticed any slowdowns. So I'd tend to say gpu would be the better upgrade. More ram would def be a good call too though. I regularly hit or exceeded 2gb usage while playing tf2.

If you really want to know, mess around with the overclock on your cpu and see how it affects your fps. I have no idea about left 4 dead.
 
With your config i'd say your CPU is the bottleneck on most of your system, but VGAs are so cheap now you could do everything for <$400. Cards like the 8800gt, 9600gt, or 4830 are pretty cheap and should work well for you. For the CPU/Ram the E8400 or Q9300/9400 are no-brainers if they're in your price range. I'd give the nod to the quads based on the length of time you keep your hardware. Gigabyte offers some solid P45 boards for a little over $100: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358.

DDR2 is cheap. TF2 runs fine on 2GB, not fine on 1GB. 4GB might future proof you a bit more, but you can always start with 2 and add 2 later as DDR2 gets phased out and people start emptying inventories.

My suggestion would be wait until the end of the month when Nehalem is released. The hardcore hardware swappers will be out in force for this and selling off old 775 CPUs/Mobos and DDR2 RAM in FS/FT
 
astyler said:
My suggestion would be wait until the end of the month when Nehalem is released. The hardcore hardware swappers will be out in force for this and selling off old 775 CPUs/Mobos and DDR2 RAM in FS/FT
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Yup agreed. See if you can get a cheap E0 e8400 + P45/X38 board.
 
I just OC'd to see if it would help my performance and hit 2.2 because I don't want to burn anything up (heat is an issue too, the 7800gtx idles/maxes at 70C / 77C, the cpu at 40 and after OC hits 70 under load). FPS jumped by about 5-10 fps but it's really pretty hard to tell since I'm running an FPS config and stay somewhat high anyway, the game is just FUGLY. :) Of course it's going to be completely CPU limited the way I'm running the game...it looks like TFC. Perhaps a video card would let me turn some settings up?
 
Anyone have any experience with utilizing dual core in this game? I know all the commands but when I activate them something seems "off". Mat_queue_mode makes the game feel different, it's hard to explain even though it does raise my average fps.
 
E7200 & 9600 GSO (or equivalent.. 3850, 4830, etc.) will max out both games with full AA/AF. An Athlon X2 would also, but my 4400+ X2 struggled on the Badwater map in TF2 (32 players).
 
Get a 4850 and see what happens. $150 is nothing for a huge boost over that 7800. There may also be some deals for them in the next coupla weeks, but it's tough to do better than a 4850 for price/performance.
 
Those numbers seem low. I run TF2 with like 8x AA on my 3800+ X2 and an 8800GT and the thing always stays arond 60 FPS since I have vsync.
 
Attean - why did you ignore my post?

I had an A64 like you. Played at native resolution, 1920x1200 - an even higher resolution than you. If it was GPU limited, dropping resolution (or upgrading GPU) would have yielded increases in FPS. It did not. I'm telling you to stop wasting time, and to upgrade your system where it its hurting the most: CPU and mobo. Upgrading your GPU only would be repeating the same mistake I did.

The same way there was a huge jump going from AXP to A64, you will see a similar increase going from A64 to C2D. I'm sure you've seen how low your FPS dips in firefights. Going to a C2D it will almost feel like cheating b/c your FPS will barely dip anymore.
 
To the guy who asked what settings I'm running at: I'm actually running the game in direct x 8.1 and using an fps config from the CAL forums that strips a lot of the shaders and death gibbs etc. It gave me a substantial boost in fps.

Thanks man, I didn't ignore your post. I was just wondering if maybe I could have similar performance with better IQ if I upped the video card and not the cpu, since a lot of my current setup is based around removing shaders, as I mentioned above. Of course, your experience is pretty telling so I'm looking for a new CPU right now but you were not ignored, just wanted some more discussion.

I do think a new video card would probably let me turn up the AA and still keep me about the same FPS. I actually get LOWS of 20-30s without my FPS config and usually stay around 40-50s, if I remember right, which in a competitive setting is unacceptable.
 
TF2 RANT...

30-50 fps is acceptable in a competitive setting if you dont play solider...

people who complain about tf2 fps are generally referring to public play in LARGE servers...

with competitive class limits on demomen to 1 in 6v6 and 9v9, and 2 in 8v8...you will not have as much cpu abuse (since a lot of this comes from the from the nonhitscan weapons...especially the ones with func_push, aka pipe/sticky/rocket, oh ya and no engis lol)

So for competitive play...I would say low of 30 is playable (unless you play soldier as you need 60+ fps to rocket jump with complete control imho)

/rant
 
Thinking about it a bit more, I agree with the first part of your post but disagree with the second part. 20-30 isn't really playable in a competitive environment for hit scan classes. If you meant I probably wouldn't experience 20-30 in a 6v6 game, well, you're right, but if I did have 20-30 my scout/sniper wouldn't be playable. In fact, I saw the most benefit to my scout/sniper when I started using an fps config back in the day, simply because with soldier and demo you're doing a lot of predicting anyway, the visual disconnect doesn't hurt you as much.
 
As mentioned, source engine is very cpu limited and single threaded. Unfortunately, your hardware upgrade should involve both a new cpu, mb, memory and gpu. Get the most overclockable dual core. Probably the E8400. Work on the gpu after the cpu/mb.
 
If I were you and wanted to upgrade cheaply, at Newegg, I'd consider:

Asus P5Q Pro @ $100AR
C2D E5200 @ $83
4 GB of PC6400 @ $25AR
ATI 4850 @ $129 AR

and I'd overclock the E5200 as much as I could. For $337AR plus some shipping charges, you'd have a system that would move very nicely. If you have enough money you could obviously consider some other options like an E8400.
 
Mega666 said:
As mentioned, source engine is very cpu limited and single threaded. Unfortunately, your hardware upgrade should involve both a new cpu, mb, memory and gpu. Get the most overclockable dual core. Probably the E8400. Work on the gpu after the cpu/mb.
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That's what I would do. Your 7800 will run source just fine to get by on untill you could upgrade to a 260 or 4850.
 
My X1900XT played TF2 just fine running on a C2D @ 3.2ghz @ 1600x1200 the last time I tried.

My personal experience is that Source Engine runs most efficient when you clock ( I had an opteron 144 single core ) @ 2.8ghz or higher to have it butter smooth.

TF2 is more stressful than CS:S / HL2 though as the fps hit is higher.
 
my 8800 runs tf2 and left 4 dead fine @ 1650x1080 4xaa. I haven't tried higher AA Though. I leave vsync on and never have a slow down.
 
Mega666 said:
Unfortunately, your hardware upgrade should involve both a new cpu, mb, memory and gpu. Work on the gpu after the cpu/mb.
Click to expand...

I concur with this. In fact you might even need a new PSU as well since your current PSU might not be up to task for the new hardware.
 
you should help me by taking my 4850 512MB. ill let you have it for $100 shipped. has box and all. :D
 
As everyone else has said, you need the most powerful CPU you can get.

TF2 is severely CPU limited because multicore support is disabled.

I have a E8400 and a HD4850 and my fps goes down to 50 on 32 player servers even at 1280x1024


get the most powerful intel dual core you can afford and overclock the hell out of it.
 
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