Looking for upgrades.

[ElijahNight]

Hey y'all I am looking to do some upgrades with my PC I built a year ago. I use it for Gaming. Games like BF3,GW2 & CounterStrike GO games like that. And video editing/Music software. And I buy my parts from Amazon & Newegg. I was here a while back looking for feedback for a new case. But I ended up just holding off on that for the moment. Thinking that I really didn't need it at the time.

I'm looking to only spend 250-315$ without shipping right now. In a bout a month I will be willing to give this PC 500$ worth of upgrades when that time comes.

My Current specs

GPU - Radeon 6950 Dirt 3 Edition
CPU - Intel i5 2500. No 2500k sadly I was dumb and didn't realize I bought the non unlocked i5 from Amazon. Using the stock cooler for the i5
MO - ASRock extreme3
RAM - 16 GB Corsair ddr3
HDD - 1 TB Western Digital HDD
SDD - None.
PSU - 650w

I just bought a HAF X Cooler Master Case. Due to have a really cheap case before. I hated it.. That's what I get for only dumping 30$ into a case though.
I like to use multiple programs when on my computer. Like I have steam going so I can talk to my friends, I got itunes running when playing my games or editing videos etc. And ESPN.com on my second monitor a lot of the times.So I was thinking a good upgrade would be a i7? But I want'ed y'alls opinion on this.

So I was either thinking a i7 or adding a Radeon 6950 so I can have 2 GPU's. Or a new moatherboard? Idk what do y'all think. Sorry if this was in the wrong forum!

Thanks!
Elijah

 

[DSF]

So I take it that when trying to multitask your computer isn't as fast as you'd like it to be?

Having iTunes or a browser window open uses so little of an i5's power that a CPU upgrade isn't likely to do much. An SSD to improve hard drive I/O times might help for some of that. But really, the first thing is to answer my original question.

 

[ElijahNight]

Well when I'm running GW2 I'd like it to be faster and a little more fluid. BF3 runs fine on max. Mainly because I think that it uses more of your GPU than your CPU I believe? I could be wrong on this. If a SSD would be a good upgrade in your opinion what would be a good one to get? I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to Solid States lol. Thanks for replying btw. My multitasking I'd say when not in a game is fine and runs quick enough for me.

 

[mfenn]

An i5 2500 at stock is not a slow CPU by any stretch of the imagination. You're not going to get a significant gaming boost, definitely not a $300 boost, by upgrading to even the i7 3770K. What you can do is overclock your CPU by 400Mhz (4 multiplier settings) even though it is a non-K model.

Really the only significant upgrades I can see to this machine are an aftermarket HSF and an SSD. Check these out:

Scythe Mugen 3 $50
Samsung 830 128GB $90

 

[ElijahNight]

An i5 2500 at stock is not a slow CPU by any stretch of the imagination. You're not going to get a significant gaming boost, definitely not a $300 by upgraded to even the i7 3770K. What you can do is overclock your CPU by 400Mhz (4 multiplier settings) even though it is a non-K model.

Really the only significant upgrades I can see to this machine are an aftermarket HSF and an SSD. Check these out:

Scythe Mugen 3 $50
Samsung 830 128GB $90

Okay thanks, Btw I forgot to mention I use fraps. And it lags a lot in GW2, a good amount in counter strike to annoy me and BF3 is fine when I record.

 

[lehtv]

By lagging in GW2 and CS, do you mean hitching and stuttering or low framerate?

If it's framerate, does your framerate increase substantially if you decrease the monitor resolution you're playing and recording at?

 

[Zap]

Really the only significant upgrades I can see to this machine are an aftermarket HSF and an SSD.

Even with a 400MHz overclock, I wouldn't bother with an aftermarket HSF.

Okay thanks, Btw I forgot to mention I use fraps. And it lags a lot in GW2, a good amount in counter strike to annoy me and BF3 is fine when I record.

How much money are you willing to throw into this?

Best FRAPS performance tips AFAIK (quick web search found it)

After a quick perusal, here are what seems to be the best tips.

1) Capture to a dedicated, large capacity 7200RPM HDD. Disable Indexing and Windows Restore on this drive.
2) Disable anti-virus and any other unnecessary background apps.
3) Tune FRAPS for better performance by using a lower screen resolution or setting it to record at 1/2 size.
4) Tune the game for better performance by turning off AA, maybe lower some settings. Some games may have certain settings which don't affect visual quality much, but has a HUGE performance penalty. For instance, in WoW shadows had a huge impact in performance when turned up all the way. Also, some games may actually work smoother in windowed mode.

 

[ElijahNight]

By lagging in GW2 and CS, do you mean hitching and stuttering or low framerate?

If it's framerate, does your framerate increase substantially if you decrease the monitor resolution you're playing and recording at?

Even with a 400MHz overclock, I wouldn't bother with an aftermarket HSF.



How much money are you willing to throw into this?

Best FRAPS performance tips AFAIK (quick web search found it)

After a quick perusal, here are what seems to be the best tips.

1) Capture to a dedicated, large capacity 7200RPM HDD. Disable Indexing and Windows Restore on this drive.
2) Disable anti-virus and any other unnecessary background apps.
3) Tune FRAPS for better performance by using a lower screen resolution or setting it to record at 1/2 size.
4) Tune the game for better performance by turning off AA, maybe lower some settings. Some games may have certain settings which don't affect visual quality much, but has a HUGE performance penalty. For instance, in WoW shadows had a huge impact in performance when turned up all the way. Also, some games may actually work smoother in windowed mode.

When I record my FPS goes down. Mainly when I am around a good amount of people. But when just walking down a path. It's fine some hitch here and there. But when I get around just a few people and they are using skills etc my Frame rate starts to go down. And yeah I've tried in GW2 I still notice the FPS going down.

And

I am willing right now to throw in 250-315$ without shipping. And in about a month I would like to throw in 500$ worth of upgrades in my PC. Before I came here I was thinking getting a i7. And in about a month buy another Radeon 6950 (Non dirt 3 edition) , a SSD & a aftermarket CPU fan. I heard the H80 is pretty good.

 

[lehtv]

Try playing and recording at a lower resolution and see if your framerate increases. If it doesn't increase, or only does so minimally, then you're CPU bottlenecked.

 

[ElijahNight]

Try playing and recording at a lower resolution and see if your framerate increases. If it doesn't increase, or only does so minimally, then you're CPU bottlenecked.

Alright, If it doesn't would that be due to the CPU or the motherboard?

 

[lehtv]

It would mean the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU, i.e. not enough CPU 'bandwidth' for the GPU to work at full capacity. This problem manifests in framerate staying the same despite an apparently lower work load on the GPU, and lowering the resolution is the easiest way to lower that work load.

Of course, the CPU becomes a bottleneck more easily in situations that are particularly CPU intensive. Recording a video is CPU intensive.

 

[Zap]

Recording a video is CPU intensive.

Not necessarily. It all depends on the compression used.

You do have some great suggestions for the OP to try. ElijahNight, try the resolution thing and report back to us the results.

 

[mfenn]

Even with a 400MHz overclock, I wouldn't bother with an aftermarket HSF.

I was thinking of it as more of a noise reduction factor than helping the overclock. The stock cooler is pretty loud when the CPU is maxed out, even at stock clocks. Adding 400MHz won't improve the experience.

OP, you should only get the HSF if the computer's noise bothers you. Otherwise you don't need it.

 

[mfenn]

Try playing and recording at a lower resolution and see if your framerate increases. If it doesn't increase, or only does so minimally, then you're CPU bottlenecked.

:thumbsup: With this info we can start to tell what is the bottleneck in the system.

Since the OP is recording, no change in performance doesn't necessarily mean that he's CPU bottlenecked though. He could be CPU bottlenecked or I/O bottlenecked.

 

[ElijahNight]

Thanks guys! I will try this tonight when I have some time to mess around with it. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

 

[ElijahNight]

Hey Y'all sorry I've been busy this last couple weeks with class and having my wisdom teeth removed. I did get to test some stuff out though. In counter strike I tried Recording at a lower RESO and it still did the same thing. Where it has a choppy line in the middle and lags some. I turn on Vsync to see if it would stop but it didn't. It doesn't do this while I am not recording though. In WoW I record just fine no problems... In resident Evil I record just fine too and BF3.. It's just GW2 and CS2. I will get to test out y'alls suggestions tomorrow night though with GW2 and will play around with the fraps settings and stuff. And btw I bought a hyper 212 heatsink for 22$! Mainly because of editing & rendering. It's pretty nice for the price I got it at. When playing a game like bf3 my temps would sometimes get at 140 degrees. Now they stay at 90-105 ingame.

 

[lehtv]

140 degrees F is just 60C, that's not bad at all for an i5-2500... you didn't really need a new cooler

 

[ElijahNight]

140 degrees F is just 60C, that's not bad at all for an i5-2500... you didn't really need a new cooler

Ohh my bad :/ well it was only 22$ I thought since rendering mainly uses the CPU I thought it mighta helped some. I heard it was a great CPU fan for the price.

 

[lehtv]

It is indeed a nice fan for the price, but only really worth it if you're overclocking.

 

[mfenn]

When you say "choppy line in the middle", what do you mean exactly? A horizontal break like tearing, or something else?

 

[ElijahNight]

When you say "choppy line in the middle", what do you mean exactly? A horizontal break like tearing, or something else?

Yeah It's like a tearing line that shakes, only in the middle of the screen. I know that sounds weird lol, but that's how it looks hahah

 

[mfenn]

Does the framerate actually drop when this artifact is present?

 

[ElijahNight]

Nah, the FRR and choppy lines happen at different times when recording.

 

[mfenn]

Maybe FRAPS (or just your version of it, or it in combination with your drivers, etc.) isn't compatible with the games you're trying to record. Since it doesn't happen when recording most games and doesn't happen when you're not recording at all, I'm thinking that it isn't a hardware problem per se.

Have you tried a different recording program like xsplit?