Looking to upgrade my son's Alienware x51 need help

[MutantMike]

My son bought Far Cry 4 and telling me it is lagging bad. What can I do? I checked his specs and here is what I saw

i5 Core processor
8 GB
500 GB HD
GTX 760 card


He has mentioned "970" but I'm dumb to this stuff and not sure what I can do at this point, without case mods of course

What is the next step up from a 760?


Thanks!!!

 

[kawi6rr]

If he insists on an Nvidia card then the 970 is a great card and I think there going for $350 and up.

I just purchased an AMD R9 290 for $250 dollars which would play Far Cry 4 just fine.

 

[NTMBK]

To be honest, I'm surprised his 760 isn't handling it well. It's still a very capable card. Has he tried turning down some of the settings? He may need to drop from Ultra to Very High, or something similar.

But yeah, failing that, the 970 is a very good card. It's about the same power consumption as your son's 760, so it should be fine in his X51 without overheating. It's considerably faster than the 760: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1355?vs=1038

 

[tential]

OP your first step is to check the settings of the game.

Any game can "run slow" if you run settings your PC is incapable of handling. Even if your son picked up the GTX 970, if the settings he chooses are too high even the most expensive video card possible won't handle the game.

Part of PC gaming is knowing which settings to enable or disable.

Many cases I've seen of people claiming a game runs "Too slow" they were picking settings that even a $3000+ computer wouldn't be able to run.

So if you could take a "screenshot" of the settings page of FarCry then we would be able to help him pick settings he can actually run the game at. You can do this by moving to the settings menu in Farcry, and hitting "Print Screen" on your keyboard. Then open Paint on your computer and save that image.
You can then upload the image to imgur.com and link us to the image.

Sorry, it's a little bit of a long process but that's how you post images of your screen to the internet.

 

[raghu78]

OP as said above check the settings. please mention monitor res and game settings at which your son is playing. GTX 760 is not good enough for 1080p Ultra with MSAA. so try and play Ultra with SMAA which is less demanding.

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/far-cry-4-test-gpu.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/917-far-cry-4-benchmarks/page3.html
http://www.sweclockers.com/artikel/19647-snabbtest-grafikprestanda-i-far-cry-4
http://pclab.pl/art57559-6.html
http://www.purepc.pl/karty_graficzn...e_test_kart_graficznych_i_procesorow?page=0,5
http://www.purepc.pl/karty_graficzn...e_test_kart_graficznych_i_procesorow?page=0,6

Also turn off GodRays as it hits performance badly on GTX 760.

Also the game still has bugs and will continue to be patched in the coming weeks. So you might want to wait for game patches and driver updates before jumping on a new card. If you do want a new card then R9 290 is a good option.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202080

If you want a Nvidia card get the Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125684

 

[boozzer]

970 is 5% better than 290 at about 100$ price premium. your choice op. I would do as post #4 + 5 first before buying. 760 is good enough for at least 1 more year of 1080p gaming. unless your son requires max out everything.

 

[tential]

970 is 5% better than 290 at about 100$ price premium. your choice op. I would do as post #4 + 5 first before buying. 760 is good enough for at least 1 more year of 1080p gaming. unless your son requires max out everything.

Which really depends then on how he treats his kids. For me no way my dad would purchase a gtx 760 then upgrade me to a gtx 970 in such a short time frame. Other parents may purchase the latest and greatest for their kids each year. Up to op to decide how to treat his kids.

 

[boozzer]

splurging a lil is completely fine during the holidays

 

[NTMBK]

970 is 5% better than 290 at about 100$ price premium. your choice op.

Given how hot and power hungry an R9 290 is, I would not recommend it in an X51. It's only this big:

A 290 may well either overheat, or overload the power supply.

 

[kawi6rr]

Given how hot and power hungry an R9 290 is, I would not recommend it in an X51. It's only this big:

A 290 may well either overheat, or overload the power supply.

Don't know where you're getting all the heat from maybe the reference 290 but my saphire tri-x doesn't have heat issues at all.

 

[chimaxi83]

Don't know where you're getting all the heat from maybe the reference 290 but my saphire tri-x doesn't have heat issues at all.

A great cooler like Tri-X will dissipate heat more efficiently and not cause the card to overheat, however the power usage is the same, therefore heat output is the same. In that small of a case, I wouldn't recommended a 290 at all, especially for PC novices who just want to slap it in and go. 970 price premium is probably worth it for ease of use here.

 

[NTMBK]

Don't know where you're getting all the heat from maybe the reference 290 but my saphire tri-x doesn't have heat issues at all.

You may not have temperature issues, but your card still generates a lot of heat. It just has a cooler which is very good at dumping that heat into your case, in the form of hot air. In a compact case like the X51 the hot air has nowhere to go, and the temperatures start to rise.

The R9 290 is a 275W card, the GTX 970 is a 145W card. There's going to be a big difference in heat generation.

 

[TemjinGold]

Agree, in that small of a case, the 970 is well worth the premium.

 

[kawi6rr]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/4

Power consumption is high on those charts but its on overclocked version. The heat and noise on the link above are better then the 780/780ti. Dont remember how much better the 970 was overthe 780/780ti but the saphire card should be close.

 

[tential]

Agree, in that small of a case, the 970 is well worth the premium.

I second this as well. The R9 290 is a great card but put your personal preference aside and realize you're not purchasing it for yourself. Your purchasing it for novices in which case the GTX 970's price premium is worth it.

Look at the situation and adapt to it. For a case of that size, the GTX 970 is more than worth it for the peace of mind. The last thing I would want to do is recommend an R9 290 to a person for a cse like this and have them come back in 3 months and say their card failed. It's simply irresponsible to do so.

 

[chimaxi83]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/4

Power consumption is high on those charts but its on overclocked version. The heat and noise on the link above are better then the 780/780ti. Dont remember how much better the 970 was overthe 780/780ti but the saphire card should be close.

Again you are overlooking heat output. Power usage and heat output are directly proportional. A 275W card with an amazing cooler that always provides 60C GPU temps is still dumping 275W of heat inside the case. That Alienware case will suffer badly.

My water cooled 290CF cards are always sub 40C, but my system is still dumping 600W+ of heat into the room. GPU temp and noise might be great, but it's still a space heater.

 

[kawi6rr]

Again you are overlooking heat output. Power usage and heat output are directly proportional. A 275W card with an amazing cooler that always provides 60C GPU temps is still dumping 275W of heat inside the case. That Alienware case will suffer badly.

My water cooled 290CF cards are always sub 40C, but my system is still dumping 600W+ of heat into the room. GPU temp and noise might be great, but it's still a space heater.

Then it will make for a good space heater this winter but at least his gaphics card will be cool.

 

[MutantMike]

Great guys thanks

I'll try to get setting when he gets off school




I have built a few PC's before so me installing a card should be no issue in the x51? So no upgrade on power supply?




Any card for $300 that is an upgrade to the 760? I know the price tag for the 970 is worth it just want to check all avenues.

 

[chimaxi83]

Then it will make for a good space heater this winter but at least his gaphics card will be cool.

What a great selling point. Please never get into marketing.

Great guys thanks

I'll try to get setting when he gets off school




I have built a few PC's before so me installing a card should be no issue in the x51? So no upgrade on power supply?




Any card for $300 that is an upgrade to the 760? I know the price tag for the 970 is worth it just want to check all avenues.

970 will not require power supply change. It also comes with a free game that your kid can keep or sell to offset some cost of a new card.

 

[tential]

Great guys thanks

I'll try to get setting when he gets off school




I have built a few PC's before so me installing a card should be no issue in the x51? So no upgrade on power supply?




Any card for $300 that is an upgrade to the 760? I know the price tag for the 970 is worth it just want to check all avenues.

Like many of us said before. The GTX 760 is perfectly fine for Farcry.
The issue isn't the card, the issue is his settings on the game. Your welcome to purchase a GTX 970 if you want to upgrade your card and be a nice dad, but if he has the wrong settings enabled, he'll experience the exact same issues...

Not to mention the game is brand new and will be patched and updated to improve performance on all vendors. Purchasing a brand new graphics card for a game that is essentially not even finished isn't really ideal. Your son basically paid to beta test the game, it'll be a more "finished" product 3 months from now.

 

[kawi6rr]

What a great selling point. Please never get into marketing.

Wasn't trying to sell him a card, if you look at my initial post you would know this, try reading above.

 

[papapapapapapapababy]

this game runs like ____ on nvidia. tell your kid that he needs to wait 6 months for the final performance patch. in the meantime he could really learn how to properly optimize his pc, shouldn't have problems in the first place.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If he has everything set to max / Ultra he needs to realize those are the show-off settings for people with SLI Titans

Besides checking the resolution and settings in game, you might ctrl-alt-del outside of it to see what is running on his system.

 

[Leyawiin]

Don't know where you're getting all the heat from maybe the reference 290 but my saphire tri-x doesn't have heat issues at all.

Mainly because it wouldn't fit in that case. The external power brick it uses is 330W. Alienware specced it for a card with a maximum TDP of 150W. The best arrangement is a blower model that exhausts heat out of the tiny case (they've always used reference/OEM models like the GTX 555, GTX 660 and GTX 760 for that reason). The OP's best choice is either an EVGA or PNY GTX 970 blower model.

http://gtx980m.com/2014/11/12/how-to-install-a-gtx-970-sc-in-an-alienware-x51-english/

 

[Hauk]

Don't know where you're getting all the heat from maybe the reference 290 but my saphire tri-x doesn't have heat issues at all.

Adequate ventilation plays a major role; that case, while sleek and nice, lacks adequate intake and exhaust ventilation for an internal exhauster.

OP, be sure to buy a "blower style" card, whichever GPU you choose. Check back if you need tips..