Sick of my HD3200 IGP.... Need upgrade advice.

[Crow550]

lol yeah. When I got this PC. I heard good things about the HD3200 IGP. When performance with source games wasn't that much better to my old PC. Which was a P4 1GHZ, 1GB memory and a x1650 card. I think TF2 played better on the old PC cause IGP is just ass.

 

[Dennis316]

with the new intel core i3 dual cores and the althon x3's you can build a really nice system for pretty damn cheap, keeps yours til you can save up and buy your parts over time like i did


one paycheck buy mobo, next one, buy processor, next one ram and so forth, its like layaway...only problem is that if somethign doesnt work your past the return date lol, didnt happen to me but its a possibility

athlon X3 435 = $75
socket AM3 mobo = $100
ram = $70 (maybe a bit less actually)
power supply, case and disc drive $150 (thats generous

and you already have a graphics card and a monitor correct?

 

[toyota]

with the new intel core i3 dual cores and the althon x3's you can build a really nice system for pretty damn cheap, keeps yours til you can save up and buy your parts over time like i did


one paycheck buy mobo, next one, buy processor, next one ram and so forth, its like layaway...only problem is that if somethign doesnt work your past the return date lol, didnt happen to me but its a possibility

athlon X3 435 = $75
socket AM3 mobo = $100
ram = $70 (maybe a bit less actually)
power supply, case and disc drive $150 (thats generous

and you already have a graphics card and a monitor correct?

buying parts over time is one of the worst things you can do. its much smarter to buy everything around the same time.

 

[Crow550]

I'll figure it out.

I know some things about computers, as it seems I'm everyone's tech support, friends and family. Like no one else knows how to read online and learn.... I just figured it would be easier & quicker to ask peoples advice on this.

Instead of researching all the latest GPU's and such as I haven't been keeping up. One question though.

What determines GPU and watts? As the 4670 said 400watts but everyone says 300 will be fine?

Yeah next PC. I'll either build from scratch or consider www.cyberpowersystem.com maybe.

 

[betasub]

Manufacturer's recommended PSU will always be excessive / cautious in order to cover no-name over-rated PSUs, or systems already heavily-loaded (P4, lots of HDDs etc).

 

[Crow550]

Got it on Wednesday. However was busy and finally got around to installing it today.

Installed the Catalyst 10.1, assume this fixed the issues with 10 & 4600 series cards? *update* whoops it seems there is a 10.1 hotfix for 5800 cards. Well i'll try the driver disc. Whoops.

I seem to be getting 30 FPS in Left4Dead 2 with max settings....WTF?

Also the fan on the card is a few inches from my X-Fi card. I assume it will be fine? I mean the air won't cause the sound card to heat up?

It also covers a PCI Express 1X slot which sucks because I planned to get a capture card or HD tuner. I really need a card to archive some VHS home movies in the best quality.

The card does offer the OverDrive feature. Which I'm wondering why? I mean I doubt it would boost anything....

Anyways I am gonna play some games and see how the FPS measures up.

 

[Crow550]

Even using the ones on the disc.....Still 30ish FPS in L4D2. I was hoping for 60+ with max settings at 1440x900. Guess I had my hopes to high? Time to turn off the AA and turn down the AF I guess.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Your pc has a 780g motherboard, try researching to see if you can upgrade the cpu.

 

[Crow550]

Instead of updating the CPU. Wouldn't it be better to get a new Mobo & CPU.

I don't plan to update right now. Is the CPU bottle necking the GPU or what? I am getting better performance just not as good as I was seeking....

Should I keep this card? I don't like that the fan covers a slot.....Erg. I don't know. I just wanted to play the games I got. I can......So I'll just have to mess around with the settings I guess. I'll figure out the capture / HDTV card thing later....

 

[dguy6789]

AA is an extremely demanding graphical setting and L4D2 is very CPU demanding. Do you have multi-core rendering enabled in L4D2? If it isn't, enabling that will make your performance go up by a good amount.

Your CPU is the current limit on performance to answer your question.

 

[Crow550]

Yes I have multi-core rendering enabled and using the -threads 4 command.

Yeah the visuals and resolution are certainly better than before. I just have to turn down some of the visuals. On max settings. It seems to stick around 60 and dip down to 30 during a lot of action.

However I don't feel the hit when it dips. So maybe I should ignore the numbers....

 

[Crow550]

GTA 4 & Ghostbusters still suffer from slight stuttering once in awhile.

Should I return this to NewEgg & get a tad beefier GPU? Like 5670? Or something for around $100-$130.

Current clock on this is: 165MHZ GPU, 300MHZ Memory. Seems kinda weak. Maybe I'm wrong.

Or is it the CPU? And any higher GPU will not do a darn thing?

It's like I'm almost there. LOL. If I can get 60+ frames with high settings at 1440x900. I'll be cool.

I talked to someone else who had a 4670 in his laptop and he reported the same FPS I was getting in Left4Dead 2.

 

[dguy6789]

Your performance won't go up more by putting an even better video card in there. You don't have enough CPU to feed the 4670, let alone a higher GPU. CPU limited means increasing GPU power won't increase your frame rate. You're CPU limited. A good processor would increase your fps probably by a large amount in newer games.

A mobility 4670 is less powerful than a desktop 4670.

 

[toyota]

GTA 4 & Ghostbusters still suffer from slight stuttering once in awhile.

Should I return this to NewEgg & get a tad beefier GPU? Like 5670? Or something for around $100-$130.

Current clock on this is: 165MHZ GPU, 300MHZ Memory. Seems kinda weak. Maybe I'm wrong.

Or is it the CPU? And any higher GPU will not do a darn thing?

It's like I'm almost there. LOL. If I can get 60+ frames with high settings at 1440x900. I'll be cool.

I talked to someone else who had a 4670 in his laptop and he reported the same FPS I was getting in Left4Dead 2.

as dguy6789 just said its your cpu thats part of the problem here. clock for clock the original Phenom was not very fast compared to newer cpus and you have the slowest one there is. in games that use more than 2 cores its barely enough at 1.8 and in games that use only 2 cores or less its pretty large bottleneck for any decent gpu.

 

[Crow550]

Alright. LOL what about OverDrive? Kidding. With my PSU it wouldn't clock high anyways & yes it would be pointless cause of my CPU. Not that I was playing with OverDrive.....

Well....I will just live with it as is and then consider either a new Mobo / CPU or CPU....




How do I re-lock OverDrive? I tried uninstalling and such. It's only on my username. I messed with it a little a few nights ago to see if anything would happen as OverDrive is said to safe anyways. Autotune gives an odd color screen? I did some Googling. I guess it's normal? Tried some manual settings. The temperature never went up at all.....Either a great fan & heatsink or not enough juice from the PSU. However since it won't do crap. I might as well re-lock it. No sense in me cooking the card. It stays at 48C and rises to 52C during games which is nice.

 

[0roo0roo]

I'll figure it out.

I know some things about computers, as it seems I'm everyone's tech support, friends and family. Like no one else knows how to read online and learn.... I just figured it would be easier & quicker to ask peoples advice on this.

Instead of researching all the latest GPU's and such as I haven't been keeping up. One question though.

What determines GPU and watts? As the 4670 said 400watts but everyone says 300 will be fine?

Yeah next PC. I'll either build from scratch or consider www.cyberpowersystem.com maybe.

read any articles on how to pick psus on anandtech for one. peak load depends on system build. general recommendations don't apply because your system is not general anyways the only thing you luck out on is how low res your monitor is, so finding a medium grade video card that can do that res with decent settings is pretty easy really. wouldn't worry about your psu that much, you aren't going to buy a fast/expensive enough video card to cause trouble. any really fast gpu would be gimped by your cpu

 

[heyheybooboo]

I have not had my coffee this AM so for the most part you may want to ignore this ...

IIRC Gateway/Acer OEMs use the Foxconn A7GM-S 780g.

Foxconn hardware seems to be of good quality but can be a little finicky from time to time. I point this out because I think you have a few options which may improve your situation tremendously.

Getting info from Gateway on CPU support will most likely be as comfortable as a root canal but you should try, anyway. Here is the Foxconn CPU Support List for what I believe your motherboard might be.

You may upgrade to a Phenom II / Athlon II AM3. The issue is the Gateway BIOS might give you the 'unknown CPU' nonsense but still boot into Windows. This is where Gateway Support could help you out (but I wouldn't expect a great deal from them).

WARNING!: Do not attempt the following unless you are comfortable with the process!

Option #2:

On multiple occasions I have over-flashed an OEM BIOS with the BIOS from the manufacturer of the motherboard. Gateway does not want you to do this --- they want to sell you a new computer --- so this will definitely void your warranty.

I point out the 'over-flash' because in spite of its finicky nature, the Foxconn A7GM-S is quite the snappy little over-clocker. Drop in a $90-$150 AM3 CPU and you have the potential to be a gaming man-ster.

And if you don't have the Foxconn A7GM-S motherboard ? ...

Nevermind.





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