Where is the weakness in my computer (for gaming)?

[madoka]

Here are the relevant bits of what I bought in 2012 from Cyberpowerpc:

CU-208-216 INTEL I7-3820 3.6 GHZ 10M LGA RETAIL 1 1,199.00 1,199.00
RM-317-802 4GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE 1600MHZ DDR3 4 4.50 18.00
MB-392-104 GIGABYTE X79-UP4 QUAD CROSSFIRE/ QUAD SLI SATA 3.0 US 1 -5.00
PS-121-112 CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX V2 POWER SUPPLY 1 56.00 56.00
VC-223-104 HIS ICQ AMD RADEON 7850 2GB PIC-E 1 24.00 24.00

Since then everything has been fine, because I play old games (namely Company of Heroes, CounterStrike, and Starcraft II) at max settings on a 27" monitor.

However, I recently played a Starcraft II game which lagged. So I'm trying to figure out where the weakness or bottleneck in my system is, but I haven't kept up with gaming tech for years.

With that said, I'm assuming it's the video card. Am I right?

 

[Ketchup]

You mentionined Starcraft twice so, is it playing more slowly than it used to, or the only one that is slow?

Even though it's an older rig, it's still an i7, and the fastest route to better gaming is indeed a better video card.

 

[madoka]

You mentionined Starcraft twice so, is it playing more slowly than it used to, or the only one that is slow?

Yes, it's the only one.

I was playing a large 12 player map with hundreds of units. It's the only time it's ever lagged on me, so I didn't previously feel any need to upgrade.

I'll admit, I also have an eye on the new Dawn of War that's coming out.

I want to know if this system is still salvageable by buying new parts, or if I'm better off getting a new computer.

 

[Ketchup]

Well, a new CPU would also mean a new Motherboard and RAM, hence I suggested a new video card first, and then see if it is necessary to upgrade the rest.

 

[biostud]

Overclock cpu + new videocard.

 

[TheELF]

Starcraft only uses 1-2 cores so even if your GPU is strong enough the CPU will struggle with a lot of stuff going on on-screen.
I would say only overclock first,see how much it improves and then decide on weather you upgrade.

 

[SAAA]

Starcraft (1-2) is one of those games that loves single thread: overclock could potentially increase FPS linearly with % of speed.
Say you can reach 4.2GHz fully stable, that should give 4.2/3.6=~15% better framerate and probably less stutters or random drops.

If that's not enough probably a high clocked Skylake quad (i5 or i7) should be a noticable upgrade.
Dual core i3 with overclock (it's still possible on some boards) may be great too but I won't suggest them for every day use if you are accustomed to an i7. Half the cores is never an upgrade...

GPU... it shouldn't be a problem for Starcraft alone but for any other game it's starting to get dated: wait for Polaris or Pascal

 

[Yuriman]

No CPU will run Starcraft smoothly in those situations. It's an old game that is poorly threaded.

Your best bet is a newest-generation, highly clocked CPU, but as others have said, it would be hard on my conscience to suggest a downgrade from an i7 to a dual core, despite the fact that a Skylake i3 would be a good bit faster in that game.

 

[sm625]

I used to play custom games on warcraft 3 where people would seriously mess with the spawn rates. It would literally bog down my PC to the point where I was getting < 1 FPS. If I didnt kill off all the units quickly, the game would actually freeze up completely. And this was on a CPU that was way faster than anything that existed back when the game was released. Whoever designs the map needs to limit the number of units to prevent slowdowns. Unless they just like killing lots of things, which is pretty fun in its own right.

 

[Triloby]

Did you say that you only had about 4 GB of RAM in your rig?

It's probably not a big deal, but I would suggest upping the amount of RAM that you have to either 8 or 16 gigs.

That said, when people mess with the spawn rates to massive extremes in Starcraft II, it will bog down any CPU regardless of how powerful it is.

 

[daveybrat]

The only two things you need to do are:

1) Upgrade your ram from 4GB to 8GB+

2) Upgrade your video card to an Nvidia Pascal or AMD Polaris series card this summer

 

[tynopik]

that was a very odd computer setup

what was the rationale behind it?

 

[tynopik]

Did you say that you only had about 4 GB of RAM in your rig?

i may be reading that wrong, but i interpreted it as 4x4GB or 16GB

 

[master_shake_]

i don't see storage mentioned.

if you haven't already get an ssd.

upgrade that video card.

overclock the cpu.

 

[madoka]

Did you say that you only had about 4 GB of RAM in your rig?

It's probably not a big deal, but I would suggest upping the amount of RAM that you have to either 8 or 16 gigs.

That said, when people mess with the spawn rates to massive extremes in Starcraft II, it will bog down any CPU regardless of how powerful it is.

It's 4x4, so 16gig total memory.

IIRC, I was playing some sort of zombie fest, so there were four computer opponents at insane cheater level, several hundred spawning zombies, and me on that map.

So I guess, lag would be inevitable from what it sounds like.

 

[madoka]

that was a very odd computer setup

what was the rationale behind it?

How is it odd?

 

[Yuriman]

LGA-2011 had a pretty big price premium over 1155, and the i7 3820 is essentially the same CPU as the 2600K, so you clearly didn't pay that premium to get access to the higher-end CPUs available on the socket. You also got a quad SLI / quadFire board to run one mid- to low- end video card.