what do I need to upgrade?

[greenberetdelta]

These are my computer specs:
Intel core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.67GHz
6 GB DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5

I was wondering what needs to be upgraded and a general idea of were my computers at.


If i didnt post something you need to know let me know

[ringring]

These are my computer specs:
Intel core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.67GHz
6 GB DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5

I was wondering what needs to be upgraded and a general idea of were my computers at.


If i didnt post something you need to know let me know

Are you CPU bound or GPU bound?

In game press alt+f ... to the right of the fps it says either [CPU] or [GPU].

If you have CPU showing in areas where there are a lot of people around, your CPU is doing the work. This is the most likely.

e.g. My processor is i7 2600k : 3.4 - I get about 30-40 in large fights and I am CPU bound.

(NB I also have 8Gb memory, I'd say 6 is on a low side. I've also read that 8 is about optimum.)

[Bags]

probably the CPU

I got a 10 FPS increase from ~30-40 to ~40 - 50 by OCing mine from 3.3 to 4.3 ghz

[Mathematics]

These are my computer specs:
Intel core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.67GHz
6 GB DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5

I was wondering what needs to be upgraded and a general idea of were my computers at.


If i didnt post something you need to know let me know

Overclock that CPU son!

[MrBloodworth]

Looks fine to me. If you are having slowdowns or other issues, I would look at your HD speed/capacity, motherboard buss speed and/or other programs running and programs that use net traffic.

I personally do not overclock until near the end of my CPU's life cycle ( IE: Near time to buy a new one ). Overclocking creates computation errors, some games are fine with this, but PS2 does not deal with them well.

[greenberetdelta]

I got the CPU at the end of 2008 so I suppose that its time to get a new one.
What should I get ?

[ChipMHazard]

A good i5 should be more than enough for the forseeable future. The i5-2550K is a good choice, probably one of the best bang for buck, you might of course also go for the newer 3570K.

[greenberetdelta]

isnt the i7 better than the i5?

[ChipMHazard]

Not for what you're going to be using it for, which I assume is mainly gaming:D

The i7 is overall better and more expensive, however I don't think you will end up seeing much of a difference. Hence why I would advice going for the i5.

[EVILPIG]

Can you explain CPU and GPU bound? I understand that CPU is putting the load on the CPU, but does that mean your graphics card is doing nothing? And vice versa? Also, how do you change it?

[ChipMHazard]

When it shows up as CPU bound it might also be your memory bandwidth limiting your performance.

[greenberetdelta]

So I very quickly went into a big battle (like for 8 sec) and I got cpu when I spawned but when I got closer to the ground and the battle it switched to gpu. Also on the I7 I5 thing so I5 are better for gaming?

[Electrofreak]

Can you explain CPU and GPU bound? I understand that CPU is putting the load on the CPU, but does that mean your graphics card is doing nothing? And vice versa? Also, how do you change it?

EP, CPU or GPU-bound simply means whichever is your weakest link, or bottleneck. If you get significantly better frames by reducing your graphics settings such as your screen resolution and texture quality, you're GPU-bound, because your GPU is the limiting factor.

If you can significantly better frames by overclocking your CPU or going into an area with less players (which is pretty common in PS2), you are CPU-bound. As Chip mentioned, it could also be that you're memory-bound; a GPU has its memory built-in, but the CPU uses your RAM. If you have slow RAM, your CPU spends clock cycles waiting for data, which slows everything down.

It's also worth pointing that NVIDIA graphics cards can offload some physics processing from the CPU to the GPU, which can improve performance if you're CPU-bound. Both your CPU and GPU work together to run the game, but if one is waiting on the other, your frame rate will only be as good as the slower processor.

[ChipMHazard]

Also on the I7 I5 thing so I5 are better for gaming?

Nope, just that you don't need to buy the i7 unless you have money to spare. The i7 is geared more towards heavy use of the hyper-threading.
My advice is geared more towards you saving money, as you almost certainly won't be able to tell the difference performance wise.

[EVILPIG]

EP, CPU or GPU-bound simply means whichever is your weakest link, or bottleneck. If you get significantly better frames by reducing your graphics settings such as your screen resolution and texture quality, you're GPU-bound, because your GPU is the limiting factor.

If you can significantly better frames by overclocking your CPU or going into an area with less players (which is pretty common in PS2), you are CPU-bound. As Chip mentioned, it could also be that you're memory-bound; a GPU has its memory built-in, but the CPU uses your RAM. If you have slow RAM, your CPU spends clock cycles waiting for data, which slows everything down.

It's also worth pointing that NVIDIA graphics cards can offload some physics processing from the CPU to the GPU, which can improve performance if you're CPU-bound. Both your CPU and GPU work together to run the game, but if one is waiting on the other, your frame rate will only be as good as the slower processor.

So, does my computer choose which is best?

[psijaka]

I would probably just up the RAM as it is so cheap, and see if that improves matters.

[Gortha]

More ram won´t bring him jsut one frame per second more.

He needs faster Processor and faster Graphiccard.

@OP
First OC your 920er a few hundrets MHz. This will help you to get a few more frames per second.

Reg
Gortha

[greenberetdelta]

Won't overclocking hurt my proc and do I really need a better card?

[Beerbeer]

I have the same CPU as you, and while it's an i7, it's old and one of the first generation of those.

I have an ATI HD 4850 and 9GBs of ram and I run everything on low.

I'm GPU limited. I would suggest upgrading your graphics card first.


Edit: in beta I had 3Gigs of ram. Bumping it to 9 helped a lot, especially with texture loading and random freezes and ram is dirt cheap now. Still, get a new graphics card.

[ChipMHazard]

Will overclocking damage your CPU? No, over volting will. OCing will shorten your CPU's lifespan a very little bit, nothing you need to worry about. The worst you will probably experience when trying to overclock is system instability and heat generation.
You do not need to upgrade your GPU, unless you're really suffering from GPU limitation. Then again I don't know very much about ATI cards and just made a passing glance on its specs.

[Ghoest9]

You probably need an aftermarket heat sink(not liquid just a big one with a fan) if you want to OC that.

But Almost surely right now you are being limited by processor speed.

I have the very cheap i5 2500k over clocked to 4500 and it works great.



The problem is that PS2 only makes significant use of one core so speed matters more than in other new games.

[greenberetdelta]

I have the same CPU as you, and while it's an i7, it's old and one of the first generation of those.

I have an ATI HD 4850 and 9GBs of ram and I run everything on low.

I'm GPU limited. I would suggest upgrading your graphics card first.


Edit: in beta I had 3Gigs of ram. Bumping it to 9 helped a lot, especially with texture loading and random freezes and ram is dirt cheap now. Still, get a new graphics card.

interesting I had both those things as well before i upgraded(3gbs ram, 4850 card)