Upgrade advice?

Rat · 2012-09-04, 11:27 AM

I am at work so I dont have all my system specs.

I7 2.26 ghz
twin gts 240 SLI
6 gigs of ram(3 2 gig sticks)

one of my gts240s crapped out so I am currently running on one card...generall run at about 30 fps until the larger fights when I drop between 10 and 20 fps (which dosent sound uncommon).

The easiest answer would be to get another 240, but would this processor handle more gpu that the 240s?..I and probably convince the wife to let me spend around 300 bucks...more ram isnt out of the question either.
Thanks.

Goku · 2012-09-04, 12:24 PM

What i7 model do you have?

I wouldn't bother with getting another GT 240 for SLI. I would just get a 660 Ti and call it a day if you are going to spend $300.

Rat · 2012-09-04, 12:27 PM

Not sure what model it is, I will pull better info once I get home, I am pretty sure it is a early I7 not sure when they came out, but this system is in the area of 2 years old.(alienware)...would upgrading ram make sense at this point?

Thanks for the help.

Goku · 2012-09-04, 12:33 PM

I never heard of one clocked so low is all. Lowest model was the 920 at 2.66 GHz for X58. I'm guessing you have that line due to the 3 memory sticks being used.

6GB should be enough even now I would think. If you had four I would recommend going to 8GB due to PS2 being a memory hog, but 6GB is good imo.

Rat · 2012-09-04, 12:36 PM

Now that you mention it, it is a 920..I must have been mistaken on the clocking.
Thanks again.

Mutant · 2012-09-04, 12:52 PM

I have yet to see PS2 push past 4GB of ram (3.9GB was highest I have recorded so far). So 6 should indeed be fine.

Your FPS look quite good considering how bad the GT240 is (I guess you have lowered your settings and pushed the bottleneck back towards your CPU)

The GT240 is a weak link, its about on a par with a 8800GS, but has crippled ROPs/mem speeds.

For $300 660 Ti would be a good choice so would a 7950.

You might fine it easier to convince the misses on a $200 7850.

Rbstr · 2012-09-04, 02:21 PM

Considering that I saw an "enable GPU phyX" button the other day clicked it and seemed to get an FPS bumb, I'd lean more to the 660Ti. (of course that may be placebo and the button is now gone...)

The i7 920 should be fine for the game.

Rat · 2012-10-24, 01:43 PM

I pulled the trigger, installed the 660 TI,3 4 gig sticks of DDR3, and wiped the hard drive. I had a wow moment when running the graphics on high for the first time.

Thanks again.

Goku · 2012-10-25, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by Rat

I pulled the trigger, installed the 660 TI,3 4 gig sticks of DDR3, and wiped the hard drive. I had a wow moment when running the graphics on high for the first time.

Thanks again.

Thats the best feeling from putting in new hardware.