What should I upgrade?? For S2TW

[stradar1]

Ok here goes. I have 4gigs of ram. I have a Intel(R) Core (TM)2 Dou CPU E8400 @3.0GHz. I allso have a GTX 470 Graphics card and windows 7 64bit.

Now heres my dilima when I play NTW maxxed settings the GPU broils to 100C I got 5 fans not includeing the CPU fan. Now I know I got some good airflow and I clean my pc daily and when I do play NTW maxxed I still have at times lag spikes.

What should I upgrade and what should I addon to my pc Im not looking to buy a whole new Pc I just want to addon.

Do I need a new CPU or more ram or a new motherboard please help me out I dunno what to do. I really want to play NTW S2TW maxxed no lagg!!! And hopefully Not blow up my GPU at the same time =PPP

[Maizel]

Don;t upgrade anything and see how it runs when it comes out. You have a decent pc.

You might want to download EVGA precision, and set your GPU fan a little higher. Nvidia graphic cards run hot, just set your evga precision so that it;s around 80 degrees. That's nothing to brag about, but not uncommonly hot for graphic cards either.

Alternatively, you could shell out for an aftermarket cooler.

[stradar1]

Don;t upgrade anything and see how it runs when it comes out. You have a decent pc.

You might want to download EVGA precision, and set your GPU fan a little higher. Nvidia graphic cards run hot, just set your evga precision so that it;s around 80 degrees. That's nothing to brag about, but not uncommonly hot for graphic cards either.

Alternatively, you could shell out for an aftermarket cooler.

Well I use MSI afterburner NTW is the only game I play that goes over 90C.

[Maizel]

Well I use MSI afterburner NTW is the only game I play that goes over 90C.

Then maybe get an aftermarket cooler.

The cards throttle down when they get too hot, so you shouldn;t be too worried about rendering it damaged.

But yes, my advice is: Don't upgrade. You have a decent CPU and a good graphics card. ram is also fine.

Spend some money on beer instead.

[stradar1]

Then maybe get an aftermarket cooler.

The cards throttle down when they get too hot, so you shouldn;t be too worried about rendering it damaged.

But yes, my advice is: Don't upgrade. You have a decent CPU and a good graphics card. ram is also fine.

Spend some money on beer instead.

LoL Yea Well I dunno what kind of Cooler to get and where to find one at a decent price and how to install one. I can build a pc just never messed with a cooler.

[Maizel]

LoL Yea Well I dunno what kind of Cooler to get and where to find one at a decent price and how to install one. I can build a pc just never messed with a cooler.

Me neither.

As long as my hardware doesn't fry, I really don;t care what temperatures they get.

Sure, in the end, the hotter they get, the shorer the hardware's life is, but pretty much every piece of hardware gets replaced within 3-4 years, and mine have never broken in that timeframe.

[swoosh so]

I would upgrade that CPU but ofc then you may have to upgrade your mobo and memory, im sure the 470 will be just fine for stw2 sounds abit funny with your 470 getting so overused i have a green version of the 460 and its running just great with absolutely no strain or even noise with NTW at full detail.

[Maizel]

I would upgrade that CPU but ofc then you may have to upgrade your mobo and memory, im sure the 470 will be just fine for stw2 sounds abit funny with your 470 getting so overused i have a green version of the 460 and its running just great with absolutely no strain or even noise with NTW at full detail.

I would still wait before upgrading anything.

Sure, your CPU might be and (relatively) old model, but there aren't even alot of games yet that scale consistently well on 2 cores. Maybe S2 will, and then you'll be set. And even if it does not scale well, I;m sure your CPU will do fine. Well enough to not make it worth throwing all your money at a new system.

470 ... that's unfortunate, 570 is around the same price but technically superior in every aspect, and it isn't 'hot'. In terms of 4-core use in games I'd be pretty sceptical, if you are dissatisfied with your CPU overclock it ... just make sure it doesn't get over 70-75C on a decent cooler. Everything else is about fine and I wouldn't personally feel bad about myself if NTW is somewhat choppy, some of the special effects they've added in that game just go over the top in terms of hardware hiccup, without a justified increase in image quality.

You might want to download Real Temp as well. It's a CPU temperature tool that tells you how hot your CPU is running and how far it's away from running as hot as it shouldn't.

The core architecture runs relatively hot. Personally I wouldn;t worry if it reaches 90C now and again, but that mostly depends on how much you care about those things.


And yeah, real shame about that 470. 570 is on par with the 480.

[stradar1]

I would upgrade that CPU but ofc then you may have to upgrade your mobo and memory, im sure the 470 will be just fine for stw2 sounds abit funny with your 470 getting so overused i have a green version of the 460 and its running just great with absolutely no strain or even noise with NTW at full detail.

Yea I dont get it everything else run around 60 to 70 full power but when it comes to NTW maxxed it goes sky high im pulling my hair out on this becuase I got this card a month ago and im afraid of it dieing early on me im not rich so im trying to take care. So I dunno what to do im at a loss.

[Maizel]

Yea I dont get it everything else run around 60 to 70 full power but when it comes to NTW maxxed it goes sky high im pulling my hair out on this becuase I got this card a month ago and im afraid of it dieing early on me im not rich so im trying to take care. So I dunno what to do im at a loss.

Running hot won't normally cause it do die, at least not in the timeframe that you will be heartbroken about it. Forceware throttles the card back before it gets hot enough to die.

Oh, and the lagspikes you talk about in the OP; I think that's just a quirk of the engine, while it;s better than the one they use for E:TW, I don't find it all that stable or consistent.

[swoosh so]

Hve you tried adjusting all the different settings to see if one of them is causing the card to max out? Maybe theres a setting you could disable that would result in little visual quality lost?

[stradar1]

Im guessing ill never buy a graphics card from best buy again and get a card from newegg when I have money again.

[swoosh so]

stradar1 can you post the make and model number of your graphics card? any info u can give plz.

[stradar1]

stradar1 can you post the make and model number of your graphics card? any info u can give plz.

sure its a Pny Xlr8 performance Edition Geforce GTX 470 1280mb GDDR5. 3d vision,physx,cuda,Sli

Specs:
607Mhz core clock--------VCGGTX470XPB I think is the model number.
448 Processor cores
1215 Mhz processor clock
34.0 billion/sec texture fill rate
3348 Mhz memory data rate
320 bit memory interface
133.9 GB/sec memory bandwidth

[belgolas]

Can you tell me what case you have? You said you have 5 fans so that is more than enough.

There is something wrong with your GPU. I would recommend an RMA if I were you or try to reseat the stock fan cooler. You should never get to 100c with a 470 on NTW. I have dual 480's and they never reach that high.

Most likely some idiot at the factory put too much thermal paste on the GPU and the heatsink isn't able to cool the card properly.

Also I would recommend upgrading that CPU as the E8400 will be bottle-necking the GPU. If you want to try to save some money you can always try to overclock it. It isn't very hard to do. I could even walk you through it.

Right now your weakest link in the system is the CPU. If you were to upgrade the CPU then you would have to upgrade the motherboard as well and possibly the ram. So it will be an expensive upgrade looking at the couple hundred dollar range. So thats why I recommend overclocking.

[stradar1]

Can you tell me what case you have? You said you have 5 fans so that is more than enough.

There is something wrong with your GPU. I would recommend an RMA if I were you or try to reseat the stock fan cooler. You should never get to 100c with a 470 on NTW. I have dual 480's and they never reach that high.

Most likely some idiot at the factory put too much thermal paste on the GPU and the heatsink isn't able to cool the card properly.

Also I would recommend upgrading that CPU as the E8400 will be bottle-necking the GPU. If you want to try to save some money you can always try to overclock it. It isn't very hard to do. I could even walk you through it.

Right now your weakest link in the system is the CPU. If you were to upgrade the CPU then you would have to upgrade the motherboard as well and possibly the ram. So it will be an expensive upgrade looking at the couple hundred dollar range. So thats why I recommend overclocking.

I never tryed overclocking and would that even help my heat problem? And if its safe for me to do so without screwing up my pc im allgoo if you show me how truely. And I think the fans fine when I use my MSI Afterburner when it starts to get hot my fan speed kick up when it gets to hot plus the fan gets really loud at 85% speed so I dont think its the fan.

[swoosh so]

The good news is you will hae a warranty, id keep your receipt in a safe place for sure. It looks like a good card maybe it just has a bad cooling fan or maybe there is a problem with the fan. Best thing to do is post a query thread on the forum where you purchased the card giving as much info on the problem as possible theres alot of experienced guys usually hang around component sale sites that may be able to advise you and perhaps even advise on software that can control the fan speed. But i would defintely spend a good hour messing around with all graphics settings to see if there is one that is causing it to max out. its little time spent with alot of possible gain.

[swoosh so]

It would not help your heat problem with the GPU hes talking about maxing out your overall performance.

[Maizel]

I still wouldn't upgrade anything. Chances are good the game will run just fine.

I would get an aftermarket cooler for your 470 though, you worry too much about it, and that's going to ruin your gaming experience.

[stradar1]

My case is called Smilodon Raidmax Dirk Tooth. Im sitting on 44-45c idol while talking on here. Ahh allso the funny thing is while on the campaign map oooh boy the temp goes high allso. But yea yall are saying you get no where close to 100c then I dunno what to think guess maybe try to get a replacement card and hope for the best.