Thinking of Getting this game, but need to future proof/upgrade my PC

[ByronicHero]

Hey guys, I'm considering on upgrading my computer some time during this summer in order to get up to date with some modern gaming with my friends. Namely Shogun 2 (and its expy FOTS) but my current PC is so SHAMEFUR is not even funny. So I've been asking around the net to get some opinions on what I should do.

My budget is limited due to my previous months expenditures on anime figurines and Blu Rays. Not to mention future budgeting for PSP VITA, P4 Arena & Golden, and ofc more anime. Ideally, somewhere around 300 USD (originally wanted to include the games in the budget but right now....)

Possible Upgrades:
Option 1 – GFX Card only (ATI HD 7750 )– approx 109.99 USD (AMD suggested min. PSU reqs. 400W, 20Amps on 12V)

Keep Current Generic PSU (I have a Cyberpower PC ), which is a 500 W (Peak vs Continuous? unsure which), w. 12V rails [12v1 : 21Amps] [12v2 :17Amps]

Cons: Forseeable risks, PSU blowing up and frying all my parts including new GPU.

Option 2 – GFX Card and PSU (ATI HD 7750) – approx 109.99 USD (suggested min. PSU reqs. 400W, 20A on 12V) – limited use at higher resolutions
PSU Option – 450w-500W only (Brand OCZ or Corsair) limited upgrade/reuse capacity 40-50 USD

Cons: Useless parts for any newer upgrades.

Option 3 - GFX Card (HD 6870) and PSU More Powerful GFX Card 120-180 USD
PSU – 600/650 W Option 60-80USD (currently looking at OCZ ModXstream 600W vs Corsair CX600)

Cons: Price

Possible Bottlenecks
CPU: Athlon II x2 255 3.1 Ghz
Micro ATX Mobo (so would phenom hsf and 6870 fit on board w/o blocking ports or components?)
Monitor: Max Resolution 1280x1024 (this is a major limiter as with this monitor, I'll either have to upgrade the monitor in the future or my gfx card depending on which type of card I get now for the upgrade)


Option 4

Replace CPU with Phenom and get aftermarket HSF. 95-120 (ideally the 955, but its not in stock)
Replace PSU with one from Option 3
Get a HD 6870 (XFX)

[OCWife]

The 7xxx series are not very good compared to the new GeForce 6xx in both price and technical aspecs. I would wait until the mid/low-range 6xx come out and see what their reviews are or the Radeon 6xxx to drop more in price. Wait until summer rebates/back-to-school specials. How many fans and HDDs do you have, because PSU requirements depend on those also. You usually have to get more powerful PSU than you need because PSU performance can degrade to half after 3-5 yrs.http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

[Dynamo11]

Want my advice? Avoid ATI, I was always told (when I had nVidia) that ATI's were better but since changing I have discovered they are inferior. Stick with nVidia

[visser300]

You don't need a super GPU to play FOTS. I only own HD5730 but I can run ultra setting w/o problems.

BUT you need a good CPU and bigger RAM.

[last_name_left]

hmmm, tough choices. What is your motherboard, specifically? What are we looking at here? And what's your Windows flavour and Max RAM?

FWIW I have an AthlonII x3 @ 3.1, with a 6870, on a (now old) M2N SLI deluxe (AM2+) - ultra budget kit, really, but works remarkably well (60FPS in Skyrim, S2 in DX11 is fine, etc). 4Gb budget RAM too - all works great - on 675W [7 year old 500W wouldn't cut it - shutdowns] .

TW stuff seemingly still only really uses a single core, so a high clock rate will get you further than extra cores [likewise with most games], and if on a budget AMD is surely the only way to go.

DDR3 RAM is (was?) cheap as hell. But maybe there's an AM3 board which will take your present DDR2 (saving maybe £40), in which case you could get new M/B, new AthlonII X3@3.3, and new PSU for your $300? However, you might be able to get 8Gb of DDR3 for that $300 too - I'm not sure on US pricing compared to ££. [Presumably your case is microATX?] ** and presumably you have AM2/3 board atm?

Bonus advice - cut out the anime!


I know this is UK, but......

For example, AM2/3 motherboard - will take AM2 or 3 CPU's (with some restrictions) **and** DDR2 if using AM2 CPU - and only £32

http://www.ebuyer.com/221178-asrock-...dio-n68c-s-ucc

AthlonII x3 @ 3.4Ghz ---- for £65 <----- the absolute sweet spot for bangs/bucks, imo

http://www.ebuyer.com/270556-amd-ath...-adx460wfgmbox

6850 for £100

http://www.ebuyer.com/284386-his-hd-...card-h685fn1gd

That's only £200.....and need a PSU maybe. So perhaps do it with $300, but surely wouldn't be much more with a decent PSU included.

[A Barbarian]

No point in thinking about GFX cards at the moment if you want to buy it in 2-3 months. Wait till the new 'mid-range' Nvidia cards come out and see what's available then. You will probably not need to upgrade your PSU. And I also tend to recommend Nvidia cards. In my long gaming history, I had 3 different models of ATI/AMD- and 3 different Nvidia cards (atm I have an AMD 7970) and on average I had less problems with the Nvidia cards/drivers.

[agent 47]

I'd go for 7850 hands down. Have you seen how well these can overclock?

It is possible to overclock your 7850 to a 580's performance.

Last time i checked 580's cost 300-400. 7850s go as low as £170, up to around £220 Max.

Depending on how much you want to push it overclocking i would get a sapphire or msi 7850 as they have much better cooling, but if your budget is really really tight id get the cheapest one which is a VTX.

Cheapest to most expensive (It seems they are all around the same price range now, the VTX used to be £170)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411

In general, it seems these cards can gain a 20-30 percent performance increase overclocked.

[last_name_left]

y, maybe a gfx card is the way to go (as there's limited cpu clock speed rises possible on your motherboard - which we don't know anything about)

Tom's Hardware, April suggestions

---
Best PCIe Card For £120:

Radeon HD 6850
==

Best PCIe Card For ~£190:

Radeon HD 7850
---
===

Worth a go......if it will fit etc. And then get a PSU if need be (after having tried cleaning the present one first, of course ;0)

Get a 7850 and a PSU (intended for next machine too - so like 650/700W)? And then start saving for M/B, CPU and RAM.....because presumably you are on DDR2 and AM2+ (???) and if so you'll need change most everything for substantial upgrade. Though you're pushing your budget to get 7850 and S2 is apparently (far) more CPU limited than GPU-limited.

**Just checked - 7850 is $250 on NewEgg atm. There's the budget almost gone. I can't see you getting a tidy PSU for $50. No way, surely? If you get 7850 and PSU won't cut it, what then?

Without knowing your motherboard (and RAM) it's hard to say more.

[Adreno]

dont spend money on anime and double your budget for a pc.. you will thank me in 2 years

[A Barbarian]

With a 1280x1024 monitor you will be MUCH more CPU limited, rather than GPU limited in S2.

[ByronicHero]

My CPU is socket AM3.

My motherboard is some ASUS Micro Atx Board. Which means I currently maxed out on ram slots (2 x 1gb DIMMS)

[last_name_left]

some board? ok. lol

[Gaizokubanou]

Nothing on that PC is worth salvaging through upgrades. Even the PSU is probably so old and degraded in performance.

Save up and get a whole new PC.

[Jedi]

You don't need a super GPU to play FOTS. I only own HD5730 but I can run ultra setting w/o problems.

5730? (A laptop ATI GPU?) would play ultra really? A GTX 680 will struggle on ULTRA zoomed in with AA (sometimes sub 30fps) so tell me how on earth can that card play ultra?

Maybe ultra textures and the rest of the game on low.And you do realise the game will downgrade you based on VRAM?

[A Barbarian]

Remember, S2 downgrades graphics settings in the background when it thinks your GFX card can't handle the chosen settings. And it does it without telling the user anything about it. So even if you have everything on Ultra + 8xMSAA, you might actually be running on low settings. Isn't that a great feature, lol.