Here are my specs.
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
- 12 GB DDR3-SDRAM They aren't a special brand or anything
- I am running 2 hdd(Caviar Green and Blue 1Tb each)
- The graphics Card is a Nvidia Geforce 210.
- My PSU is 500W, not sure what brand though.
- I am not sure what the Motherboard is but it does have 2 pci express slots and enough space if it is going to be a bulky GFX card .
What i wanted to know and ask the community is if it is worth upgrading my system and if that is the case, what GFX card should i check out and some options. One game that i can´t absolutely run is Natural Selection 2. I want something that will also run decently games that might come out this year. I'd like something that would run Civ 5 at 1920*1080. Well you catch my drift.
I also would like to know if it's not worth upgrading and if that's the case why. I mean i have had my system for 3 years now and I can do most of the things i want it to do but it´s cut short in the gaming deparment.
Thanks for the help guys.
Edit: After installing the power supply everything seemed to be running perfect. My GPU wasn´t broken, thankfully and im enjoying playing games on high settings :D. Great improvement over the nvidia 210.
Thanks again ;)
Your nehalem is fine for NS2 although you might want to overclock it for games.
GTX 760 or 770. NS2 will run great.
Thx for the tip. Overclocking would mean i would also have to get a better CPU fan and i don´t want to mess with that. I also live in Spain and Damn!! it´s hot during Summer, almost unbearable. I´ll wait for some other opinions before i buy anything though.
if it is that hot in spain you might want to get a new cpu fan anyway, intel is notorious for their bad stock coolers. it wouldn't hurt to drop 30 or 40 dollars on an aftermarket air cooler.
The AMD Radeon R9 280X is also an excellent card, although it may be a bit expensive. The R9 270 will play almost every current title at 1080p at medium to high settings, so I would recommend it highly, with an adequately proficient aftermarket cooler on it, as the card will get very warm when overclocking, otherwise. And you should overclock that card, as it can quite easily achieve performance figures similar to those provided by the R9 270X, while costing considerably less.
As far as CPU cooling goes, I would not recommend using the stock cooler from either brand, as they are simply the bare minimum when it comes to heat dissipation. These stock coolers are frequently incapable of dissipating the heat produced by running the processor under full load with turbo enabled. I would recommend dropping a moderate amount of money on an aftermarket cooler. You can regularly find a nice 120mm tower cooler from Deep Cool on Ebay for 27 USD. If you can get it shipped to you, then it's a pretty good deal for what it is. I'd also recommend the Thermalright True series of coolers, as I've had good luck with them, myself.
I would go with Nvidia over AMD just because of driver support and NS2 will run better.
Overclock to 3ghz on stock voltage, you'll see a noticeable improvement
Eh, it's really down to personal preference, as AMD and Nvidia cards differ primarily in terms of power consumption, as each brand has different driver problems over time.
I forgot to mention: although it is still down to preference, some games will not offload the PhysX rendering to your CPU. In those cases, if you want PhysX effects in your game, you will want to go for an Nvidia GPU.
Ok, so after some consideration, research and your input i decided to go for the Sapphire Dual-x R9 270X Oc 2gb.
Before installing the card i uninstalled the old drivers and installed without any problems along the way.
Got it yesterday and didn´t take for a wild spin, just played some league of legends and Mass Effect everything maxed out. It was awesome.
Today i decided to play some Natural Selection 2. I could play almost everything on max at 60-70 fps and i played my first game. After 10 minutes in game there was a sort of "boom" ( i had my case open at the time in case there was any problem with the GFX and i had to change something), i saw some sort of 'sparks' coming from the GFX and the system turned off and so did a line of electricity. I am not sure of the terminology of it in english but all the plugs from the same circuit didn´t work.
When i got electricity back up i tried to turn of my system and it wouldn´t boot. Took out the GFX and it still didn´t boot. So my guess is that the power supply is broken. Something similar happened before and it broke the PSU and GFX that i had at the moment.
My bro hasn´t let me check if my card worked on his system but i am optimistic.
Given my situation i don´t know if i should buy a PSU and chance it or just get a new pc reusing HDD and optical drives.
I´d love some input and sorry for the long post.
Since you didn't specify a budget, I'd get SLI 780 Ti K|NGP|N Editions.
Obviously get a new PSU, what "boomed" in your case is a fire hazard.
Get a 500W or 650W Seasonic, Coolermaster or Corsair (OCZ, EVGA, Antec . . .), you can't go wrong with any of their series, the more you spend the better the build quality and stability AND efficiency you will get.
Don't skimp on the power supply or you'll end up with bricked components (you're lucky if they replace your video card) and a potential fire starter. Get a quality brand from the ones I've mentioned
Something like this http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-ssr550rm
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx600m
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu650txv2
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/ocz-power-supply-oczzt650w
Decide on a budget, get the cards in that budget range you want and find benchmarks and see if any of those are on sale then decide for yourself.
Go AMD the cards are more durable and have better cooling and the driver support is fine. I'm using three 7970s and even watch dogs i dont get issues.
This definitely sounds like an issue with the psu. From your posts I'm guessing you purchased your computer pre-assembled. OEMs tend to buy really cheap power supplies, motherboards, memory etc to keep cost down. What happened to you (although it seems like it wasn't really in your control) is exactly why I urge people not to skimp on their power supply. There is a good chance that simply replacing your power supply will bring your system back to life, but it is also possible damage was done to your system when the power tripped. I suggest getting a 500+ watt power supply from a reputable manufacturer (look at online reviews) and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't you can just build a new computer and you will already have a power supply.
I have i7 920 too, overclocked at 3.2GHz. Because 780Ti is stupidly expensive i decided go for GTX 750Ti. To my surprise i played Metro Last Light at 1920x1200, very high (without AA, PhysX and teselation ofc.) with no problem. Low temps, low consumption, quiet. And when the 880 finally comes, i can sell it straight away.
Thanks a lot for the help guys.
I just ordered online the CX600M
http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00ALYORPO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL
Hopefully my GPU is ok. It´s brand new Damn it D:
I´ll let you guys know what´s going on once i get the PSU.
Thx again guys. This community is the best.