Add 8gb of ram or crossfire 5750?

[Worgoblin]

My computer is not amazing, but runs WoW well. Sometimes on higher setting I do bog down to below 30 FPS when lot's of people are around. I'm wondering what will give me the biggest FPS boost. Adding 8 gigs of ram to put me at 12 (I currently have 4), or adding in another video card (Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit)?

[Deleted]

My computer is not amazing, but runs WoW well. Sometimes on higher setting I do bog down to below 30 FPS when lot's of people are around. I'm wondering what will give me the biggest FPS boost. Adding 8 gigs of ram to put me at 12 (I currently have 4), or adding in another video card (Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit)?

Honestly, both won't see a major increase on WoW, the graphics card will give the most though, since WoW is mostly rendered via the CPU it boils mostly down to that. What CPU are you currently using?

[Worgoblin]

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz

[vesseblah]

Neither will help. WoW uses only about 0.8-1.2GB of RAM and crossfire support is incredibly buggy, especially on 5000 series cards.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz

To quote MythBusters "well there's your problem".

If your motherboard supports it, PhenomII x4 955 or 965 gives best value for money upgrade for WoW.

[Deleted]

To quote MythBusters "well there's your problem".

If your motherboard supports it, PhenomII x4 955 or 965 gives best value for money upgrade for WoW.

Pretty much this, although I would say if the ram your using is DDr3, buy 8gb anyway, DDr3 is incredibly cheap.

[DeltrusDisc]

Pretty much this, although I would say if the ram your using is DDr3, buy 8gb anyway, DDr3 is incredible cheap.

Before he buys anymore RAM, he needs severely to get a new CPU.

[Vinho]

+1 for new cpu ^_^

[Worgoblin]

lol thanks, new CPU it is

[ruuBEN]

I'll post this really quick,

Go here: http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...ndlePROMO.html

At the very bottom, FX-6100 and down, you will see they will give you a free motherboard on some deals. They may be shitty mobos, but it's a free motherboard.

(If you don't have much money, is all)

[DeltrusDisc]

I'll post this really quick,

Go here: http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...ndlePROMO.html

At the very bottom, FX-6100 and down, you will see they will give you a free motherboard on some deals. They may be shitty mobos, but it's a free motherboard.

(If you don't have much money, is all)

If you have a higher sum of money, you can get an Intel i5-3570K for $190~ with an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 board for $90~, saving over $60 on both combined.

[Deleted]

If you have a higher sum of money, you can get an Intel i5-3570K for $190~ with an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 board for $90~, saving over $60 on both combined.

Im sorry but $119 is not a higher sum of money it is about the retail price of the CPU alone so ruuBEN's idea is pretty legit especially if OP is running on a generic AM2+ board.

[Tanthalus]

thats $119 + shpping for a system refresh - silly cheap tbh , as on newegg a phenom 965 is $109 on its own ; ofc there the cashback offer from AMD (unless thats EU only?)

[DeltrusDisc]

Im sorry but $119 is not a higher sum of money it is about the retail price of the CPU alone so ruuBEN's idea is pretty legit especially if OP is running on a generic AM2+ board.

Uhhh.... where did he say anything about what his actual budget is?

[Evildeffy]

Neither will help. WoW uses only about 0.8-1.2GB of RAM and crossfire support is incredibly buggy, especially on 5000 series cards.

Really, WoW only uses 800 megs to 1,2GB? I must have an abberation then, Stormwind on Silvermoon EU and/or raiding sure as hell eats more.

Crossfire being buggy... SLI is no different, you should've worded "Multi-GPU setups for WoW don't work very well".

Also agree on the Phenom II X4.

And no, going to an FX-6100 CPU is not really an option, that CPU performs worse then the suggested Phenom II in WoW.

[vesseblah]

Really, WoW only uses 800 megs to 1,2GB? I must have an abberation then, Stormwind on Silvermoon EU and/or raiding sure as hell eats more.

Idling in the middle of Orgrimmar with 64-bit live client task manager shows 780 megs of RAM used. Most I've seen while on air taxi rapidly crossing across several zones is around 1.2GB. And this is on 1920x1080 resolution and mixed high/ultra settings. It's pretty much on line with everybody else.

Crossfire being buggy... SLI is no different, you should've worded "Multi-GPU setups for WoW don't work very well".

It's not just me AMD bashing when I say Crossfire on 5k cards is bad idea. It's well documented that the CF scaling is bad on those compared to SLI or CF on 6k/7k cards even in games where CF is supported. In addition CF/SLI not being supported by Blizzard, there's also plenty of anecdotal evidence on this forum of people getting lower framerates when trying to crossfire Radeon 5000 cards, on SLI or CF of newer cards you usually get pretty close to zero benefit but never lose framerates.

[Evildeffy]

Idling in the middle of Orgrimmar with 64-bit live client task manager shows 780 megs of RAM used. Most I've seen while on air taxi rapidly crossing across several zones is around 1.2GB. And this is on 1920x1080 resolution and mixed high/ultra settings. It's pretty much on line with everybody else.

I'll give you a screenshot of mine when it's prime time, i've had 1,6GB in use in Stormwind Silvermoon EU (though our server is fking massive when it comes to population numbers on Alliance), though that may just be server specific.

It's not just me AMD bashing when I say Crossfire on 5k cards is bad idea. It's well documented that the CF scaling is bad on those compared to SLI or CF on 6k/7k cards even in games where CF is supported. In addition CF/SLI not being supported by Blizzard, there's also plenty of anecdotal evidence on this forum of people getting lower framerates when trying to crossfire Radeon 5000 cards, on SLI or CF of newer cards you usually get pretty close to zero benefit but never lose framerates.

I've seen games where negative scaling was incurred by SLI or CF, if i'm still awake when i come home @ midnight and i'm not exhausted to crap, i'll find it somewhere.
Though yes the HD5XXX series had a max scaling potential of like 70% orso?

However... i've had an HD5970 (sold that to get HD6990) and i've actually tested this negative scaling with WoW, it didn't happen, it would be next to no benefit, but it didn't happen.
I think we had (not you and me personally) an argument about this before on this forum, and had several people chime in that it was next to no benefit, but never negative scaling afaik.

[Worgoblin]

I've got an amazon gift card, so think I'm gonna use that and get the PhenomII x4 965 for 100 bucks. I checked and it's compatible with my motherboard. I'm hoping it gives me a nice FPS boost in WoW

[Tanthalus]

wow has 2 and a bit main threads so what you shall have is stability ; just makes sure you motherboard has the latest updates , then later on look at upgrading your video card and i would consider 4 (2x2) of extra ram , as IMO 8gb is the `sweet spot`

[vesseblah]

and i would consider 4 (2x2) of extra ram , as IMO 8gb is the `sweet spot`

WoW really does not need more than 4GB of RAM if you aren't trying something silly like for example running WoW and SWToR at the same time. Adding more over 4GB will give big fat zero in performance gain when playing on single monitor.

[Evildeffy]

WoW really does not need more than 4GB of RAM if you aren't trying something silly like for example running WoW and SWToR at the same time. Adding more over 4GB will give big fat zero in performance gain when playing on single monitor.

I iz home, here's just 2 links i pulled out on a quick search because i'm tired for the negative SLI scaling.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2613340
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2382696

I've also seen some reviews with it somewhere, just can't find it ATM, these 2 are actually STEAM related though, ofcourse STEAM blames it on nVidia and vice versa.

And also i've seen definite improvements in a heavy 25 man raid between 4 and 8GB with the background processes running aswell.