Upgraded PC...no performance increase?

[Deleted]

Hi all,

I've recently upgraded my PC from:-

OS: Windows 7 32 bit
Processor: AMD Athalon 64 x2 4600+
Memory: 2,00 GB (DDR2)
Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9500 GT

to this:-

OS: Windows 7 64 bit
Processor: AMD Phenom IX X4 955 (3.20ghz)
Memory: 4,00 GB (DDR3)
Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9500 GT


Admittedly I haven't upgraded my graphics card just yet, but with the upgraded processor and memory I had expected some increase in performance, yet I'm still sticking around 30 fps with settings just on 'good' which is no change from my previous setup. I was probably a bit too optomistic to think I could move up to 'ultra' but I'd at least expect an improvement on the prevous settings.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why nothing has changed / what I can adjust?

[vesseblah]

Processor sets minimum framerate, graphics card sets maximum framerate.

You should see huge difference in 25-man raids, but very little improvement in solo questing with the upgrades you've done so far.

[Drunkenvalley]

It's a pretty big upgrade, but won't show very well in games. The minimum performance is higher though.

Pray tell, what powersupply do you have?

[Redmage]

Processor sets minimum framerate, graphics card sets maximum framerate.

You should see huge difference in 25-man raids, but very little improvement in solo questing with the upgrades you've done so far.

pretty much this... you might notice that your frame rate stays more consistant now, and doesn't get worse when your doing something high stress like big raids and clusterfucks where alot is going on.

if you want a better frame rate upgrade your graphics card, if you want faster load times upgrade your hardrive to a SSD.

Your PC works like one big unit, and when you make upgrades you have to take your whole system into consideration. You can have the best CPU in the world but if your GPU sucks then you won't get the full performance out of it in alot of situations (like gaming)

Another mistake people make is neglecting their hard drive, again if you have the worlds fastest CPU and all the ram in the world it won't make a diference if have an old harddrive with a shitty cache and RPMs... things will still take forever to load.

It's called bottlenecking and A LOT of people do it.

[grandpab]

You still have the same graphics card, gpu is being bottle necked.

[Deleted]

Graphics cards are the most key components (within reason) to game performance. The 9500GT is pretty outdated now, you'll notice a significant improvement when you upgrade that. (Note: make sure your power supply is capable of handling a more powerful/recent graphics card.)

[Drunkenvalley]

Graphics cards are the most key components (within reason) to game performance. The 9500GT is pretty outdated now, you'll notice a significant improvement when you upgrade that. (Note: make sure your power supply is capable of handling a more powerful/recent graphics card.)

For WoW, the processor is the key component.
Though the graphics card will be very important too, as you say.

[EzriEU]

1) Your graphics card is bottlenecking your new CPU (as has been said before). This means that your FPS won't go up because of the new CPU because your GPU can't put out any more. Your will most definitely see an increase in FPS (even at higher settings) with a new graphics card.

2) Although I'm sort of an AMD-fan myself, currently AMD CPUs aren't your first choice for gaming performance. An Intel Core i5 (not even talking i7 here) will outperform any Phenom processor when it comes to gaming. Plus - it's not even that much more expensive. Sadly, it would even outperform a Phenom II x6 1100 (which in turn outperforms even Intels new i7 2600 in massively parallelized computing - I'm talking e.g. numeric simulations here, where you can get a good use out of having 6 dedicated CPUs).

3) None of the above matters much when we're just talking WoW here. The AMD Phenom II x4 can handle WoW just fine when paired with a suitable graphics card. Get a middle-class one, you don't need the V8-twin-turbo equivalent of craphics cards. Just stay clear of the value-models and make sure your power supply can handle it.