[Advice] Recording Firelands Raids with 1080p

[Romulan1993]

I'm currently recording firelands at 720p at 30fps with not much lag. I'm upgrading my monitor to a fullHD 24", first I will list my current system specs.

AMD Phenom(I think) X4 3.1ghz
4gb DDR3 Ram 1333mhz
nvidia 9500gt 1gb GDDR3
2 x 1tb HDD 7200RPM
400w power supply

I know I won't be able to record 1080p with this, upgrading CPU isn't an option. I know I'll have to get a new PSU if I am going to get a new Gfx card. So does anybody know of a worthy Graphics Card within the budget of £200 for the card + PSU.

I appreciate your time.

[vesseblah]

Upgrading graphics card will do exactly zero difference to video capture speed.

You might be able to do 1080p capture if you turn the video settings in game low enough to free CPU and make sure you cap to a fast HDD with nothing else going on in it while playing.


Optimal HDD setup with two discs is something like:

HDD1: WoW + windows
HDD2 1st half : video capture and nothing else
HDD2 2nd half : junk storage

Formatting the second disc into two partitions and using the first partition for nothing else than only video capture will give best performance.

[Asera]

I did 1080p capture fine on a Phenom II.

[SylarAC]

Upgrading graphics card will do exactly zero difference to video capture speed.

You might be able to do 1080p capture if you turn the video settings in game low enough to free CPU and make sure you cap to a fast HDD with nothing else going on in it while playing.


Optimal HDD setup with two discs is something like:

HDD1: WoW + windows
HDD2 1st half : video capture and nothing else
HDD2 2nd half : junk storage

Formatting the second disc into two partitions and using the first partition for nothing else than only video capture will give best performance.

What he said! Lol

[Romulan1993]

Upgrading graphics card will do exactly zero difference to video capture speed.

You might be able to do 1080p capture if you turn the video settings in game low enough to free CPU and make sure you cap to a fast HDD with nothing else going on in it while playing.


Optimal HDD setup with two discs is something like:

HDD1: WoW + windows
HDD2 1st half : video capture and nothing else
HDD2 2nd half : junk storage

Formatting the second disc into two partitions and using the first partition for nothing else than only video capture will give best performance.

It's not the capture speed. It's the quality of the video whilst I'm raiding, because I have to upgrade my monitor to get fullHD I don't think my current gfx card will handle it on ultra.

[vesseblah]

It's not the capture speed. It's the quality of the video whilst I'm raiding, because I have to upgrade my monitor to get fullHD I don't think my current gfx card will handle it on ultra.

As I said, turn settings lower.

New graphics card will not increase minimum framerate, only maximum, and that is not what you're after in video capture. WoW depends on CPU speed first and foremost.

[Wries]

I could totally imagine a 9500GT not keeping up at 1920x1080. For good priceVperformance and keeping in mind that WoW doesn't need much GPU horsepower: Get a Nvidia GF GTX 460/560/560Ti (good/slightly better/superior) or AMD Radeon HD 6770/6850/6870 (ok/good/great)

As said video capture rate will probably suffer by this resolution change with that CPU but you can always run and capture in windowed mode should that be the case.

[Romulan1993]

As I said, turn settings lower.

New graphics card will not increase minimum framerate, only maximum, and that is not what you're after in video capture. WoW depends on CPU speed first and foremost.

So I will gain absolutely zero performance if I get an improved graphics card. Sounds stupid.

[vesseblah]

So I will gain absolutely zero performance if I get an improved graphics card. Sounds stupid.

Graphics card will not speed up video capture. That's what you asked for. What graphics card does is that it allows you to turn some video settings higher.

In WoW your minimum FPS depends on CPU, while maximum FPS depends on graphics card.

[Deleted]

As others have said, WoW is more CPU dependent than one can think and a GPU upgrade will do only so much. The most important thing when frapsing to 1080p video is to make sure you have a HDD that can handle the traffic, which is around 70Mb/sec for 50-60fps footage. Make sure you got a dedicated drive for the recording, as that will yield the best result.

Also, if you are set on buying a new monitor in either case, I'd recommend doing so and then messing around with the settings. Turn shadows off completely, and mess around with spell detail and draw distance. Multisampling/AA is also recommended to be turned off when mixing with the settings.

If you will upgrade your GPU, don't go for a 560. The 560 ti is superior for the price difference. But if WoW is all you play, there is little reason to go higher than a 460 anyway, as CPU will have a greater impact on performance. You could even pick up the super-old 260 (which is basically what you have now) and have that running the game at excellent framerates, as long as you have a powerful CPU to go with it.

[naadra]

That 200 convert to about 280 us dollars?

---------- Post added 2011-07-28 at 08:26 AM ----------

Well if it does, maybe take that money and instead of getting a new psu, GPU, upgrade mobo and processor? Like a I3 and mobo?

[Romulan1993]

Graphics card will not speed up video capture. That's what you asked for. What graphics card does is that it allows you to turn some video settings higher.

In WoW your minimum FPS depends on CPU, while maximum FPS depends on graphics card.

I'm sorry if it came across that way. I'm already getting a FullHD monitor and my current graphics card isn't up to the standard I want. Seeing as I'm getting a HD monitor and I need a new graphics card, is there a graphics card below the price of £200 that will give me good fps whilst recording, not the video capture. I'm sorry that I didn't explain better.

[Deleted]

I'm sorry if it came across that way. I'm already getting a FullHD monitor and my current graphics card isn't up to the standard I want. Seeing as I'm getting a HD monitor and I need a new graphics card, is there a graphics card below the price of £200 that will give me good fps whilst recording, not the video capture. I'm sorry that I didn't explain better.

Well, not sure if you are mixing it up there. When you Fraps your gameplay, you will see the FPS that Fraps can record. Not more, not less. This is because Fraps takes the footage that comes from the GPU, and saves it to a HDD.

The GPU you have is good enough to run the game at medium-high settings with excellent framerates, even at 1080p. But if you want to record 25-man raids, you need a CPU that can handle the increased workload.

[Romulan1993]

That 200 convert to about 280 us dollars?

---------- Post added 2011-07-28 at 08:26 AM ----------

Well if it does, maybe take that money and instead of getting a new psu, GPU, upgrade mobo and processor? Like a I3 and mobo?

I upgraded my mobo and cpu a couple of months ago so I don't want to upgrade again.

[vesseblah]

Seeing as I'm getting a HD monitor and I need a new graphics card, is there a graphics card below the price of £200 that will give me good fps whilst recording, not the video capture.

In that price segment GTX560ti and Radeon 6950 are the sensible choices. What you pick depends mostly on personal taste and if your motherboad supports SLI or Crossfire or both. Both of those cards will be able to max out WoW as long as your CPU is not bottlenecking the performance (and sadly it will).

Radeon card uses bit less electricity, but Nvidia cards have better coolers meaning less noise and heat. My personal favourite would be MSI GTX560ti Twin Frozr simply because it has one of the best coolers around.

[Romulan1993]

Okay so do I really need to upgrade CPU to see a big performance increase? I decided to check some out but I'm seeing i7 3.3ghz that's only .2ghz more

[vesseblah]

Okay so do I really need to upgrade CPU to see a big performance increase? I decided to check some out but I'm seeing i7 3.3ghz that's only .2ghz more

It's not the size but how you use it

No, seriously. Intel i5-2500K is two years newer technology than any current AMD processor, that's why it can do significantly higher framerates with 'only' 0.2GHz more. This chart below is just for getting the general trends, don't take it as absolute authority of what kind of framerates you'll see in WoW for sure. I'm putting it here to illustrate the point above, of what 2-3 years' difference really makes.




In your case you might be able to upgrade to next generation of AMD processors when those come out after all delays in late september, depending on what motherboard you have exactly.

[Deleted]

Okay so do I really need to upgrade CPU to see a big performance increase? I decided to check some out but I'm seeing i7 3.3ghz that's only .2ghz more

Intel and AMD is very different, you can't just look at clock speeds. My i5 750 is better than your phenom x4, even though mine is only at 2.66GHz
Intel processors does more per clock cycle.

[Romulan1993]

I'm so confused now, I have a bigger clock, but ur smaller clock is better? OMG I need somebody to hold my hand right now. Can somebody just link:

1. A not so expensive CPU that will increase my fps.

[Deleted]

Can you please run DxDiag/CPU-z to find out what processor you have first? There is no Phenom x4 at 3.1GHz.