Help Upgrade my Computer

[forelune]

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 970 3.5ghz(4.0 OC)
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO OC DDR3 1800+ AM3 Support CPU
4gb 1600 RAM
ATI Raedon HD 6950 2gb
750 Watt PS
Windows 7 x64
1650x1050/1920x1080 Resolutions
SDD

Looking for something I can upgrade besides RAM so that I could run a MMO like Tera or New FF14 on Max Settings at 60+FPS. Any help would be appreciated.

[n0cturnal]

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 970 3.5ghz(4.0 OC)
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO OC DDR3 1800+ AM3 Support CPU
4gb 1600 RAM
ATI Raedon HD 6950 2gb
750 Watt PS
Windows 7 x64
1650x1050/1920x1080 Resolutions
SDD

Looking for something I can upgrade besides RAM so that I could run a MMO like Tera or New FF14 on Max Settings at 60+FPS. Any help would be appreciated.

Tera is horribly optimized and I get drops below 60FPS with my build.

[forelune]

Well It's mostly for the New FF14 but not many people would know what type of CPU you would need for it unless they did the benchmark test. Not sure what else to compare it with for MMO standards

[n0cturnal]

Well It's mostly for the New FF14 but not many people would know what type of CPU you would need for it unless they did the benchmark test. Not sure what else to compare it with for MMO standards

How is it running for you now?

[forelune]

5999-6999 is Very High,
7000+ is Good on Maximum

Score:6473
Average Framerate:52.195
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 1680x1050
Graphics Presets: High


Score:5752
Average Framerate:46.972
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 1680x1050
Graphics Presets: Maximum

Score:10147
Average Framerate:88.992
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
Screen Size: 1024x768
Graphics Presets: Custom

Score:6608
Average Framerate:53.403
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 1680x1050
Graphics Presets: High

Score:7248
Average Framerate:61.899
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
Screen Size: 1280x720
Graphics Presets: Maximum


Score:8132
Average Framerate:67.504
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Graphics Presets: Custom (All Settings Off)


Score:5349
Average Framerate:43.348
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Graphics Presets: Maximum

[n0cturnal]

I'll download and run the benchmark so you can get something to compare against.

Got a link for where I can find the updated benchmark?

[forelune]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/index.html

You can post it to Twitter with specs at the end of the test
https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23FFXIV&src=hash

So I kinda got an idea of how I compare but its just everyone with I7's and Nvidias that are getting that 7000+ mostly...

[Faithh]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/index.html

You can post it to Twitter with specs at the end of the test
https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23FFXIV&src=hash

So I kinda got an idea of how I compare but its just everyone with I7's and Nvidias that are getting that 7000+ mostly...

I get 10K orsomething there but couldn't run full screen. All I can say is that my cpu is bottlenecking my graphics card even at 4.7GHz currently. http://i.imgur.com/rvFRueZ.jpg

It's using 3 cores only I guess, just don't mind nvidia threaded optimization which kicked in :P

[forelune]

10k at Max Setting 1920x1080?

[n0cturnal]

Score:8015
Average Framerate:69.617
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

Screen Size: 1920x1080
Graphics Presets: Maximum


GPU usage was a bit low though, around 60-70%. Only running 4.2GHz on my CPU atm so I guess that limits it a bit.

[forelune]

Score:8015
Average Framerate:69.617
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

Screen Size: 1920x1080
Graphics Presets: Maximum


GPU usage was a bit low though, around 60-70%. Only running 4.2GHz on my CPU atm so I guess that limits it a bit.

Ty that actually helps a bit

[Faithh]

10k at Max Setting 1920x1080?

10k at Max Setting 1920x1080?

I said "orsomething" because my shortmemory is lacking sometimes..

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:24/02/2013 02:12:18
Score:9208
Average Framerate:81.048
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

Screen Size: 1920x1080
Graphics Presets: Maximum

The screenshot I gave was showing it already that my GPU & nocturnal's gpu wasn't performing at their max capacity because the cpu holds it back.

[forelune]

I said "orsomething" because my shortmemory is lacking sometimes..

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:24/02/2013 02:12:18
Score:9208
Average Framerate:81.048
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

Screen Size: 1920x1080
Graphics Presets: Maximum

The screenshot I gave was showing it already that my GPU & nocturnal's gpu wasn't performing at their max capacity because the cpu holds it back.

With AMD System Monitor it states that my CPU is at 20-50% in use and my GPU is 80%+ during it, Does this mean that my GPU is bottlenecking performance

[n0cturnal]

With AMD System Monitor it states that my CPU is at 20-50% in use and my GPU is 80%+ during it, Does this mean that my GPU is bottlenecking performance

Look at the individual cores, I would imagine that 20-50% is of the full CPU.

[forelune]

Look at the individual cores, I would imagine that 20-50% is of the full CPU.

This is an SS of it http://imgur.com/yA16suP

At Max with my GPU not OC I got 5000 then I OC'd it to 840/1325 and got 5200+ then I tried turning off shadows and got 5400+ so I think it may be my GPU

[Faithh]

This is an SS of it http://imgur.com/yA16suP

At Max with my GPU not OC I got 5000 then I OC'd it to 840/1325 and got 5200+ then I tried turning off shadows and got 5400+ so I think it may be my GPU

Your cpu is bottlenecking your graphics card. Overclocking your graphics card isn't going to give you performance because your cpu couldn't even keep it up at stock settings. You can make this graphics card running at 99% (which is obviously the point where the GPU performs at its best) by just getting a new CPU or if you can overclock this to 5GHz orsomething which is just practically impossible. I would recommend Intel over AMD because single core performance is just nowadays for gaming more important.

In some games you maye don't have a cpu bottleneck but this FF14 benchs was pointing it already out.

A gpu running at 50% just means that it's chilling because of a slow cpu or either fps-cap is enabled. If you get a 2500K orsomething you'll be able to push your 6950 easily to 99% but still you can experience low fps and that's actually the moment where the gpu is a bottleneck.

[forelune]

Your cpu is bottlenecking your graphics card. Overclocking your graphics card isn't going to give you performance because your cpu couldn't even keep it up at stock settings. You can make this graphics card running at 99% (which is obviously the point where the GPU performs at its best) by just getting a new CPU or if you can overclock this to 5GHz orsomething which is just practically impossible. I would recommend Intel over AMD because single core performance is just nowadays for gaming more important.

In some games you maye don't have a cpu bottleneck but this FF14 benchs was pointing it already out.

A gpu running at 50% just means that it's chilling because of a slow cpu or either fps-cap is enabled. If you get a 2500K orsomething you'll be able to push your 6950 easily to 99% but still you can experience low fps and that's actually the moment where the gpu is a bottleneck.

Well at times my GPU was running at 80 to 90%+ in the benchmark not 100% I suppose but it still seemed close I might have to upgrade both

[Faithh]

Well at times my GPU was running at 80 to 90%+ in the benchmark not 100% I suppose but it still seemed close I might have to upgrade both

Well I don't want to stop you upgrading them both but I'll just give my thoughts on it. Just start off upgrading the motherboard, cpu and eventually the RAM. Just look if it's playing fine, if not just buy a graphics card. 6950 is still a pretty card so yeah..

[forelune]

Well I don't want to stop you upgrading them both but I'll just give my thoughts on it. Just start off upgrading the motherboard, cpu and eventually the RAM. Just look if it's playing fine, if not just buy a graphics card. 6950 is still a pretty card so yeah..

Will do, thank you