F1 2010 Help with graphics upgrade.

[Neil Bateman]

My PC just is not up to it for this game, i have limited funds and was thinking of getting a new graphics card, i dont really know if its just the card that is the reason for the bad performance but right now it is my only option for an upgrade short of a complete overhaul which i dont have the funds for.

Here are my current pc specs, which seem plenty good enough for rFactor and Gtr Evo:

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2GHz
Winfast K8M890-8237 Mainboard
Nvidia GeForce 9800GT 1GB DDR3 PCIe Graphics
2GB DDR2 PC2-5300U 667 MHz RAM Memory
Hitachi HDT722520DLA380 200GB SATA Hard Drive
Hitachi HDS721616PLA380 160GB SATA Hard Drive
WD Ext HDD 1021 1TB (USB) External Hard Drive
2 X Optiarc DVD RW AD-5170A Disk Drives
Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Windows 7 Ultimate
Hanns-g HG216D HDMI 22" Widescreen Monitor

This is my last benchmark test on 1680x1050 with all settings up full:

- <benchmark>
<settings hardwaresettings="hardware_settings_config.xml" view="bumper" />

<average min_fps="13.347749" av_fps="15.830098" min_fps_ms="74.918999" av_fps_ms="63.170803" />

- <track>
- <settings name="silverstone" route="route_0" weather="Clear" forceyellowflag="0">
<car name="mc0" />

<car name="mc0" />

<car name="fc0" />

<car name="fc0" />

<car name="fe0" />

<car name="fe0" />

<car name="hr0" />

<car name="hr0" />

<car name="lo0" />

<car name="lo0" />

<car name="me0" />

<car name="me0" />

<car name="rb0" />

<car name="rb0" />

<car name="re0" />

<car name="re0" />

<car name="sa0" />

<car name="sa0" />

<car name="tr0" />

<car name="tr0" />

<car name="vi0" />

<car name="vi0" />

<car name="wi0" />

<car name="wi0" />

</settings>


<results samples="2012" min_fps="13.347749" av_fps="15.830098" min_fps_ms="74.918999" av_fps_ms="63.170803" />

</track>

As you can see its pretty grim, but worse is that it does not really improve much on lower resolution or lower game settings, i am lucky if i get an Avg of 20 fps.

I cant really improve on the RAM as the board only recognises 2GB, i could try DDR3 800Mhz but is this worth it for a small gain from DDR2 667Mhz?

So to the card, Nvidia or ATI?

I was looking at an Nvidia 1GB GTX460, the 470 is just a updated 460 and the 480 is too expensive, i have never had an ATI Radeon before so not sure what to start looking at with those.

I have maybe £250 to spend so any advice would really be helpful.

 

[Neil Bateman]

Anyone have any advice please?

 

[Peter]

It's your CPU and you only have 2GB of memory, the GPU seems OK.

 

[AProst]

I cant really improve on the RAM as the board only recognises 2GB, i could try DDR3 800Mhz but is this worth it for a small gain from DDR2 667Mhz?

New ram won't help.
You can try to overclock your CPU if you know how to play with bios settings.
GTX460 1024Mo (not the 768Mo) is nice for the price but your system is probably CPU limited...

 

[Neil Bateman]

Thanks for replys guys, i had no idea my cpu was that bad, i will look into a bigger cpu, what right now would be a good choice of AMD cpu's, and yes i know i should have gone with intel but as usual it was a cashflow problem.

 

[Neil Bateman]

I just saw an AMD 64 X2 6000+ 3.0Ghz, seems ok on price and looks like the biggest cpu you can get on the AM2 socket, thoughts anyone?

I am hoping that alongside the 9800GT will be enough of an improvement as i cant increase the RAM, having said that i have seen on some forums that people have 4Gb of ram on this board even though the specs say it only supports 2Gb, would that mean that if you had 2 x 2Gb sticks of RAM only one of them would be used?

 

[Peter]

I just saw an AMD 64 X2 6000+ 3.0Ghz, seems ok on price and looks like the biggest cpu you can get on the AM2 socket, thoughts anyone?

I am hoping that alongside the 9800GT will be enough of an improvement as i cant increase the RAM, having said that i have seen on some forums that people have 4Gb of ram on this board even though the specs say it only supports 2Gb, would that mean that if you had 2 x 2Gb sticks of RAM only one of them would be used?

The AMD 64 X2 6000+ is allot better but you have only 2GB ram with Win7 Ultimate and that is not enough (The board only supports 2GB). It's better to go back to XP with this old PC.

 

[ongy2k3]

Don't change one thing. By doing it this way you are very limited. Basically, your CPU is below-average, your RAM is below-average, and your GPU is average. By changing one of these parts you really aren't going to see the benefits, and it certainly wouldn't be value for money.

If you're wanting to play on Ultra settings with a decent frame-rate, your going to have to upgrade all 3. Adding to your current system is only going to unveil another "bottleneck".

 

[Neil Bateman]

Thanks ongy2k3, after reading a few other posts on this sort of topic i realize that i need not only a new CPU, GPU and memory but motherboard as well, in fact i might as well go the whole hog and buy a complete new PC. Problem is i dont have the funds to do that so its a huge dilemma as to what to do for the best, right now for me the game is no fun to play when on some tracks its running at 13-15 FPS, its impossible to judge speed and braking into corners as i am going faster than it looks on screen, just gives me headaches and eyeaches.

 

[ongy2k3]

Indeed. Many people forget about the whole compatibility of hardware. For instance:

- You could get that AMD X2 6000+ because it's the same socket as your current motherboard, however there's nothing to say that your motherboards BIOS supports the CPU.

- You could upgrade your RAM in capacity, but it's hardly going to make a difference, and you cold upgrade it in speed but you can only go up to 800Mhz (a small improvement probably worth 1 fps).

- You could upgrade your GPU but it's only going to be held back by the CPU & RAM.

There are many novices on the internet now who think they are experts. If you really need help I suggest signing up to a computer forums such as overclockers.co.uk or tomshardware.co.uk

Really though it's not worth upgrading on your existing machine because you'll be wanting to upgrade again within a year.

If you're not the greatest with computers then just buy from a unit from an online retailer/shop.