Need Help With System Overview/Upgrading

So i downloaded a few ( NEWER Games ) i am BETA testing the new APB:Reloaded fps/mmo

And i am lagging so bad in that game i cant even aim. It has made me look at my PC and decide its time ot at least upgrade some components.

I will post my details and basically what im asking is WHAT is the most CRITICAL to upgrade FIRST for the biggest LEAP in performance.

Motherboard : ASUS P5G41-M LX G41

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 / 2.4 Ghz e4600

Ram : 2 gigs of Corsair GAMING ram

Gfx Card : NVIDA Geforce 8400 gs (( i know lol ))


Now this computer believe it or not runs htings like STARCRAFT 2 Fine and a few other newer gamers. But not on GREAT settings.

Someone also told me that this processor i have can be overclocked to 3.0 ghz very easily and that i would ONLY need to OC the processors not the other stuff if i only go for 3.0 ghz ?

So in finishing , im asking WHAT steps should be taken if im going to upgrade piece by piece and as a BASE goal lets say i want to run APB : Reloaded without lag. And im lagging terribly in it right now.

Ex : Ram -> Gfx - > overclock ?
And i need some info on HOW to OC correctly / safely what speed to set.


I appreciate all your help and i LOVE having this site to fall to when i have computer questions it makes my life so much easier. Thanks you guys i really apprecaite this.

btw feel free to link me to NEWEGG ram deals or whatever when you post the suggestions. :major

 

Hi

You didn't mention your operating system, whether it's 32 bit or 64 bit, or the model hard drive you have. These can influence gaming as much as your other components.

If you're planning on saving as much hardware as you can, then upgrading your RAM is the first step. Your motherboard supports up to 8GB, but if you only have a 32 bit operating system you'll only be able to use a maximum of 4GB.

The second thing you can upgrade with your current hardware is your graphics card. This will depend on your budget AND your current PSU (wattage rating isn't the only thing that matters, it'd help to know what brand/model you have as well).

As to overclocking your processor, that's something you will want to mess with after the other upgrades, as your RAM and graphics card are the current bottleneck in your performance.

 

I echo mcsmc...

As far as Overclocking goes there are a number of things to consider (I am not going to go into how to Overclock because it is an extremely complex process that others have written extensive guides to. Google is your friend here).

1. The first thing you have to understand is that overclocking WILL reduce the life expectancy of you components.

2. Overclocking is not just about your CPU. To do this effectively you will have to both understand the details of how a system works and give consideration to how the changes you make impact upon other system components. Overclocking effects Motherboard, Memory and CPU.

3. You WILL invalidate any warranty on OCed components

4. Will your Motherboard allow you to overclock? I haven't checked your board out so I dont know off the top of my head.

5. Heat is your enemy. If you only have stock cooling on your components you will not be able to get the Maximum out of your system. You do not need a water cooled system as you can get very good OC results with air cooling but you WILL need a very good CPU heatsink and fan and a good case with plenty of airflow.

6. Be prepared to trash your components. If you make a mistake you could quite easily fry your CPU, RAM or MB.

I dont wish to put you off because Overclocking is a fantastic tool to get more value for money and your chip will OC well but my main point is that you mustn't just start changing your CPU settings without first understanding what they do. OCing is an art not a science because no two chips are the same. One chip may only get to 2.8GHz while another "identical" chip will get to 3.2Ghz.

Im no expert but I have done a bit and it is a fantastic way to learn more about how your PC works and how the individual components interact, so do it but understand what you are doing and have fun at the same time.

 

I belive its a 32 bit windows xp , becasue when i view system it says

Windows XP professional [year] etc etc but does not say x64 anywhere in there.

So i can get up to 4 gigs ? is it a good/bad idea to keep my current 2 gig Cruical gaming stick and get just another 2 gigs or should i buy a matching set of 4 gig ram sticks ??

As far as video card i would like to keep it kinda cheap atleast but good bang for the buck.

My powersupply is the Cooler Master 460
Product number so u can find it is RS-460-PMSR-A3

Do you think getting 4 gigs of ram as opposped to 2 gigs will help my TERRIBLE lag in APB:Reloaded ? It says it requires 2.5 min gigs and says if udont have 2.5 min gigs of ram that it will not run correctly.

Or do you think the Video card will have a much better affect.


MY hard drive is this
Barracuda 7200.7 SATA : ST3160023AS

Barracuda 7200.7

Capacity:
Speed:
Average Read Time:
Cylinders:
Heads:
Sectors:
160.0 GB
7200 rpm
8.5 ms
16383
16
63

 

Either of you guys around tonight ? Was going to be looking at some new ram 2morra and was wondering since i posted the rest of the spec's if RAM is indeed the best choice or video card would be ? Or even something else ?

Also my other question was can i just guy ANOTHER 2 gig stick and ADD it to my pc, or take my old 2 gig out and buy a matching set of 4 gig ? (2 gig each )

Thanks guys.

 

It depends what you mean by tonight? Im in the UK so if you are state side there is a time difference and I may be sleeping.

As far as RAM goes you have a couple of options depending on whether you want to keep you existing RAM or not. I need to know the type of RAM you have. I would suggest that you download and run Speccy then post your log so we can have the full system spec. Make sure that you remover your Windows Serial before you post your log.

The key thing is your memory speed. Your MB supports upto 1333MHz on the FSB but DDR2 seems to only go up to 1066MHz. If your existing RAM is 1066MHz then I would just add another two sticks to it(Here is some for you) but if it isnt then I would get a 4GB pair and bin your old (Here is a 4GB pair). Kingston are a decent manufacturer of RAM and the happen to be the cheapest on new egg. Personally I would be temped to spend a little more and get either Corsair or OCZ. Basically anything from here will work.

You MB should be quite good for OCing as it supports a higher FSB than the speed of any memory that is available. I think this should mean that your Northbridge wont limit your system speed. It also seems to have some good software for OCing which will allow you to turn off and on the OCing so you could turn it on when gaming and off when not. This will help with heat and preserve your system.

If you plan to OC your CPU I would recomend that you get the fastest memory available as it will allow you to push the FSB higher and get the most out of your RAM and Northbridge. In overclocking terms (and this may not make sense now but should once you have done a bit of studying) you get better performance from a high FSB and a low CPU multiplier because the FSB speed will affect your RAM and Northbridge where as the multiplier only affect your CPU.

eg.

FSB Speed| Multipler | CPU Clock
200MHz | X15 | 3000MHz (3GHz)
300MHz | X10 | 3000MHz (3GHz)

As you can see both of the above give the same CPU spee but the second config will give you better ferformance as your RAM and Northbridge will be running faster. DDR2 means that in the first example your memory will need to run at 800MHz and in the second it will need to run at 1200MHz hence why I say get the fastest RAM you can

PLEASE NOTE THE NUMBERS USED IN THE EXAMPLE ABOVE ARE COMPLETELY THEORETICAL AND DESIGNED TO MAKE THE MATHS EASY. THEY ARE NOT A PRACTICAL SET OF NUMBERS TO BE USED.

 

http://apbreloaded.gamersfirst.com/

I suggest you go 64bit with 6-8GB of RAM, a quad core CPU and a more modern gfx card. Or stop playing this game, it reads like it's unlikely to get fixed.

 

I agree you desperately need more RAM. I generally recommend 6Gb for triple channel boards and 8Gb for dual channel boards. And of course, both 6 and 8 require a 64-bit OS.

BUT I would not upgrade my hardware because a "beta" program does not run properly. If you are having problems with other "final release" programs, then yes. But not for a beta.

 

Nice find. If it is that memory intensive then its no wonder that the game latency spikes on 32Bit OS. Its probably just where the system is shifting stuff from HD to memory and from net to memory. If it pushes 2GB I fail to see how it will run on 32bit OS.

Might be worth hanging on until the game is out of beta to see if they do manage any sort of optimisation. Its worth pointing out that if you buy RAM for your current board you wont be able to use it should you decide to replace your CPU and MB. Any quad core system will be DDR3 (and if you dont go for DDR3 I wouldn't bother upgrading) You may find that you can get a new GPU which you could later transfer.

 

Thank you guys all very much for you help but if you remember i was merely using APB as a example, alot of games i would like better performance in SC2 // Battlefield's // etc etc

And as i imagine in a year ill be getting a fully new rig, for now i dont mind spending 60-70 $ getting upgraded to 4 gigs to enjoy the next year or so.

As for Tueur, im not sure if you realized this but you said get 2 x 1 gig sticks and ADD it to my current, problem with that is my motherboard if you check , only has 2 ram slots
So i would have to either get a 2 gig stick of the SAME i have now or get a 4 gig kit, i think the kit would have better results.

Here are some Speccy pastes


RAM
Memory slots
Total memory slots 2
Used memory slots 1
Free memory slots 1
Memory
Type DDR2
Size 2048 MBytes
Channels # Single
DRAM Frequency 401.8 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 5 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 5 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 18 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 25 %
Total Physical 2.00 GB
Available Physical 1.49 GB
Total Virtual 2.00 GB
Available Virtual 1.89 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 1
Slot #1
Slot #1
Type DDR2
Size 2048 MBytes
Manufacturer Corsair
Max Bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part Number CGM2X2G800
SPD Ext. EPP
JEDEC #2
Frequency 400.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 18
tRC 23
Voltage 1.800 V
JEDEC #1
Frequency 266.7 MHz
CAS# Latency 4.0
RAS# To CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
tRAS 12
tRC 16
Voltage 1.800 V




GFX

GeForce 8400 GS
GPU G98
Device ID 10DE-06E4
Revision A2
Subvendor EVGA (3842)
Current Performance Level Level 1
Current GPU Clock 567 MHz
Current Memory Clock 266 MHz
Current Shader Clock 1400 MHz
Technology 65 nm
Die Size 86 nmІ
Release Date 2008
DirectX Support 10.0
DirectX Shader Model 4.0
OpenGL Support 3.0
Bus Interface PCI Express x16
Temperature 55 °C
GPU Clock 567 MHz
Memory Clock 266 MHz
Driver nv4_disp.dll
Driver version 6.14.12.5896
ForceWare version 258.96
BIOS Version 62.98.71.00.20
ROPs 4
Shaders 16 unified
Memory 512 MB
Bus Width 64 Bit
Pixel Fillrate 2.3 GPixels/s
Texture Fillrate 4.5 GTexels/s
Count of performance levels : 1
Level 0
GPU Clock 567 MHz
Memory Clock 266 MHz
Shader Clock 1400 MHz

 

I noticed my gfx card Average temp was a little high, is this because its a low end card an dim pushing it ? My cpu is idling around 30-32 C which i believe is very good ? I think this cpu pushs out at 60 ?

 

I just found this , its the EXACT stick i have in right now ( i only have 1 stick in right now so im only using SINGLE channel )

If i add this EXACT stick wouldnt it be just as good as buying a 4 gig kit ? and its only 29.99 ?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...CODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

 

Yes and no. There is an argument that a matched pair performs better than two separately purchased sticks however I am extremely sceptical over this argument and personally I dont think it makes a blind bit of difference.

That chip (and thus the once you have installed) is DDR2 800MHz. Your board supports a memory frequency upto 1066MHz so if you were to buy a kit you could get faster RAM that will give better performance.

 

actually im looking at the speccy i posted it says 400 ! under the one i have installd now , do you see that tuer ? can that be right ?

can you link me to a pair of dd2 4 gig combo ( 2 x 2 gig ) for a good price ? i was told newegg isnt always the best on pricing.

 

Could that be actually becasue i only have 1 2 gig stick in there and its not running dual but single atm ?

 

No its because its ddr RAM DDR is Double Data Rate (I think). it means that you double the memory speed, so the clock reads 400 but it the ddr means it runs at 800

 

you said my comp wont support 1100 mhz ram right ? 1066mhz max ? im going to buy a low lat/timing OCZ pair of 4 gig 1066mhz ram combo

 

I dont believe you can get 1100MHz RAM. The fastest DDR2 I can find is 1066MHz You then get DDR3 which jumps to 1333MHz and upwards. From what I read on your motherboard it will support upto 1066MHz.

If you use 1066MHz RAM your transfer rates will increase from 6400MBits/s to 8533.5MBits/s

 

Can I ask why? OCZ make great RAM just because they are going to stop making it doesn't mean you shouldnt buy it? They still have the same obligations to honour warenty etc. Things may be different in the US.

Other ones to look at are Corsair, Crucial and Kingston

 

Perhaps studying this will explain why it might be better to avoid OCZ RAM - and it has a European flavour

 

Thanks, that makes more sense. I think I missed the point and though them pulling out of the market was the reason not to buy rather than they are pulling out of the market because there return rates were :crap. I am really supprised though. I have never had OCZ memory as my last rig ran Kingston HyperX and My current has Crucial Balistix but I have always heard good things about OCZ!

Whats more Kingston were also the cheapest on Newegg (I think, it was either on Newegg when I was looking for the links below or OverclockersUK when I was tempting myself! lol)

 

The only ram I have ever had go down was OCZ Platinum 1GB PC3200. Best looking :-o ram I've had but, chrome won't get you home.

 

Thank you guys all for the help, i have decided to hold off on upgrading as adding more RAM to a 32bit dd2 low gfx card system would only scratch the sufrace of the problems im encountering with new age games. I guess ill save up and start piecing together a new system. Thanks everyone.