Comrades in Arms Discussion Board

So, I've understood that some people here know quite well about PC components and stuff, so I decided to consult people with more knowledge first.


I'm going to have a lot of free time until January so I decided that maybe I should put a little money into few new components. Mostly because of few games that are coming towards the end of this year. (Too bad arma 3 will come out in december) Untill now I've been running Nvidia GT9600 and a intel core 2 duo 2.8GHz. And yes, feel free to laugh, I lag A LOT while trying to play arma 2 on even decent settings. But Since my personal fun time sponsored by Finnish government starts in january I don't wan't to put too much money into the parts, since they will mostly just be sitting at home unused after january.


I've been thinking about buying new motherboard, CPU, GPU, and memory. I've got my eyes on a used AMD phenom II 995 (or another Phenom quad core of same sorts) and a pretty good mobo with it. So main question: What kind of a GPU would you suggest for this set up, so that there shouldn't be huge bottle necking? I know it depends on the game you play etc, but for something like ARMA2, ARMA3, BF3, and maybe the incoming Far cry 3.
I've been looking at a GTX460. Would that be somewhere close?


And please, don't preach me about amd vs. intel since I'll get the processor because of the bang for the buck on the phenoms. I'm really trying to go on a low budget since I'll probably be building a completely new rig in about 1,5 years.

CPU    - Phenom II X4 955 (C3) or 965
COOLER - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO or Xigmatek Aegir
MOBO - Asus or Gigabyte with AMD 970 or 990X chipset
GPU    - nVidia 560, 560ti  ATI/AMD 6870,7850,7870
MEM  - 2x4GB DDR3 1600

..and what PSU you have and how old is it?

450W continuous power suply. It might just work. Or maybe not. An it's 3 years old.


But you would go as new as GTX560?

For new system you need new branded PSU with minimum 500W. GTX460 and GTX560 are the same card only with the higher speed but I will go with GTX560 because driver support.

This is my spec with CiA addons for Tuesday and Sunday and I have 50FPS average in E08 mission:

AMD Phenom II X4 955BE@4GHz+XIGMATEK Loki
ASUS M5A97 Pro
2x2GB 1600MHz DDR3
PowerColor 6870
Seasonic-500ET
Win7 64bit

Just a thought, how about AMD 7770, it's around 100 eur, and you get same performance as 560, but it is newer and more power efficient. And after you pay your dues to the homeland you can just add another one and run them in crossfire.

7770 is weaker than 560 

Damn. So there is almost no way to do this by budget of maximum ~200€.... Well... I guess I didn't go for the most upgradeable platform when I built this computer. Even though I had major luck by buying hardware that happened to be on a pretty same level. (I didn't have a lot of knowledge about this stuff back then) I guess it will have to wait, and it's pretty ok since I would only have few weeks for playing arma 3.

(10-25-2012, 09:34 PM)Horus link Wrote:7770 is weaker than 560 

True. It's from 10 to 25% slower than 560ti depending on the game, but is also some 50 eur cheaper. And he would not need to change PSU to be able to run 7770. 

(10-26-2012, 07:28 AM)Bubba link Wrote:I would only have few weeks for playing arma 3.

Now comes worst part, there will be no release this year. Of course nothing is announced officially but from the fact that long awaited community alpha will be released in December I conclude that we are still far from official release. My bet is summer 2013.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.ph...ost2236903

(10-26-2012, 11:33 AM)Miša link Wrote:http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.ph...ost2236903

Ooh! I thought it was the final release! Well then it's even more okay.    You made me feel a little better.

(10-26-2012, 11:33 AM)Miša link Wrote:True. It's from 10 to 25% slower than 560ti depending on the game, but is also some 50 eur cheaper. And he would not need to change PSU to be able to run 7770.

...slower than 560 non-ti version 

(10-26-2012, 07:28 AM)Bubba link Wrote:Damn. So there is almost no way to do this by budget of maximum ~200€.... Well... I guess I didn't go for the most upgradeable platform when I built this computer. Even though I had major luck by buying hardware that happened to be on a pretty same level. (I didn't have a lot of knowledge about this stuff back then) I guess it will have to wait, and it's pretty ok since I would only have few weeks for playing arma 3.

Did you try to OC your system? This is my wife system and she have 40FPS in E08 benchmark:

Intel Pentium E5300 @3.66GHz
Gigabyte P35-DS3R
VTX3D HD 5750 @850:1150
2x1GB DDR2 800MHz

Horus, how does your game run with texture detail and video memory set to very high? I have heard that it may cause problems if you don't have a card with more than 1GB of video memory? Like things popping up in game or crashes. I keep it to high with my 560ti which has only 1GB.

Can you see difference between objects detail set to very high compared to high? I can't, so I put it to high. 

(10-26-2012, 10:38 PM)Horus link Wrote:...slower than 560 non-ti version 

Well, yeah, typo. But still much faster than 9600gt.

(10-27-2012, 12:23 AM)Miša link Wrote:Horus, how does your game run with texture detail and video memory set to very high? I have heard that it may cause problems if you don't have a card with more than 1GB of video memory? Like things popping up in game or crashes. I keep it to high with my 560ti which has only 1GB.

Can you see difference between objects detail set to very high compared to high? I can't, so I put it to high. 

What setting you use for VD? Try my settings and see how game run to you.

VH for video memory is for GPU with 1GB VMEM and default is for GPU with upward 1GB.

(10-26-2012, 10:38 PM)Horus link Wrote:Did you try to OC your system? This is my wife system and she have 40FPS in E08 benchmark:

Intel Pentium E5300 @3.66GHz
Gigabyte P35-DS3R
VTX3D HD 5750 @850:1150
2x1GB DDR2 800MHz

H-H-ho-how is that possible?!?! My mobo is dp35dp and it's not too great. I'm a little afraid it might burn if I over clock too much. Maybe I should try that. I'll need some cooling for my tower though.
But really... with those specs? The CPU is worse than mine and the GPU is about the same on benchmarks..

Don't worry about OC with stock cooler you can go to 3.4~3.6GHz. Just follow the temperature does not go above 60°C. You only need just to disable ( C1, EIST... ) or fix ( CPU Ratio, FSB Frequency... ) some settings in BIOS.
Just buy some good CPU cooler, this1 is good for future upgrade too, and you ready to go  8)

If you need some assistance ask