PC idiot in need of advice!

[Quirquie]

My pc specs. It had only 4MB ram, I have already added 4MB more.

I am pretty sure I need to upgrade my power supply in order to add a video card.

Is this video card a decent enough one? If so, what power supply should I get to go with it?

I am currently playing at 5 fps! Everyone is amazed at how well I do with those numbers. I bought this pc specifically to play SWtor (shows how much I know right). I could really use some advice on what I should get.

[P-Rife]

the added RAM may not be utilized unless you are running a 64bit version of Windows. If you run 32 bit it only recognizes 3.5GB RAM even if you have 4GB.

I got this video card in November for SWTOR and run it on a 300W power supply
GEFORCE GTX 430 1GB PCIE VIDEO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162067

The biggest improvement I've seen is upgrading my CPU to a quad core from a Pentium D. I found the processor on ebay for less then $100. Since install I can run at the highest settings even in PvP and still get around 30+fps

My run down is
WIN 7 32bit
4GB RAM
GE Force GTX 430
Intel Q6600 core 2 quad CPU
300W power supply

[Chuck_Diesel]

That actually looks like a pretty solid card, especially for the price. It will definitely run SWTOR.

ASUS has a good calculator for estimating your power supply needs:
http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx

The only other advice I'd give is to make sure and check the dimensions of the card against the space in your computer. Some of these next-gen cards get pretty big and won't fit in smaller towers.

[AstralProjection]

Quirquie wrote:

My pc specs. It had only 4MB ram, I have already added 4MB more. I am pretty sure I need to upgrade my power supply in order to add a video card. Is this video card a decent enough one? If so, what power supply should I get to go with it? I am currently playing at 5 fps! Everyone is amazed at how well I do with those numbers. I bought this pc specifically to play SWtor (shows how much I know right). I could really use some advice on what I should get.

Hey Katrinka, you've picked out a good video card, and I wouldn't call yourself a PC idiot if you're smart enough to know that you may need a new power supply if you're going to purchase a new video card.

I would check out and make sure you have an available connector inside your case, because most new Video Cards seem to require their own power connector anymore.

Whether or not this will fix your FPS is hard to say. I would say probably based on my personal experience.

How are your loading times in TOR? The thing with TOR is, it's the most processor-heavy MMORPG I've ever seen. A lot of the problems with PC's running TOR aren't on the video end, but rather bottlenecked at the processor.

To give you an idea, I have a laptop with no video card, 4 GB of RAM, and an i5 processor. It runs TOR amazingly well considering it's using Intel onboard video - just overheats after about 30 minutes of play because it's a business laptop prone to that, and not designed for what I'm doing with it. It loads 3x faster than my desktop because it's got a solid i5 processor inside.

The desktop runs the game better once inside, but not *that* much better, considering it's got double the RAM, a solid state drive, and a slightly nicer video card than the one you linked, versus no video at all. It's really kind of staggering.

Processor seems to be the single most important piece of hardware for TOR.

Depending on what your initial card is (maybe you're getting by with onboard video?) you may see a large FPS improvement. If your current card is decent, your performance may be bottlenecked at the processor, like my desktop's is. Won't be able to fix that until I buy a new motherboard, as it's running an older Phenom processor and I don't want to replace it without going up to a better architecture for the motherboard.

Keep in mind that many PC's with powerful hardware *still* have issues in warzones or group PVP as well, though it seems more like a client/server issue than a true hardware issue to me (BioWare would know better than all of us, I suppose).

[Satiata]

Come to think of it, Tarith miiight actually be on to something.

when I had my huge PC problems in January (I told a few of you already, my power supply basically exploded and the only thing still working with my graphics card and my HDD)... I got myself a processor upgrade. 'only' a dual core i3 since it was unplanned expenses. I did notice a HUGE boost in loading screens, though, and since you said your loading screens also take a long time that might be it.

your card is actually better than the one I have, too (5770) so it should indeed give you pretty good graphics overall.

what I didn't see anyone mentioning, though...

does your card have enough space in your case? I had that problem when I originally bought my new one, I couldn't keep my old tiny little supercute case and had to get a new one

the thing with getting a new processor is that depending on it you will also need a new motherboard.

how much are you planning to spend on the whole upgrade?

[Quirquie]

I have win 7 64 bit and onboard video so no card currently, full size tower.

The only reason I know I might need a new power supply is because of an article Rebmac linked to me.

I want the upgrade to cost $150-200 max.

[Quirquie]

I got the video card from an article that Rebmac also linked to me. It is suppose to be the best video card for the money.

[AstralProjection]

Knowing that you're using onboard video right now, I think you'll see a dramatic improvement with that card, and yes, probably the best bang for your buck.

The improvement that top-end video cards give you usually isn't enough to justify the money unless money isn't an object. That one is going to be fine and dandy to run TOR, I'd go for it and expect a very noticeable improvement.

Do you know the wattage on your PSU?

If you've got at least a 450 you're probably fine. If you're going to bother replacing it, you may want to go higher, in the 5-600 range, just find one that has the right connectors for your hardware and isn't an arm and a leg. Many gaming rig PSUs are overkill for something that's not trying to be the best available.

[Quirquie]

I have several embedded links in my posts above with all the info. The power supply is only 300. I have no idea what kind of mb I have, the specs are all gibberish to me, so I can not use the calculator to figure out what kind of power supply I need, and that article about blowing up your pc has me pretty scared to pick the wrong one.

[AstralProjection]

Quirquie wrote:

I have several embedded links in my posts above with all the info. The power supply is only 300. I have no idea what kind of mb I have, the specs are all gibberish to me, so I can not use the calculator to figure out what kind of power supply I need, and that article about blowing up your pc has me pretty scared to pick the wrong one.

Heh, sorry, links on our forums don't always jump out at me because of how they're formatted. I would go for a 450-500w power supply.

Go to http://www.piriform.com click the downloads button and download the program called "Speccy" from them. Nice little program for figuring out the specs of someone else's system. It should tell you what kind of motherboard you have.

While you're on the site downloading CCleaner wouldn't hurt either, if you don't already have it. IMO it's the best registry/disk cleaning program out there, definitely among the free ones, and will help your PC run a little more smoothly if you aren't running regular disk cleanups and whatnot.

[Quirquie]

Will this power supply work?

I changed the color of the embedded link so it would stick out. I will edit rest of them to stand out better.

[Aranykai]

Quirquie wrote:

Will this power supply work? I changed the color of the embedded link so it would stick out. I will edit rest of them to stand out better.

Yes, that will work. That being said, I prefer to send a little extra and get a more reliable brand for power supplies when I build systems. I would recommend something more like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035
Yes, its 50 watts less in peak power rating, but imho, its a higher quality product that will be less likely to fail on you in 10-14 months.

[Quirquie]

It is the same price and has a mail-in rebate, I could surely do that!

[Quirquie]

I just wanted to thank every one who replied to me here. You guys have been a much bigger help than the people at hardware-revolution.com and I am going to get the video card I mentioned and the power supply Aikes mentioned.

Thank you guys!

[Quirquie]

AstralProjection wrote:

Go to http://www.piriform.com click the downloads button and download the program called "Speccy" from them. Nice little program for figuring out the specs of someone else's system. It should tell you what kind of motherboard you have. While you're on the site downloading CCleaner wouldn't hurt either, if you don't already have it. IMO it's the best registry/disk cleaning program out there, definitely among the free ones, and will help your PC run a little more smoothly if you aren't running regular disk cleanups and whatnot.

Thank you so much for this! I ran CCleaner before logging back on tonight, and I saw a pretty decent difference in my lag and a huge difference in my load times. I had a lot of temp files and stuff on my pc, it did log me out of all the things I like to stay logged in to all the time (I am lazy like that) but that is okay, I just logged back into those sites.

Pretty much all I have ever really done to this pc is defrag it quite regularly. If you have any more tips for me I would love to hear about them!