CPU & RAM Upgrade advice

glynf

Hi,

I have a few questions re. upgrading a PC. bought it 6 months ago-mainly for the case .

The plan is to upgrade it as funds are available. So far I installed a 2nd 8800 GTS in SLI and fitted a 1Kw PSU a few days ago.

Specs. are:

AREA 7500 Black

EVGA NFORCE 680i SLI MB

E6400 2.13GHZ

2 x 1 GB DDR2 PC2-6400

2 x EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GTS 640Mb

1 Kw Cooler Master ATX PSU

160GB 10K HDD
250GB 7.2K HDD

18X DUAL LAYER DVD±R/W
20X DUAL LAYER DVD±R/W L.S.



I think the E6400 is the weak link at this stage, and was thinking of a Q6600.

Would my m.board handle this, I read somewhere this chip needs a decent m.board, is mine adequate?

Would this require additional cooling as I have also read that the heatsink it comes with is not great-what would you recommend?
(I am lucky to get the time to game these days-so I don't plan to spend what time I have overclocking the thing to within an inch of its life..)

As for the memory, since I put the 2nd GPU the text 'SLI-READY MEMORY-NOT DETECTED' is at the bottom of my BIOS screen, is 'SLI ready memory' going to make a difference?

From what I understand, memory speed higher than 800 MHz makes little difference?


I ran 3D Mark 06 (freebie version:D), results was 9120 marks with 169.25 nvidia drivers, BIOS and all other drivers updated to latest versions

So far I have played COD4, Stalker & HL2 all settings on high no issues @ 1680 x 1050 & 1920 x 1080 (on TV).
I am still only getting 29 fps average for Crysis @ 1680 x 1050-expected more tbh.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated lads.


Thanks in advance.

dazftw

glynf wrote: »

I think the E6400 is the weak link at this stage, and was thinking of a Q6600.

Would my m.board handle this, I read somewhere this chip needs a decent m.board, is mine adequate?

Yea it will be fine!

glynf wrote: »

Would this require additional cooling as I have also read that the heatsink it comes with is not great-what would you recommend?

If your not overclocking theres no need but you can still get one to keep it cool... I reccommend Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

glynf wrote: »

As for the memory, since I put the 2nd GPU the text 'SLI-READY MEMORY-NOT DETECTED' is at the bottom of my BIOS screen, is 'SLI ready memory' going to make a difference?
From what I understand, memory speed higher than 800 MHz makes little difference?

I dont get you here? Do you mean you think your not getting SLI with the graphics cards? SLI ready memory is not to do with graphics but your ram..

glynf wrote: »

I am still only getting 29 fps average for Crysis @ 1680 x 1050-expected more tbh.

haha theres a guy on youtube maxishine

he runs crysis on 3 8800 ultras and doesnt get more than 50fps you should feel lucky!

glynf

dazftw,

Thanks for the replies.

If your not overclocking theres no need but you can still get one to keep it cool... I reccommend Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

Nice one, looks the business, and it will just about fit in the case-160mm tall :eek:..



I dont get you here? Do you mean you think your not getting SLI with the graphics cards? SLI ready memory is not to do with graphics but your ram..
The text 'SLI-READY MEMORY-NOT DETECTED' appeared on my BIOS screen after I installed the 2nd GPU,

I am happy the cards are working OK in SLI-I can see both in device manager, and are set up correctly in the nvidia control panel.

I was wondering if there is any point in getting SLI reay RAM-from this I think its just a marketing ploy?


haha theres a guy on youtube maxishine

he runs crysis on 3 8800 ultras and doesnt get more than 50fps you should feel lucky!

Jebus wept! Hopefully the Q6600 will give me a decent frame rate with most of the eye candy on high as Crysis is apparently CPU intensive due to the Havok Physics & the AI.

TerrorFirmer

Sli ready memory refers to the ram, not the video cards.

With such a low score of 9120 are you sure Sli is properly enabled, I used to get that score with a single 320mb 8800GTS..

Anti

The Q6600 wont bump up crysys much, but it should be noticible. I agree with Terror, your score in 3dmark should be somewhat higher. Can you link us to a compare page ?

As for the sli ram, yes its a marketing ploy. And you need SLI branded ram for it to work.

glynf

The nvidia control panel SLI option is enabled, and I can see both cards in device manager. Should I check elsewhere?

The 3DMark 06 results page is here

edit: OK, so it says 'Linked display adapters-No'? how do I ensure SLI is properly enabled?

Anti

link dosent work dude.

sebastianlieken

glynf wrote: »

2 x EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GTS 640Mb


I ran 3D Mark 06 (freebie version:D), results was 9120 marks with 169.25 nvidia drivers, BIOS and all other drivers updated to latest versions

dude....you have two 8800gts 640mb cards runnin in sli n ur only gettin 9120?????....sumthins very wrong there, ive got a single 8800gts 320mb and e6600 (both overclocked though), but still im gettin 11,352

glynf

Anti, link appears to work for me-have to be signed in I think..

Tried a few things since:



I tried forcing Alternate Frame Rendering 1 and 3DMark 06 score dropped to 6048?

Graphics drivers are 169.25. All other drivers are current ones from alienware site, BIOS is P29-latest one for this M.board. All the old drivers were removed properly & I ran driver cleaner.
Is it possible to flash the BIOS with the latest EVGA version-P32 or is this even necessary?

I ran NiBiTor.v3.7, both cards are same clock & memory settings,
also installed nHancer and according to that SLI is enabled.

What the hell am I missing here? Could the CPU be the issue? any other settings I need to change/check?


Forgot to mention, O.S. is Vista 32 bit.