BF3 Upgrade

VinLieger

Ok so theres been a few of these floating around but im looking to upgrade my comp for BF3, atm im just looking at sorting out my graphics card and wireless connection, and ideally doing it for as cheaply as possible.
So im currently using a 512 card(dont laugh) and a usb stick for wireless connection, and im not enjoying playing it at all and pretty sure these are the 2 main culprits.
Looking to get a 1 gig card and see what my options are as regard wireless, ie. is a card better than a usb?

Fluffy88

You would want to give more details on your system.

Things like,
Motherboard
CPU
PSU(Power supply unit)
and if your PC is a pre-built one from a supplier like Dell or HP or if you built it.

CPU-Z can be used to get info on your parts,
To get info about PSU you will need to open the case and take a pic of the sticker that has all the details.

And finally what's your budget?

VinLieger

Built it myself 3 years ago, meant to try to keep upgrading it but got lazy and never got around to it, seriously regretting that now
4 gigs ddr2 ram
500w power supply
intel core 2 quad Q6600 64 bit
graphics card is a 9600GT
motherboard - gigabyte GA-P35-S3G intel p35
Budget as cheap as i can get tbh, not looking for anything special just a 1 gig card and something to stop my connection stuttering. I was looking at dabs and saw some GT 440s for about 80 euro but have no idea if they are any good

seyeM

If your 500W PSU is a respectable and reliable brand, adding an Radeon 6870 or 6950 would beef that up considerably. Add an aftermarket CPU cooler and an overclock to the Q6600 and you would be fine.

this for €189 + delivery from pixmania would do nicely
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10304803/art/sapphire-technology/radeon-hd-6950-1-gb-gddr5.html

I dont know about wireless for gaming, I've heard it's a nightmare. Can you use an ethernet cable instead?

kfish2oo2

I game on a wireless USB card and I don't have much hassle. Pings at about 50ms to Dublin, and I can play BF3 online without any noticeable lag. Use www.speedtest.net and www.pingtest.net to check your connection.

As for your rig - a clan mate of mine uses a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM and he doesn't get bottlenecked by it, so a GPU really is the only thing you'd need to upgrade. The 9600GT wouldn't be up to the task. I'm using a GTX 460 and it plays on medium settings at an average of 55FPS - playable and pretty smooth. I wouldn't recommend you get anything less powerful than that.

Basically - get a GTX 460/Radeon 6850 or better.

Jonny7

Graphics cards are measured in terms of actual performance and not memory size

As the above poster said - depending on the make of your PSU, adding a good (6870, 150ish euros) or a very good (6950, 200+ euros) card will make BF3 very playable and in tandem overclocking the q6600 will also up the fps and you'll get another few years out of the PC.

I would recommend the above because, if you aren't fully satisfied, the graphics card will be transferrable to a new PC anyway. So no loss in cost.

Plus its very satisfying to spend just 200 euros and your machine is 4 or 5 times faster in games.

VinLieger

kfish2oo2 wrote: »

I game on a wireless USB card and I don't have much hassle. Pings at about 50ms to Dublin, and I can play BF3 online without any noticeable lag. Use www.speedtest.net and www.pingtest.net to check your connection.

As for your rig - a clan mate of mine uses a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM and he doesn't get bottlenecked by it, so a GPU really is the only thing you'd need to upgrade. The 9600GT wouldn't be up to the task. I'm using a GTX 460 and it plays on medium settings at an average of 55FPS - playable and pretty smooth. I wouldn't recommend you get anything less powerful than that.

Basically - get a GTX 460/Radeon 6850 or better.

What usb card are you using? mine is probably just a bit too old and not up to it

kfish2oo2

This one, circa 2008 I think. What are your results from www.speedtest.com and www.pingtest.com?

VinLieger

kfish2oo2 wrote: »

This one, circa 2008 I think. What are your results from www.speedtest.com and www.pingtest.com?

My speeds and ping are grand but every minute or so i get a bit of stuttering where for example im running from behind a corner then suddenly im back behind the corner i started from.

Also could someone tell me if theres anything wrong with these
http://www.dabs.ie/products/asus-geforce-gt-440-822mhz-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-7BXV.html?refs=4294945034-55040000&src=2
http://www.dabs.ie/products/gigabyte-geforce-gt-440-830mhz-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-7BW1.html?refs=4294945034-55040000&src=3
Kinda gives away my price range atm, all im looking for is a slight boost, so i can play on lowest settings without any difficulties, ill have some more money in the new year but until then im just looking to spend a bit to improve my performance

kfish2oo2

What are the actual figures? That is definitely lag - its called rubber banding, and is solely down to your connection and NOT your graphics card. Can you hook up your PC directly to the modem? That should help your speeds a bit.

As for the GPU upgrade - I would wait. Upgrading to a decidedly low end card is a waste of money. In fact, I think the performance of the GT 440 and the 9600GT you have are about on par - so it wouldn't be an upgrade but rather a sidestep.

Wait until you have a bit more money and go for a GTX 460/Radeon 6850 or better.

Upgrading your GPU at the moment won't help your lag issue. Run a Cat5 cable from your modem to your PC or upgrade your wireless card. If possible, switch the channel on your router to anything other than the default.

VinLieger

kfish2oo2 wrote: »

What are the actual figures? That is definitely lag - its called rubber banding, and is solely down to your connection and NOT your graphics card. Can you hook up your PC directly to the modem? That should help your speeds a bit.

As for the GPU upgrade - I would wait. Upgrading to a decidedly low end card is a waste of money. In fact, I think the performance of the GT 440 and the 9600GT you have are about on par - so it wouldn't be an upgrade but rather a sidestep.

Wait until you have a bit more money and go for a GTX 460/Radeon 6850 or better.

Upgrading your GPU at the moment won't help your lag issue. Run a Cat5 cable from your modem to your PC or upgrade your wireless card. If possible, switch the channel on your router to anything other than the default.

Cheers for the advice, ive done a bit of clearing up and the performance has deffinitely improved, tbh i dont care how it looks as long as i can play it so will look into a new connection but its probably gonna have to be another usb, although it could be a router issue as well, its not exactly new either so thats where ill concentrate for now. When ive got the cash ill be back for some advice to put something decent together

PDD

If you dont want any lag during gaming then you need to get off wireless end of. Its fine for browsing web pages etc as it do it in a burst but for online gaming its going to lag big time.

If you cannot run Cat5 cabling then I would suggest using PowerPlug/HomePlug adapters. They hijack the wiring for electrical sockets and run a network on it (power is not affected etc) I have used 11Mbs ones and the newer versions are 200Mb.

If you are running a long Cat5 cable DO NOT buy it in the shop because they will charge you an arm and a leg. Put up a post here on boards and someone will sort you out.

Jonny7

PDD wrote: »

If you dont want any lag during gaming then you need to get off wireless end of. Its fine for browsing web pages etc as it do it in a burst but for online gaming its going to lag big time.

aahh its a little bit of a myth in many cases,true some wireless is awful, but most are alright. The one I have is grand, I play quake with a screen covered in netgraphs, I'm very very sensitive to ping and the wireless is fine in that regard.

Of course if the router, card, software, signal is in any way dodgy yup then poster should switch to wired

ShadowHearth

I have similar system op. I had 8800gt and upgraded it to 6870.

Playing bf3 on high settings with very good fps.

Your psu is more then enough. I am using this gpu on my 375w psu for last 3-4 months.