What upgrades do I need?

Dave147

Hi guys, built my machine 2 years ago but since then I've kinda been out of touch with the latest processors and gfx cards etc. Got BF3 last week and it runs ok but I'd like it to run a lot better. My machine is as follows:

Gigabyte GA-MA78G-UD3H, Socket-AM2+/AM3
AMD 780G+SB700, ATX, DDR2 , Firewire, GbLAN, HDMI

OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400 4GB KIT CL5
w/two 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-4

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
3,2Ghz, AM3, 8MB, 125W, Boxed

NVidia GeForce GTX 280 1gb

As I said, I'm no expert, but I'd invest 250-300 in the machine to bring it up to speed. Would rather not have to replace everything!

asif2011

I couldn't find that model on the Gigabyte website by the way.

You could put a AMD Phenom II X6 1100T in to maximise your current AM3 board, but for games your current processor should be OK - probably no need to upgrade it unless you really wanted to.

As for RAM, if you've got room for another 4Gb (2x2Gb) then I would consider it. The specs for Windows 8 are the same as Windows 7, if anything I've heard it uses less resources - so when that comes out your machine should still be OK.

Your real problem is the graphics card, I've currently got a GTX 460 which runs Battlefield 3 on High settings but struggles a bit on Ultra settings. Check out the link below for a benchmark of graphics cards for Battlefield 3. I'm thinking of putting my GTX 460 on eBay and getting a GTX 570. So I'd say get a GTX 570 and get whatever you can for your current graphics card on eBay.

If you upgrade the processor or add more RAM you'll go over budget, so you'll probably just get the graphics card. But I'd say that's all you need to do.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html

LambdaTek ship to Ireland, and have good prices too.
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?level1=CS&level2=BOCA&level3=170&searchString=&ordering=price&orientation=up&mfr_uid=0&keywords=GTX+570&minprice=&maxprice=&show=&pFilter0=&pFilter1=&pFilter2=&pFilter3=&pFilter4=&pFilter5=&itemsperpage=100&Filter=GO

Dave147

Cheers, I'm thinking it's the Graphics alright, the processor seems to be pretty good under heavy load and never slows the machine down, it's just an fps problem. Will look into a gfx card for aroun 200 to 250 quid in the next few weeks.