System Upgrades for TS 2013

[donjgatlin]

Hi All!

It's time for the holiday season and I thought this year I would actually upgrade my system. Currently I have a first-gen Core-i3 3.07ghz dual core (4 logical cores) and an AMD/ATI V4800 GPU. This system was orginally configured to be more of a workstation type system, but I would like to place a TS2013-friendly graphics card into the system. The problem is that I'm not sure what in the hardware section works very well with TS2013. Needing advice on what to upgrade, I'm thinking the graphics card should be the first. My question is, what do some of you recommend buying (under 200-300 dollars) in graphics? Please fell free to make any suggestions. Thanks!

Specs:
Processor: Core i3 540 Clarkdale 3.07ghz Dual Core (Trying to keep from upgrading, would need new motherboard).
RAM: 6GB 1333mhz
HDD: 250GB 7200rpm (Maybe an upgrade)
GPU: ATI V4800 Workstation Series (Dell precision)

[buzz456]

I installed a GTX550 Ti and it was like night and day running RW. No stutters, two screens, it is just amazing. A little less than $150 bucks at Best Buy.

[donjgatlin]

May I ask what your other specs are with that card? I was thinking about the GTX660TI or looking into one of last year's high-end GTX cards and seeing how my PCI slot is a 2.0, I may have to just go with the 500 series.

[buzz456]

I don't remember all the details. I'll look it up and get back to you tomorrow. All that pci and pci express stuff makes my head hurt........

[dazzharvey]

I am also thinking of investing in a 660 ti (the 3gb one) sometime after the new year.

As my motherboard has pci-e 3 and since I have the 660ti price in mind (it's approx £270) not sure what that is in new money but google tells me it's $433.11, I would be curious to know if it's worthwhile sticking with the original idea or wait a little longer for a cracking beast of a card thats price will come down in time, also curious to know how much cards are in the states after all the taxes shipping etc as i may get a better deal than over here, its worth looking into :)

[donjgatlin]

I'm also planning on sometime soon upgrading my HDD to an SSD or either upgrading my ram to 10GB+, or both. I wonder if any of those would also enhance performance? I currently get approximately 18fps on Sherman Hill average (wish it were 25 or more). It's very playable, certainly, but it's not always without hick-ups and alternating back and forth from 18 to 14FPS isn't ideal.

[buzz456]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-+Ge ... b=overview

This is the one I bought and it goes in a pci 2.0. Look at the exact specs. All I can tell you is it runs RW like you are watching a movie.

Buzz

BTW way I have 8 gigs of memory in my computer.

[dazzharvey]

I love my SSD, I'll never run a game from a conventional hard disk ever again

[buzz456]

I love my SSD, I'll never run a game from a conventional hard disk ever again

Which one do you have?

[dazzharvey]

I have a Mushkin 240gb one. considering getting a 2nd one as they dropped in price recently but my priority is the gpu upgrade for now :)

[glcbn]

I love my SSD, I'll never run a game from a conventional hard disk ever again

You said it for sure.
Loading scenarios with my old system were agonizingly slow. It took on average about a minute and change. Now it takes about 6 seconds!!
I'm using a 128 gig OCZ Veretx 4 for my OS,and another 256 gig Vertex 4 for all my programs. SSD's are unbelieveably fast.

Greg

[artimrj]

I installed a GTX550 Ti and it was like night and day running RW. No stutters, two screens, it is just amazing. A little less than $150 bucks at Best Buy.

I bought one from Best Buy too ,then found out new egg had them for 89.

[Haystack]

I have a similar system as you. Intel i3 550 3.2GHz, 8gb ram, and just recently bought a GTX660. I love it

On a side note pcie 3.0 dose have a performance increase over 2.0, but I heard it's very small. I decided to go with the 660 for future proof for when I do upgrade my cpu/motherboard that dose have 3.0.

[donjgatlin]

I have a similar system as you. Intel i3 550 3.2GHz, 8gb ram, and just recently bought a GTX660. I love it

On a side note pcie 3.0 dose have a performance increase over 2.0, but I heard it's very small. I decided to go with the 660 for future proof for when I do upgrade my cpu/motherboard that dose have 3.0.

Which version of the 660 did you get? Also wondering what the difference is between performance of a 960 cuda core GPU over a 1344? I'm also attempting to future-proof this system for at least another 2 years.

[dazzharvey]

I may not get this exact card (link below) but it's the one im looking at, unless i find one cheaper overseas

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Componen ... ctId=53052