The Video Games Thread II - The Resurrection

[The Bear]

Valve released the news for the next sale a little early! http://store.steampowered.com/news/

And in case they delete it:

Grand Theft Auto IV 75% off
Dead Island Series 50 - 75% off
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition 75% off
Fallen Enchantress Series 66 - 75% off
Tropico 4: Steam Special Edition 80% off
Batman Arkham City GOTY 75% off
Ace of Spades 75% off
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword 75% off
Evoland 50% off
Deus Ex: Human Revolution 85% off

 

[Boozad]

Apparently my mate uses FRAPS.

Yeah FRAPS is a bit more resource hungry, you can record gameplay to video files with it I think but it really does put strain on your GPU as it has to double the output and you can expect large dips in FPS. I've never used it so can't say if it's any good or not.

 

[Alan]

When I got my graphics card through the post off Maplin last week it was supposed to come with Assassins Creed 3 free, but there was nothing in the box. Emailed them and they had no stock of it so they sent me Metro: Last Light instead which is a much newer game. Just had it through today. Was going to sell it but I liked the look of it and redeemed it!

It knocked another £27.99 (Current Steam price) off the price of my card anyway meaning it only cost me £90.

Talk about a better deal. Lucky sod.

Also, Dark Souls is at a huge discount again. If you don't have it, you absolutely must buy it now. Fucking brilliant game.

 

[machin05]

Right then PC chaps. Need some advice. I bought my current PC about 3-4 years ago and it could probably do with a bit of an upgrade in order to cope with some of the games in the Steam sale that are taking my eye. This is my spec:

XFX MB-750i-72P9 Motherboard
Intel Core2Duo E7300 CPU
4Gb OCZ DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon 4850 GPU (512Mb GDDR3)
Samsung SpinPoint 640Gb HDD

Which one component would I benefit from upgrading the most?? I'm thinking a new GPU as most games seem to not need more than 4Gb of RAM.

Or would I benefit more from getting a QuadCore in there??

I'd like an SSD, if I can get hold of one cheaply. I have way too much data on my HDD (movies, photos, MP3s) and ideally I want a NAS of some kind to host them - but that's for another day.

 

[Alan]

Not much you could do that wouldn't be an upgrade. That dual core CPU could be a major chokepoint on newer games (particularly RTS and similar) but without a more powerful GPU the upgrade would be somewhat moot. I'd go with one of those two first. The SSD and system RAM are great for the overall performance of the machine but ultimately won't make much of an impact on intensive games, where the GPU's RAM will be the main point of interest. However, as your CPU already runs at 2.66 (assuming you haven't OC'd it), I'd go with the GPU as the top priority, then move on from there if the performance doesn't improve to your desired point.

Motherboards I don't really know about so I can't comment on that one.

Someone correct me if I've gotten this wrong.

 

[t3ch]

XFX MB-750i-72P9 Motherboard
Intel Core2Duo E7300 CPU

Should be OK so long as you're not trying to run Crysis 3 in 2500x1800 with 16x AA. Having said that, the setup is old enough to warrant upgrade as performance increase would be noticeable.

ATI Radeon 4850 GPU (512Mb GDDR3)

As far as gaming goes this will be your bottle neck and where you'll get, by far, the biggest upgrade.

4Gb OCZ DDR2 RAM

Any newer GPU should have enough memory to cover you, but 4gb is running pretty short. Generally if you're on Win7/8 4gb is the bare minimum, but 8gb is cheap enough to upgrade to and it gives you some headroom.

Samsung SpinPoint 640Gb HDD

Nothing wrong with it, but obviously no it's not as fast as an SSD. You will see loading performance increase, but you won't get any noticeable in-game improvement.

I'd like an SSD, if I can get hold of one cheaply. I have way too much data on my HDD (movies, photos, MP3s) and ideally I want a NAS of some kind to host them - but that's for another day.

Be sure to figure out just how many games you plan to have installed at once. Steam has it's own SSD on my machine, which is a 180. It's maxed out, and while I could clear some of it, I don't typically play one game nonstop, uninstall, and add another... I like having multiples at the wait.

 

[Boozad]

Check your PSU first, upgrading some of those components, especially the GPU, will put strain on a low PSU. 450W or below and you're struggling. Personally I'd say buy a new PC mate if you can, for the money you're going to have to spend to upgrade (CPU, GPU, RAM) you'd be better off. If you're not in the position to be able to get one then those are the three I'd upgrade, although as t3ch said you'll get some bottlenecking doing it one component at a time. Also don't rely on an SSD for storage, they're best used to put your OS on and a couple of frequently used programs, nothing more. If you're going above 240GB you're going to pay through the nose. I have Steam on a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black and can all of my games on comfortably and it's a very quick drive, look at something like that.

 

[machin05]

Cheers for the replies chaps.

I hear what your saying about everything benefitting from an upgrade - but that's the snowball I wanted to avoid. I want to spend about £100 to keep me in the frame for another 12 months or so, at which point I'd be looking to upgrade the lot.

Boozad, I'm pretty sure my PSU is OK for what I want to achieve here. At the time of buying, I spent a good deal of time researching and picking decent components. It's just that was 4 years ago!

I reckon I can pickup a Radeon 6850 on ebay for about £65 if I'm lucky. If I do, then I'll look at sourcing a Quad Core CPU for about £40.

SSD & RAM can wait. A system rebuild should help speed things up - I just need to finish Ballad of Gay Tony before I do that!

 

[machin05]

This seems like a bargain - http://www.extak.com/catalog/127815/Radeon-HD-6850---Graphics-card---Radeon?ppc=google_shopping

Also my mate at work has given me his E7500 (2.9Ghz) CPU, which is a handy little upgrade

 

[wanderer89]

HIS Radeon 6850 for £65 including delivery at Pixmania, Machin

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/10532267/art/his/radeon-hd-6850-graphics-c.html#srcid=369

 

[machin05]

HIS Radeon 6850 for £65 including delivery at Pixmania, Machin

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/10532267/art/his/radeon-hd-6850-graphics-c.html#srcid=369

The link I posted above has it for £59.71 with free delivery

 

[wanderer89]

The link I posted above has it for £59.71 with free delivery

Damn, sorry about that, never heard of that shop before, they any good?

 

[machin05]

Don't know, never used them before. Seem to have decent ratings on Trustpilot. Registered in Brum, but not sure where they ship from.

 

[wanderer89]

Don't know, never used them before. Seem to have decent ratings on Trustpilot. Registered in Brum, but not sure where they ship from.

Seem decent enough then.

 

[machin05]

Bonus - Just won a Intel Core2Quad Q8300 (2.5ghz) on ebay for £36. That and the Radeon 6850 for under £100 is a cheeky little upgrade

On a side note, is anyone else having trouble getting on steampowered.com today?

 

[b3h]

Is it just the usual crash when the deals change?

(Always goes off on one around these times)

 

[The Bear]

Steam site is fine for me.

 

[Alan]

Dirt 3 for ~$6.50. Worth it?

 

[Boozad]

Dirt 3 for ~$6.50. Worth it?

Definitely, great little game. I say little because if you want everything you have to buy it as in-game DLC. I just play the base game though and it's good.

 

[Alan]

Definitely, great little game. I say little because if you want everything you have to buy it as in-game DLC. I just play the base game though and it's good.

Buy like with real money?