Thamko

So I recently (well, yesterday) upgraded my processor from a dated Phenom X3 8650 (Triple-Core, obviously), to a brand-spankin'-new Phenom II X4 964 Black Edition (Deneb), running at stock 3.4 GHz. I don't know if it's a C3 by the way, how do I find that out? This whole time, I figured my outdated processor was the main cause for all the bottlenecks on my rig, and now that I upgraded, I still don't see that much of a difference (except in my 3DMark scores, jumped from 11k to 15400 hehe). Sure, my games are running a lot smoother now, but there is still one beast which dares defy me: Crysis.

I run it with a graphic mod to enable all the fancy DX10 effects on XP, called CCC 2.21. No matter if I lower the resolution to 1280x720 and put all the settings to low, or max out the res at 1920x1080 and max out all the details, it barely gives me any major framerate improvements. I usually get 25-30 FPS when there's not much going on, and then it'll drop to 15-20 when stuff starts to happen, explosions all around, etc. Messing with image quality and resolution only results in minor ~5 FPS performance boosts, and the only thing that really makes a difference in the framerate is whether I enable AA or not (this is all with AA off, for the record), then the framerate will start dropping noticeably.

Another couple of games which have me pinned are Cryostasis and GTA IV, both which run at 20-30 FPS at acceptable settings, but, unlike Crysis, seem to scale a lot better as I fiddle with the performance options. Any idea what the bottleneck on my machine might be? I don't want to go around dropping anymore coin until I figure out what's holding my machine back so much.

Shane1244

RAM, Definitely the RAM, You need more.

Upgrade to a 4gb kit,.

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tweaker123

5770 isnt a powerful card

kaivorth

Definitely the video card. Your going to need like a 5970 to conquer Crysis. And thats a lot of coin.

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losttsol

Ya, just upgrading to a quad core from a tri-core isn't going to up your framerates like you might think. Better to spend the money on a better video card. If you had bought a 5870 instead of that processor, your framerates would have gone up more.

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soth7676

the 5770 is equiviliant to a 4870.... either crossfiring that with another 5770 or selling it and getting a 5870/5850.... then you might see some difference in framerates...

Thamko

Yeah, I know, but the fact that I'm getting nearly the same results at 1280x720 and 1920x1080 makes me think something else was responsible. And I know the 5770 isn't a high-end card these days, I never meant for my system to be a high-end killer beast, otherwise I would have gone with the 5970, it was just a major, major upgrade from my previous 9600 GSO, and well priced at 180 bucks so I went for it.

I'll think about CrossFiring it in a few months, though, after I upgrade my outdated mobo, and replace my RAM (gotta go to 4 GB at some point), as well as my case.

Dopamin3

Definitely more RAM first. Your CPU is great but GTA IV needs a lot of RAM as well as some other games. Next I would upgrade the 5770 or crossfire it.

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nub

What he said. Upgrade to 4 gig of ram and crossfire the 5770 and you will be very happy with the results.

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Bartmasta

i suggest crossfiring 5770!

I have mine crossfired and I like it