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Post by Si on Sept 15, 2016 8:32:18 GMT
I would do graphics card first. (That's what I tried) rF2 is DX9. So the main issue is GPU. The PCIe 2.0 x16 will be fine with a PCIe 3.0 card. It's the x16 that's the important part. Make sure you are using Win 7 or better for the new drivers. (My mistake) Make sure you have enough power for the new GPU. That includes checking if it has a different required power connector. I went from 2 x 6pin to 2 x 8 pin. But my PSU was good enough for this. Make sure the new card will fit in your case. (Another one of my mistakes) Remember the RX480, RX470 or (what I bought) the R9 Fury are DX12 cards. There are not many DX12 games out there yet, but it's one thing AMD has over Nvidia. You also need Windows 10 for DX12 too. A new GPU should easily be transferable later when you change mobo \ CPU \ RAM etc but you'll get more benefit now while you save up for those parts. and if you could fit a R9 Fury then the XFX one is under £300: www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-radeon-fury-triple-fan-4096mb-hbm-pci-express-graphics-card-r9-fury-4tf9-gx-234-xf.html
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Post by cageyh on Sept 15, 2016 8:44:38 GMT
The motherboard is a PCI-E x16 Ver 1.1 I think.
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Post by Si on Sept 15, 2016 9:00:33 GMT
I just checked the ASUS P5K and it is PCIe v1.0 (2.5 GT/s) gigatransfers per second So that's half the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0 (5 GT/s) FYI: PCIe v3.0 is 8 GT/s
The cards are backward compatible and people have asked the same question about using 3.0 cards in 1.0 slots. The answer given is that the card will work. I've no idea how many gigatransfers per second you need for rF2. You may not need as many as you think. Either way, the safest option is to see if you can gradually upgrade and do GPU only first.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 15, 2016 9:15:31 GMT
Thanks chaps. Food for thought. Time to research graphics cards.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 15, 2016 11:14:03 GMT
Kev, I've always used this page here to make sure I'm getting the best graphics card I can for the money. Thanks Andrew. I shall have a little look tonight.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 15, 2016 20:50:49 GMT
Not that it makes much difference, but the processor is an E8400 running at 3Ghz. Apparently only 4Gb or ram as well. I could of sworn I had 8Gb.
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Post by Andrew on Sept 15, 2016 20:55:41 GMT
Are you running Windows 32bit? It can only access 4gb ram no matter how much you actually have.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 15, 2016 21:41:52 GMT
No, Windows 10 64 bit.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 19, 2016 21:13:41 GMT
Mrs H has agreed to the PC upgrade, with the graphics card being bought at the end of the month. If that does the job, I will stop there.
Now to choose the graphics card....
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Post by cageyh on Sept 20, 2016 7:03:39 GMT
How easy is it to remove one lot of graphics drivers, to install another? If I went from AMD to NVidia I don't want any rubbish left on my PC that can cause issues. The 4Gb Asus GTX 970 DirectCU II Strix looks like a reasonable card for the money.
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Post by Si on Sept 20, 2016 7:38:12 GMT
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Post by Andrew on Sept 20, 2016 11:31:47 GMT
Good choice on the GTX 970. Mine has been perfectly reliable and I'd thoroughly recommend it.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 20, 2016 11:59:25 GMT
Thanks chaps. One question - my middle monitor has a higher resolution than the outer monitors. Can NVidia graphics cards cope with that ok?
centre monitor is 1920 X 1200 and the outer monitors 1920 X 1080.
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Post by Andrew on Sept 20, 2016 12:17:06 GMT
A quick google suggests it might work but it's problematic at best.
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Post by cageyh on Sept 20, 2016 12:23:17 GMT
It may be another AMD card for me then, or another monitor to match the outer two.
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