Dragon Age Inquisition - Benefit from graphics card upgrade?

[kol12]

Hi, Im playing Dragon Age Inquisition quite smoothly on my machine on the settings I have but feel certain areas could be improved most noticeably when characters effects are used in battle. Are the effects cpu reliant or gpu? Would a graphics card upgrade improve this area?

System: Asus p5kr
Intel Q6700 (AI nos 2.8ghz)
6gb ram ddr2 800
Ati HD5770
High Power 430w

 

[kol12]

Looking at some benchmarks both 270's can overclock but the 270x will overclock better and has slightly lower noise and temp levels.

There's someone selling a brand new Sapphire 270x for $240 compared to $280 elsewhere. Any opinions?

I could be wrong on this after watching this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa-H2auvlHs

I think he's saying the 270 will actually overclock better than the 270x..

 

[Supernova1138]

The 270x already has its memory clocked rather high, so you probably aren't going to get much of a memory overclock on a 270x, the GPU might be binned a bit better than the 270 leading to a higher GPU clock. Either way, it won't make a huge difference, and if you get a better overclocker, you might squeeze out another 1 or 2 FPS over a card that doesn't overclock as well.

 

[kol12]

Probably going to go with Sapphire Radeon R9 270 Dual-X OC Boost will keep you posted.

 

[Robert Cook]

I don't know much about overclocking older LGA775 CPUs, I'm sure there is an overclocking guide located somewhere in the overclocking subforum if you are looking to squeeze a little more performance out of your old CPU, just make sure you have a decent aftermarket CPU cooler to deal with the extra heat you're going to generate.

It seems, that there are next to no ways to over clock OEM computers due to mother board limitations, the only way is to use set FSB, which is a very risky thing to do if you do not know what you are doing.

 

[Supernova1138]

I don't know much about overclocking older LGA775 CPUs, I'm sure there is an overclocking guide located somewhere in the overclocking subforum if you are looking to squeeze a little more performance out of your old CPU, just make sure you have a decent aftermarket CPU cooler to deal with the extra heat you're going to generate.

It seems, that there are next to no ways to over clock OEM computers due to mother board limitations, the only way is to use set FSB, which is a very risky thing to do if you do not know what you are doing.

He doesn't have an OEM system by the looks of it. OEM systems aren't typically using off-the-shelf Asus motherboards, usually they are using something cheaper or if they are using Asus it's typically branded as Pegatron.

 

[kol12]

The seasonic 750w is about $15 more than the 650w would it be silly not to go for the 750w at that price?

 

[Supernova1138]

If you can afford the extra $15 you might as well if you want a little more flexibility in a future build.

 

[kol12]

Would the 750w be less efficient or is too small a difference? What sort of scenario's might it offer more flexibility?

 

[Supernova1138]

It might be slightly less efficient than a 650 Watt if you are only running a single GPU, as PSUs deliver the highest power efficiency at a specific load, and on a single GPU system you probably won't be in that range with a 750 Watt unit. It won't make a really significant difference either way so unless you are paying absolutely exorbitant amounts of money for electricity where you live it's not a huge deal. The 750 Watt would offer more flexibility in that you could potentially do a high end SLI or Crossfire setup if you wanted to if you moved that power supply to a future build.

 

[kol12]

Would i be cpu limited with a r9 280?

 

[Supernova1138]

I would say so, even with an overclock, you can go for a higher card if you want to transplant it to a newer system later on. If you don't plan to do that I wouldn't go past the R9 270.

 

[kol12]

I've kind of decided to go with the 650w as in ordered it, i hope i have made the right decision tho, looking at the radeon r9 280 and r9 290 websites are claiming they require 750w, after googling a bit most people are saying a good 650w will power those cards but some are disagreeing.

If i upgrade to one of those cards in the future would the 750w of been been the better bet? It might not be too late to make a last minute change.

I've spoken to the guy i'm buying it off and he say's the card's themselves might not require 750w but it depends on what else is in the system.
He also say's thing's are becoming more efficient.

At most later i plan on maybe 2 hdd and ssd.

 

[Supernova1138]

The R9 290 series does use a lot of power, but they will run perfectly fine on a good 650 Watt power supply. AMD's PSU recommendation is inflated to take into account low quality power supplies that advertise a certain wattage but can't actually deliver it. You wouldn't need to go past 650 Watts unless you wanted to run two R9 290s in Crossfire, in which case you'd need a 750 watt at minimum, with 850 being recommended if you wanted some headroom.

 

[kol12]

I thought i get the Sapphire Radeon R9 270 Dual-X OC Boost but it looks like no one has stock, going too see if it can be ordered otherwise there's

Asus Radeon R9 270 DirectCU II OC and Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 OC

any better out of those two? seeing comments about gigabyte coolers not being that great.

 

[kol12]

Well I've gone with the Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Dual-X OC Boost

I also considered the Asus with DirectCU II but hopefully the sapphire's cooling will be as good.

I just hope the sapphire is a bit less noisy than my old xfx 5770

 

[kol12]

The 650w SG12 turned up and I think it was my mistake, I thought I was getting a semi modular unit.

Have sent it back and am waiting for a Seasonic SS-660KM X-Series to turn up. Should be a step from the S12G
I think it may be a mistake but shouldn't it be a 650KM? Googling 660KM doesn't return a lot results.

I'm seriously thinking of doing a new build sooner rather than later, this is what I have in mind,

Corsair Carbide 300R case

Intel Core i5-4690k

Asus Z97-A

CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 8GB