Gaming: Help me upgrade

[Storx]

I am currently big into Ark Evolved, but my computer struggles to play this game at any decent amount of frames, so i have been forced to play the game on the LOW settings, which really sucks due to how beautiful the game is on full epic mode. I also play a few other games like Rust and such and my FPS are really lacking in the higher quality modes. So i am asking for advice on what to do as an logical upgrade to my system to increase my gaming quality.

Cooler Master HAF X - High Air Flow Full Tower
CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler
Z77-DS3H
Intel Core i5-3570K
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 4 x 4GB (16GB Total)
Nvidia - Geforce GTX 660 Ti 2gb Gddr5 PCI Express 3.0
OCZ-VERTEX3 128GB SSD (OS)
ST1000DM003-1CH162 2TB (storage drive)
EVGA 220-G2-0850-RX 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply
Windows 10 Pro

LG 27EA33 x 2

 

[Archaic59]

Your i5 is still good. All you need is a better GPU and that depends on your budget. Also please list the brand/model of your power supply.

 

[azca]

upgrade your GPU to AMD R9 290 4GB or AMD R9 390 8GB

 

[royalcrown]

Your system is good by today's standards. Everything is sufficient BUT you could use more GPU power. 660 just isn't that fast, doesen't suck, but just kinda works "good enough". Also make sure that 10 did not just put you in "power saving" mode as far as your CPU.

You have plenty of ram and a good CPU.

 

[jessterman21]

R9 290 or GTX 970

 

[Storx]

I added the Power Supply,
Tea Urchin, my uncle plays with me and he has a I7 with GTX 980 and he only get 55-61fps on Ark Evolved, i get 21-26fps with my 660Ti

 

[Storx]

Your system is good by today's standards. Everything is sufficient BUT you could use more GPU power. 660 just isn't that fast, doesen't suck, but just kinda works "good enough". Also make sure that 10 did not just put you in "power saving" mode as far as your CPU.

You have plenty of ram and a good CPU.

I changed Power profile to performance right out of the box, because it kept turning my screen off every 3 mins of idle time after install...
Is that what your talkign about?

 

[royalcrown]

Your system is good by today's standards. Everything is sufficient BUT you could use more GPU power. 660 just isn't that fast, doesen't suck, but just kinda works "good enough". Also make sure that 10 did not just put you in "power saving" mode as far as your CPU.

You have plenty of ram and a good CPU.

I changed Power profile to performance right out of the box, because it kept turning my screen off every 3 mins of idle time after install...
Is that what your talkign about?

Yep, is it slow in all your games or just certain ones ?

 

[Storx]

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/ark-survival-evolved/12631/?p=r
According to these people your system is way over minimum specs for that game, unless I have the wrong game. Core 2 duo 2 gig? You have 4x the processing power of that cpu, and your graphics card is a lot more powerful than 'Any DX 11 gpu with 1 gb' type graphics adapter. A communications error here, surely.

On Low mode i stay constantly above 60fps, spike as high as 93 at times

 

[Storx]

Your system is good by today's standards. Everything is sufficient BUT you could use more GPU power. 660 just isn't that fast, doesen't suck, but just kinda works "good enough". Also make sure that 10 did not just put you in "power saving" mode as far as your CPU.

You have plenty of ram and a good CPU.

I changed Power profile to performance right out of the box, because it kept turning my screen off every 3 mins of idle time after install...
Is that what your talkign about?

Yep, is it slow in all your games or just certain ones ?

Im going to say all recent games, Hurtworld, Rust, Ark all have to play on Low settings to get around 60fps

 

[royalcrown]

Well, one thing you could try is to see if there is a driver conflict since you upgraded. That would involve uninstalling your GPU drivers shut down and turn off your power supply, then remove the GPU. Reboot using the integrated graphics, then shut down and reinstall your GPU and see if it helps. I just helped someone with the conflict i mentioned and low FPS, but he had stuttering and laginess along with 30 FPS, so I knew it was a conflict.

IMO it's just your 660, but it wouldn't hurt to try in case tea urchin is right and the rest of us are wrong.

 

[jessterman21]

IMO it's just your 660, but it wouldn't hurt to try in case tea urchin is right and the rest of us are wrong.

Definitely your 660Ti that's the issue. The GPU isn't terribly weak, but it only has 1.5GB VRAM that runs at full-speed, and that's much too little for ARK - which can demand up to 4GB VRAM. Get a GTX 970 - my brother's brother-in-law has one and runs around 50-60fps on High @ 1080p.

 

[Storx]

I'm not experienced with this game at all. The poster says his uncle gets 60 fps with a 980, thats good enough for me but I would query any probs with W10 first. It will be 15-19 months before any performance bonuses come from that operating system so why go thru the heart ache now?
Just whinging..

Surprisingly, when i went to Windows 10 from Windows 7, my average FPS on the same settings increased about 5..... so its not the OS unless Windows 7 was giving me issues as well...

 

[Storx]

IMO it's just your 660, but it wouldn't hurt to try in case tea urchin is right and the rest of us are wrong.

Definitely your 660Ti that's the issue. The GPU isn't terribly weak, but it only has 1.5GB VRAM that runs at full-speed, and that's much too little for ARK - which can demand up to 4GB VRAM. Get a GTX 970 - my brother's brother-in-law has one and runs around 50-60fps on High @ 1080p.

Hmm, ill have to look into that i guess.. i bought the 660ti about 1.5yrs ago thinking i add a 2nd one when i needed more GPU power, but just realized that the MB my uncle bought for my computer doesnt support SLI... so im kinda screwed in that aspect.. he didnt realize that when he picked it out.. he helped me build my PC... but he is not a computer guru by any means..

 

[Storx]

So which would you recommend for my setup the R9 290/390 or the GTX 970?

 

[azca]

So which would you recommend for my setup the R9 290/390 or the GTX 970?

there you go R9 290 for $239 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131668

 

[jessterman21]

Hmm, ill have to look into that i guess.. i bought the 660ti about 1.5yrs ago thinking i add a 2nd one when i needed more GPU power, but just realized that the MB my uncle bought for my computer doesnt support SLI... so im kinda screwed in that aspect.. he didnt realize that when he picked it out.. he helped me build my PC... but he is not a computer guru by any means..

Selling your old GPU and buying a new single-GPU is always a better option.

 

[Storx]

Ok, so after going through the forums on steam i found out that ARK Survival Evolved actually recommends 2.048GB of GPU RAM for bare minimum play... if i am recalling correctly my GPU only has 2GB w/ 1.5GB usable.. so i am assuming that this is the reason for the low low FPS.. After talking to a few people on steam the guys with GTX960/970's are even seeing low performance in the game due to their Vram with many of the R9 390 guys saying they are getting 60-80fps on Epic resolution modes.. one so called "developer" possibly even stated that EPIC mode is not recommended for cards under 4.5GB of Vram... so i think i am going to shop around for the R9 390's for this... thinking of going with the MSI R9 390 for $329.99 unless someone knows of a better deal for me.

 

[jessterman21]

Ok, so after going through the forums on steam i found out that ARK Survival Evolved actually recommends 2.048GB of GPU RAM for bare minimum play... if i am recalling correctly my GPU only has 2GB w/ 1.5GB usable.. so i am assuming that this is the reason for the low low FPS.. After talking to a few people on steam the guys with GTX960/970's are even seeing low performance in the game due to their Vram with many of the R9 390 guys saying they are getting 60-80fps on Epic resolution modes.. one so called "developer" possibly even stated that EPIC mode is not recommended for cards under 4.5GB of Vram... so i think i am going to shop around for the R9 390's for this... thinking of going with the MSI R9 390 for $329.99 unless someone knows of a better deal for me.

That's a good one - go for it