- Apr 30, 2013
- 37
- 0
- 10,540
Warning: Long thread. But please, i really need help.!
My current system specs-
Processor - Intel q8400 (Running at stock 2.66 ghz)
Mobo - Gigabyte G41M-ES2L
GPU - Sapphire 7850 (Earlier had a Palit 9800gt green edition on it)
RAM - 4 gigs DDR2 (Don't remember which brand)
PSU - Corsair VS 650
Oh, & i game at 1600x900.
Well, it all started when i bought a new & lovely AMD 7850 (Sapphire 7850 2 gigs OC edition). I plugged it into my old G41M-ES2L board, cleaned old drivers, installed fresh AMD drivers & started gaming. The first title i ran was Assassin's creed 2, to my surprise, it lagged more than it used to when i had a 9800gt into my system. Then i tried Assassin's creed 3, & many other games. All in all i got one conclusion, old games ran perfectly fine & gave me good enough frame rates too (old games with good graphics too, Crysis, Crysis 2, Gears of war, etc). One particular relatively new game ran at perfect 60 fps at all maxed out settings (That's Call of Duty Black Ops 2). After that, i started looking into the matter & found out that the AMD 7xxx PCI-e 3.0 cards DON'T work (properly, or in some cases, at all) with the old PCI-e 1.1 slots (Sadly, my motherboard has that). It works fine on PCI-e 2.0 though.
So newer games like AC 2, AC 3, NFS Most Wanted, & even Borderlands 2 are lagging on my new GPU. Lagging as in, not just coming down to 30 fps (I consider 30 fps to be completely playable, m fine if i can game at a constant 30+ fps.!)
Borderlands 2 gave me better (MUCH better framerates on my 9800gt, well, fps falls down in some intense scenes, in normal scenes, it stays fine) & NFS Most wanted gave me somewhat better fps on my 9800gt too.
Similarly, assassin's creed 3 lags once i enter Boston, before that the game was smooth in the ship gameplay level (60 fps).
Also, in most games, turning down the settings to the lowest doesn't help. FPS still stays the same, under 20, sometimes under 16)
Now, i wanna know, are the particular games that i mentioned just poorly coded (hence giving me so low FPS) or is it my PCI-e slot.? M pretty sure that it's my slot (Well, 7850 is powerful enough in my opinion to max out every game i can throw at it at 1600x900)
Also, my friend has an FX 4130 with an Nvidia GTX 650 TI (Asus 650 TI dual fan), No OC at all. That card plays the NFS most wanted completely smoothly (both using same installation). That's the reason that i think that my board is limiting my card's power. Am i correct in assuming that.? Can anybody confirm.?
Now, if it IS infact my mobo problem, there's a little background stuff i need to tell you. After i got my 7850, i gave my 9800gt to my younger brother. He is using it on a Gigabyte 880GM D2H (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4000#ov) with an oldie sempron 145 & a single stick of Simmtronics 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM (Simmtronics is a local India brand, not that bad according to what i've heard).
Now i have 2 options, either look for a LGA 775 board that supports PCI-e 2.0 (Like P45), that would help me OC my processor too in the hope of decreasing CPU bottlenecking, even if by a small margin, in the CPU intensive titles, (Q8400, 800mhz ddr2 RAM, so 400mhz fsb & x8 multi = 3.2 ghz), & also my GPU would work fine too. This would cost anywhere between 2k INR (2000 Rupees = ~40$) to 4k (~80$). Also, for OCing the Q8400, i'd need to get a new Cooler Master Hyper 212 (as the stock fan is already wearing out, m getting pretty high temps while gaming as it is). That would also cost 2k (~40$). So the total for this case is ~80-120$ depending on how much is the cost of the motherboard i can find, as the old LGA 775 is phased out. :\
The second option is, get that 880GM D2H board from my brother, buy a new FX 4100 (Well, the board doesn't support the FX 4300/6300, & secondly they're not yet released here in my country, India, though most predict that they WILL be released in a couple of months). That FX 4100 costs roughly 5.5k (~110$) & add another simmtronics RAM stick (2 gigs DDR3 1333 MHz). That would cost less than 1k (~20$). Then i will give this G41 mobo + my Q8400 + 4 Gigs of DDR2 RAM to my brother, hence giving him a quad core system & i'll have an FX 4100 based system. This will cost ~130$.
I know people don't like the Bulldozer series, but my personal experience on my friend's cheap yet so powerful gaming rig (AMD FX 4130 + Asus GTX 650 TI 1 Gig + cheap MSI board + 8 gigs of corsair vengeance 1600 MHz RAM) is pretty good. Runs every title we throw at it. I game at it a LOT. The gaming resolution is the same as mine (1600x900). GTA 4 also ran fine after i installed the 1.0.7.0 patch (I consider GTA 4 to be a pretty CPU intensive title). Also, we're using Windows 7 without any hotfixes for those windows Scheduler problems with the AMD processor as of now. So the performance should actually INCREASE with those hotfixes (or directly a jump to Windows 8). Also, the stock CPU fan is SEXY. 😀
It's much better than any stock fan i've seen till now. Like a little smaller, modified, & cheaper version of the Hyper 212. Keeps the CPU cool enough. Trust me, summers are HOT in India. & the CPU still stays cool always. The only drawback is that it's a little noisy. (Not really a problem for me)
But, will i be able to overclock that FX 4100 on that 880G board to, well, let's say 4 GHz.?
So, what's your take on my situation.? What should i do.? What's the best move for now.? (No fanboyism please, i prefer both Intel as well as AMD machines, have used both, own both, don't believe in the INTEL ONLY FOR GAMING hype, AMD is equally good, so please, no fanboyism)
& m not restricted to just these 2 options. M open to other options as well. It's just that i spent too much on the GPU & don't have much remaining for other parts. :\
My current system specs-
Processor - Intel q8400 (Running at stock 2.66 ghz)
Mobo - Gigabyte G41M-ES2L
GPU - Sapphire 7850 (Earlier had a Palit 9800gt green edition on it)
RAM - 4 gigs DDR2 (Don't remember which brand)
PSU - Corsair VS 650
Oh, & i game at 1600x900.
Well, it all started when i bought a new & lovely AMD 7850 (Sapphire 7850 2 gigs OC edition). I plugged it into my old G41M-ES2L board, cleaned old drivers, installed fresh AMD drivers & started gaming. The first title i ran was Assassin's creed 2, to my surprise, it lagged more than it used to when i had a 9800gt into my system. Then i tried Assassin's creed 3, & many other games. All in all i got one conclusion, old games ran perfectly fine & gave me good enough frame rates too (old games with good graphics too, Crysis, Crysis 2, Gears of war, etc). One particular relatively new game ran at perfect 60 fps at all maxed out settings (That's Call of Duty Black Ops 2). After that, i started looking into the matter & found out that the AMD 7xxx PCI-e 3.0 cards DON'T work (properly, or in some cases, at all) with the old PCI-e 1.1 slots (Sadly, my motherboard has that). It works fine on PCI-e 2.0 though.
So newer games like AC 2, AC 3, NFS Most Wanted, & even Borderlands 2 are lagging on my new GPU. Lagging as in, not just coming down to 30 fps (I consider 30 fps to be completely playable, m fine if i can game at a constant 30+ fps.!)
Borderlands 2 gave me better (MUCH better framerates on my 9800gt, well, fps falls down in some intense scenes, in normal scenes, it stays fine) & NFS Most wanted gave me somewhat better fps on my 9800gt too.
Similarly, assassin's creed 3 lags once i enter Boston, before that the game was smooth in the ship gameplay level (60 fps).
Also, in most games, turning down the settings to the lowest doesn't help. FPS still stays the same, under 20, sometimes under 16)
Now, i wanna know, are the particular games that i mentioned just poorly coded (hence giving me so low FPS) or is it my PCI-e slot.? M pretty sure that it's my slot (Well, 7850 is powerful enough in my opinion to max out every game i can throw at it at 1600x900)
Also, my friend has an FX 4130 with an Nvidia GTX 650 TI (Asus 650 TI dual fan), No OC at all. That card plays the NFS most wanted completely smoothly (both using same installation). That's the reason that i think that my board is limiting my card's power. Am i correct in assuming that.? Can anybody confirm.?
Now, if it IS infact my mobo problem, there's a little background stuff i need to tell you. After i got my 7850, i gave my 9800gt to my younger brother. He is using it on a Gigabyte 880GM D2H (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4000#ov) with an oldie sempron 145 & a single stick of Simmtronics 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM (Simmtronics is a local India brand, not that bad according to what i've heard).
Now i have 2 options, either look for a LGA 775 board that supports PCI-e 2.0 (Like P45), that would help me OC my processor too in the hope of decreasing CPU bottlenecking, even if by a small margin, in the CPU intensive titles, (Q8400, 800mhz ddr2 RAM, so 400mhz fsb & x8 multi = 3.2 ghz), & also my GPU would work fine too. This would cost anywhere between 2k INR (2000 Rupees = ~40$) to 4k (~80$). Also, for OCing the Q8400, i'd need to get a new Cooler Master Hyper 212 (as the stock fan is already wearing out, m getting pretty high temps while gaming as it is). That would also cost 2k (~40$). So the total for this case is ~80-120$ depending on how much is the cost of the motherboard i can find, as the old LGA 775 is phased out. :\
The second option is, get that 880GM D2H board from my brother, buy a new FX 4100 (Well, the board doesn't support the FX 4300/6300, & secondly they're not yet released here in my country, India, though most predict that they WILL be released in a couple of months). That FX 4100 costs roughly 5.5k (~110$) & add another simmtronics RAM stick (2 gigs DDR3 1333 MHz). That would cost less than 1k (~20$). Then i will give this G41 mobo + my Q8400 + 4 Gigs of DDR2 RAM to my brother, hence giving him a quad core system & i'll have an FX 4100 based system. This will cost ~130$.
I know people don't like the Bulldozer series, but my personal experience on my friend's cheap yet so powerful gaming rig (AMD FX 4130 + Asus GTX 650 TI 1 Gig + cheap MSI board + 8 gigs of corsair vengeance 1600 MHz RAM) is pretty good. Runs every title we throw at it. I game at it a LOT. The gaming resolution is the same as mine (1600x900). GTA 4 also ran fine after i installed the 1.0.7.0 patch (I consider GTA 4 to be a pretty CPU intensive title). Also, we're using Windows 7 without any hotfixes for those windows Scheduler problems with the AMD processor as of now. So the performance should actually INCREASE with those hotfixes (or directly a jump to Windows 8). Also, the stock CPU fan is SEXY. 😀
It's much better than any stock fan i've seen till now. Like a little smaller, modified, & cheaper version of the Hyper 212. Keeps the CPU cool enough. Trust me, summers are HOT in India. & the CPU still stays cool always. The only drawback is that it's a little noisy. (Not really a problem for me)
But, will i be able to overclock that FX 4100 on that 880G board to, well, let's say 4 GHz.?
So, what's your take on my situation.? What should i do.? What's the best move for now.? (No fanboyism please, i prefer both Intel as well as AMD machines, have used both, own both, don't believe in the INTEL ONLY FOR GAMING hype, AMD is equally good, so please, no fanboyism)
& m not restricted to just these 2 options. M open to other options as well. It's just that i spent too much on the GPU & don't have much remaining for other parts. :\
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