What am i doing wrong with my gaming pc build?

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iK1DDER

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Aug 25, 2015
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I spent almost 900 dollars on my pc build and it still isnt great for gaming. i run skyrim at 20 fps in heavily snowy areas and when the weather is clear, it is around 26-40 fps. My specs are: MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte ga-z97-hd3, POWER SUPPLY: EVGA 430 watt 80+ atx, PROCESSOR: i5 4690k 3.5 ghz but overclocked at 4.24 ghz right now (but i could overclock higher but choose not to), HARD DRIVE: Western Digital 2TB 3.5-inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache WD2003FZEX, RAM: G.Skill 2 x 8(16gb) DDR3-1600 PC3-12800, GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 1GB, Windows 8.1 and i use an external usb optical drive if that matters, which is: Lite-On IT Corporation Optical Drives EBAU108-01
 
Solution
MarkW
When we are 4 full pages into this thread...
Decisions have all been made...
Orders placed...
Products received...
Products installed into the system...
...and being used...

...And then you should up, and comment negatively on the entire process, is it not rather pointless?
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I am familiar with everything on that parts list except for the case (went with what Sherbetaddict said).

Instead of going with cheap parts, I went with good parts. Like the 1TB WD Black 7200 RPM hard drive, Mushkin memory (awesome company), and so on. I have not used that particular motherboard, but I do have an AsRock Z87 Fata1ty Killer motherboard in this box.

The one update I would have loved to have done to that was to go with an I5-4460 instead of the Pentium. Mainly because 4 cores are needed by so many games. But it would have added something like $80 to the price.

Since you already have a CPU, Motherboard and other parts, just take what you need from this when you can, and you will end up with a killer of a system.

If you can do it, shoot for a GTX 960... I saw this at Amazon... there might be lower prices elsewhere...

Gigabyte GTX 960 G1 Gaming 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Cards GV-N960G1 GAMING-2GD $189.99
 
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the only thing i am afraid of is buying it but not being able to play other games i want at high settings with at least 60 fps, like gta 5, ark survival evolved and batman arkham knight and other new games that require a lot of video memory. i want the cheapest graphics card possible that can run all those at 60 fps at least without dropping below 60 fps.
 
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Yeah, you might want to move up to a GTX 970 for 60 FPS in games like that.

Every card is going to drop below 60FPS at some points during the game. That is just a fact of life. Even the Titan will. But a Titan will do it less often, and normally recover faster too.

Here is a page showing GTA V at very high settings at 1080
http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=16560&game=Grand%20Theft%20Auto%20V&title=GTA%20V%201080p%20Very%20High%20Graphics%20Complete%20GPU%20Benchmarks

I see 62.5 FPS there. That means that if you turn down the settings one notch, you should be able to eliminate most of the dips below 60FPS... There will still be some, but most of the time, you will be at or above 60 FPS on a GTX 970.
 
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thanks for resetting it for me. i looked over that page a little, so should i try to get the gtx 970 sli for the best frames for gta 5?
 
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i dont remember if you already did but can you send me the link to the graphics card i should get that is the 970 and can i get a link to a good power supply that can run my build except with the 970 graphics card you are recommending please? also can that graphics card run ark survival evolved and batman arkham knight at max settings? and thank you so much for your help that you have been giving me.
 
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oh okay. i will probably try to buy power supply first cause i just bought this power supply so i should be able to return it to amazon before the return thing runs out then i will try to save up for the graphics card but to be honest this is my first pc i built so im new to this and idk how to install that power supply and graphics card. idk if it is different from the ones i installed. i used a video tutorial to build my pc and i was quite happy with it but i was greatly disappointed in the fact that it still doesnt run games as good as i want it to.
 
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Thanks but is there any video or anything on installing both the power supply and the graphics card? with possibly a similar motherboard as mine or just a video of installing them period as a reference?
 
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Its actually very easy to install a powr supply. There are two fat cables that go to the motherboard. One has a wide 24 pin connector, and there is only one socket on the motherboard that the 24 pin connector could possibly go into. And it can only fit one way. The other big fat cable is a 4/8 pin connector (more like 2 - 4 pin connectors side by side. All modern motherboards need 8 pins. And the pair of 4 pin connectors sit very tightly together to make the 8 pin connector, and again, they will only properly when plugged in from one direction.

The rest of the cables are much thinner, and go to the various peripherals. They should all be labeled, and there should be a manual with your power supply that explains them better than I can. There are also lots of videos on youtube that show you what to do. So you can watch a few of those, and feel like an expert when you go to do it.
 
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alright, so what about the graphics card? how do you install it cause i seen a couple cables with it that mine didnt have? but does that power supply and graphics card run ark survival evolved and batman arkham knight at max settings at 60 fps?
 
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Once the video card is firmly pressed down into its slot, and then screwed into the back of the case, you will see 2 spots (connectors) for power cables at the far end of the card on the inside of the case. They can be 8 pin or 6 pin. Seems that every card can be different. But it does not really matter. That is because power supples come with PCIe power cables that have what is known as 6+2 pin connectors. What that means is that if you need an 8 pin power cable, you use both the 6 and 2 pin parts of the cable to make the 8 pin. If on the other hand, you only need a 6 pin cable, you just use the 6 pin part, and the 2 pin part dangles off to the side.
 
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i will check more out about it tomorrow. gotta get up early for work. i will try to figure it out but hooking up the graphics card is the difficult sounding part for me and idk if it will run the other games i want it to or not.
 
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okay, thank you so much for your help man. i might check back here if i cant figure it out but if i find out tomorrow then i will mark it as solved. hope you have a good night. thanks again. i will try to figure more out tomorrow.
 
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its difficult to make a choice with all the options. lol. i just want something that can run skyrim, batman arkham knight, ark survival evolved, and gta 5 on max settings that is at least 60 fps that is also a decent price for the product.
 
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Both the 970 and 390 are fine.
They max out most AAA titles (Always Exceptions...)
The 970 runs cooler,but the 390 has 8gb vram as opposed to 3.5(+0.5) GB
Make your choice based on the above info and the price.
 
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Nothing plays Batman Arkham Knight well right now. The port they did from the consoles was absolute garbage. Warner Bros has a team working on it. But I expect that it will be months before they get most of the mess fixed.

Skyrim is not all that demanding of a game unless you install some of the high rez mods, and then it can be very demanding.

GTA V depends on the resolution and the settings. At the levels of cards we are talking about, it will run fine for you on at least high settings.

There are benefits and drawbacks to both the GTX 970 and the R9 390. Neither card is perfect. But at the same time, both cards will play Skyrim and GTA V well. And I expect that if Warner Bros gets the Batman game fixed up properly, that both of these cards would run that nicely too.

The R9 390 is going to run hotter and use more power than the GTX 970.

The GTX 970 has that quirky last 0.5GB of memory that runs at 1 seventh of the speed of the rest of the 4GB of memory. The R9 390 has double the memory on the card that the GTX 970 has. I think 8GB on the R9 390 does trump the 4GB on the GTX 970 in this case. The 8GB is not needed by games today, but it may well be needed next year or the year after that.

If I was trying to make up my mind between these two cards, I would probably go for the R9 390 due to the extra 4GB of memory on the video card. I think as games use more and more memory in the coming years, the 8GB of memory on the R9 390 will help it stay relevant.
 
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i have been debating on whether or not to buy this for my power supply instead: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ALK3KEM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00ALK3KEM&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwcareyholzm-20&linkId=6UETW337E3LSKPRL . would this be more than enough? but idk how to hook it up. also is this better than the one you suggested? : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NI5DA2E/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00NI5DA2E&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwcareyholzm-20&linkId=HN3WMJWLTRLG5LD2 ,it is more expensive but i want something that will run just about any game at max settings. i dont want to spend 300 some dollars on a graphics card that cant run most games at max settings then have to buy one for 500 some cause then its just a waste to buy the first one. i just want one that will run just about any game at max settings at 60 fps at least
 
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