pc upgrade question

[shepgti]

right with the new battlefield around the corner i want to play it on the computer(as we all know thats where fps belong!)

now i dont feel my current pc spec will be up to the job. its a quad core hp (cant post spec till im at home on the comp)

what are the main things i would be looking at upgrading?  graphics card, more RAM?

i know a little about computers but not a huge amount.

[justalex81]

main thing is graphics card.

at least 4gb of ram

rapid hard drive

[shepgti]

will their be an issues with compatibility if say i bought a gtx460 and some extra ram(is it just a case of slotting it in?)

[Ridg]

will their be an issues with compatibility if say i bought a gtx460 and some extra ram(is it just a case of slotting it in?)

depends on your motherboard i.e. does it have an PCIe slot?  Basically if you've got the right slot then it should just slot in.

BF3 is going to be quite CPU intensive so you might want to look at that too

NB a GTX460 requires power, so you'll need to check you PSU for a PCIe power connector or at least 2 spare molex (the standard 4 pin).

[Ant1981]

pci-e you'll be wanting. My guess is yes it'll have one, they've been around for long enough.

Can you afford more for a graphics card? The 560ti's are probably about £200 or so now.

[shepgti]

Not looking to spend too much, just enough to run battlefield without lagging. ill post up some more details about my pc tomoz so you guys can give me some guidance.

[Ridg]

Can you afford more for a graphics card? The 560ti's are probably about £200 or so now.

+1

the 560ti is about £160 these days, faster and less power.

the 460GTX will quite happily run BF3 though.

[shepgti]

ok so my current spec is

2.2ghz quad core
3gb ram
geforce 8400 1512mb


so i guess i would need a new graphics card and a little more ram

[justalex81]

yes to the graphics card.

find out how many memory slots you have. you want at least 4gb in dual channel.

the processor is a little on the slow side too and will struggle a bit but should be ok

don't go mad on the graphics card as your motherboard/cpu/memory will be causing a bottleneck so no matter how fast your graphics card is, it will be held back. i wouldn't spend more than £125 on a graphics card if i were you.

[Khare]

http://www.pc-titan.com/product_info.php?currency=GBP&info=p7473_PowerColor-Radeon-HD-5770-ATI-Design-V2--1GB-GDDR5--2x-DVI--HDMI.html

That's the graphics card I've got, and it'll happily play all the latest games (including bf3) on the highest settings without any lag. I do however have a decent mobo/ram/cpu/psu package though so there's not a bottleneck anywhere in the system, especially as I've overclocked the cpu from 2.9 ghz to 3.5ghz and the gpu (graphics card) from 850 mhz clock and 1200 mhz memory to 920 mhz clock and 1300 mhz memory. It'll happily play games all day long without lag