It's been almost 3 years since I built my present rig, I think. 3 years ago I learned only as much as I needed to know to put it together, and do not consider myself a 'computer guy'
My desktop is rated at "6.0 windows experience" fwiw...
intel i7 920, 2.67GHz quad core
12GB ram-- can't remember which ddr rating. 2 years ago, 3 sticks were $120 or something like that, so can't be crazy fancy.
2x ATI radeon HD 4890 graphics cards in "crossfire" (series?).
dunno what motherboard I have. I can find out somehow, if important. It wasn't a cheap one.
SO-- I can run all games, and usually on high, but not reliably on highest or "ultra" or whatever. Far Cry 3, for example, I could not take to the max. Oddly, amnesia was very graphics intensive, and really bogged down. Even skyrim has to be one down from the max.
I LIKE graphics. The visual splendor is important to me, as much as gameplay.
I play many of the RPGs, and a few first person shooters: FC3 of course, skyrim, bioshock, dishonored, mass effect.
I've been thinking of upgrading for a while, and don't know how to tread through the ocean of specs and numbers. I have 2 1gb, ddr5 graphics cards: what does 2013 get me that 2010 did not, are there other numbers I'm not looking at besides memory quantity and memory speed? (such that a 1gb, ddr5 card in 2013 will outperform the same from 2010?)
Which graphics cards will get me to smooth performance on highest settings? (or is there another bottleneck, like the processor or something).
Actually, one limitation for something like civilication V, is that my present cards are not directx11 compatible.
What prompted this post now, in particular, is that I intend to buy bioshock infinite. Amazon has a promotion, with a free copy of bioshock infinite with some of the following graphics cards, and since I plan to buy the game at full cost anyway, that amounts to a $60 discount off of a new card. Will any of these enhance my present rig? or just same my $ for a year or 2 more.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...oup=2&plpage=1
thanks for the suggestions!!
-Bernard
My desktop is rated at "6.0 windows experience" fwiw...
intel i7 920, 2.67GHz quad core
12GB ram-- can't remember which ddr rating. 2 years ago, 3 sticks were $120 or something like that, so can't be crazy fancy.
2x ATI radeon HD 4890 graphics cards in "crossfire" (series?).
dunno what motherboard I have. I can find out somehow, if important. It wasn't a cheap one.
SO-- I can run all games, and usually on high, but not reliably on highest or "ultra" or whatever. Far Cry 3, for example, I could not take to the max. Oddly, amnesia was very graphics intensive, and really bogged down. Even skyrim has to be one down from the max.
I LIKE graphics. The visual splendor is important to me, as much as gameplay.
I play many of the RPGs, and a few first person shooters: FC3 of course, skyrim, bioshock, dishonored, mass effect.
I've been thinking of upgrading for a while, and don't know how to tread through the ocean of specs and numbers. I have 2 1gb, ddr5 graphics cards: what does 2013 get me that 2010 did not, are there other numbers I'm not looking at besides memory quantity and memory speed? (such that a 1gb, ddr5 card in 2013 will outperform the same from 2010?)
Which graphics cards will get me to smooth performance on highest settings? (or is there another bottleneck, like the processor or something).
Actually, one limitation for something like civilication V, is that my present cards are not directx11 compatible.
What prompted this post now, in particular, is that I intend to buy bioshock infinite. Amazon has a promotion, with a free copy of bioshock infinite with some of the following graphics cards, and since I plan to buy the game at full cost anyway, that amounts to a $60 discount off of a new card. Will any of these enhance my present rig? or just same my $ for a year or 2 more.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...oup=2&plpage=1
thanks for the suggestions!!
-Bernard
