Looking to upgrade system

[Reptile279]

So my current system is this:

 

AMD FX-8120 8 core running at 310 GHZ (no overclock due to lack of experience)

8 gigs DDR 3

msi 660 ti main card and 550 for physics

500. Watt power supply 

 

I can't get this rig to run smoothly with the texture packs and enhancement mods I want regardless of memory patches, optimization mods (like occlusion culling) 

so what do I need to get skyrim to look beautiful and run smoothly? Any input i

greatly 

appreciated. 

[Aiyen]

Okay this is just too tempting...

 

I am fairly sure that your 310 GHz CPU is rather hot, and not really to be used for consumer products, perhaps return it to the R&D department of AMD :P

 

 

That aside.

 

Running two cards with only a 500W power supply you could technically experience that you do not have enough power to run everything at full power. That would be my first thought. Since performance wise it should be decent enough for skyrim even with a decent ENB on top.

Again for the CPU then I am fairly sure that the FX series are for servers and not for desktops... but might be wrong in that regard.

[deathneko11]

I game just fine on an amd 6100 fx 6 core cpu. It's just fine for desktop computers, and are supposed to be designed for friendly overclocking if he has a black edition unlocked series. However, 3.1 ghz sounds kind of low for processing speed. My 6core came at stock 3.3ghz and I overclocked it to 4.0ghz just using the multiplyer in the bios.

[TechAngel85]

What resolution are you running at?

[Reptile279]

1920 x 1080

 

So if low voltage is the problem would removing the 550 actually improve performance, or should I just upgrade the power supply?

 

Is there an 8 core processor that would perform better?

 

Again thank you for the input and feedback.

[TechAngel85]

What is your RAM speed?

 

Your processor should be fine. I would think about getting a 800W power supply if you're going to be running all that stuff just to make sure you have the power requirements. Next, make sure your components can all run close to their maximums without any issues. This would mean making sure your motherboard has the proper bus speeds to handle the high-end speeds and making sure your RAM is also at higher-end speeds as well. DDR3 1066MHz should be your minimum on a high-end machine with 1333 & 1600MHz being even better and RAM is fairly cheap.

[Reptile279]

I will have to look all that up when I'm home from work. As for my motherboard I'm confident it can handle it. Though I am blanking on its specs but it was built for gaming and was fairly new when I picked it up around two years ago.

[Aiyen]

Also it can NEVER be said often enough. Make sure you got enough power (Amp´s) on your +12V rails that power the GFX cards...

It is possible to power up the machine without any error sounds and still have too little power on the rails, which will default the card to a minimum performance setting.

 

This is even more vital when running multi card setups!

[Reptile279]

Ok checked and my memory is Oh **** ok. Memory:

 

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

[TechAngel85]

On top of what Aiyen said... When running two cards (even one as a physx card) you need a SLI/CrossFire ready PSU. This means that it will have two separate rails; one for each card which are dedicated to those cards to ensure each card is getting its power requirements.

[Aiyen]

Or just one rail with enough amps to run a small apartment.... give or take ;)

 

I personally hate multiple rail PSU´s... id rather pay extra for the single rail ones. Mostly because they are not steamlined for a given card setup, and once a new generation of cards come out their power requirements change. So annoying to have 22A on each rail only to find out that the new cards now require 24A each to run optimally...

[TechAngel85]

Well, honestly I don't upgrade my cards but once every 3-5 years so when I did it wouldn't be a stretch to also upgrade the PSU if need be. I know most say there's no such thing as "future-proof" when building a PC; however, I disagree because I've built systems that didn't need upgrading for 4-5 years and even then it was as simple as replace one or two components. If you know what you're doing you can build a system that will last for several years.

[Aiyen]

Entirely agree with you on that count... my previous one only died this january (it had lasted about that long) since the mobo died when I put in a new gfx card... or perhaps it was the PSU.... did not have the parts to properly check it.

But before that I had that PSU issue... and I also helped out a mate with his, and he also had it.... so annoying to miss 2A, since it automatically slows down the card when it detects that it cannot get enough power.

 

Hence I always advocate single rail over multiple one PSU´s... they normally cost a bit more, but then again I also advocate that people get gold certified ones even though they are silly expensive. But where I live at least power is not cheap, so the difference pays for itself during its lifetime.