 | Member with 95 posts. THREAD STARTER | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: England Experience: Intermediate | |
Skyrim-er requires advice on new hardware! Having been enthralled for months now by the newly released instalment of the Elder Scrolls games I find myself wanting to get as much out of the game as there is to offer. My PC is a 'semi-self' build and is now approaching its 2nd birthday... I am still extraordinarily happy with the way it performs and still amazed at how little time it takes to boot up. The problem is I built this machine with a budget that didn't allow me to futureproof it for more than a couple of years without showing signs of stress from the newest games.
Here's what's what at the moment: - Asus P7P55D-E MoBo
- Intel Core i5 760 2.8GHz OC'd to 4GHz
- 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator 1600MHz CAS 9-9-9-24
- Corsair 750W PSU
- 1GB XFX HD5850 BlackEdition
- OCZ 90GB Vertex 2 SSD
- 1GB Samsung SpinPoint F3
During my many hours of Skyrim-ing (I should probably note here that I spend just as much time modding my game as I do playing it) I have found that my 4GB of RAM are being pushed over 95% capacity which hardly surprises me considering over 50% is being used now with a few webpages, skype and windows mail open. So here is my first question to you: What should I do about my memory 'crisis'? Do I attempt to purchase another 2x2GB sticks of my Dominator memory? (which to be fair does get a 7.7 on the windows performance index) Or do I replace the memory altogether with something like the Corsair Vengeance? If I do scrap the dominator memory is it worth going to 16GB for additional future-proofing?
The second thing on my mind at the moment is replacing my graphics card. I have found that in order to get playable frame rates at my native (1920x1080) resolution on Ultra settings I have had to drop AA to x0 and AF to x2 - even at these settings I am still stuttering in demanding areas. As it stands at the moment there isn't that much available in the mid-range market and replacing my graphics card isn't of utmost importance. It'd probably be a couple of months before I take the plunge at any rate. Having said that if I set an upper limit of £250 (about $350) for a replacement card - what would you suggest and how much difference do you think a new card would make?
I'm fairly happy with my CPU at the moment its never been pushed much over 50% capacity to date which gives me some peace of mind and will likely serve me well for a while longer. RAM and GPU are my main concerns... Your opinions and suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
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