What should I upgrade for better frame rates?

[Serenity]

Well, christmas is coming, and the GF is wondering what to get me. We set a budget of $200, and I'm wondering where to put it. Here is what I have so far:

AMD FX-8320 3.5GHZ EIGHT CORE 125W
CORSAIR VENGEANCE 4 GB 2133 MHZ DUAL CHANNEL x2 (8GB of RAM)
AMD RADEON R9 280 3GB GDDR5 PCIE 3.0X16

Should I look for more RAM? The next step up in video cards is outside of the budget at about $300, and I JUST got this card. Would I see a noteworthy difference if I got a second R9 280 video card and hooked it up in crossfireX whatever that is?

AH frame rates are good, but not great, and with the graphics update coming, I don't want to have to turn things down, and the DCS games I play sit at around 30fps. Is there anything significant I can do with about $200? Or would I be better off asking for some ammo? lol.

[Masherbrum]

EVGA 970 or 980.   

[Serenity]

EVGA 970 or 980.   

That's almost $200 overt budget for the 970, and $350 for the 980...

[katanaso]

Overclock the CPU, if you're not doing so already.

[Masherbrum]

That's almost $200 overt budget for the 970, and $350 for the 980...

No ATI card will touch either one.   You can try overclocking the CPU, but I don't see a huge gain with that CPU.   

[Serenity]

Overclock the CPU, if you're not doing so already.

I'm not. Would I have to buy any particular hardware for that?

[katanaso]

I'm not. Would I have to buy any particular hardware for that?

No, overclocking is very easy in this day.  Search for "Overclocking FX-8320" 

Here's one hit, and look at the 2nd post, with the links it has:   http://www.overclock.net/t/1496789/overclocking-the-amd-fx-8320

There are most likely folks on this BBS that overclock AMD CPUs as well, and they may be able to lend a hand.

Like Karaya indicated, there may not be a huge gain, but it's free, and easy to do.

[Serenity]

Is it worth getting a second video card to hook up in crossfire?  Would that do anything?

[katanaso]

It will certainly improve things, but probably not as much as you're expecting.  Crossfire can also introduce some frustrating things like microstutters.  I don't believe there's a Crossfire profile for AH2, but I may be wrong.

I did a Crossfire setup several years ago, as it was much cheaper than getting a newer, better single GPU, and it wasn't that great.

The best framerate improvements I've made have been from CPU changes, via overclocking, and eventually upgrading.

[38ruk]

What kind of fps are you seeing in Aces?  I run the same Video card and can run pretty much every thing topped out except environment mapping .... while still using anti Aliasing, running the hires pack. Only big difference is I run an I5 3570K @ 4.8 ghz on water.  What kind of monitor are you running?  I have a 144hz Ben-q and while i was looking around I saw a few 144's in the mid 200 dollar range .

[Masherbrum]

I would take a lone 970 or 980, over two of your cards.    Worth it in the long run.

[Chalenge]

A second video card will not do much of anything in AH, except give you a few more aliasing settings (and similar things).

Tell her to hang on to the money and eat beans and rice until you can afford a 970 (or better yet a 980).

[Serenity]

I would take a lone 970 or 980, over two of your cards.    Worth it in the long run.

Yeah, and if it weren't for the budget mentioned in the first sentence, I'm sure I would too. But again, WAY out of budget.

[Masherbrum]

Yeah, and if it weren't for the budget mentioned in the first sentence, I'm sure I would too. But again, WAY out of budget.

Understood.   But if you sell the current one on Amazon for a fair price, it will help offset the second one that really doesn't give you much gain, per dollar.

[Serenity]

Understood.   But if you sell the current one on Amazon for a fair price, it will help offset the second one that really doesn't give you much gain, per dollar.

I don't expect my card to bring the price down into the $200 range, and it would leave me without a video card in the meantime. A bigger better card may go on the list later on.

What kind of fps are you seeing in Aces?  I run the same Video card and can run pretty much every thing topped out except environment mapping .... while still using anti Aliasing, running the hires pack. Only big difference is I run an I5 3570K @ 4.8 ghz on water.  What kind of monitor are you running?  I have a 144hz Ben-q and while i was looking around I saw a few 144's in the mid 200 dollar range .

I've got a 32" LED TV. I get about 49-59fps normally, but in a big fight, it ducks down to about 30. In DCS I average 30 which drops to 11.