Upgrade time?

[pembquist]

This is what I have AMD Athlon 64x2 6000+ 3.0ghz, 3MB ram, EVGA 1060 gtx video card, some kinda hard drive, win 10 pro 64bit. No other software, no antivirus.

Have to keep sliders on the left side and boxes checked off, get lotsa stutters etc. never really 60FPS often in the teens with tracers and lotsa planes.

I am guessing this is really a cpu/memory shortage problem. The versions of drivers and AH3 all say 32 bit, is this correct? Would 1 more MB of ram make much difference, MOBO max is 4 I believe.

For an upgrade I'm looking at I5-6600K 3.5 on sale at New Egg for $228 or so and a MOBO like this gigabyte one: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/my4NnQ/gigabyte-motherboard-gab150mds3h approximately $75. Also 16MB of Ram. How does this seem? I need a cpu cooler as well and would like something nonfancy as I'm not thinking of over clocking, (could also go down a step to I5-6500.) Would a bump up to an I7-6700 be overkill? Going to keep the stuff from my current box, power supply is newish and decent, hard drive...well whatever, same for dvd. I'm not a video gamer, just AH and I'd like to try IL2 with mods.

Does this look good for the money? Will I be able to see reflections and still have an illusion of continuous motion? How about just some shadows?

[BowHTR]

 

Surely you don't have something setup correctly. Im running a GTX 750 at 1920x1080 and if I remember correctly I only have shadows, reflections, and ground clutter in flight disabled. All sliders are for the most part half-way to maxed with exception to the environment slider at none. I get 55-60fps 98% of the time.

[Skuzzy]

You said 3MB of RAM, I assume that is 3GB of RAM?  Even so, that is a very odd number for system memory.  Very odd.  And yes, if that is how much system RAM your computer has then that 1060 video card is not going to perform very well, at all.

If you want to run Windows 10, you should have, at least, 4GB of system RAM.  If you want to play Aces High, then add some more on top of that.  I would say 8GB of system RAM would be ample.

[DaddyAce]

I agree with your assessment that your CPU/RAM is limiting your framerates.  I'm running a 3 GB 1060 GTX and  max textures, with all graphics settings except envioron mapping maxed, usually get 75 fps on my 1440p monitor, frame rates do dip depending on circumstances but never to unplayable and I'm quite happy with the setup.  I think at least for AH3 there is no advantage to 16 GB over 8 GB RAM, and your choice of CPU is more than adequate.  I find my i3 6100 CPU more than adequate to run AH3, (my 1060 GPU seems to be the limiting hardware in my case), along with running teamspeak, Trackir, and all the windows stuff as well.

[Bizman]

If size is no issue inside your case, I'd choose a full size motherboard instead of a Mini-ATX. The performance is the same, but there'd be more surface for cooling and cabling.

8 GB of RAM should be enough.

Also, since you don't plan on overclocking (which by the way your choice of mobo doesn't even allow), both the 6600 and 6500 will be fine even with the Intel cooler. Despite the fact that AH3 runs well on a dual core i3, knowing it can utilize three cores leaving one for other tasks might add longevity. Then again, getting a fast and cheap i3 now and upgrading to a used quad core for next to nothing when needed is a viable plan. The i3-6100 @ 3.7 GHz for $110 sounds quite tempting...

[cav58d]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-desktop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-120gb-solid-state-drive-1tb-hard-drive-black-red/5623270.p?skuId=5623270

I bought this over the weekend and I love it.  Runs AH with everything maxed out, and I couldn't build this on pc part pocket for a lower price.  If your looking to upgrade an entire rig at an affordable price I would highly recommend this Pre built.

[DaddyAce]

Glad to hear it cav, was wondering how that worked out for you! 

Also pembquist, if you're interested in comparing some quick gaming performance stats on different cpus for the price check out this site:  http://www.logicalincrements.com/

The second column in the recommended builds is the CPU column, click on the cpus of interest and you'll see some summary stats among other information.  The site has been updated since I built my puter, but when I looked at price vs performance, I went with an i3 6100 and have been quite happy with it....I could afford a faster processor, but would rather save the $ do do something else.....

[cav58d]

Glad to hear it cav, was wondering how that worked out for you! 

Loving it!  It actually went on sale a day after I bought it, and Best Buy honored the new price and gave me the extra $70 off.  I reached that price on PC Part Picker before even touching a case.

I will likely add another SSD at some point.  The GPU only has 3G of VRAM, and it's not an issue what-so-ever for AH, but I doubt this card would be optimal five years from now in whatever the latest FPS is.  The case lights are super corny.  Really glad I figured out how to shut them off =)

[Zoney]

  The case lights are super corny.  Really glad I figured out how to shut them off =)

Good, agreed, i got the same corny lights.  How do you shut them off?

[Rash]

You like the French ho house look of your computer?  That's my dads opinion of the lights.

[cav58d]

Good, agreed, i got the same corny lights.  How do you shut them off?

Are you controlling lights with controller or with software?  Controller is SUPER weak, so much so that I had to take the left side glass panel off for it to work.  I simply pressed the off button, and thank goodness they have stayed that way.  Why anyone would pay extra money for this is nuts.

Zoney -  Which model ibuypower do you have?

[Zoney]

This one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-desktop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-240gb-solid-state-drive-2tb-hard-drive-black-red/5600310.p?skuId=5600310

I have not been able to get the remote to work either, I'm not running software.  Thanks for the heads up on taking off the glass panel, I'll try that when I get home.

[pembquist]

Ok, so it is back to the drawing board. Now I am thinking of getting an I3 or I5 with a stock cooler but I would like the MOBO to be good for a future upgrade to an I7. I looked at the logical increments selections so my new question is if an ASRock Z270 Pro4 LGA at $120 will be adequate and compatible for a future purchase of an I7 or if you really have to pay 165-190 to get a board that will allow the cpu to perform? I don't really understand the difference between MOBO's beyond the socket.

[Bizman]

Looks good to me. As their website says, it "Supports 7th and 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1151)".

Also, the mobo allows for overclocking the "K" model processors if needed.