Possible Rig Upgrade for new MMO

[leatherface7]

Hey guys, had a question for ya. My friend is interested in playing a new MMO coming out (wildstar) and has recently participated in the beta. His computer has some difficulty running it even on low settings and reduced resolution, so I was wondering what you think the bottleneck in his system is? I realize everything is near the minimum requirements, but if I could upgrade 1 item, which would net the most improvement?

Here is a link to the Wildstar System Requirements:
http://wildstar.gamepedia.com/System_requirements

Here is my friends rig specs (let me know if you need to know anything else):
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40Ghz
RAM: 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
CPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
H.D: SeaGate ST325010AS - 250GB 7200RPM


Thanks in advance!!

 

[DSF]

What resolution does he play at? Has he tried turning the resolution down (even if he's on an LCD) to see if it makes a difference?

As you said, he's literally sitting right at the minimum specs everywhere, with his only possible advantage being a quad core if the game handles that well. My guess would be that the extra cores don't make much difference.

 

[MongGrel]

Q6600 SLCKR I loved in the day, I have one my sister in law still uses and I used to run it at 4Ghz, she uses it as a messing round computer.

Everything on there looks really dated, new computer I'd say if going to game on it.

No offense intended.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You could try overclocking the CPU. Most mmos rely on fast single thread performance. Realistically though you probably need a new system, as someone already said. Your gpu will hold you back as well, but if you upgrade to a fast gpu the CPU will hold you back.

 

[mfenn]

Your friend's system is pretty balanced as it is. Still slow, but balanced. That means that upgrading just one component may not help.

I'd follow DSF's advice and turn down the resolution. If that helps markedly, then you're GPU-limited for the game and could get a little more life out of the old PC by upgrading just the GPU.

 

[leatherface7]

What resolution does he play at? Has he tried turning the resolution down (even if he's on an LCD) to see if it makes a difference?

As you said, he's literally sitting right at the minimum specs everywhere, with his only possible advantage being a quad core if the game handles that well. My guess would be that the extra cores don't make much difference.

Well he started at 1920 x1200 but even tried it on 1280 x 800 but did not see any great improvement. Some improvement of course, but also made it a bit harder to see what was going on!

 

[leatherface7]

Q6600 SLCKR I loved in the day, I have one my sister in law still uses and I used to run it at 4Ghz, she uses it as a messing round computer.

Everything on there looks really dated, new computer I'd say if going to game on it.

No offense intended.

Definitely dated! I understand and agree that a whole new computer would be the best bet, and that hopefully will be an option within the year; but for now he is stuck with what he has!

 

[leatherface7]

You could try overclocking the CPU. Most mmos rely on fast single thread performance. Realistically though you probably need a new system, as someone already said. Your gpu will hold you back as well, but if you upgrade to a fast gpu the CPU will hold you back.

This had crossed my mind but I wasn't sure how much it would help. I guess it's worth a try though.

 

[Ken g6]

Two things he could upgrade and then use in his next system:

1. CPU cooler. This allows higher overclocks. Which one depends on budget and how much space he has in his case.

2. GPU. And I disagree with Mfenn about the GPU being balanced in general - although it might be sufficient for an MMO. Which one depends on budget and potentially whether he wants to buy or build next time. A used 7750 or 7770, or new R7 250X, could provide a good level of performance and be appropriate for a low budget.

 

[mfenn]

Well he started at 1920 x1200 but even tried it on 1280 x 800 but did not see any great improvement. Some improvement of course, but also made it a bit harder to see what was going on!

Since you don't see a big improvement by lowering the settings and resolution, then you're probably CPU limited more than GPU limited (for this game). That's not surprising since MMOs are generally poorly threaded and a 2.4 GHz Core 2 CPU is not exactly speedy.

You could try overclocking the current CPU with the addition of a moderate cooler like the Hyper 212+. It comes with brackets for pretty much all CPU sockets, so you could reuse it in a upgrade if the overclock didn't help.

If you don't want to try overclocking or it doesn't help, then you're looking at a CPU/mobo/RAM/GPU upgrade (any new CPU would be horribly bottlenecked by an 8800 GT).

 

[frozentundra123456]

Granted the system he has is quite slow, relatively speaking, but perhaps performance will improve in the final version of the game. Performance is often quite poor in betas and can improve quite a bit in the final version of the game with some patches.

However he is still going to be quite limited with that system. A friend of mine gave up on playing Guild Wars on a system with the same gpu and a 2.2 ghz dual core Core 2 duo.

 

[Cozarkian]

What about an AMD APU? Wouldn't that provide an all-around boost with the potential to upgrade to AMD Dual Graphics?

 

[frozentundra123456]

We really need to know how threaded the game is, but if it depends on fast CPU performance per thread as most mmos do, an apu is a terrible choice. The integrated graphics of the apu will be pretty much a side grade from a 9800gt, and the CPU performance with a discrete card will be mediocre.

Most mmos favor Intel architecture strongly, so the best choice is probably going to be an i3 or if budget permits an i5, with the best dgpu that is within the budget.

 

[leatherface7]

Granted the system he has is quite slow, relatively speaking, but perhaps performance will improve in the final version of the game. Performance is often quite poor in betas and can improve quite a bit in the final version of the game with some patches.

However he is still going to be quite limited with that system. A friend of mine gave up on playing Guild Wars on a system with the same gpu and a 2.2 ghz dual core Core 2 duo.

Yes this is another thing I do realize as the developers have not yet optimized the game much, but plan on doing so before release. I think I may end up overclocking a bit and if that doesn't help anything, I'll just recommened he start saving for a new rig!