Considering upgrading my CPU

[PP Mguire]

Overclocking is the easiest way to avoid wasting money on an area that doesn't really need it.

If your card is 2GB then make sure you have the latest drivers for everything, and make sure all background tasks are closed out. Your machine should be fine but just take note that a 7850 is still slower than a 580. 100% guarantee you my CPU was perfectly fine for GTA4.

Yes I played for about an hour or so. I got ***** slapped basically because I had no idea what I was doing. I noticed that the further away from a heavily populated area I got the frames got better. Didn't seem like maxing the draw distance on that game made a difference in VRAM usage or frame rates.

 

[Brids17]

I guess I could attempt overclocking, I just worry about frying my processor. What kind of fan would I need for it? I assume the stock fan wouldn't be enough. I'm going to town tomorrow so I could try to get one then. In regards to the graphics card, what would be a better choice? Bang for buck would be preferable, especially since this graphics card is only about 6 months old. Bonus points if it means I wouldn't have to upgrade it any time soon.

As for Planetside 2, that's the issue. I can get fine frames in medium sized battles but massive battles are what the game is designed for and those are the spots I'm only getting 20-30 frames. I don't think it has anything to do with draw distance or graphics, I ran Farcry 3 on high with no noticeable frame drops what so ever. I think with Planetside it's the number of people. But then again, other games will give me problems too, Tribes Ascend is a good example of that. The looks like crap, there's not tons of players and yet I still got large frame drops... Is it just poor game optimization?

 

[PP Mguire]

Could be, but an OC could decide whether or not it's the CPU.

You wouldn't need to invest in anything serious to see if you get a real good boost in performance or not. And whatever you buy now if you decide to upgrade you can use it on that setup too. Something cheap like the CM Evo 212 which is only about 30 bucks. With that you could easily get 3.5GHz which is almost a full 1GHz bump in speed. If you don't see anymore than 5fps difference then an upgrade in CPU wont exactly help your situation.

The reason I say this is due to the very low CPU utilization. I bet I can drop to 2 cores on my setup and still run it 100% fine. Take note, my FPS was rather low for my setup as well. When I first hopped in my FPS was 40 and as I ran around dodging gun fire and tanks it would average out to 45 maxing at 50. This was with just one 580 running and no OC on the graphics.

 

[Brids17]

A $30 fan sounds a lot better than $250 processor. =D I checked out an installation video of the fan you suggested and it looks...complicated to say the least. Do all fans require me to remove my motherboard? Sorry for all the questions, I'm pretty new to PC gaming and hardware related things.

 

[PP Mguire]

Most all, yes. Due to the nature of the socket, and the requirement of some form of back plate.

It's not hard at all really. Just takes time and some patience. It comes with instructions as well, and I think they have pictures for a guide.

If you want, I can toss my 580 in my i5 setup with Planetside to see the actual CPU usage.