Upgrading

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For the extra video memory? No. If you did want to spend that money on a graphics card upgrade, you would be better off getting a faster card with the same amount of video memory, such as a 6870.

 

You're talking about the Radeon one? Also noticed they are running a Valentine's Day special with hard drives. Upgrade from a 1 TB hard drive to a 2 TB one for.... $0!

With the Radeon 6870, we're at $995... so still in my price range.

 

Aldeth, what is your budget? I know you mentioned $1,000 earlier in the thread, but I wasn't sure if that was the budget or just a number.

Don't forget that the base Cyberpower system doesn't include Windows, and it doesn't look like you've factored that in, so add another $104 (it's on the third page).

The system looks good with the upgraded GPU and PSU. Personally, I would just stick with 8GB of RAM (Valentine's special - upgrade to Kingston HyperX), and maybe spend $3 to go from 2GBx4 to 4GBx2. Bear in mind that the RAM you're looking at is Corsair or major brand, so you really don't know what you're getting.

If you're tempted to spend a bit more money, put it into a better GPU (not by increasing RAM, but moving up a level, as Proteus says).

 

For my budget, I'm not setting an upper cut-off limit, as in "There's no way I'm spending more than $X for this." That said, I'm being realistic too, and I'm interested in getting the most bang for my buck. I don't need a state-of-the-art gaming system that would run me in excess of $1500, but at the same time I'm not going to penny pinch if I can get something considerably better for a few extra bucks.

So when I say my budget is $1,000 - keep in mind that there is wiggle room there. If I can get something totally baller for $1100, of course I'd fork over the extra money.

 

Well, for $1,016, you can get your system with a Radeon 6870, 8GB RAM (Kingston, 4GBx2), the Coolermaster PSU, the 2TB HD, and Windows 7 Home. Even though you could double the RAM (although at lesser quality) for only $32, it would in no way make the system “baller”. IMO, the best upgrade would be to go to a Radeon 6950 GPU, which can give up to 20% better frame rates (depending on the game), but at an extra $123, it’s not a cheap upgrade.

Note that there is an icon on the left that looks like a lightning bolt. By upgrading the GPU, it goes from green to a flashing red, and mousing over, it says that you need a 700W PSU instead of 600W. Simply put, this is a lie – 600W is more than enough. Hopefully they’ll actually let you order the system without going to 700W.

 

Tom's Hardware has updated their video card buying guide.

The 6870 is on the list. Next up is the 6950 1GB, tied with the GTX 560 Ti. After that is the 6950 2GB, which is the only version offered on Cyberpower. If you decide that your starting point is the 6870, and are considering an upgrade, the GTX 560 Ti is a cheaper alternative to the 6950 I suggested in my last post ($84 vs. $123).

 

Why is the Radeon 6850 so cheap? Is it crap?

EDIT: And I didn't realize Windows 7 was available in 32-bit or 64-bit.

 

Not at all. It's a good card (it's on page 3 of the Tom's list), but it's been out for awhile and there are several other cards that have come out since that are more powerful. Newer cards tend to drive the price of older cards down. Putting a 6850 in your system would be fine, but you'd get less mileage out of it than with someting more powerful before you ran into framerate issues.

 

I'm playing around with the video cards, and looking at FPS. What am I shooting for here as a benchmark? Some of them give 80, some give 120. What should I be looking for?

 

With any current mid-range card (like the 6850), you should be OK. As long as frame rates are >30, you're fine. However, the more you are above 30, the more future-proof the card is.

Also note that different games (and game engines) put different stresses on cards. So in Game X, Card A might perform better than Card B, whereas it might be the other way around for Game Y.

Edit: And don't use the FPS counter in Cyberpower. Look at actual tests from reliable test sites like Tom's or Anandtech

 

Well in that case, almost any of these cards will work. I don't want to have to upgrade in a year though. I'm basically looking for something that meets the requirements of everything out there now, and something where I'd be reasonably confident that it would also meet the requirements for games a year or two from now. If I have to upgrade after that, I wouldn't mind too much.

 

The 6850 might be good enough, then. However, don't forget that frame rates will vary depending on your screen resolution, which in turn depends on what kind of monitor you have.