Another Vid card or new comp?

S

swchoi89

New Member
Hi all,

I currently have the below specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition Quad Core Processor 3.6GHZ
MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr II OC 810MHZ 2GB GDDR5 2xDVI
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL (2 x 4GB + 2 x 2GB)
AMD970 ATX AM3+ DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI RAID SATA3
OCZ ModXstream Power Supply 700W

I play Aion a lot, and even at the max setting with the high quality engine, I lag like shiet (about 20 fps?).

Do you think adding another video card (same 6950) would significantly boost performance? Or should I make another computer with GTX 500 or 600 series?

(If you could also teach me how this dual vid card works, that would be awesome).

Much appreciated for your help!
 
Your system is pretty good, so I don't know why you are lagging. Have you tried updating your Catalyst/Graphics card drivers? If not, update them and see if the games run better. I'd also update your chipset driver too and see if that gives you any extra performance. If the game still lags, try and uninstalling/reinstalling the game, I reckon that your issues are more software related than hardware. What settings and resolution are playing the game on?

Adding another 6950 would increase your performance, but I think you should be fine with the single 6950 for the time being. Try doing what I said above and see if it helps.

No, I wouldn't bother building a whole new system, not worth it, your current setup is good.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

On aion, I basically have everything maxed out. Cool thing about Aion is that they launched this "High Quality" gaming engine which pretty much makes everything even better but of course, it demands much higher specs.

You can name all, like shading, effects, anti-aligning or w.e its called plus all other good stuff. When I see more than 20 characters in the screen, I start to lag like crazy.

Maybe I'm being greedy lol.

I'll try what you said above when I get home later.
 
Turn down your settings and resolution a bit. The 6950 is a pretty powerful card for the money, but you're probably not going to be maxing absolutely everything out on it. You're probably trying to play the game on like 1920x1200 with everything maxxed out and full anti-aliasing, and with a 6950 you just can't do that. Turn down the resolution and anti-aliasing a bit and see how it goes.

If you want you can grab another 6950 and throw it in your system, but I'd always recommend one big card over two smaller ones.
 
Aion System Requirements said:
Minimum:


Connectivity: Broadband Internet connection

DirectX: 9.0c(2008,6)

Hard Drive space: 30GB

Operating System: Windows XP SP2/Windows Vista/Windows 7

Processor: Pentium 4 2.8GHz/AMD Athlon 2800

RAM: 1 GB RAM

Video Card: GeForce 6600/Radeon X1550



Recommended:


Connectivity: Broadband Internet connection

DirectX: 9.0c(2008,6)

Hard Drive space: 30GB

Operating System: Windows XP SP2/Windows Vista/Windows 7

Processor: Pentium Dual Core/AMD Athlon 64 X2

RAM: 2 GB RAM

Video Card: GeForce 7600/Radeon X2600
Click to expand...

Based on this, you should be able to near to max it on a x2600. You should be able to max it on a 6950. I would think that you have a driver issue. Are you using an app that shows you memory usage, temps, FPS, and clock speeds? If not, download MSI afterburner or EVGA precision and use the OSD app in them to game. That will tell you where you are hitting the ceiling. I know my card (nvidia FX2500m) sometimes does not jump performance to compensate in game which feels like a bottleneck, (reads as 0Mhz, 1 MHz, 0MB). You might be seeing something similar. Based on the specs of the game though, I doubt you will do better with a second 6950, I doubt the game is coded for it.
 
Yes, I do get 60+ FPS (using in-game FPS measuring option) if I turn back to all Ultra high setting under the "Normal Engine" rather than the High Quality Engine.

The requirements you provided above are based on the "Normal Engine" I believe, but like I said, they added a new "High Quality Graphic Engine" option to make graphics even more ridiculous. With 6950 (I made sure of my software versions and all to be up-to-date), I think I still hit my maximum.
 
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Those are the only ones I could find.

Okay, 2 things to try.
1. Use an app that monitors vRAM usage in game. Check that your not hitting the roof there. That would limit frames too.
2. Overclock it. If your hitting the roof with the card, that will net more frames. IF this helps, then upgrade to a 6970/7950/7970 or gtx 580/680 and you will net better.
 
Are you sure its your system thats the blame for the lag?
On that setup you should not be getting any lag and Aion isn't exactly demanding.

Whats your internet connection like?
Run this...
http://www.speedtest.net/

wolfeking=then upgrade to a 6970
Click to expand...

6950-6970 is not worth it,theres very little performance gain to be honest between them.
His system is more than capable,It must be something else causing the lag.

swchoi89,Also what hard drive do you have?
 
I use an SSD 128GB...

Yes, it's not my internet that has problem. I have around 750kb/s to 1m/s for internet, so no issue there.

Btw, games like L4d2 runs extremely well with ultra high settings, it's just Aion. Maybe you should play Aion to realize what I'm trying to get at.
 
first off, that is extremely slow internet for gaming. I have lag issues @ 4Mb/s.

That will not explain the low FPS. But you are not listening to advice given. Test memory usage and OC. See that you are being bottlenecked by the card. If it is your card an upgrade will work. If not then you can upgrade all day and not get any better.
 
swchoi89 said:
I use an SSD 128GB...

Yes, it's not my internet that has problem. I have around 750kb/s to 1m/s for internet, so no issue there.

Btw, games like L4d2 runs extremely well with ultra high settings, it's just Aion. Maybe you should play Aion to realize what I'm trying to get at.
Click to expand...

wolfeking said:
first off, that is extremely slow internet for gaming. I have lag issues @ 4Mb/s.

That will not explain the low FPS. But you are not listening to advice given. Test memory usage and OC. See that you are being bottlenecked by the card. If it is your card an upgrade will work. If not then you can upgrade all day and not get any better.
Click to expand...
That 750kb/s to 1mb/s might be a download speed. Just to make sure, OP, do the speed test at www.speedtest.net.
 
Yes, io do get around 5 mbps ish?

I also have the following: 365 MB of VRAM (Dedicated) and 107 MB of (Dynamic) according to GPU-Z
 
That's weird why you lag like shiet, cuz your system is pretty decent! it should smooth this shiet game out without a glitch. Check your drivers. And also, is this game HDD intensive? if yes then maybe your hard drive setup is screwed/old worn out hdds/defected hdd?
The saddest that can be in your case is that the game is written poorly for radeon driver. OR the other way around - crappy driver.
 
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