Upgrade for Bad Company 2

[CWM]

I'm running a fairly dated computer:

6000+ dual core (2 x 3.0ghz)
Asus Matrix 4850 512MB @ 725/2000 core/mem
2GB DDR2 800
Forget my motherboard model as I'm at work but it's an am2/am3 board.

Just wondering what I should upgrade first to get the biggest bang/buck performance increase for BC2? I play on my 1920x1080 22" BenQ monitor and would like to play on at least medium settings. I have the game on order.

Cheers.

 

[red1776]

a new graphics card would get you the most results, if by chance your MB has another pcie slot, add another 4850. you also need to add another 2GB of ram for gaming (especially for games like BC2) you will only get to use about 3GB for working memory because of the limitation of your 32 bit OS, but add 2GB to keep your dual channel function.

a couple questions for you,
1) what are the specs of your PSU?
2) whats your budget for this upgrade?
3) is DX11 a priority for you?

 

[CWM]

Thanks for the reply red.

My motherboard is an Asus M4N78 SE. No Crossfire available.

I currently have 2 x 1GB RAM. Unfortunately this board only has 2 DIMMS.

DX11 is NOT a priority, the game will look pretty enough with DX10.

Budget is $300 NZ so about $215 US.

My PSU is an Enermax Noisetaker II 485W. Model is EG495P-VE.

Is it possible to install Win 7 64-bit with my 32 bit key?

 

[red1776]

I think the best you can do would be a GTX 460. the upper end 4800 ati cards (4890 and 4870's ) are getting scarce. IT would really help to replace your 2GB of memory with a 4GB kit when you can.

 

[CWM]

Sweet as, thanks.

Would a Phenom II X4 965 cut it for a CPU upgrade on that board or should I go cpu+mobo and get an i5 or i7 later on?

 

[dividebyzero]

Palit GTX 460 768Mb for $302 from Zcom. They're in Auckland so $7 shipping to Whangarei. If you can squeeze a little more into your budget theen this MSI GTX460 Cyclone 1Gb is awesome value at $354 from Paradigm (they do free shipping) who are an excellent sales outfit.
If buying used isn't a problem then I'd suggest Trade Me -second hand HD 5850's and HD 4870X2 can usually be had at reasonable price. I also have a similar card up for sale at the moment on the TS site.

 

[red1776]

Geez Chef, that 5850 is the same card I have three of in my machine.....I only paid $300.00 a piece new however. The cooling is great on them I run them at 900/1200 and hit 75c playing metro 2033.
A Phenom II 965 will indeed cut it and handle any of the aforementioned cards.



***** I will be putting a Sapphire HD 4850 X2 on the TS exchange forum in a bit here if that does anything for you. It has the horsepower to play BC2**

 

[dividebyzero]

The Gigabyte card is a fairly good seller here ($450-470) mainly because it's cheaper than a few stock clocked 5850's and unlike HIS, Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX etc...have a three year warranty. 5850's crop up reasonably frequently in the second hand markets - both of mine are only about three months old. People either ditching them for a single 5870/GTX480 or GTX460 SLI.
5970's are also quite prevalent too (bear in mind that a new vanilla card is $NZ1000) #1 , #2, #3, #4 etc... (the waterblocks are $NZ200+ new)