CPU or GPU

Agree with what some others have stated, you need a whole new system. Both your GPU and CPU are severely outdated I think I was rocking an AMD 4200+ approximately 8-10 years ago...

I disagree with prioritizing a SSD, I delayed getting one for a long time because I felt they weren't really worth it. The prices have come down to a reasonable level, and I was bored with expendable money so bought one for the heck of it. They are mainly useful for when you are doing a full reformat on your computer. Sure things might be a little bit snappier with an SSD but my load times were nearly instant before even getting an SSD.

My point, if you have a fast CPU, GPU, and internet connection you will barely notice any loading time difference with SSD. There's really not a whole lot of memory loading, if it's slow your CPU probably just sucks.

I'm using Intel 2600k @ 4.3 GHZ and a gtx 560 ti.

I feel the gtx 560 ti is the bottleneck for this game when trying to use max settings, but no way in hell I'm buying a new video card yet. They keep releasing the same shit with slightly better cooling or stock clock speeds, where's the next gen shit?

Edit: Agree with poster above me the WD Black drives are nice, that's what I had before SSD and I'm not noticing much of a difference.

I no its cpu... I upgraded to a 7970ghz edition gpu for 460 $ still get fps drops....and use 3.5ghz six core

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BerMalBerIst1 wrote:

Neither, get a supporter pack first :P

You could maybe get a pack too being how you are so active and all. But don't show your dark side only I would know about that.

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morbo wrote:

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Sisaroth wrote:

CPU is much more important for this game than GPU. Especially if your fps drops in parties than that's mostly due to your CPU.

What? Care to elaborate?

The single most important piece of hardware for all games is the GPU. All the graphics is done on the GPU, even physichs calculations are done on GPU nowadays (not that PoE has any physics).

Since PoE doesnt contain any complex AI / simulations, or anything that would require specific CPU power and arhitecture, I say this claim is false.

That said, OP should buy a new comp entirely.

Not all the graphics are done on GPU. Effects are nearly always done on CPU. That's why so much effects got "nerfed" latest months. They don't have the time and the people to make this game better multithreaded so they reduce all the spell effects because they put a lot of load on the CPU.

And most physics are still done on CPU. Only PhysX game i know with noticeable effects from PhysX is borderlands 2 and some blobs comming out of a toilet more realisticly doesn't make the game much better. And tomb raider has tressfx for more realistic hair, not special either.

I know that he should also get a new GPU. But if both your CPU and GPU suck and you don't have money to upgrade both than CPU is the much better choice. He would probably not notice much difference from upgrading his GPU.

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Evlesoa wrote:

I got a quadcore 2.5 with overclock at 3.1, yet this game still lags like shit on my integrated card (cuz I can't switch to my dedicated, the option is grayed out due to lack of optimization). So yah, GPU first.

What do you mean with that? What lacks optimisation? Nvidia drivers?

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Wookiezim wrote:

I feel the gtx 560 ti is the bottleneck for this game when trying to use max settings, but no way in hell I'm buying a new video card yet.

Dont upgrade, it's the game fault. I run this game at OB start on a GTX 570, same syht with FPS drops as currently on GTX Ti 550. It seems that PoE doesnt like Nvidia graphic cards.

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Sisaroth wrote:

I know that he should also get a new GPU. But if both your CPU and GPU suck and you don't have money to upgrade both than CPU is the much better choice. He would probably not notice much difference from upgrading his GPU.

Yeah, kinda agree. In this particular situation upgrading just one component would not result in much difference.

Anyway, I dont think this game is multithreaded (few are). Cause then is really really badly optimized (runing on a quad core with decent GPU -> Docks still have noticeable FPS drops, even with no shadows enabled and everything on low!)

Sorry to say, but if you want real performance you're going to have to build a completely new rig. Motherboard is much more important than people realize, and that CPU would bottleneck a good GPU by a mindnumbingly huge amount.

Based on your hardware, your platform is likely nowhere near capable of benefiting properly from a modern GPU, and probably incapable of even using a modern CPU.

To be honest, i would keep this game on minimum graphics in the option menu (except shadows because it makes the game actually painful to look at) regardless. You don't have to use runescape mode via ini's, however, that's a bit extreme.

I'm running on an overclocked GTX 570 and a heavily overclocked i5 3570k (my gaming multipliers are 47/47/34/34 and i have various other profiles for different activities) and i use minimum graphics options in the menu, except shadows which are on viariance (also shadows look fucking horrible in this game, but it looks even worse without them).

When i try to max out the graphics (even with Anti-Aliasing turned off), i'm basically just begging for giant framedrops.

And then i go play Hitman Absolution and Sleeping Dogs on ultra at 66FPS.

btw,

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Sisaroth wrote:

Not all the graphics are done on GPU. Effects are nearly always done on CPU. That's why so much effects got "nerfed" latest months. They don't have the time and the people to make this game better multithreaded so they reduce all the spell effects because they put a lot of load on the CPU.

afaik this is not true. Particle effects like fire, explosions, etc. are done as shader programs on the GPU. This is one of the fields where GPUs vastly outperform CPUs, so it would really not make sense to do this on the CPU (not even with multihreading).

Maybe thats why we are seeing people with Radeons claiming everything runs smooth, but people with Nvidia cards having FPS drops (when lots of particle effects are on the screen) - badly optimized shaders for Nvidia cards.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

SSD is such a godsend for this game. I would't consider any sort of upgrade for PoE play purposes without one.

^^^^^^

This. Or a RAM disk.

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kdoom wrote:

internet connection >> all

this.

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morbo wrote:

btw,

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Sisaroth wrote:

Not all the graphics are done on GPU. Effects are nearly always done on CPU. That's why so much effects got "nerfed" latest months. They don't have the time and the people to make this game better multithreaded so they reduce all the spell effects because they put a lot of load on the CPU.

afaik this is not true. Particle effects like fire, explosions, etc. are done as shader programs on the GPU. This is one of the fields where GPUs vastly outperform CPUs, so it would really not make sense to do this on the CPU (not even with multihreading).

Maybe thats why we are seeing people with Radeons claiming everything runs smooth, but people with Nvidia cards having FPS drops (when lots of particle effects are on the screen) - badly optimized shaders for Nvidia cards.

Source does effects on CPU. Starcraft 2 too, so i assume it's the same for WoW.
PoE started development in 2006, in a time when half life 2 and WoW were very succesful. So it wouldn't be that strange to expect that they did things similar as the 2 biggest PC exlusive game devs in that time. I'm just guessing though, i don't know anything about the engine they use. I think they made it themselves but not sure.