TheBladeRoden makes a hardware thread too

It's definitely your CPU. I'm running a GTX 470 right now and I don't even know what my FPS runs because I never have to check; prolly never below 30.

I don't know what kind of budget you're looking for or how it'll be til you can buy. Those 2 factors can change everything dramatically.

Right now IMHO your best performance at a reasonable cost is:

CPU: Either Core I5 3570K or Core I5 2500K. Depending on which and from where it'll be around $190-220. Make sure to pick up a good aftermarket cooler so you can get the most out of it. Which one will depend on your case and preferences, but doesn't have to cost more than $25.

MOBO: Plenty of choices but you can get a great board for like $125-150. Z77 chipset is the choice I made.

MEMORY: Any quality memory that works with your mobo in an 8gb flavor... don't worry about speed too much as it returns a tiny performance gain. 1333mhz is probably a good choice. This will run about $40-50 but sometimes deals will bundle it with your mobo.

If you change just these three parts for likely under $400 I bet you'll see a marked improvement in your performance without even switching GPUs.

If you have an additional $100-120 burning a hole in your pocket, add a SataIII SSD.

If you wanna go for the full meal deal you can add a significantly better GPU for another $200-400.

You might also want to consider I higher quality power supply. It's an often neglected part of folks system that can contribute a lot to stability.

Is that pretty much what you were wanting to know?

 

I would disagree on getting an SSD as a performance improvement. SSD's are awesome, but I'd spend that money towards a new CPU, mobo, more RAM, or a new GPU.

All of Khorne's other suggestions are good advice, imo.

 

I'm watching these hardware threads with care. I'm no expert, but from all I've read PS2 is a bit more CPU-intensive than most shooters. I do keep hearing the i5 3570 is the sweet spot, as suggested above.

There's also talk of the whole game being run in debug mode during the beta. It's possible we'll all see a speed bump on release.

 

It's what I use.

Lemme give you a couple sample combos:


Newegg: $440.60 shipped

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

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Microcenter: $362.06 picked up from Microcenter in Sharonville OH, after sales tax of 6.5%

http://cart.microcenter.com/cart.aspx?RedirectUrl=http://www.microcenter.com

 

I agree with this. Buy an SSD after you have fantastic performance with everything else. Its a nice improvement when you don't really have much to improve.