Building. Room for improvement?

Thank goodness for tax returns and paychecks. Anyways so far I have gotten this far with my new system, but after reading some others posts I am unsure how mine holds up with upcoming GR. So I turn to you all for help:



---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.8---

DxDiag gathered at February 23, 2010 22:37 (-08:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
System Model: CM5571
BIOS: BIOS Date: 11/03/09 18:05:40 Ver: 08.00.14
Central Processor: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5400 @ 2.70GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 6144MB
.Net Memory Report: 5139MB out of 6143MB available
Page File: 11211MB (1072MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST31000528AS ATA Device) 337480MB out of 381551MB (88%) free
D Drive: (ST31000528AS ATA Device) 558948MB out of 564118MB (99%) free
E Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40N ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce GT 220
Video Memory: 3802 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.11.9621
Driver Date: 1/11/2010 8:03:33 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5859
Driver Date: 5/24/2009 2:04:22 AM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output(Optical) (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5859
Driver Date: 5/24/2009 2:04:22 AM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5859
Driver Date: 5/24/2009 2:04:22 AM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: CM5571
Motherboard Version: Rev X.0x
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 11/03/09 18:05:40 Ver: 08.00.14
BIOS Version: _ASUS_ - 11000903
BIOS Release: 20091103000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1024x768
3D Resolution: 1024x768 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 2.000
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.448
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.600
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 152197 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1600.20091102.9T4
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found


Any other information I can provide no problem, again I am still adding.

Which components have you upgraded?

Your graphics card may not run Ultra Mode very well. If even at the lowest settings. From what we know, you need a 9800 to run Ultra Mode at it's lowest settings. The equivalent to the 9800 in the 200 series is the GTS 250. You may be able to run at it's lowest settings, but we don't really know much at this point.

Your processor is ok but it's on the lower end of the spectrum. It doesn't perform as well as Core 2 Duo's so you'll most likely experience bottle-necking.

You have more than enough RAM

We'll see....

Amazing I was told the 220 was better than the 9800 so I updated that immediately but I am still hoping to get the 260 or 280 and a bigger power supply, but that's another 150+ dollars away and the Ram was the other I updated. As for bottle necking or rubber banding is barely noticeable so far

You got this desktop system right? And then added a video card.

The GT 220 is better than the 9500GT, depending on the type of memory it has. There is a huge difference in performance between a GT 220 with 512MB of DDR2 memory and one with 1024MB of GDDR3 memory. The assumption on the chart on Tom's Hardware is of a GT 220 with GDDR3 memory. But we are still talking about somewhere between half and two thirds the performance of a 9800GT.

Now the problem with a 9800GT is that I'm going to guess your system doesn't have the power supply to support a 9800GT comfortably or reliably. Sure it may work, for a while but like red-lining an underpowered vehicle, it's not good for the longevity of the engine, or in this case the power supply.

Objectively, the E5400 isn't a really good CPU for gaming. A slow FSB of 800MHz with only 2MB of L2 cache hurts applications that access lots of memory, all the time, like 3D games. I'm not saying it's horrible or crippled, but it's what you will find in a low cost system. If I was building a system, there are other Intel CPUs within $10 of the price of the E5400 which are better for gaming. As for recommended upgrades, I simply don't know enough about what CPUs that system's BIOS is ready to accept to offer one. Perhaps there is info in the system manual about what CPUs would be compatible.

You have plenty of memory and running 64-bit Win 7 so no problem there.

Over the weekend I was visiting a friend and played on his system which is a dual core 2.4GHz Athlon X2 with a 7950GT for graphics. I was seeing 45+ FPS in CoH at nearly the same settings as you are running. I think your system is just as powerful in not more so than my friends. So overall it's not a bad system. Just not one that is going to run the game at HDTV resolution well.