Seeking improvement.

[Frostbyte]

I dont know my computer tech so well, so I'm gonna make this really simple.

 

1) I need something that will show me what my current system specs are.

2) Once that is done, I need something that will improve graphics with a higher framerate

 

Thats it. Much appreciated.

[Shadowex3]

CPU-Z and GPU-Z will do the first two for you, and the second can only be done with new hardware or lowering the settings of your games.

 

Biggest free FPS boost you'll ever get: Turn off AA (anti-aliasing). Learn to ignore things having jagged edges, your screen will be less blurry so you'll see far off objects better, and you'll get like 10-20 fps free depending on your current graphics card.

[Red]

Shadow's right.

 

Also turn down the details in game if you really want to squeeze every extra frame you can.

 

If you want even more you can turn down your resolution in game.

[Wrathek]

buy a new card

[Shadowex3]

What Wrathek said. EVGA GTX 260 core 216's are right about $170-180 before rebate nowadays and that sonofabitch is basically the second most powerful graphics card out there right now, it'll run crysis very high at 1600x1200 with ~35fps or just about any source game with up to 16xAA for no real performance hit.

 

If you really must squeeze more frames out of your current setup though anti-aliasing, shadows, and reflections will be your biggest performance hurters along with overall screen resolution. You can lower model detail for free since it doesnt really look any different, and as long as you keep Anisotropic Filtering at 8-16x you can get away with medium textures most of the time too.

 

Also HDR will rape your framerate.

[kamikazeghandi]

Biggest free FPS boost you'll ever get: Turn off AA (anti-aliasing). Learn to ignore things having jagged edges, your screen will be less blurry so you'll see far off objects better, and you'll get like 10-20 fps free depending on your current graphics card.

 

yeah, but I would suggest keeping your AA but instead dropping your resolution. for the most part, you can get just as much of a framerate increase but it typically looks better when you have less jaggies than to have larger textures. try them both and pick whatever you like the best. and DEFINITELY turn off hdr like Shadowex3 said above this, it'll drop your rates a lot on HDR maps when turned on.

[Coffee Crisp]

The GTX 260 is probably the best GPU you could get on the market if you're on a cheap budget. I do recommend you have a moderate sized case for room purposes. This card is pretty "huge". Also make sure you have a good PSU. If you have a lot of power consuming parts I'm pretty sure you'll need something around 750W. With a 9800 GTX you'd get occasional blackouts even with a 650 W PSU.

 

Also continuing about the cards.. If you want to use less power, have more room in your case, and to save about 30-40 dollars. Then you should get a 9800 GTX. It only performs a little worse than the GTX 260, but for those three it might be worth it.

 

As for the FPS. Shadow is right about HDR, AA, and Anisotropic. You don't really need them. Also, if you're not really competitive regarding Reg CS then you can make the Shadow Details as Low. FPS booster. You should also check out Kaizen's CS: Source FPS Config. I quote - "While I developed my config primarily for performance, I tried to minimize losses of visual quality and I believe I achieved a happy medium." It's a great config.

 

P.S: You don't really need to download anything to see your PC specs. Just run dxdiag on the command prompt or "run" feature. It doesn't show a couple things though.

 

[Wrathek]

guys if all he's playing is source, i think recommending a gtx 2xx series is supreme overkill. my 8800gtx runs pretty much any game beyond like crysis at max everything still after a mild overclock.

[Coffee Crisp]

guys if all he's playing is source, i think recommending a gtx 2xx series is supreme overkill. my 8800gtx runs pretty much any game beyond like crysis at max everything still after a mild overclock.

 

By the end of 2010 that won't be the case seeing how DX11 is being developed. At least with the 200 series he'll last for a couple years, even a 9800GTX alone would be fine till about 2011.

[Ultramarine]

I dont know my computer tech so well, so I'm gonna make this really simple.

 

1) I need something that will show me what my current system specs are.

2) Once that is done, I need something that will improve graphics with a higher framerate

 

Thats it. Much appreciated.

 

to see what your hardware is, go to canyourunit.com this site will check your hardware and tell you if you can play a certain game or not.