Planetside 2 is more CPU-bound then most games, so upgrading the GPU wouldn't make a huge difference there. All your other games would see a nice improvement in FPS if you were to upgrade to a 660ti. If you do upgrade, I would go with the 660ti instead of the 650(or 650ti), because they wouldn't really make a large improvement over the current 640. The 660ti does have enough headroom (in terms of both power and airflow), because the x51 can actually support a 670 without many issues. There are two considerations though- you would need to also get the 330W power supply, and you would need to get a reference design card (not "superclocked" or any other extra badging).

TheRetiredSlave said:

Planetside 2 is more CPU-bound then most games, so upgrading the GPU wouldn't make a huge difference there. All your other games would see a nice improvement in FPS if you were to upgrade to a 660ti. If you do upgrade, I would go with the 660ti instead of the 650(or 650ti), because they wouldn't really make a large improvement over the current 640. The 660ti does have enough headroom (in terms of both power and airflow), because the x51 can actually support a 670 without many issues. There are two considerations though- you would need to also get the 330W power supply, and you would need to get a reference design card (not "superclocked" or any other extra badging).

Upgrading to the i7-3770 wouldn't make a huge difference would it? or does PS2 actually utilize the hyper threading? Already ordered the 330w PSU :D so my next question is, what do you mean by reference design? Sorry, I'm new to this stuff. Will this one work? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-+GeForce+GTX+660+Ti+2GB+GDDR5+PCI+Express+3.0+Graphics+Card/6208848.p?id=1218720725742&skuId=6208848&st=GTX%20660%20ti&cp=1&lp=2 Also not sure if it matters a whole lot but I'm running the i5-3450

I'd get a Gtx 650 ti boost. Nice upgrade over a Gt 640.

alaiaa01 said:

Upgrading to the i7-3770 wouldn't make a huge difference would it? or does PS2 actually utilize the hyper threading? Already ordered the 330w PSU :D so my next question is, what do you mean by reference design? Sorry, I'm new to this stuff. Will this one work? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-+GeForce+GTX+660+Ti+2GB+GDDR5+PCI+Express+3.0+Graphics+Card/6208848.p?id=1218720725742&skuId=6208848&st=GTX%20660%20ti&cp=1&lp=2 Also not sure if it matters a whole lot but I'm running the i5-3450

I actually haven't done a lot of testing different settings in Ps2. I've never looked at how many threads the game uses (my CPU has 8 threads), so I'm not entirely sure how much of a difference it makes. That looks like it is a reference-design card. It has the correct type of cooler that most reference cards use, and it doesn't have any extra labels on it. I don't know if you've ever ordered something off Newegg.com, but their price on this reference 660ti is a bit better than Best Buy's price.

travis0129 said:

I'd get a Gtx 650 ti boost. Nice upgrade over a Gt 640.

I don't know if the 650ti Boost is the best option for the x51. Even though it has the boost option, it still uses a 650ti core, so it is limited in its performance by that. Also, boosting the core clock raises the TDP of the card more than just getting a stronger card. Since the x51 doesn't have a lot of extra power, the 650ti boost might not be able to boost up as much as it would in a full-size desktop with plenty of power.

gtx 660 minimum for the x51. i would do the 660 ti personally.

"TheRetiredSlave" said:

I don't know if you've ever ordered something off Newegg.com, but their price on this reference 660ti is a bit better than Best Buy's price.

I appreciate the info! I buy from Best Buy because I'm a supervisor there and I get a discount. If newegg is lower then we just price match... Makes returning the card easy should anything happen:D Thanks for the info. I'll probably get the 660ti once the PSU gets here. Any suggestions on an SSD? I have a samsung 830 in my main desktop. Is the 840 pro really worth it? or should i just wait till my intel retail edge accommodation comes around and get the 540?

Ahah yeah, a decent discount is always nice. Someone on this forum (I can't remember who) always says the 840 pro is worth the extra money, so I guess it is. Intel SSDs are really good too, so if you want to wait around for that one you wouldn't be wasting your time. I have a Sandisk Extreme, which works well too.

"" said:

Ahah yeah, a decent discount is always nice. Someone on this forum (I can't remember who) always says the 840 pro is worth the extra money, so I guess it is. Intel SSDs are really good too, so if you want to wait around for that one you wouldn't be wasting your time. I have a Sandisk Extreme, which works well too.

Any recommendation on RAM? will the RAM with heat sinks fit in the x51?

"TheRetiredSlave" said:

Planetside 2 is more CPU-bound then most games, so upgrading the GPU wouldn't make a huge difference there. All your other games would see a nice improvement in FPS if you were to upgrade to a 660ti. If you do upgrade, I would go with the 660ti instead of the 650(or 650ti), because they wouldn't really make a large improvement over the current 640. The 660ti does have enough headroom (in terms of both power and airflow), because the x51 can actually support a 670 without many issues. There are two considerations though- you would need to also get the 330W power supply, and you would need to get a reference design card (not "superclocked" or any other extra badging).

Have you considered the 650ti boost. It looks to be a lot better without any price increase. Although you wont get the full amount of ingame cash for pl2.

"ADMB2480" said:

"TheRetiredSlave" said:

Planetside 2 is more CPU-bound then most games, so upgrading the GPU wouldn't make a huge difference there. All your other games would see a nice improvement in FPS if you were to upgrade to a 660ti. If you do upgrade, I would go with the 660ti instead of the 650(or 650ti), because they wouldn't really make a large improvement over the current 640. The 660ti does have enough headroom (in terms of both power and airflow), because the x51 can actually support a 670 without many issues. There are two considerations though- you would need to also get the 330W power supply, and you would need to get a reference design card (not "superclocked" or any other extra badging).

Have you considered the 650ti boost. It looks to be a lot better without any price increase. Although you wont get the full amount of ingame cash for pl2.

But the 650 isnt as good as the 660. Which is the reason why Nvidia named it 650. and not something like 665. A 660Ti is way faster then the 650 Boost.