Upgrading PC for current games
November 25, 2015 12:39 PM Subscribe
My PC is getting old. Help me decide on a cost-effective upgrade that will improve my gaming experience.
I thought I had a fairly up-to-date PC for a while - and then I realised that I built it in February 2012, so it's starting to show its age. Anyway, I've just started playing games again, and I've noticed that some titles (hello, Fallout 4) are just about playable, but not the things of great beauty I've seen in videos. So I'd like to spend a modest amount on upgrading the current system to better cope with the requirements of games that I'm likely to play over the next year or two. I'm just not sure where to spend my budget to get the most improvement.
My current system is built around an Asus P8P67 deluxe mainboard. I have 8GB of DDR3 200MHz, a Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz 6MB cache processor, an SSD for my system files, and an HD6870 1GB PCI-E graphics card. These numbers used to mean something to me, but I'll confess that I no longer pore over specs like I did when I built my first PC.
Burnout Paradise, Portal 2, Antichamber, Fallout 3 and the Talos Principle (all games I've enjoyed in the past couple of years) play well on the current setup. Skyrim looks OK.
The requirements for any upgrade (beyond being able to play newer games) are dual DVI outputs for my two monitors. I don't need super-high resolution as my best monitor is only 1920x1080, and I don't see myself going to 4K any time soon. My budget is going to be a measly £200/$300. My guess is that I want a better graphics card, but there are so many that I don't know where to start. That's where you, reader, come in.
I thought I had a fairly up-to-date PC for a while - and then I realised that I built it in February 2012, so it's starting to show its age. Anyway, I've just started playing games again, and I've noticed that some titles (hello, Fallout 4) are just about playable, but not the things of great beauty I've seen in videos. So I'd like to spend a modest amount on upgrading the current system to better cope with the requirements of games that I'm likely to play over the next year or two. I'm just not sure where to spend my budget to get the most improvement.
My current system is built around an Asus P8P67 deluxe mainboard. I have 8GB of DDR3 200MHz, a Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz 6MB cache processor, an SSD for my system files, and an HD6870 1GB PCI-E graphics card. These numbers used to mean something to me, but I'll confess that I no longer pore over specs like I did when I built my first PC.
Burnout Paradise, Portal 2, Antichamber, Fallout 3 and the Talos Principle (all games I've enjoyed in the past couple of years) play well on the current setup. Skyrim looks OK.
The requirements for any upgrade (beyond being able to play newer games) are dual DVI outputs for my two monitors. I don't need super-high resolution as my best monitor is only 1920x1080, and I don't see myself going to 4K any time soon. My budget is going to be a measly £200/$300. My guess is that I want a better graphics card, but there are so many that I don't know where to start. That's where you, reader, come in.
Best answer: The nVidia 970 is generally considered to be the best value for enthusiast graphics right now. For a bit less, you can do a 960. Or, on preview, what selfnoise said. Stay clear of AMD, I think.
posted by Alterscape at 12:51 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Alterscape at 12:51 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Your base system is still pretty good; mine is of similar age/specs. You probably just need a better GPU. For a reference point, I recently upgraded mine to a Geforce GTX 970 -- a little bit above your $300 budget -- and it totally crushes Fallout 4 (and everything else) at 1080 with max detail settings.
It looks like the GTX 970 is also the "recommended" GPU for Fallout 4, if you believe Nvidia's marketing materials.
The GTX 960 looks relatively affordable (~$200), but it normally only has 2GB of memory, which used to be more than plenty but modern games have been getting greedy lately. I'm not sure how much Fallout 4 is happy with.
(On preview, I don't bother with AMD cards myself either. They're somewhat cheaper, but Nvidia seems to have higher-quality drivers, and their product numbering scheme is slightly less bewildering.)
posted by neckro23 at 12:59 PM on November 25, 2015
It looks like the GTX 970 is also the "recommended" GPU for Fallout 4, if you believe Nvidia's marketing materials.
The GTX 960 looks relatively affordable (~$200), but it normally only has 2GB of memory, which used to be more than plenty but modern games have been getting greedy lately. I'm not sure how much Fallout 4 is happy with.
(On preview, I don't bother with AMD cards myself either. They're somewhat cheaper, but Nvidia seems to have higher-quality drivers, and their product numbering scheme is slightly less bewildering.)
posted by neckro23 at 12:59 PM on November 25, 2015
Best answer: Yep, you just need a better graphics card. Also, Fallout 4 runs like crap no matter what. Seriously. I'd recommend something with at least 4 GB VRAM. In terms of outputs, most modern cards have multiple digital outputs that can be converted to DVI with cheap adaptors at no quality loss.
posted by destructive cactus at 1:03 PM on November 25, 2015
posted by destructive cactus at 1:03 PM on November 25, 2015
Yeah, it's worth noting that you might just want to wait until next year sometime to play FO4. It's the usual Bethesda release; buggy, poorly optimized, rubbish interface and control scheme for PC, etc. Mods will make it better. I waited about 6 months before playing Skyrim and I still feel like that was the right call.
posted by selfnoise at 1:08 PM on November 25, 2015
posted by selfnoise at 1:08 PM on November 25, 2015
Best answer: GTX 970 will crush pretty much every modern game at 1920x1080. Make sure, however, you get one with a model number that starts with 3, not 2. The stability of later series - and its heatsink layout - is far superior. You can catch a great EVGA model on NeweggUK right now for 194GBP.
posted by givennamesurname at 1:11 PM on November 25, 2015
posted by givennamesurname at 1:11 PM on November 25, 2015
Best answer: Your base system is identical to mine save motherboard model. I recently put a GTX 970 in it and it runs everything I want at very high/ultra settings at 1920x1080, including Fallout 4. I do OC my CPU a little but even at stock clocks the 2500K is a workhorse.
Don't get an AMD card at this time.
posted by Sternmeyer at 1:36 PM on November 25, 2015
Don't get an AMD card at this time.
posted by Sternmeyer at 1:36 PM on November 25, 2015
Best answer: In case you don't know the site, Logical Increments is a great way to wade through all the PC hardware options when building or upgrading yourself.
posted by Nelson at 1:41 PM on November 25, 2015
posted by Nelson at 1:41 PM on November 25, 2015
Haven't read the whole thread, but all you need is a new video card/GPU. Almost no games are CPU-dependent (Crysis 3 is the one that comes to mind that is) and a newer CPU is going to give you a marginal boost at best. The biggest problem is that your GPU is really old and slow.
My CPU is slower than yours and Crysis 3 is the only game where I've had to crank graphics down. I have an AMD GPU and it's 100% fine, but I haven't kept up with pricing to see if NVidia is currently a better value.
posted by cnc at 1:50 PM on November 25, 2015
My CPU is slower than yours and Crysis 3 is the only game where I've had to crank graphics down. I have an AMD GPU and it's 100% fine, but I haven't kept up with pricing to see if NVidia is currently a better value.
posted by cnc at 1:50 PM on November 25, 2015
Best answer: Nthing the suggestion for a 970 (or 960 if that's out of your price range). If your SSD is 64GB or less, you may want to get a bigger one if you can stretch your budget. If not, you can always just uninstall games or move them to a regular HDD, keeping the most recent games you're playing right now on the SSD.
posted by zombieflanders at 1:57 PM on November 25, 2015
posted by zombieflanders at 1:57 PM on November 25, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks all! Looks like it's a 970, although I'm going to have to up my budget to £250ish. I can live with that.
posted by pipeski at 3:14 PM on November 25, 2015
posted by pipeski at 3:14 PM on November 25, 2015
Response by poster: Update: bought this GTX970 as the reviews said it was very quiet. So far I'm extremely impressed - it's a much smoother experience, and it's nice to be able to turn all the antialising and detail levels right up.
posted by pipeski at 2:13 PM on November 27, 2015
posted by pipeski at 2:13 PM on November 27, 2015
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So I'm not really up to date on UK prices for cards, but you want to get the better of the Geforce 960 or 970, depending on what you can afford. If you can get a model with more RAM, go for it since games are starting to use more than 2GB these days on the higher settings. The dual DVI thing will depend on the OEM model, so check what you're buying.
Both cards will handle 1080P with ease on modern games, with the 970 really killing at will whereas the 960 might have to settle for merely "high" settings.
Don't bother with AMD cards, and I say that as a Radeon owner. It's a mix of them being behind and Nvidia being a really sleazy company, but you're better off with a Geforce unfortunately.
posted by selfnoise at 12:49 PM on November 25, 2015