PC gaming on an older PC

[Tung Fu ru]

So I have an older computer. Probably about 5-6 years old or so. I REALLY want to play some of the games that have come out in the last year or so. Games like Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Farcry 4, and especially Dark Souls 3. Of course there are others that interest me as well, but those kinda seem like must have games for me.

Problem is, my PC is old and might have some trouble handling these games. Or I should say, my current set up definitely will struggle or probably not play these games.

Basically I'm wondering if I could get away with upgrading my graphics card for now to play some of these. Or if I should just save up and just get a new PC. If I could get away with a graphics card for now, then later get a new PC and swap out graphics cards in the future, that would be ideal. But I would be really bummed if I upgraded the card only to find the rest of my setup prevents things from playing well.

Anyways, here is what I'm currently working with:

MOBO: Gigabyte EP35-DS3L
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 Ghz (socket LGA 775)
RAM: 8 GB DDR2
OS: Windows 10
Local Storage: 500GB SSD, 250GB HD, 750GB HD
Graphics: Nvidia 460 GTX

Got the SSD and Windows 10 recently, holy shit that really improved performance instantly. Obviously the current graphics card is old and shitty, but does play things like Borderlands Pre-sequel well. The motherboard limits me to 8GB RAM, and the best CPU I could get for the socket type is a Q9650 3.0 Ghz (I think). So the MOBO and CPU seem to really limit what I can do. Not sure if overclocking my CPU is a great idea since it already runs a little hot, and I don't have a large enough case for a huge CPU cooler. Also, I have absolutely no experience with overclocking.

I've been thinking about getting a 970 GTX with 4GB RAM. Will my current specs hold me back from playing/enjoying any of those games mentioned above? Should I just hang tight and just build a new PC?

I'm sure there are multiple members here with much more PC know how than I have. So any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Danthor]

I've got the 4GB GTX 970, and it runs all modern stuff like a champ. The CPU is gonna be your main holdback, once you've got that card.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

I've got the 4GB GTX 970, and it runs all modern stuff like a champ. The CPU is gonna be your main holdback, once you've got that card.

What CPU are you running it on?

 

[MuppeT]

I've got the 4GB GTX 970, and it runs all modern stuff like a champ. The CPU is gonna be your main holdback, once you've got that card.

That is so not true. The Q9550 is an extremely good CPU for gaming. It will not bottleneck. And even if it does a little ... you can OC with not too much problems.

Tung - check how much RAM the MB can take and fill it up. SLI the 460 GTX and buy a 120Gb SSD for around $33 bucks... you should be able to pull good numbers on that setup without investing too much money in it .

 

[Tung Fu ru]

That is so not true. The Q9550 is an extremely good CPU for gaming. It will not bottleneck. And even if it does a little ... you can OC with not too much problems.

Tung - check how much RAM the MB can take and fill it up. SLI the 460 GTX and buy a 120Gb SSD for around $33 bucks... you should be able to pull good numbers on that setup without investing too much money in it .

8GB of RAM is all the motherboard will handle. I already have a 500GB SSD, so not sure why I would get another smaller one.

Pretty sure my motherboard doesn't support SLI. I did have a SLI setup in my previous PC, wasn't too impressed with the results to be honest.

The reason I've been eyeing a 970 GTX is that they seem to be the most bang for the buck. If possible I'd like to keep the price around $200 or so.

 

[BanishingFlatsAC]

8GB of RAM is all the motherboard will handle. I already have a 500GB SSD, so not sure why I would get another smaller one.

Pretty sure my motherboard doesn't support SLI. I did have a SLI setup in my previous PC, wasn't too impressed with the results to be honest.

The reason I've been eyeing a 970 GTX is that they seem to be the most bang for the buck. If possible I'd like to keep the price around $200 or so.

8gb is enough for gaming for the most part. What's you're psu looking like?

 

[MuppeT]

Didn't notice you had ssd already .. the 8gb ddr2 might not be enough and give you additional lag while it dumps in the newer games.
I don't think it is a good idea to spend $200 on a 970 GTX as AMD is expected to soon hit the market with RX 480 and it is going to be exactly $200.

 

[MtothaJ]

So I have an older computer. Probably about 5-6 years old or so. I REALLY want to play some of the games that have come out in the last year or so. Games like Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Farcry 4, and especially Dark Souls 3. Of course there are others that interest me as well, but those kinda seem like must have games for me.

Problem is, my PC is old and might have some trouble handling these games. Or I should say, my current set up definitely will struggle or probably not play these games.

Basically I'm wondering if I could get away with upgrading my graphics card for now to play some of these. Or if I should just save up and just get a new PC. If I could get away with a graphics card for now, then later get a new PC and swap out graphics cards in the future, that would be ideal. But I would be really bummed if I upgraded the card only to find the rest of my setup prevents things from playing well.

Anyways, here is what I'm currently working with:

MOBO: Gigabyte EP35-DS3L
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 Ghz (socket LGA 775)
RAM: 8 GB DDR2
OS: Windows 10
Local Storage: 500GB SSD, 250GB HD, 750GB HD
Graphics: Nvidia 460 GTX

Got the SSD and Windows 10 recently, holy shit that really improved performance instantly. Obviously the current graphics card is old and shitty, but does play things like Borderlands Pre-sequel well. The motherboard limits me to 8GB RAM, and the best CPU I could get for the socket type is a Q9650 3.0 Ghz (I think). So the MOBO and CPU seem to really limit what I can do. Not sure if overclocking my CPU is a great idea since it already runs a little hot, and I don't have a large enough case for a huge CPU cooler. Also, I have absolutely no experience with overclocking.

I've been thinking about getting a 970 GTX with 4GB RAM. Will my current specs hold me back from playing/enjoying any of those games mentioned above? Should I just hang tight and just build a new PC?

I'm sure there are multiple members here with much more PC know how than I have. So any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

IMO to really get the most out of the newer games, you will have to upgrade your MOBO / CPU / RAM. Majority of the newer games make good use of a 4-core CPU such as an i5 / i7, RAM will be faster (DDR4 vs DDR2), PCIe will be faster etc. If you are not into overclocking, a basic Skylake MOBO and 16GB of RAM will not really set you back all that much. The CPU (e.g. i5) and GPU will probably be the high cost purchases, but once purchased you should be good to go for the next few years.

That said since you need a new graphics card so you could start with getting that (the upcoming RX480 / 470 are dubbed to offer a good performance / price figures) and see how you go on the current setup. It may be the case that some GPU intensive games will run just fine, so long as you are prepared to dial the graphics quality settings down a bit.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

Didn't notice you had ssd already .. the 8gb ddr2 might not be enough and give you additional lag while it dumps in the newer games.
I don't think it is a good idea to spend $200 on a 970 GTX as AMD is expected to soon hit the market with RX 480 and it is going to be exactly $200.

Great advice. I didn't realize AMD had a new card coming out soon at that price point. I'm guessing that will be much better than the 970. This isn't an upgrade I plan on doing in the next week or something, so waiting a bit is okay. Just trying to look at my options right now. But god damn do I really want to start playing Dark Souls 3.

@DecipticonZero: I'm not sure what PSU I'm running. I know it's an Antech, but can't see how much watts on the PSU. I REALLY don't want to take my entire case apart to find out. I believe it's no lower than 650watts, probably more like 750watts, if I remember correctly. Not sure.

Will more GPU RAM help make up for my lack of RAM? Or does it not really work that way? Also, I'm aware with my current set up none of these games will run on max settings. I just want them to play smoothly and not look like a shitty PS2 game or something.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

IMO to really get the most out of the newer games, you will have to upgrade your MOBO / CPU / RAM. Majority of the newer games make good use of a 4-core CPU such as an i5 / i7, RAM will be faster (DDR4 vs DDR2), PCIe will be faster etc. If you are not into overclocking, a basic Skylake MOBO and 16GB of RAM will not really set you back all that much. The CPU (e.g. i5) and GPU will probably be the high cost purchases, but once purchased you should be good to go for the next few years.

That said since you need a new graphics card so you could start with getting that (the upcoming RX480 / 470 are dubbed to offer a good performance / price figures) and see how you go on the current setup. It may be the case that some GPU intensive games will run just fine, so long as you are prepared to dial the graphics quality settings down a bit.

The Q9550 is a 4-core CPU.

Yes I understand that down the road I will want to upgrade the CPU/MOBO/RAM. I'm just looking for a quick fix until I'm able to build a new PC. As I know, once I get started building one, I'll probably spend minimum $800 possibly more.

 

[beigemore]

You may also want to consider an RX 480.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10389/amd-teases-radeon-rx-480-launching-june-29th-for-199

 

[madmanjock]

The other, possibly quite dumb option which I'd pick would be to get a 1070 GTX because they are stupid fast at their price point. If you're building a new PC within the next 18 months you can transfer it over and it will still probably be king in it's price segment.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

The other, possibly quite dumb option which I'd pick would be to get a 1070 GTX because they are stupid fast at their price point. If you're building a new PC within the next 18 months you can transfer it over and it will still probably be king in it's price segment.

(not to sound like an asshole, but...)
I would say REALLY dumb option. As mentioned above by a few, the new RX480 comes out at the end of the month. It's set to be at around $200, not $600. Probably won't be quite as good as a 1070GTX, but definitely not a third the power of a 1070.

If I'm going to drop $600 on just a card alone,(something I would NEVER do, I'm too cheap/broke) I might as well just save up a few hundred more and build a new PC.

 

[madmanjock]

I thought the 1070 gtx RRP is $379 in USA land?

It's faster than a Titan X which still costs a grand. In a sense, it is an (expensive) bargain.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

I thought the 1070 gtx RRP is $379 in USA land?

It's faster than a Titan X which still costs a grand. In a sense, it is an (expensive) bargain.

Even at that price, too rich for my blood. The most I could see myself spending on a graphics card is $200ish, maybe as much as $250.

 

[Tripredacus]

There are mixed reports of FO4 working properly on specs similar to yours. If you haven't bought it yet, buy it through Steam so that you can return it for a refund if your PC doesn't run it.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

There are mixed reports of FO4 working properly on specs similar to yours. If you haven't bought it yet, buy it through Steam so that you can return it for a refund if your PC doesn't run it.

Damnit. Steam is having a sale on damn near every game on my wishlist right now (FO4 included). Man, I might have to snatch a few of them up, while their so cheap. That would piss me off the buy FO4 only to find it not work on my PC after getting a new graphics card..... Then again, Fallout 4 has probably been out long enough, that it will go on sale again soon.

 

[Tanooki]

You have any preference in parts makers? Some people just won't touch one GPU over another and all that.

If you don't want a whole new PC, have you bothered to check to see if you can bump the CPU up at all too? I get the RAM can go up/capped at 8GB and you liked the 970 for what the limits of that hardware is too, it makes sense that way and cost wise too.

I'm on a laptop I built myself, it uses a clevo board, basically it's a portable DIY desktop PC as everything can pop out and be replaced. I had a budget when I got it a year and a half ago, while I got an i7 in it, I went with a moderate level one because the best one it could handle that day was $800 or 900 more I forget. I could have put in a few of the nvidia chips but the best choice was the 980M/8GB chip and I did 16GB of ram (caps at 32.) I'm thinking long term when I got it, kind of like how I can extend the life later how you are doing now on that thing. In time I'll pop in that formerly horribly high priced CPU in for a fraction of the cost and double the RAM and it'll be a solid boost. Sure I'm topped out on video, but given how good the 980 is and 1080 is just out now, it has a good life ahead of it before I start having to use all medium or low settings as it tops out still. It also helps nvidia retooled how they did portable video chips, past generations (amd and nvidia) would lose like 50% of the power of the like for like desktop model while this one is more like 10-15% off the 980 in the 980M I have. I picked up DOOM on special when it came out and it's crazy how well it works.

 

[Cylotron]

too bad you don't live near me. I'm always throwing together desktops and selling/trading them. currently have 4 that are completed and a 5th one I need memory & a hard drive for(it's a crappy 3rd gen i7 though)

 

[Tung Fu ru]

too bad you don't live near me. I'm always throwing together desktops and selling/trading them. currently have 4 that are completed and a 5th one I need memory & a hard drive for(it's a crappy 3rd gen i7 though)

Not sure where you're at. Not to mention I'm broke right now and really shouldn't spend money on anything like a new computer at the moment, just looking ahead. But I no longer live in MN, just moved to the San Francisco bay area, about and hour and a half away from SF.

Goddamnit I'm so tempted to by either Doom or FO4 on sale right now.... Really want both. Just know I can't play either til I get an upgrade.

 

[Tanooki]

Go do a little research, see what the min specs are from real people for a good 30fps or better depending on lower settings. Figure from there if you'd at least have a shot at playing it or not worth your while then bite or walk.

 

[Cylotron]

A friend was getting rid of GTX 760's (2GB SC) for $40/each. I figured "why not" & bought one. I swapped the GTX 580 that was in my nephew's PC with the 760. Seems to handle games ok. He plays Dying Light, Far Cry Primal, GTA V, etc... Sure, the games aren't playing at Max(high) settings, but they still play decent enough.
His CPU though is an i7-3770K and 32GB of DDR3. No SSD, just a standard 7200rpm drive.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

I think I might just look into getting a new PC pretty soon. I might jump ahead and get a graphics card once the RX 480 comes out, then toss it in the new PC when I get one.