Question Am I just wasting my time with my setup and RDR2? GPU suggestions?

[msimon7]

Hello, I have an HTPC I built about 7 years ago that I mostly watch sports/movies on, but also use it to play some games. It has never given me any issues before RDR2, granted I'm not a huge gamer, but enjoy playing none the less. Apparently, I haven't tried many graphics-intensive games. yikes.

My setup is i5-3570K CPU @3.60GHz/3.80GHz, 8GB RAM and Zotac GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB VRAM, with the latest nvidia drivers installed on Windows 7 SP1.
My display is through my projector with an aspect ratio of 1920x815 (21:9).

From the minimum specs, I should be able to run this game according to RDR2? I realize that ultra (or even high) would not be possible. The problem I'm having is that I can't set the resolution to anything higher than 1280x1024. So I end up with a relatively little box in the middle of my screen (putting it on windowed, thinking that was the way to go?) And the settings are all basically set to "low" for the most part, the game did this not me.

I ran a benchmark test in the game and the results were:
minimum FPS: 0.117212, max FPS: 61.7981, avg FPS: 28.0717

Is there anything I can do to have this run "full screen", I know I can't get the full video quality possible, but would like to at least play it filling up my screen.
Wondering if I am just wasting my time and it is not possible to play this with my rig?

If it is time to start shopping for upgrades, what upgrade,specifically graphics card, would you recommend? I prefer nvidia (never gave me issues), and the reason I went with the 660 Ti, was that it was a small form factor (4.73 x 1.39 x 7.53 inches ) and fit in my HTPC case (Silverstone GD01MX) - not a lot of space in there, but works great in the entertainment cabinet.

Thank you very much in advance for any help!

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Seems like you could just switch the in-game settings to full-screen. Does that not work?

I'd suggest a GTX 1660 or better if you want Nvidia.

 

[msimon7]

Thanks, fullscreen doesn't fill the screen tho when the resolution is lower screen resolution, I believe. I think the lower game resolution only fills a portion of the screen. Thanks for the GPU suggestion.

 

[Calvin7]

21:9 aspect ratio. 21:9 ("Twenty-One by Nine") is a consumer electronics (CE) marketing term to describe the ultra-widescreen aspect ratio of 64:27 (2.370:1), designed to show films recorded in CinemaScope and equivalent modern anamorphic formats.

A 16:9 ratio produces an image that is more rectangular in shape. The three most common video projector aspect ratios are 4:3 (XGA & SXGA), 16:10 (WXGA & WUXGA) and 16:9 (standard HDTV, 1080p).

 

[msimon7]

thanks, I tried fullscreen last night and it is better. But unfortunately viewing through the projector, the image is greater than the size of the screen on the top and bottom and not quite the width on the sides.
The width being shorter than the screen made sense, but it was odd to me that the height was greater than the screen. I thought since the windowed versions were much smaller than the screen, the fullscreen would have been a smaller image with black around all sides.
I tried playing to see how it ran, even with this oversized image, and it did OK, but then would freeze. Did this pretty regularly, borderline unplayable - at least unenjoyable. Seems like a new video card is in order?

I don't get how a video resolution of 1366x768 would yield a display horizontally larger than my resolution of 1920x815. Would any of you know?