Current setup upgrade needed? and preferably to a sitution to handle star citizen decently

[DJRebellion]

Well, I have a fairly new setup. with a graphics card(s) that im not sure if they are that good in the grand scheme.

I have a windows 8.1 computer (64 bit) with:

AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics @ 3.50ghz

AMD Radeon HD 8570D + 8470 Dual ~Graphics

6GB DDR3 Ram.

Now, Star citizen's minimum ram to even boot is 8GB so i'll have to sort that out (any recommendations on cheap DDR3 ram??)

Other than that i dont know how my graphics card(s) handle compared to lets say a HD7770 or a 7790. It seems there is not much info on the dual graphics i have around. just different card combos so i have no idea how good they are really. Also suggest what a good upgrade card would be. i was thinking about getting 2 HD 7770's? does my PC even support multiple GPU's? i havent looked to check if the '2' cards i have are indeed 2 cards or 2 graphics cores on one card

 

[HiTechObsessed]

Dual graphics really isn't very powerful, especially for Star Citizen. You will need a minimum of a GTX 760 to even get minimum settings.

Answer these:

What kind of budget do you have?

What kind of motherboard do you have?

What kind/wattage PSU do you have?

How is your 6GB of RAM setup? (Number of sticks/type, etc.)

 

[DJRebellion]

Dual graphics really isn't very powerful, especially for Star Citizen. You will need a minimum of a GTX 760 to even get minimum settings.

Answer these:

What kind of budget do you have?

What kind of motherboard do you have?

What kind/wattage PSU do you have?

How is your 6GB of RAM setup? (Number of sticks/type, etc.)

Would it not be better to go for an AMD graphics card instead of having a mix of Nvidia and AMD? (processors AMD) although if its compatible then sure. How do i go about checking the ram config? Dxdiag, system and device manager don't specify. It's most likely 3x2gb but could be 1x2 and 1x4. same deal for psu, how to check? just looked behind the pc and it doesnt say. i have another computer with a Nvidia 8500gt graphics, 500w PSU and an intel Q6600 @2.4ghz in it. Stupid question... but there's no way i can make them run together is there. like combine some power? just be a shame to throw it away.

 

[HiTechObsessed]

I think the CPUs would be about equal for gaming. And no, having an NVIDIA GPU and AMD CPU wouldn't cause any problems, that's just what some people who have bad experiences start spreading on the internet lol

Anyway, you can download CPU-Z and it will describe everything about your computer for you it's available here: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Would you have any kind of budget for doing a computer upgrade? I'm just asking - we can get you going a bunch of different ways lol Just want to do what's best for you. As long as you have a decent PSU, I think we could get you into Star Citizen with a Ram upgrade and GPU upgrade. What settings you will be able to run at depend on your budget though 😛 lol let me know!

 

[DJRebellion]

I think the CPUs would be about equal for gaming. And no, having an NVIDIA GPU and AMD CPU wouldn't cause any problems, that's just what some people who have bad experiences start spreading on the internet lol

Anyway, you can download CPU-Z and it will describe everything about your computer for you it's available here: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Would you have any kind of budget for doing a computer upgrade? I'm just asking - we can get you going a bunch of different ways lol Just want to do what's best for you. As long as you have a decent PSU, I think we could get you into Star Citizen with a Ram upgrade and GPU upgrade. What settings you will be able to run at depend on your budget though 😛 lol let me know!

Budget is around £200 (i'd go to around 220 if there was a decent reason too) for the GPU itself. ram I don't want to go to far on as im a student with not a major income at the moment. around £50 - 60 for the ram (i saw an 8gb stick in pc world for £55). Just did that computer spec thing. i have one 2gb ram and one 4gb ram. it doesn't seem to say the PSU anywhere.... Looking back at it now i have 4 Ram slots so would it be cheaper just to add more 4gb ones? (if you use this software yourself would you please point out which tab shows the power consumption?)

Only things PSU related might be:

Max TDP - 65W

Core VID - 0.850/1.075 (its jumping between the two)

 

[HiTechObsessed]

No, that's the one thing that you have to pop open the computer and look at it yourself unfortunately 🙁 If your PSU has PCIe power hookups, you can get up to a 760, assuming your PSU is powerful enough. This will get you around medium, from what I've read. Also included a 8GB set of RAM, the total of the 2 under 250 pounds well within budget. The problem with your setup, is the 2 different sticks. If you do get an 8GB set, you can try keeping the 4gb stick in and see if that helps, but I wouldn't leave the 2gb in if you upgrade it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£56.23 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£189.65 @ Aria PC)
Total: £245.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-17 14:53 GMT+0000)

 

[DJRebellion]

No, that's the one thing that you have to pop open the computer and look at it yourself unfortunately 🙁 If your PSU has PCIe power hookups, you can get up to a 760, assuming your PSU is powerful enough. This will get you around medium, from what I've read. Also included a 8GB set of RAM, the total of the 2 under 250 pounds well within budget. The problem with your setup, is the 2 different sticks. If you do get an 8GB set, you can try keeping the 4gb stick in and see if that helps, but I wouldn't leave the 2gb in if you upgrade it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£56.23 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£189.65 @ Aria PC)
Total: £245.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-17 14:53 GMT+0000)

Thank you. Just to clarify. even though I have four RAM stick capability. its not worth putting the 2gb in along with 3 4gb's? i thought ram stacked so that even though its not much the 2gb would still help?

 

[HiTechObsessed]

It's not as simple as that, unfortunately. RAM performance comes down to timings. You should be able to adjust the 4GB stick you have to match those of the Patriot I listed above, but you don't want to have a 4gb and 2gb stick in the same channel, you can fall into odd performance issues that way.

You're more than welcome to try it and see, but you won't see an improvement going from 12GB to just 14GB, and you may see a decrease in performance.