Dell G3 Upgrade Path

[sparker01915]

A friend of mine gave me his old gaming laptop a Dell G3 3779 to be exact. It's got an SSD and a standard 1TB hard drive. Nice kick butt machine but let's be honest. At this point the old 1050Ti video card is really struggling with playing anything. I can play GTA IV and maybe GTA V but I recently tried to play Mafia 3 and it was unplayable to the point that I want to ask for my money back. Game was stuttering along at most 30 FPS. I am not sure what's going on. IS there such a thing as a budget gaming machine? I mean there are lots of tech viewers that show you things but am mainly looking for a laptop, if I need to spend a little more for a Desktop I'd be down for that as well.

Thanks for reading

 

[Eximo]

That seems about right for a 1050 Ti and Mafia 3. Even on low settings you only get to the mid-40s. Though it might be more consistent.

Not really sure you can justify it, that is the GPU it has.

There is always a budget gaming machine, just depends on what your budget is. Unless you grossly overpaid for that Dell G3, it probably has a better price/performance ratio than any other laptop you can buy.

$600 RTX3050 with an 11th gen i5. But in a few years you will be in the same boat you are now. An entry level GPU.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-tuf-gaming-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-512gb-ssd-eclipse-grey/6512281.p?acampID=0&cmp=RMX&irclickid=z3qSdRw6jxyNT5mRojx6JT24UkDVB012iTlg3E0&irgwc=1&loc=Narrativ&mpid=376373&ref=198&skuId=6512281

As for a desktop, if you are starting from scratch, probably going to be more like $800 or $900 for worthwhile gaming performance. It could be cost optimized down to $600, but it wouldn't be worth it I think. An i5 would be far more preferable with its six cores, and this is basically the cheapest GPU worth having at the moment. Paying for something like a 6700 or 6700XT or RTX 3060 would certainly put this in that higher price range.

There are also a few 3070 class laptops hovering around 1000-1200.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($105.98 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock B660M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($41.98 @ B&H)
Video Card: PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card ($234.03 @ Amazon)
Case: Deepcool MATREXX 55 MESH ATX Mid Tower Case ($56.65 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex III Super Pro 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg Sellers)
Total: $638.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-19 13:33 EDT-0400

 

[sparker01915]

That ASUS might be a good option. I would have to upgrade the memory and see about throwing a second Hard Drive. But that's a pretty good price for a gaming laptop.

 

[sparker01915]

That seems about right for a 1050 Ti and Mafia 3. Even on low settings you only get to the mid-40s. Though it might be more consistent.

Not really sure you can justify it, that is the GPU it has.

There is always a budget gaming machine, just depends on what your budget is. Unless you grossly overpaid for that Dell G3, it probably has a better price/performance ratio than any other laptop you can buy.

$600 RTX3050 with an 11th gen i5. But in a few years you will be in the same boat you are now. An entry level GPU.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-tuf-gaming-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-512gb-ssd-eclipse-grey/6512281.p?acampID=0&cmp=RMX&irclickid=z3qSdRw6jxyNT5mRojx6JT24UkDVB012iTlg3E0&irgwc=1&loc=Narrativ&mpid=376373&ref=198&skuId=6512281

As for a desktop, if you are starting from scratch, probably going to be more like $800 or $900 for worthwhile gaming performance. It could be cost optimized down to $600, but it wouldn't be worth it I think. An i5 would be far more preferable with its six cores, and this is basically the cheapest GPU worth having at the moment. Paying for something like a 6700 or 6700XT or RTX 3060 would certainly put this in that higher price range.

There are also a few 3070 class laptops hovering around 1000-1200.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($105.98 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock B660M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($41.98 @ B&H)
Video Card: PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card ($234.03 @ Amazon)
Case: Deepcool MATREXX 55 MESH ATX Mid Tower Case ($56.65 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex III Super Pro 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg Sellers)
Total: $638.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-19 13:33 EDT-0400

I am not sure I wanna do a Desktop. Wife already has a desktop she was also given without a Videocard. We have I think a 1060 that her company gave her to do Kitchen Design work but I cannot under any circumstances use it for gaming....LOL