Question Gaming System Upgrade Help

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subsonika

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Mar 9, 2010
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Hi

I wonder if I can bother you for some advice, please?

I am an old man of 52 with a rig that I built many moons ago. It actually plays most games well enough for me - am playing through 'Red Dead 2' right now on med settings with FPS 30-40, which is fine for me (being old 30FPS is what I grew up with). But, I would like to play 'Starfield' and I'm aware that my old rig just can't handle new games. I don't have much spare cash, as I spend it all on feeding my constantly hungry kids, so would love to try to squeeze some more time from my old gear but maybe I'm fighting a losing battle.

Specs:

Azrock z77 extreme4 MB,
16GB ddr3 ram
i5 3570k CPU
GTX 1060 GPU

I think the Azrock z77, being a 1155 socket, best CPU available is the i7 3770 or the i7 3770k?
I was thinking I could pair that with a GTX 1070 / 1080 from ebay.

If I really have to upgrade everything, I wonder if anyone can give me some ideas for the cheapest possible 'next leg up' type scenario? I'm happy to buy everything used from Ebay.

Many thanks
Ian

Edit: hilariously, I just looked back at my very first post here, in 2010, where I'm basically asking the exact same question about an extremely ancient PC. Nothing has changed :)
 
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Hi, i would get a cpu/motherboard/ram combo like this, and mby a 1080.
For $350 for the above mentioned combo, you get a great 6 core 12 thread cpu, which will be a pretty big upgrade from your i5. 16GB's of ram is enough for starfield, and some apps in the background, and since its 3600MHz, it will work perfectly with the 5600X. You will need a aftermarket cooler, as there is no cpu cooler in this combo. Smth like this. GTX 1080 will be good for starfield, possibly on mediem settings even.
Its pointless to upgrade to a i7 3770k, as even that will struggle on the lowest settings in starfield.
What powersupply do you have? The exact make/model.
 
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Dj0gany said:
Hi, i would get a cpu/motherboard/ram combo like this, and mby a 1080.
For $350 for the above mentioned combo, you get a great 6 core 12 thread cpu, which will be a pretty big upgrade from your i5. 16GB's of ram is enough for starfield, and some apps in the background, and since its 3600MHz, it will work perfectly with the 5600X. You will need a aftermarket cooler, as there is no cpu cooler in this combo. Smth like this. GTX 1080 will be good for starfield, possibly on mediem settings even.
Its pointless to upgrade to a i7 3770k, as even that will struggle on the lowest settings in starfield.
What powersupply do you have? The exact make/model.
Click to expand...
Hi. That's interesting, thanks. I'll have a look.
PSU is a Corsair CX600
 
Starfield minimum requirements is a 1070ti.

www.tomshardware.com

GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2023: Graphics Cards Ranked

We've run hundreds of GPU benchmarks on Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics cards and ranked them in our comprehensive hierarchy.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

something like this within your budget?

you can later on upgrade the cpu to 5800X3D and GPU to a decent one like the 7800XT - the mobo and the PSU will support them.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£66.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£84.99 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Klevv BOLT X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£33.18 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£44.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (£229.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: FSP Group Hydro G Pro 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£98.16 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £557.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-09-08 15:03 BST+0100
 
Last edited:
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subsonika said:
Hi

I wonder if I can bother you for some advice, please?

I am an old man of 52 with a rig that I built many moons ago. It actually plays most games well enough for me - am playing through 'Red Dead 2' right now on med settings with FPS 30-40, which is fine for me (being old 30FPS is what I grew up with). But, I would like to play 'Starfield' and I'm aware that my old rig just can't handle new games. I don't have much spare cash, as I spend it all on feeding my constantly hungry kids, so would love to try to squeeze some more time from my old gear but maybe I'm fighting a losing battle.

Specs:

Azrock z77 extreme4 MB,
16GB ddr3 ram
i5 3570k CPU
GTX 1060 GPU

I think the Azrock z77, being a 1155 socket, best CPU available is the i7 3770 or the i7 3770k?
I was thinking I could pair that with a GTX 1070 / 1080 from ebay.

If I really have to upgrade everything, I wonder if anyone can give me some ideas for the cheapest possible 'next leg up' type scenario? I'm happy to buy everything used from Ebay.

Many thanks
Ian

Edit: hilariously, I just looked back at my very first post here, in 2010, where I'm basically asking the exact same question about an extremely ancient PC. Nothing has changed :)
Click to expand...
So if you just want to play it, you may be able to get by with just a cheap CPU upgrade, an i7 3770 with an RX 470 4GB can play it at 1080p low around 25 - 30fps. Even better if you're ok with 720p or using resolution scaling, your GTX 1060 is slightly faster than that RX 470 with slightly more VRAM (provided its the 6GB Model) so it should give you slightly more performance. An i7 3770 is around 30 - 35 pounds, you could instead go for a xeon e3 1240 V2, 1245 V2, or 1270 V2 for a bit less, or about as much as an i7 3770 in the case of the 1270, although its a smidge faster. If you pair it with something like an RX 5700 or RX 6600 you should be able to do medium alright. You'll likely still have to deal with some frame time issues and it is time for a new build, but getting a new cpu and a new gpu would tide you over while you save up for the rest of it. I wouldn't go for a GTX 1080 at this point (unless you can find a killer deal), you will likely to be able to find a RX 5700 or RX 6600 for about as much or less, and those are better and newer GPU's.

Compare Intel Core i7-3770 / Xeon E3-1240 v2 / Xeon E3-1245 v2 / Xeon E3-1270 v2

www.cpu-world.com www.cpu-world.com

GPU General Performance Reference list

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Xi-lLS_o8
 
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artk2219 said:
So if you just want to play it, you may be able to get by with just a cheap CPU upgrade, an i7 3770 with an RX 470 4GB can play it at 1080p low around 25 - 30fps. Even better if you're ok with 720p or using resolution scaling, your GTX 1060 is slightly faster than that RX 470 with slightly more VRAM (provided its the 6GB Model) so it should give you slightly more performance. An i7 3770 is around 30 - 35 pounds, you could instead go for a xeon e3 1240 V2, 1245 V2, or 1270 V2 for a bit less, or about as much as an i7 3770 in the case of the 1270, although its a smidge faster. If you pair it with something like an RX 5700 or RX 6600 you should be able to do medium alright. You'll likely still have to deal with some frame time issues and it is time for a new build, but getting a new cpu and a new gpu would tide you over while you save up for the rest of it. I wouldn't go for a GTX 1080 at this point (unless you can find a killer deal), you will likely to be able to find a RX 5700 or RX 6600 for about as much or less, and those are better and newer GPU's.

Compare Intel Core i7-3770 / Xeon E3-1240 v2 / Xeon E3-1245 v2 / Xeon E3-1270 v2

www.cpu-world.com www.cpu-world.com

GPU General Performance Reference list

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Xi-lLS_o8
Click to expand...
Really helpful thanks 🫡
 
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Lucky_SLS said:
Starfield minimum requirements is a 1070ti.

www.tomshardware.com

GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2023: Graphics Cards Ranked

We've run hundreds of GPU benchmarks on Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics cards and ranked them in our comprehensive hierarchy.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

something like this within your budget?

you can later on upgrade the cpu to 5800X3D and GPU to a decent one like the 7800XT - the mobo and the PSU will support them.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£66.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£84.99 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Klevv BOLT X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£33.18 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£44.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (£229.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: FSP Group Hydro G Pro 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£98.16 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £557.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-09-08 15:03 BST+0100
Click to expand...
Thanks very much for your time 🫡
 
Some really helpful advice thanks guys. It's great to have some knowledge of what I need to upgrade. Obviously if I can afford to upgrade the whole rig I will but it's great to also have the option to tweak what I already have.
 
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