Question I picked up a used computer for my sons birthday. It seems slow. Help.

May 23, 2019
4
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All, I know nothing about gaming computers. Nothing. I spoke with a guy selling his old computer a few months back for cheap. He swore it played fortnite.

It’s for my sons 11th birthday. It was just given to him and it’s not playing as smooth as he claimed.

Wonderful. Below are the specs provided:

750ti gpu
Amd Fx 6300 cpu
8gb ddr3 ram
1 tb hard drive
500 watt power supply
Disc drive
Full atx form factor

To be honest, I’m not totally sure what half the above means. Of the above, what should I look into upgrading - and how easy is it to install?

I’m really not looking to spend a lot as I already dropped some coin on the computer. I did some research and it seems as if i need to upgrade the CPU. I’m not sure how difficult that is and if I need to upgrade any of the other components.

The computer is currently being used to play fortnite until the next game which everyone jumps on comes out.

Any suggestions?
 
With that CPU and GPU you should be able to play Fortnite at 1080P on High settings at around 45-60 Frames per second or Medium settings for 80-100. What sort of performance are you getting?

To speed things up was Windows installed fresh (usually people who sell their PCs do this to prevent data theft but it is possible he just uninstalled and deleted his stuff, which is not secure.)? If not then you can follow this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4000735/windows-10-reinstall which if you don't have the original Windows installer you can try the reset option.

I really hope you didn't spend to much on that system, while not bad it's definitely dated and none of the components in it are very expensive on the used market.
 
Last edited:

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
What OS is on it?
For any used system, you personally need to do a full wipe and reinstall of the OS and everything else. No matter what the previous owner said he may have done.

Full wipe and reinstall.

 
May 23, 2019
4
0
10
Thanks for the responses so far. It is windows 10 pro. I was told it was a new install, but as one of you pointed out - perhaps it wasn’t.

I’m not sure what FPS my son is running. Maybe I should have him drop it to a lower FPS as well.

I’m glad to hear that the system should be good. I felt that the guy who I bought it from was sincere and really did tell me the truth that it should run Fortnite without an issue.

I picked it up for $200. I thought that was fair.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Full OS reinstall first, and see what happens.
That hardware should run Fortnite just fine.

And FPS is a result, not a setting.
You can change the graphics settings. Less eye candy results in more frames per second. As with everything, there is an acceptable balance.
 
Here is a frame rate monitoring software
Using that will help you (and us) know quantitatively what performance you have. Pretty simple program to use. Fortnite will warn you that FRAPS could cause the game to crash.... it won't.
It's been too long since I've played Fortnite, I can't recall if there's a "show FPS" option in the game settings. If so, no need to run FRAPS (still install it though, very helpful for other games)

Go into the game settings (top right corner of the lobby screen in game) and set graphics/ video quality to medium.
 

Truckerlenny

Great
May 20, 2019
102
3
95
All, I know nothing about gaming computers. Nothing. I spoke with a guy selling his old computer a few months back for cheap. He swore it played fortnite.

It’s for my sons 11th birthday. It was just given to him and it’s not playing as smooth as he claimed.

Wonderful. Below are the specs provided:

750ti gpu
Amd Fx 6300 cpu
8gb ddr3 ram
1 tb hard drive
500 watt power supply
Disc drive
Full atx form factor

To be honest, I’m not totally sure what half the above means. Of the above, what should I look into upgrading - and how easy is it to install?

I’m really not looking to spend a lot as I already dropped some coin on the computer. I did some research and it seems as if i need to upgrade the CPU. I’m not sure how difficult that is and if I need to upgrade any of the other components.

The computer is currently being used to play fortnite until the next game which everyone jumps on comes out.

Any suggestions?
id say hard drive would be the first thing. best way to check is hit ctrl alt and delete at the same time. then hit task manager then performance leave it open while you do normal things that you do and see which one gets to 100% usage first. then thats your first upgrade
 
May 23, 2019
4
0
10
Thank you all so much for the help. Sounds to me like I should have him run the quality on medium and see if that helps. If not - full reinstall of windows sounds like a good starting point/fix. Thanks again all.
 
Thank you all so much for the help. Sounds to me like I should have him run the quality on medium and see if that helps. If not - full reinstall of windows sounds like a good starting point/fix. Thanks again all.


No problem keep us posted on the results. Like I said enable the in-game FPS counter and its should be around the 80-100 frames per second mark at medium 1080P resolution. From there you can increase and decrease various settings to improve quality or frame-rate.

https://www.pwrdown.com/gaming/fortnite/fortnite-battle-royale-see-fps/
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thank you all so much for the help. Sounds to me like I should have him run the quality on medium and see if that helps. If not - full reinstall of windows sounds like a good starting point/fix. Thanks again all.
The OS reinstall first. Even if the game were running perfectly, that needs to be done.

Reason? You have no idea what the previous users had in there. Not just the guy that sold it to you, but everyone who ever touched that PC.
Some of the stuff I've seen on used systems would....the less said about that the better.