[SOLVED] Sons computer lagging gaming

welshmatt

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May 4, 2019
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Hi guys I am just a general browser but my son is a gamer. A few years ago I bought him a budget gaming PC for his birthday which didn't turn out to be much good for gaming. He has 200MB broadband so wasn't that. We first upgraded RAM from 8GB to 16GB, which I got told should be sufficient. We then bought a new graphics card as he wanted to play Oculus Quest on his PC and integrated card wasn't good enough for it. He's still complaining some games are lagging I thought next thing would be to upgrade to SSD but someone said this won't help with gaming just start up time etc. This has made me think maybe he needs to upgrade CPU now, I'll list some of his computer specs below maybe someone will be able to tell if they are good enough?

Processor AMD Ryzen 5 2400G with radon vega graphics.
Installed RAM 16GB (14.9 usable)
Graphics card Radeon RX 590 Series

Any suggestions on why gaming still lagging or things we could check? Do we need to upgrade CPU?

BTW just to add I have tried other things like closing unused programmes, using CCleaner etc but still same issue.
 
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Solution
Definitely needs a new CPU but I'm worried that someone has marketed that system as a gaming PC. How much did it cost? I mean those base parts shouldn't have been over 450 bucks, stretch it to 500 if it comes with at least a bronze labeled PSU and a case with RGB teens like.

He said games like minecraft and roblox lag,
Define lag.
Internet lag is one thing and low framerate, the first can be caused due to an inappropiate connection, wi-fi is horrible when you're trying to play games, too many lost packets, too much interference, you get lag spikes, high latency and microcuts all the time, something as trivial as someone walking near the router can cause the signal to crash, even if you have 200 "Mb" speed, pinging servers...

COLGeek

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Your current Ryzen, is a great CPU/APU, but not a gaming powerhouse.

What is the make/model of the system (assuming a branded system like HP or Dell) or the motherboard itself? With this info, we can explore options for possible CPU and/or memory upgrades.

Also, what games is your son playing?
 
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welshmatt

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May 4, 2019
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Thank you, don't think the PC is a brand name, the motherboard is: AS ROCK A320M-HDV.

He said games like minecraft and roblox lag, when he connects his oculus to PC those games are fine.
 

carocuore

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Jan 24, 2021
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Definitely needs a new CPU but I'm worried that someone has marketed that system as a gaming PC. How much did it cost? I mean those base parts shouldn't have been over 450 bucks, stretch it to 500 if it comes with at least a bronze labeled PSU and a case with RGB teens like.

He said games like minecraft and roblox lag,
Define lag.
Internet lag is one thing and low framerate, the first can be caused due to an inappropiate connection, wi-fi is horrible when you're trying to play games, too many lost packets, too much interference, you get lag spikes, high latency and microcuts all the time, something as trivial as someone walking near the router can cause the signal to crash, even if you have 200 "Mb" speed, pinging servers that are too far (different continents) WILL take a long time, this means high latency or lag will still exist no matter how "fast" your connection in particular is, leaping through multiple servers located around the world takes time.
Low framerate is the component's fault but I'm having some doubts about what you've said, minecraft and roblox aren't games that need a supercomputer in order to work, that computer should be more than capable to run those games UNLESS (I know this because of my brother) you start adding hundreds of mods to minecraft or build massive stuff to the point you start getting a steady framerate of 1 FPS because of how much stuff the computer has to process, no matter how good your hardware is, if you do stuff like that the game will lag because of that's how its rendering engine works.

This is just a joke video
but explains what I'm trying to say.

One more thing, not trying to bash your build but that's a VERY low end mobo, I mean it's ok for a 2400G but a 3700X will definitely stress it, you'll need great airflow to try to cool down the VRMs and chipset a bit, if those two get too hot then things will get worse as it'll start throttling down the speed of the CPU or simply shut off without warning to cool down and prevent physical damage.
 
Solution
I agree that it would help to have a better definition of what he means by "lag". If he's referring to internet latency for online gaming, which would be the traditional definition of "lag", then improving the CPU or other components might not help, as it could be down to an issue with a wireless connection or some other network-based issue.

If he's referring to low frame rates though, it could be down to hardware, though it's also possible something might just need to be configured differently on the computer or in a game's settings.

While a 2400G might not exactly be a top-end CPU, it should still be pretty decent at running most games. I could see it being a limiting factor in something like Minecraft where the performance usually tends to be heavily CPU-limited though. It's also possible that the RAM could be holding it back somewhat if it's not a matched set of reasonably fast ram sticks running in dual channel mode at their rated speed. Having more RAM than 16GB isn't likely to help gaming performance much at this time, as almost no games require that much on their own, but having that RAM set up properly might help.

He said games like minecraft and roblox lag, when he connects his oculus to PC those games are fine.
Possibly worth asking, is his monitor connected directly to a port on the graphics card itself, rather than a port on the motherboard? If the integrated graphics of the 2400G is still enabled and the monitor is plugged into a port on the motherboard, than it might still be trying to run games on the CPU's integrated graphics instead of the much faster RX 590.

Also, what resolution is the monitor he's using? If it's a higher-than-average resolution like 4K (3840x2160) or 1440p, than even a lot of dedicated graphics cards will tend to struggle in many games when running at that native resolution. An RX 590 should be pretty good for gaming at 1080p, but it might struggle when turning up the resolution higher in many games.
 
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