Techno-idiot motherboard question

[Desade777]

Hi, after years of resistance to all things computer-gamey I've taken the plunge and am now happily into Assetto Corsa. Until now I've only really been using my PC for Cubase and it performs fine for my limited needs. When I bought AC i ran a system compatibility check and found that my processor (AMD athlon II X3 460 3.4GHz....the fourth thingy was unlocked....perhaps you now gauge my level of understanding!!) was only at 26% although my video card (AMD Radeon R7200) was a passable 82%. Unfortunately I've no idea other than it being ASUS, what my mother board is (can't find any ASUS items in the device manager.....any advise on how to find out would be greatfully received!). I want to upgrade on a budget (£150-200), I'm not interested in being able to display all the rendering capabilities of the game I just want to be able to play without glitching. Seeing as the videocard seems to be ok-ish I'm guessing I'll defo need a new CPU and possibly a new mother board. I have a Cit ATX 12V power supply btw so hoping this might be compatible for whatever upgrade I need. Has anyone any recommendations? It would be really cool to get a concensus opinion so I can spend some money with the comfort I'm being advised by people who know what they're talking about and aren't simply working on commission!!!!! Thank you in advance! Marcus

 

[Colif]

motherboard: Download the free version of https://www.piriform.com/speccy and install and run it. It will show you a summary of your PC in the right hand column, the 4th heading down should be Motherboard.

If you click file & then choose save as text file, it will create a listing of your PC and you could upload that to a cloud server and share a link here, might help you going forward

 

[Desade777]

Hi Colif,

Thatnks for the tips, here's the resulting info
Summary
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
AMD Athlon II X3 460 17 °C
Rana 45nm Technology
RAM
6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M5A78L-M/USB3 (AM3R2) 31 °C
Graphics
SyncMaster (1680x1050@60Hz)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 200 Series (ASUStek Computer Inc) 19 °C
Storage
232GB Hitachi HFS250G32TND-3112A ATA Device (SSD) 24 °C
931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1ER162 ATA Device (SATA) 24 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222AL ATA Device
Audio
Scarlett 2i2 USB

Does this narrow the choices or scream 'just buy a new system'?

 

[Colif]

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
OS: Windows Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1, 10
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHZ, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 10.1 (AMD Radeon HD 6450, Nvidia GeForce GTX 460)
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 15 GB available space
Sound Card: Integrated

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
OS: Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10
Processor: AMD Six-Core CPU, Intel Quad-Core CPU
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 11 (AMD Radeon 290x, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970)
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: Integrated

http://www.assettocorsa.net/system-requirements/

I don't know AMD systems all that well. Problem appears to be the CPU is only triple core (which I never seen before) and game wants minimum of 6 cores to run recommended specs

It appears there are an awful lot of CPU that run on that board so you may just need a new CPU: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/M5A78L-M_USB3.html - but I don't know which one would be best... I am a nooby too when it comes to AMD

 

[Desade777]

p.s. Amendment to my initial statement.......The guy who built my PC a few years back saod he had unlocked the 4th core but upon looking at the CPU info provided by Piriform Speccy it says only 3 cores are active and reading a little about bad cores I don't think I'm going to bother trying to change anything as I haven't enough knowledge of clocking speeds etc

 

[Desade777]

Many thanks Colif for your help. Anyone else have anything to add?

 

[Colif]

From what i understand, AMD are due to release new CPU next year that don't use that motherboard, they have been using the same chipset for a few years, so your PC isn't that bad really, just the CPU needs to be replaced I think. Rest of PC matches the requirements. I won't answer anymore and hopefully someone will tell you the best choice.

You might need to know what power supply you have now - speccy can't tell you that detail, you need to look.