[SOLVED] Upgrade or Replace?

[brettandluc]

I have a 2010 alienware desktop with an i7 860 and 8GB ram and 2 500Gb HDD. Last year my graphics card died and I upgraded with a GTX1070. I started playing GTA 5 this week and it barely runs. I have decided to upgrade to something like an i7 8700, thinking about keeping the graphics cards and getting 32GB ram and 2 1TB SDD. Should I keep the box and upgrade components or just buy a whole new box and gift the current setup to my daughter? I am an old luddite and will be paying someone to do the work so I don't screw it up.

 

[volkgren]

32GB of RAM for gaming is a waste of money. Other than that, I have no idea what your alienware box/case looks like. If it has good airflow then keep it. If it doesn't then I would get another case.

I honestly don't know why GTAV wouldn't run well enough with your i7-860.

 

[brettandluc]

32GB of RAM for gaming is a waste of money. Other than that, I have no idea what your alienware box/case looks like. If it has good airflow then keep it. If it doesn't then I would get another case.

I honestly don't know why GTAV wouldn't run well enough with your i7-860.

I think the box has decent airflow however I feel it does need new high speed USB ports (for charging my phone/watch, currently they are uber slow) however I guess my question is around the cost of replacing most of my existing components with labour vs just buying a new Rig. I get the feeling that just upgrading to SSD's could make a massive difference. I do feel that the 8 year old CPU is a bit of a limitation.

GTA 5 has some known issues on PC that don't seem to have been resolved since its release. I get really bad stuttering in game despite running the game on the lowest graphics settings. My CPU seems to be hitting 100% usage while running the game and memory usage spikes as well. Withcer 3, the last game I played seem to run perfectly.

Can you please elaborate on why 32Gb is a waste? Should I just stick with 16Gb in your opinion?

 

[volkgren]

Because no game uses more than 16GB of RAM. Maybe in the future it will be useful, but not now. Most games at 1080p barely use over 8GB.

 

[ahmadhijazi0]

What you're experiencing in GTA 5 doesn't make any sense. What resolution are you gaming at? Here's a video of the same setup you have i7 860 and GTX 1070 running GTA 5 @1080p very high details and getting 100 fps and cpu usage is 30-50%. The only thing I would consider doing is upgrading the ram by adding 2 x 4gb sticks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFTS_sYi6KE

If you decide to go with a new system, I second what volkgren said about the ram. I have 20gb ram (bought pc used and that's what it had) and I've yet to ever come close to using that much even with multiple desktops open and playing AAA titles like GTA 5 @ 1440p ultra and PUBG.