Pc gamers unite/suggest!
2So I'm looking at my desktop (rarely used) but I'm hoping to carve some time out to play fallout 4. Which brings me to my next dilemma I currently game with settings maxed on just about everything I play. But looking at system specs...
Here are the minimum Fallout 4 PC requirements:
* Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
* Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
* 8 GB RAM
* 30 GB free HDD space
* NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent
Here are the recommended Fallout 4 PC specs:
* Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
* Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
* 8 GB RAM
* 30 GB free HDD space
* NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent
My 3rd gen i7 3370 is ok. 16 GB of ram is spot on. Hard drive is fine. Windows has been 64 bit for years. But my gpu is a Radeon 7850 2 GB. Not 7870. Now to the system it reads as 7800 series. So I'm hoping it plays. But. I'm in the market for a new gpu. And one that i'll take to my next PC. (Target date of late 2016- late 2017 possibly early 2018 after new CPUs have been released.) So I can rattle off specs for of when it's closer. But I do have a 750 watt power supply currently. I'm looking to spend MAX $300 preferable max is $250. Which leads me looking at a r9 280/290. Thoughts? Should I bite the bullet and just upgrade to 290? My only concern here is dx12 seems to favor and Radeon, dx11 nvidia. Also and Radeon seem to use more power, which this is used sometimes for days without touching it so it may pay off to go nvidia (which I haven't in years so I don't know what to look for/equivalent other than looking at benchmarks.
Any suggestions?
Woah. I can't change the picture to 
on mobile??? Can a staffer assist then delete this whole section after the 1st woah please?
@shawn requesting desktop site is denied on iOS?
- 6 comments, 24 replies
- Comment
What resolution is your monitor, if it's something crazy like 4k then yeah that card will crumple under the load, but at 1080p it might run just fine at "normal" setting. Personally I would hold off until it comes out to see how well it actually runs before dropping the money on a new one. Granted that may also lead to a couple days of stalking the UPS guy if you do need to order the card after all.
Thinking of picking up Fallout as well and I see my rig falls short of recommended as well but only by a little with a 4770k and GTX 770 so I can continue avoiding upgrading anything for at least a little longer.
@Nikodemus Yeah... I'm hoping it will work... I don't think I'll max it out... I'm currently using a http://www.buya.com/Item/Details/SONY-Flat-Panel-Television-CECH-ZED1U/1f07b86fcb1147ed8ad00038cfc02fbd?gclid=CMXS477UxMgCFUSQHwodzE8Beg it's pretty nice... It would be nice to get a new graphics card to play in 3D too... (yes I have the glasses and everything, I tend to not play Diablo 3 in 3d as it makes my head spin trying to read the smaller text.)
I think the PC is holding up pretty well for something I built in 2012... which seems like a really long time ago... but I know isn't that long ago. I've been looking at the new stuff... I think in 1-2 years current SSD tech prices will hit the floor... and there will be more push to put them on the PCIE interface over the SATA... So, they may be cheaper by then too. Also DDR4 is still too "new" for me to want to buy in yet... but it's not all that much more than DDR3.
@sohmageek 2012 is pretty long in computer time, was helping a fried recently getting parts which made me realize my desktop is 2 1/2 years old now and I am so out of the loop on stuff as I have had no reason to keep current since then.
@Nikodemus yes I realize it is a long time ago. Could wise it should be about 30-40% improvement according to Intel. Not like years ago where it was 100-400% a year.
(updated the picture, didn't delete your stuff so @shawn could reply)
@Moose Thanks man! I've been having the WEIRDEST issues the past few days... I think most of it is just me, but I can usually replicate it. :)
Yeah, i'm in a bit of a tizzy over this, myself. I'm not planning a new build 'til spring, so I'm currently scrambling for a new gpu, too, just to play f4. Running a gtx 560ti so am camping out on the evga site for a bstock release of a 780ti. Figure I can drop 200ish on that to hold me over and possibly even just drop it into the new tower eventually as a placeholder, to save a bit as I won't be running any screens at 4k anytime soon.
As it is, I've got a tank of an i7 920 at 2.67 (still running like a champ since 2009!!), but I guess I'll... grab a new fan or cooling unit and overclock the thing? Pretty sure I've been reading that I can get it to 3.5ish. My 12 gb ram is fine and whilst I have a 120ssd with 45gb free, I install games on my old 1t hd that's got about 400gb free.
If I don't get a 780ti in time, I'm not sure what I'll do. Haven't started research on that yet. For a brief moment I considering rushing a new build, but that makes me uncomfortable. I like taking my time and researching all my options thoroughly. Have just decided that i'll try for a 780ti and haven't considered a plan b. I need a plan b. Ugh.
@goldenthorn Is there a reason for the 780ti? I've been using this site for most of my research... I tend to see cheaper AMD Radeons preform similar benchmarks to more expensive Nvidia. http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
780's look like they are running 400+ on that site (it checks amazon and Newegg, sometimes doesn't get the best card to check prices on however.) but it looks like a good card...
Benchmark for my current card:(from site)
Radeon HD 7850
3,752
380 (what I'm thinking of)
Radeon R9 285 / 380 ~$200
5,502
or 390
Radeon R9 290 / 390 ~$250
6,717
It has also come across my mind thinking of getting another 7850 and doing crossfire... but I think that will be not as good as just going to 380, or equivalent Nvidia.
@sohmageek Alas, I am completely ignorant to any graphics cards outside of nvidia, so all I can say is those numbers are an improvement, obvs, so go for the higher one if it's really just $50 more. The 780ti is marked at 8.9k, so if I can grab it for sub-300, it's a steal, dents or refurbed notwithstanding. I've had such good experience with nvidia over the years that I don't even pay attention to anything else.
As i've seen it, the jump in performance when taking price into account isnt that big between the 780ti and the 900series when running at 1080. It's perfectly adequate for high settings on a midrange build. More importantly, with my current cpu, anything more advanced would just get bottlenecked performance anyway. And whilst it's super expensive secondhand/at regular webstores, if one catches it in bstock it'll run about 200-250ish. My brother snagged one and it's been working great for him, everything at max settings; he's got no concerns for f4.
BTW, just in case you're not already familiar, https://reddit.com/r/buildapc is an awesome resource, as is https://pcpartpicker.com.
@goldenthorn I've used PC part picker, I try to stay away from Reddit... I'm weird that way... But... What is this bstock? I'm back and forth between NVidia and AMD. I LOVED AMD for CPU's but recently I've been back to Intel... Now GPU on the other hand, they seem to be outperforming sometimes with similar specs.
My other concern is power consumption, which brings me back to the Nvidia side... The power consumption is so much less.... I have the power supply, I'm just thinking of my power bill there :)
@sohmageek Reddit is absolutely garbage unless you know where to hang and un/subscribe accordingly. Gotta sort through all the rancid syphilitic chaff to find the wheat and all that. The r/buildapc community is immensely helpful, even if just to lurk and read.
B-stock is stuff that's dented, scratched or refurbed. I stalk here for my card of choice. I have it open on all of my devices and refresh when I can, watching, waiting.
You should def go for nvidia. You've got the power and your cpu is fine. 780ti or 970, 980. Sure, the 970 and 980 cost more, but if they possibly come up in b-stock and thus cheaper? Go for it. Otherwise, the radeon 290/390 seems solid enough. My ignorant enthusiast ass is sooooo far from an expert, though; I advise you to read, read, read around the net! (And then settle on an nvidia.)
@goldenthorn those 920's were rock solid, they just ran hot. I had one for years I got when they released until I jumped to a 4770k as much for motherboard features than speed jump. Sold it to a friend and its still chewing along happily clocked at 3.5. It was stable at 4.0 as long as you had the nerve for it floating at ~80c under heavy load even with a hulking sink on it.
@goldenthorn How does one end up with 12GB of ram?? I've been thinking about it, and I've never seen 3gb sticks (for 4x3). and I've never seen 6gb sticks (2x6).. pretty much all the mobos I see are 2 or 4 slot.. so I'm confused..
@kadagan depending I have seen triple channel motherboards. So it could be 3 4gb sticks. Or my guess is 2x2 2x4
I try to stick with 2x8gb
@kadagan Yep, triple channel, 6 x 2gb.
@goldenthorn how is that working for you? I haven't messed with triple channel
@sohmageek No problem at all! Until last year I had only 6gb, 1 in each slot. Then felt like upgrading, 2gb kingston ddr3 were on sale, so I bought 'em, popped 'em in, and have been fine since.
Just going to put this here in PC gaming land. I miss Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne.
mostly footman frenzy, hero siege, and wintermaul
@connerbush can't you still play? Last time I tried on windows 7 it worked fine.. Definitely needed the UI to get improved a bit, but it worked.
@kadagan I hope so. Last time I tried, there were VERY few other people to play with. The battle.net community was lacking.
@connorbush oh, I played a lan game.. Haha
Well there's your problem. Get an Xbox One and join the console master race. Yeah, 792p, maybe you've heard of it? Yeah, we can run our games in all sorts of unnecessarily obscure resolutions.
I'm kidding. It's terrible. Don't.
We're finally getting a good game like Fallout in 1080p... @30fps.
I guess the controller is nice though. So that's kind of cool.
(eta: I kind of hope @30fps is a real person now.)
@Chops The controller can be used with PC! How awesome is that... Umm... I have a Ps3 and 360, Plus a lot of the old consoles... Yet I still prefer PC versions. It's mostly dealing with mods and ways to keep playing games I like.. or just stop if they are horrible... Sometimes finish the story or add more stuff to the story....
@sohmageek lol yeah, the controller thing is great for single player games, but I just can't hang in FPS games against kb/mouse. I get my asses handed to me. Both of them.
I used to be a PC guy but went back to console because it was quicker to just pick up when I had the time. Ironically now my console games even have longer install times heh
I don't know anything about these GPUs specifically, but a quick glance at Passmark shows their scores aren't too far apart:
Radeon HD 7850
Passmark: 3752
Radeon HD 7870
Passmark: 4275
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7850
@Chops @goldenthorn if I had the money this would be on its way now. http://slickdeals.net/f/8168736-asus-radeon-r9-390x-r9390x-dc2-8gd5-8gb-512-bit-gddr5-pci-express-3-0-hdcp-ready-jet-com-319-23-ar?src=SiteSearch
This is the next step up from 390 to 390x I'll grab a benchmark number in a min and reply to this. $320 I think for a 390x 7029
@sohmageek Hah, this morning evga updated their b-stock and so I jumped on a nvidia gtx 970 SC for $250. videocardbenchmark.net puts it at 8,653, just a titch below the 780ti. I am pleased. You should consider it, too. It's better than the 390x. Nvidia masterraaaaaace what-what!!
@goldenthorn looking into it yes, at 1080P but the 4 GB of ram vs 8 GB on the AMD... next resolution up AMD wins... due to double vram.
@goldenthorn Hard to get excited for Nvidia with stuff like this: Latest Nvidia drivers to be locked behind GeForce Experience app