Board 8 > Computer hardware advice column: GPU edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've had the same computer for a while, and I have no particular desire to update or replace. My usual cycle is to keep a computer until it's woefully underperforming, and then replace it with something more in the heart of contemporary specs. Unfortunately, when I put my computer together the last time, I must have made a poor choice on my graphics card.

That said, I still have no difficulty playing anything other than Fallout 4 -- and my issue with Fallout is that it freezes when I transition between zones, once my save file becomes large enough. I've researched this heavily, and been able to find no fix for this. No mods, no driver updates, no workarounds. When I went to complain on related forums, detractors pointed at my graphics card and said it doesn't meet the minimum specs. I find it really odd that a graphics card would cause that kind of problem, but I was given some kind of justification for why that might be the case, so okay, whatever.

Thing is, I'd really like to be able to play Fallout 4 more reliably. Even with being forced to restart once my saves are (effectively) corrupted, I still have over 150 hours in the game. There's also a new Fallout game recently announced, and I have to bet good money the specs on 76 will be similar to 4. Perhaps a pinch more advanced, but still running the same engine. Maybe I should wait until more details are announced, (so, next Sunday,) but I want to have something capable of running this.

I'm also cognizant that I am starting to push toward the lower end of meeting capabilities on other games. I'm now scraping by on minimum rather than recommended specs, and there are some games that do take a long-ass time to load. (Hi, Divinity.) This doesn't bug me much, since I'm not usually playing super-demanding games, but I'm sure it will bite me at a very disappointing moment eventually.

So what I'm trying to decide is...should I be looking into replacing the graphics card -- and if so, please offer suggestions -- or should I just say it's time to begin fresh and build a new machine entirely?

I'm not a total cheapskate when it comes to my computer, but I definitely don't buy the latest $4000 gaming computer. I think the last go-around, I bought an existing computer on sale for $800 and then added the graphics card, which also forced me to upgrade the power supply. I'm not especially hardware-savvy, but I was able to manage that much.

Any other background details you need?

System specs (via DXDiag):

Operating System: Windows 10 Home Premium 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134)
BIOS: 11/05/10 15:07:18 Ver: 6.14
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8056MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTS 450
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Display Memory: 4051 MB
Dedicated Memory: 979 MB
Shared Memory: 3071 MB
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With the budget cpu there i wouldn't buy anything stronger than a gtx 1060 to go with that.

My suggestion would be to pick up a new gpu and a ssd.
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Does a ssd make a big difference? I'm sure it would help my load times, but replacing hard drives is annoying. Or, eh, I guess I could make it a slave.
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azuarc posted...

Does a ssd make a big difference? I'm sure it would help my load times, but replacing hard drives is annoying. Or, eh, I guess I could make it a slave.

Ssds make huge differences in boot times for applications but does little to help when already in an application. That said ssds are cheap now and if you launch some programs a lot you can put a few in one with your os.
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I cannot go back from having a SSD. having my computer boot to desktop in <5 seconds is the best

edit: that CPU is super old. You should be able to get something light years better for $100 even (current gen i3-8100, for example)
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KingBartz posted...

edit: that CPU is super old. You should be able to get something light years better for $100 even (current gen i3-8100, for example

Different socket.

Would require essentially a full rebuild.

I'm not sure how long I've had the computer. I know I had it when I moved to my current place, and I've been here 4 years. I tend to really stretch my computers to the point where they absolutely cry trying to run newer games (or I cry watching them at miserable frame rate and video settings.) I know I bought the current one a little before I was ready because I handed down the previous one to my mom, but, well, she's been gone for over 5 years now, so I suppose that says all I need to know about the computer's age.
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