PC Specification

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w00519772
w00519772 Posts: 1,297 Forumite
in Gaming MoneySaving
I was a keen gamer when I was in my teens and early twenties (I am now 34). I had a Nintendo 64; Sega Master System; GameBoy; Amstrad 64K etc.

I want to start gaming again. I believe I have three choices:

1) PC
2) PS4
3) XBox

I spent £1,200 on a PC about five years ago. Here is the specification:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07 GHZ
RAM: 6 GB
Type: 64 Bit
Monitor: BENQ G925HDA (Analog). With a VGA to DVI converter.
Display Adapter: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC
Operating System: Windows 10
BIOS: American MegaTrends Inc 0502 16/11/2010

Will this specification be able to cope with cutting edge games? Do I need to upgrade any of the components e.g. motherboard and graphics card?
«1345

Comments

  • Cisco001
    Cisco001 Posts: 4,019 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    edited 28 November 2015 at 6:33PM
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    If you don't want to spend a lot, could go for mid range GTX 960 / R9 380, if you play with 1920 × 1080.

    BTW, your monitor is a bit old...
  • w00519772
    w00519772 Posts: 1,297 Forumite
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    Cisco001 wrote: »
    If you don't want to spend a lot, could go for mid range GTX 960 / R9 380, if you play with 1920 × 1080.

    BTW, your monitor is a bit old...

    Does everything else (except the monitor and graphics card) look ok to deal with the cutting edge games?
  • Braimbridge1
    Braimbridge1 Posts: 2 Newbie
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    w00519772 wrote: »
    Does everything else (except the monitor and graphics card) look ok to deal with the cutting edge games?

    probably get a bigger RAM too. Most people forget that this is fairly important, but ram will be the cheapest. Monitor and graphic card. Everything else looks sweet
  • Robisere
    Robisere Posts: 3,237 Forumite
    First Anniversary Photogenic First Post Combo Breaker
    edited 1 December 2015 at 7:51PM
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    If you keep the original PC, for gaming you will need a better monitor and Graphics card. I believe that your motherboard is too old to accept PCI-3.0 cards, so the GTX 960's are out, but a 950 with PCi-Express 2.0 is fine. so, from http://www.ebuyer.com
    -type these codes ("QF") in the Search box: Monitor Acer 22" Full HD 1920x1080, £75.99 - QF Code 525071.

    Graphics card: MSI GTX 950 3x HDMI, DVI, 2GB GDDR5. £143.94.
    QF Code: 720958

    6GB of RAM is plenty, only heavy Publishing and professional photography graphics needs more, but you might find better, faster RAM today. Google "Asus UK" - Support - and look for your motherboard model number. In Downloads, ther will be a "QVL Memory" List, look for the best one for your board. However, if it's decent DDR 3 in there already, you might be OK.

    EDIT: the 3x HDMI sockets, mean that you could use a PS3, 4, or X-Box with that monitor and multi-game with it. The DVI socket, when not inuse for gaming, could make a TV of your monitor, wit a TV card added to the board.
    I think this job really needs
    a much bigger hammer.
  • tricksterdude
    tricksterdude Posts: 19 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    TBH I wouldn't go any lower than a GTX 970. It's a bit more expensive than the 950 but will handle anything you throw at it. I'm using the MSI version with an Intel 3570k CPU overclocked to 4GHz. Star Wars Battlefront runs as sweet as a nut with all GFX settings on ultra.
  • Cycrow
    Cycrow Posts: 2,639 Forumite
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    Robisere wrote: »
    6GB of RAM is plenty, only heavy Publishing and professional photography graphics needs more, but you might find better, faster RAM today. Google "Asus UK" - Support - and look for your motherboard model number. In Downloads, ther will be a "QVL Memory" List, look for the best one for your board. However, if it's decent DDR 3 in there already, you might be OK.

    i wouldn't say 6gb is plenty. New games are starting to use more and more ram now, and many recommend at least 8gb. 6gb is about the minimum now for pc gaming.


    a number of recent games have 6gb as the minimum required. And usually the minimum specs are enough to get the game running, but not running that well. Fallout 4 for example has a minimum requirement of 8gb.

    also, if you have the money, i would suggest getting a GTX970, its the best card for 1080p gaming and should run all games pretty well, and will work well if you up the resolution too.

    a GTX950 wont cut it for high end gaming, especially if you plan to go higher than 1080p

    also, depending on how much money you want to spend, you might want to look at a 1440p monitor, rather than a 1080p one
  • w00519772
    w00519772 Posts: 1,297 Forumite
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    Cycrow wrote: »
    i wouldn't say 6gb is plenty. New games are starting to use more and more ram now, and many recommend at least 8gb. 6gb is about the minimum now for pc gaming.


    a number of recent games have 6gb as the minimum required. And usually the minimum specs are enough to get the game running, but not running that well. Fallout 4 for example has a minimum requirement of 8gb.

    also, if you have the money, i would suggest getting a GTX970, its the best card for 1080p gaming and should run all games pretty well, and will work well if you up the resolution too.

    a GTX950 wont cut it for high end gaming, especially if you plan to go higher than 1080p

    also, depending on how much money you want to spend, you might want to look at a 1440p monitor, rather than a 1080p one



    If I stream the video to my TV, then I guess I do not need a monitor. Can you stream video wirelessly from the PC to the TV. Is there an impact of performance?
  • Nilrem
    Nilrem Posts: 2,565 Forumite
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    You can't stream video wirelessly to the TV normally (although the Steam box lets you send it over the wired network from memory).

    6gb of ram is too low these days, as has been said many newer games recommend at least 8gb, and it's always nice to have extra ram.
    16gb only costs around £50-60 (vs £30-40 for 8gb), so I'd say go with 16gb at least.
  • bsms1147
    bsms1147 Posts: 2,261 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post Combo Breaker
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    CPU is about half as good as current gen equivalents, even an £80 processor is about 10-20% better.

    http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+950+%40+3.07GHz

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-FX6300-Edition-4-1GHz-Socket/dp/B009O7YORK

    Might impact performance.
  • Cycrow
    Cycrow Posts: 2,639 Forumite
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    For the Tv the easiest would be to simply plug it into the PC directly
    Otherwise you can get wireless hdmi connection, its not streaming exactly, it just replaces a direct cable, and they're not cheap

    for streaming to a tv you need a separate box on the tv, like the steam link
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