Minimum Upgrade Recommendations for 10 Year Old Gaming PC

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ND4NG3R

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#269677 1-Apr-2020 11:52

I've recently got a new PC and passed my old one down to my son, but he's struggling to play Fortnite on it. It's a bit of a dog (about 8-10 years old) .

I'm just wondering what is the least I can do that will make playing on it more fun for my son. I don't have a lot to spend (maybe a couple hundred). Just want to get bang for my buck.

Currently, Fortnite runs on lowest settings, but has long load times and the building geometry sometimes doesn't load at all and there's a few other minor glitches.

Current system:

ASUS P7P55D-E PRO Motherboard

Intel® Core™ i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz 2801 Mhz, 4 Cores

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3 1600

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB

I was thinking of doubling the memory and getting a slightly newer 2GB GPU. What would you recommend?

Hammerer

2444 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2452218 1-Apr-2020 12:06

From memory, it only needs 4GB RAM so 8GB is enough.

The GPU will be the bottleneck so I'd put my money there. So a slightly newer GPU with 2GB VRAM probably gets you to the minimum - it can run on an integrated GPU so you won't need much of an upgrade. The problem will be that getting above minimum might needs a CPU upgrade too.

You can check out probable performance for Fortnite using this tool:

https://www.game-debate.com/can-I-run/

Edit: I ran it for you and the GPU is the limiter:

https://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=4521&game=Fortnite&p_make=Intel&p_deriv=Core+i5-760+2.8GHz&gc_make=Nvidia&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+460+PNY+1GB+OC+Edition&ram=8&screenRes_width_FPS=1920&screenRes_height_FPS=1080&checkSubmit=#systemRequirements

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ND4NG3R

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2452231 1-Apr-2020 12:16

Thanks Hammerer. Much appreciated.

That tool is great!

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2452236 1-Apr-2020 12:22

Honestly I would have expected you to have usable gameplay on lower settings with that build although I think 2GB VRAM is probably a must. A SSD would make general snappiness and load times a lot better if you don't already have one, but it won't improve in-game FPS.

A newer GPU is really the only option for a small upgrade to that build. As long as you are running 64bit Windows, the rest of that should be enough for usable gameplay. Getting more RAM won't make any meaningful difference. Might be hard to get a significantly better card at the moment for around $200 though - for $200 new I don't think you would get much more than a GT1030 which does have 2GB RAM, but isn't really much better in other areas. Might have to be a trademe mission looking for something like a GTX960 or maybe a 970 if you could get one in the budget.

If you have an aftermarket CPU cooler you can get a lot more out of that CPU with an overclock if you are into that sort of thing. I am still using an i7-860 with a P7P55D Pro (essentially the same CPU/mainboard but CPU has Hyper Threading) running at 3.80GHz rock solid with a 120mm air cooler.

Fire up task manager during gameplay and see what the resource use is like - eg make sure the GPU is maxed out not the CPU.

tchart

2299 posts

Uber Geek

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Trusted

#2452267 1-Apr-2020 13:17

TBH If you have a small budget I'd go for team Red and get an AMD RX550 (~$150 new). These are more than capable of playing Fortnite. If you want something that you can transfer to a newer rig than I would spend more and get an NVIDIA.

Source: We have an ex-lease i5 with an RX550 and my son plays several titles including Fortnite and Tarkov without issues.

EDIT: Actually just checked the benchmarks for your card and the RX550 isnt rated that much higher (maybe 20% higher) so likely its the GPU memory that's a bottle neck. We had that issue with Far Cry, 2Gb wasnt enough.

ND4NG3R

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2452310 1-Apr-2020 14:29

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

tehgerbil

995 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2452319 1-Apr-2020 14:43

+1 on GPU upgrade first, the other specs can wait.

WyleECoyoteNZ

1040 posts

Uber Geek

#2452328 1-Apr-2020 14:58

For what it's worth, my PC spec's aren't far off of yours.

My rig (which was handed down from a mate):

ASUS P7P55D-E Deluxe Motherboard

Intel® Core™ i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz, 4 Cores

16GB DDR3 RAM, mixed brands

RX560 4GB GPU

The only thing that's been upgraded in the machine is the video card. When I got it, it had a 1GB video onboard, and for a game I play (BeamNG Drive), that was the weak point.

I spent around $220 about a year ago to buy the RX560, and putting that in has made a lot of difference to the game I play.

If you do go down the path of replacing the video card, I was put onto a utility that was recommended to me to remove the old video card software. That utility was DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller)

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/

Zeon

3876 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2452639 1-Apr-2020 21:55

Would also recommend if you are on a budget, focus on the GPU. You don't need to buy brand new - something second hand could be more bang for buck.

Speedtest 2019-10-14