My bleak future as a PC gamer...

[Guest]

It's become increasingly obvious that my hardware isn't very good. I've always felt lingering regret for getting this PC. It's done a good job for about a year that I've had it, but it's gotten this outdated so fast that I'm in a panic.

Getting an upgrade isn't an option because I can't afford it, and the people I live with simply don't trust me to install a new CPU. That's what my PC actually needs... a new CPU. The graphics card is fine and pretty solid, I just need a new CPU. I want to get an AMD CPU, since I rather not fund the stupid gaming monopoly giant of Intel. The people I live with might be willing to let me get the CPU if we can pay Geek Squad at Best Buy to install it. I might get a new CPU cooler too, because this current ons is pretty ridiculous and insanely difficult to install to begin with. But, I don't have the money for any of this. It costs $100.00 alone for Geek Squad to tinker with your PC, and nearly $200.00 for one of the best AMD FX CPUs.

This is really bad. I am in a panic. What if I can't even run Fallout 4 well? What if I can't run Doom well? I can't even run SOMA well, and that game has really low system requirements! I am at a dead end as a PC gamer, and I am starting to feel the hurt of having a low income!! I don't want to play AAA games on console, especially Doom!! I love PC gaming!! But at this rate, there is nothing I can do, I am doomed! Games are advancing too fast, their requirements are getting too huge for my pathetic hardware to handle.

I am pretty doomed as a PC gamer. No one is willing to buy a CPU for me and then install it, because no one in their right mind is willing to do that. No one is willing to donate money to help me get new stuff either. So I am stuck, and I am going to have to suffer subpar performance with low settings that do nothing to improve performance. Because after a year, games have already gotten too ridiculous.

There is nothing I can do.

My current hardware:

1600x900 monitor with 60Hz refresh rate

Windows 10 64-bit

AMD R9 270X 2GB

AMD A-10 7850K 4 cores 3.7ghz

8GB RAM

 

[madmatt30]

Those are fairly solid components for medium setting 1080p gaming mate

What exactly are you unhappy with??

There are people with far weaker PC's on here that are still relatively happy with gaming performance.

That should play soma at high settings easily BTW !

 

[Guest]

Those are fairly solid components for medium setting 1080p gaming mate

What exactly are you unhappy with??

There are people with far weaker PC's on here that are still relatively happy with gaming performance.

That should play soma at high settings easily BTW !

SOMA runs extremely poorly for me, it has severe slowdowns and performance problems. It was a waste of money, and I can't even get a refund on Steam because I played it for 11 hours. I was able to endure the issue, but the problem kept getting worse.

Well, the people who responded to my thread talking about this issue on SOMA's forum on Steam, said my graphics card is barely a mid range card, and that my CPU is low end. When I go to "Can You Run It?" or other such websites, my PC doesn't even meet the reccomended requirements of about 80% recent games, or new releases. There is nothing to be happy about when it's struggling to even achieve 50% for meeting the minimum requirements of games according to that website.

My PC is pathetic, and I am doomed. My PC is not at all future proof. DirectX12 won't be able to save me.

 

[madmatt30]

Your CPU is the equivalent of an 860k which while not high end is the budget gamers choice for a lot of people.
The 270x is a solid mid-range card.

Your PC should play anything out there at medium settings at least with a minimum of 40fps.

Here is the same spec pc running Soma - performance to me looks absolutely solid!
https://youtu.be/CmGm3wm6mpQ

 

[Guest]

Your CPU is the equivalent of an 860k which while not high end is the budget gamers choice for a lot of people.
The 270x is a solid mid-range card.

Your PC should play anything out there at medium settings at least with a minimum of 40fps.

Here is the same spec pc running Soma - performance to me looks absolutely solid!
https://youtu.be/CmGm3wm6mpQ

Uh... SOMA will drop to below 30 frames very frequently, with random slowdowns at every turn. I tried everything, and the problem is still present with vertical sync turned off. My PC can't even run that game well, with some of the worst stuttering framerates ever. So I don't know what you're talking about. Also, 40 FPS is unacceptable. I want medium settings at 60FPS. I do get that in some recent games, and sometimes at max settings, but those are flukes, My hardware is still inferior and quickly getting outdated after only one year.

There is nothing that can give me hope anymore.

 

[mr91]

I suggest you wait for some driver updates for Soma because it's very new...

Getting an 8 core AMD processor won't make a big difference...

 

[mr91]

It might in some games however I don't think you will be satisfied with the $300 dollar price tag.

 

[mr91]

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-8350-vs-AMD-A10-7850K

 

[mr91]

If you sell your 270x and buy a gtx 960 you will get a larger performance increase.

If you sell your 270x for 100 and buy the 960 for 200 than you will only spend an extra 100 dollars

 

[mr91]

For a huge increase you can spend $329 for a gtx 970 and then in the future it might be worth it to get a 8 core AMD to push the card further.

 

[mr91]

Graphics cards are easier to install than cpu's

 

[madmatt30]

^ at 1600x900 I don't think upgrading to a 960 over the 270x is going to make a noticeable difference.
The 270x is plenty for that res gaming at medium settings.

I think he's expecting too much from a budget apu when in quite a few recent titles even a lower model haswell i5 will struggle to do a constant 60fps without drops.

For most people anything above 40fps would be acceptable on a budget PC IMO.

 

[mr91]

The 960 is give him performance especially when games are optimized for nvidia.

The 960 is faster than the 280x in some games such as the witcher 3

http://wccftech.com/witcher-3-benchmarks-geforce-gtx-960-radeon-r9-280285280x/

 

[mr91]

960 beats the 290 at witcher 3 at least upon release.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-the-best-pc-hardware-for-the-witcher-3

 

[madmatt30]

^ but its irrelevant when he's not happy with 30 fps drops which are entirely CPU based not GPU.
I'm not disputing the 960 is a good card but its not going to raise his minimums in games ,it'll let him play with more as & better quality textures & maybe raise the max fps but it'll still drop to 30fps when the CPU holds it back.

The 270x is good enough for 1600x900 medium - there's nothing it won't manage OK at those settings.

 

[mr91]

It will raise his minimums and maximums and sometimes when playing with higher settings it puts more strain on the gpu instead of the cpu.
Basically he will get a better experience than upgrading to the 8 core in most but not all titles...

 

[mr91]

single core performance is similar on the 8 core + extra cache... Many game don't utilize more than 4 and many use 2.

 

[mr91]

Certainly many will benefit greatly from getting an i7 however that will be a very costly upgrade.

 

[madmatt30]

A 960 isn't going to raise those minimums at all because he's in no way GPU bound with a 270xx at 1600x900 resolutions.
270x-gtx 960 isn't a big enough upgrade IMO to warrant the messing about or the money - I think you're underestimating the 270x here by a fair bit personally.

He's CPU bound & on the fm2+ chip set there's no upgrade to go - he already has the equivalent of an 860k .
The problem is he has a fairly budget medium setting gaming PC which many people would be happy with but he's not.
There is no sensible upgrade for that current machine at all IMO - its quite literally a full replacement or nothing.

 

[jaguarskx]

Your CPU is the equivalent of an 860k which while not high end is the budget gamers choice for a lot of people.
The 270x is a solid mid-range card.

Your PC should play anything out there at medium settings at least with a minimum of 40fps.

Here is the same spec pc running Soma - performance to me looks absolutely solid!
https://youtu.be/CmGm3wm6mpQ

Uh... SOMA will drop to below 30 frames very frequently, with random slowdowns at every turn. I tried everything, and the problem is still present with vertical sync turned off. My PC can't even run that game well, with some of the worst stuttering framerates ever. So I don't know what you're talking about. Also, 40 FPS is unacceptable. I want medium settings at 60FPS. I do get that in some recent games, and sometimes at max settings, but those are flukes, My hardware is still inferior and quickly getting outdated after only one year.

There is nothing that can give me hope anymore.

Based on what I've read SOMA definitely has performance issues. You will need to for the developer to release a patch update for the game. Frictional is an independent game developer and the HPL engine (named after H.P. Lovecraft) is a custom game engine designed for all Frictional games. It may be some time before a patch is released.

Fallout 4 will be running on an updated Creation Engine (used by Skyrim) so I am not too concerned about general performance for FO4 unless a feature(s) added to that engine creates problems.

I can't say much about Doom (2016) since it will be the first game using the id Tech 6 game engine.


Your rig is pretty decent. You already have the 2nd most powerful AMD A10 APU. The A10-7870k is only has another 200MHz. That means if you want to upgrade the CPU you will need to change the motherboard. A 4th or 5th Intel Core i5 CPU would better than getting an AMD FX-8300 / FX-8320 / FX-8350 CPU. Especially since a stock speed Core i5 CPU can provide better game performance compared to an overclocked FX-83xx CPU.

However, since you don't have cash and no one trusts you to upgrade the CPU, the point is moot. Fallout 4 should be playable on your system, but you might want to wait feedback from people who has a similar system to yours before you rush out to buy the game if you are concerned.

 

[Guest]

Guys, I said I cannot afford any upgrades, that's the whole problem. I am still paying off this PC as it is since it was leased via a monthly payment plan at Best Buy. So it wouldn't exactly be prudent to tinker too much with it.

I also can't even upgrade without having to replace the motherboard, the best I can do is a 7870K which is only a bit faster.

As I've said, there is no hope. I am going to have to suffer with low settings in every new game just to get 60FPS. That's not why I play on PC.

 

[mr91]

Guys, I said I cannot afford any upgrades, that's the whole problem. I am still paying off this PC as it is since it was leased via a monthly payment plan at Best Buy. So it wouldn't exactly be prudent to tinker too much with it.

I also can't even upgrade without having to replace the motherboard, the best I can do is a 7870K which is only a bit faster.

As I've said, there is no hope. I am going to have to suffer with low settings in every new game just to get 60FPS. That's not why I play on PC.

As suggested earlier and later confirmed by the mod. You should Wait for updates for both drivers and game. You will not have to play all new games on low but you will have to make some sacrifices

 

[Guest]

Fallout 4's system requirements have been revealed, and they are ridiculous. Why is it so high? In fact, why is it so high for the AMD side of things? I am sure I don't even meet the minimum requirements for Fallout 4! This is REALLY BAD, really really really bad! Games are just going to continue requiring insane hardware, and I don't even meet the minimum requirements! In 2014, my PC was fine (Alien: Isolation)... WHAT THE HELL CHANGED?!

I don't want to run my games on low, I don't want to run them on low resolutions. But I cannot afford new hardware! This is getting ABSURD!!! I know that they know how much PC gamers want their hardware utilized, but now that I'm pretty much a low end PC gamer, I am going to have to suffer with sub par visuals and performance even worse than consoles at this rate. Eventually, I won't even be able to run games at a playable framerate at all. I won't even be able to run games at 30 FPS on LOW settings.

Back in 2010 to 2013... PC gaming was great. I was able to run games just fine (with my previous and WORSE PC), and the system requirements never got insane. I am not sure why it's getting like this after only a few short years... they are either pushing graphics over gameplay way too hard, or they are using extremely intensive visual features.

Also, I am not going to get Fallout 4 on console. I do not want to play on console anymore. I want to play on my PC. The only issue is that on console 30FPS looks fine but on PC it looks like shit. Actually, I don't want to settle with stupid 30 FPS, I want 60 FPS.

DirectX12 games can't come soon enough. That is the only hope left.

 

[Guest]

Fallout 4 runs terrible, just as I've feared. But this appears to be a widespread problem that affects those with powerhouse systems. I am sick of this nonsense. The game barely looks good enough to warrant this performance. In most areas outside of the center of the map, where the most dense cityscapes are at, the performance is fine. I get 60 frames per second indoors and in most wilderness areas, and 40-50 in somewhat more dense areas. That's fine, but that doesn't stop the game from having severe framerate slowdowns and insane choppiness in dense areas even with view distance for all things turned to the lowest. As expected, lowering the resolution or settings barely helps with the choppiness, which still happens even at the awful looking 1280x720 setting. Everywhere else that is NOT inside the cityscapes runs fantastic, and I am mostly happy with my performance at all medium settings (with Godrays off, DoF on low, and SSAO turned off. FXAA is on, with 16x Anisotropy). The choppiness can get so severe that it will drop to 1 or 0 frames per second, and for some reason it's been getting worse despite it getting better shortly after the AMD Crimson Driver Update. I have Shadow Cache turned on, and it doesn't seem to help anymore. Some interior areas run terrible, despite being at 60 frames per second, and have severe choppiness. For instance, The Railroad HQ, or inside a highrise building. In fact, for some reason, it's been getting choppier indoors. So there is much to complain about. Restarting the game seems to help it, sometimes.

 

[mr91]

Fallout 4 runs terrible, just as I've feared. But this appears to be a widespread problem that affects those with powerhouse systems. I am sick of this nonsense. The game barely looks good enough to warrant this performance. In most areas outside of the center of the map, where the most dense cityscapes are at, the performance is fine. I get 60 frames per second indoors and in most wilderness areas, and 40-50 in somewhat more dense areas. That's fine, but that doesn't stop the game from having severe framerate slowdowns and insane choppiness in dense areas even with view distance for all things turned to the lowest. As expected, lowering the resolution or settings barely helps with the choppiness, which still happens even at the awful looking 1280x720 setting. Everywhere else that is NOT inside the cityscapes runs fantastic, and I am mostly happy with my performance at all medium settings (with Godrays off, DoF on low, and SSAO turned off. FXAA is on, with 16x Anisotropy). The choppiness can get so severe that it will drop to 1 or 0 frames per second, and for some reason it's been getting worse despite it getting better shortly after the AMD Crimson Driver Update. I have Shadow Cache turned on, and it doesn't seem to help anymore. Some interior areas run terrible, despite being at 60 frames per second, and have severe choppiness. For instance, The Railroad HQ, or inside a highrise building. In fact, for some reason, it's been getting choppier indoors. So there is much to complain about. Restarting the game seems to help it, sometimes.

Hopefully with new driver releases and game patches your experience will be improved with your current hardware...