Game crashes: Is it the Vid Card, upgrade it, or ???

[real world]

Hi guys. About 6 or so years ago I built my brother a PC. The specs are:

Windows 7 64-bit
AMD PHENOM II X4 840 Processor
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Socket AM3+ 760G mATX AMD Motherboard rev 3.1
XFX Radeon HD 6770
Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-620 620W
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

Since then the PC has been passed on to his early teenage son (my nephew) who's just starting to get into PC gaming. He tried an old CoD:World at War game and loved it, and is now trying to play the game Verdun on Steam. These are all older games that fall under the minimum requirements of the PC in question.

CoD played flawlessly without issue, but Verdun keeps crashing during gameplay, or during map changes. I get the message "Verdun.exe has stopped working". I downloaded AMD Catalyst for the 6770, tried reinstalling the game, and have run the game data verification on Steam all to no avail. On high settings the game crashes more quickly, and on low settings the game crashes after several minutes of play. Most times at least. This leads me to believe the GPU is the issue. Is that accurate?

My questions are:

1) Is the issue not hardware related, and a simple fix somewhere in the settings, or within the software?

2) If it is indeed that the GPU can't handle the game, then is there a GPU option that will work with this set up/motherboard. I believe the mobo has a PCI Express 2.0 slot, which limits card options significantly. Would a Radeon RX 560 work/be a good choice, or is there something better?

(and btw what is up with GPU prices? Hot Damn!)

3) The PC being 6 years old, should I just bite the bullet and build my nephew a new rig? He's in his early teens and I'm not sure he's at an age where the newer shooters/games are something his parents want him to get into, so my thinking was to buy some time with this older PC and if he liked PC gaming, to then build one with him down the road. However, if the PC is simply obsolete at this point, then I'm open to building him a budget'esque gaming rig.

Thoughts, advice? Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[Toxic__Phoenix]

A new PC is something I'm sure he'd love. Early teens is a great age to maybe let him build his own.

 

[real world]

A new PC is something I'm sure he'd love. Early teens is a great age to maybe let him build his own.

I was explaining the situation to my wife last night, and going over the different options I was considering. New vid card, total reinstall of windows, etc. and the above was exactly a point I made to her. He's not really into sports like most kids that age are (he only plays soccer and isn't really that good at it), so I told her building a new PC with him might spur an interest in computing at a perfect age for it. Who knows, he might find it blah and boring, or he might really enjoy it and become a whiz. Had I gotten into computers at his age I'd be a whiz instead of a novice. Granted, I've built over a dozen PCs, but I don't have the technical abilities a lot of people who got into them earlier than I have. So yeah, building a new PC wouldn't be the worst thing. Of course, not having to spend $600 or so for another year or two wouldn't be a bad thing either.

 

[dontlistentome]

Right now prices on videocards and DDR4 ram are ridiculously high. For this reason I'd hold off on a new build for now.

The HD 6xxx hasn't been supported by AMD for a while now. The HD 7xxx series are the oldest worth looking at, specifically the HD 7850 or better. Verdun runs on the Unity game engine, which can be a little unoptimized, so a bit of extra videocard power won't hurt. I'd consider the 6770 completely inadequate.

A new card like the RX 460 or 560 2gb would be more or less equivalent to an HD 7870. The R7 270 and 270x are also variants of the HD 7850/7870. So whatever you can find cheapest of all those cards would get the job done.

As far as teaching him to build a computer, there's nothing stopping you from disassembling this one. Then, when it's all in pieces, show him how to put it together.

 

[real world]

Right now prices on videocards and DDR4 ram are ridiculously high. For this reason I'd hold off on a new build for now.

The HD 6xxx hasn't been supported by AMD for a while now. The HD 7xxx series are the oldest worth looking at, specifically the HD 7850 or better. Verdun runs on the Unity game engine, which can be a little unoptimized, so a bit of extra videocard power won't hurt. I'd consider the 6770 completely inadequate.

A new card like the RX 460 or 560 2gb would be more or less equivalent to an HD 7870. The R7 270 and 270x are also variants of the HD 7850/7870. So whatever you can find cheapest of all those cards would get the job done.

As far as teaching him to build a computer, there's nothing stopping you from disassembling this one. Then, when it's all in pieces, show him how to put it together.

I will look into those cards. Thanks for you help and advice.

 

[real world]

Right now prices on videocards and DDR4 ram are ridiculously high. For this reason I'd hold off on a new build for now.

The HD 6xxx hasn't been supported by AMD for a while now. The HD 7xxx series are the oldest worth looking at, specifically the HD 7850 or better. Verdun runs on the Unity game engine, which can be a little unoptimized, so a bit of extra videocard power won't hurt. I'd consider the 6770 completely inadequate.

A new card like the RX 460 or 560 2gb would be more or less equivalent to an HD 7870. The R7 270 and 270x are also variants of the HD 7850/7870. So whatever you can find cheapest of all those cards would get the job done.

As far as teaching him to build a computer, there's nothing stopping you from disassembling this one. Then, when it's all in pieces, show him how to put it together.

I've been doing a little surfing and am wondering if this card would work with my current set up.

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, 03G-P4-6160-KR, 3GB GDDR5, ACX 2.0
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=03G-P4-6160-KR

I believe my power supply has the 6 pin connector, and the mobo has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, so I should be ok in the connection/compatibility department correct? My thinking is that even though the cpu and mobo are on the old side, this card could buy me some time before I need to invest in a new set up. The prices out there for GPU's and RAM are totally inflated and this vid card could be used in a new build should prices come down, and hold it's own for a few years. Thoughts?

 

[dontlistentome]

A 1060 is overkill for this computer. You'll be paying for performance you'll never use with this 840 CPU.

The potential problem with buying it now with the idea that you'll benefit from it later is this: Depending on how much later you build a new computer, videocards may be both better AND less expensive. It might turn out that the cost of a used HD 7850 now, plus the cost of a 1060 equivalent later is less than the cost of the 1060 at today's inflated prices. And if you buy the 1060 equivalent later you get the benefit of buying the latest technology as well.