PC no longer good enough to run Dayz. What upgrades could I buy to play again?

[nufc1985 2]

Error creating enfusion engine, possible errors:

*GPU not supported

*GPU drivers not actualized

*DirectX broken

*other kind of error

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When I could play it was laggy in built up towns but generally playable.

My PC specs are:

Acer Predator

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP2

AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core Processor, 6GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series.

It was a high spec gaming PC but its like 5 years old now. To buy a good gaming PC these days you are looking at £600+ and I just cant afford that.

So my question is, could I just upgrage the processor and the graphics card in order to play Dayz again? Or could I get away with just a new processor or just a new graphics card. 

[thEchicagoBoy 54]

prolly get a new gpu imo cause the quad core might do for now

 

sorry if im wrong tho.

[eno 1049]

New processor is useless because you'd need a new mobo anyway... new graphics card would be a start but dude... Windows Vista?! Jesus. 

 

The 1080 Nvidia cards are pushing prices down quite a bit... recommend you get into an Nvidia 60 level card (760 would be a modest but affordable step up.) 

 

I don't know which AMD card to recommend... but a 760 is about as low as I would go with the Nvidia. A LOT of its functionality is going to be limited by the archaic nature of the rest of your hardware but it's the best single step option that you have. 

Edited July 3, 2016 by eno

[nl 986]

You need at least a directx 11 video card, which your Radeon is not.

Your CPU should be fine (I run a 2.6 Ghz quad core) but maybe you could overclock it.

Oh and if possible get your hands on windows 7 somehow, install it and use until 2020 or profit from the free windows 10 upgrade before the end of july.

Edited July 3, 2016 by nl

[SFRGaming 718]

I'm not sure that was high spec 5 years ago..

I digress, I believe it's high time for a new build.

I made this build for a friend of mine (yes I know AMD is cheaper; however, dayz has really nice NVidia / intel support along with many other game titles) and I think it would work for you

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/NBs7hq

[SFRGaming 718]

1 hour ago, eno said:

I don't know which AMD card to recommend... but a 760 is about as low as I would go with the Nvidia. A LOT of its functionality is going to be limited by the archaic nature of the rest of your hardware but it's the best single step option that you have. 

With buying used cards being out of the picture (not a great idea tbh), there's no reason to buy a 760 now. The 900 series corresponding cards are so similarly priced that it would be a waste to buy the 700 series new

[eno 1049]

1 minute ago, SFRGaming said:

With buying used cards being out of the picture (not a great idea tbh), there's no reason to buy a 760 now. The 900 series corresponding cards are so similarly priced that it would be a waste to buy the 700 series new

The best option I was talking about was the graphics card- not the 700 card specifically. As I said, the lowest I would go is the 760. As you said a 960 may be similarly priced. 

On that note, for a guy on a budget purchasing a used graphics card isn't the worst thing a person can do. I've purchased a few for my folding rigs and haven't been disappointed. With that said, it's definitely a buyer beware scenario and you need to be prepared for disappointment. That's the cost of buying cheap. 

[SFRGaming 718]

1 minute ago, eno said:

The best option I was talking about was the graphics card- not the 700 card specifically. As I said, the lowest I would go is the 760. As you said a 960 may be similarly priced. 

On that note, for a guy on a budget purchasing a used graphics card isn't the worst thing a person can do. I've purchased a few for my folding rigs and haven't been disappointed. With that said, it's definitely a buyer beware scenario and you need to be prepared for disappointment. That's the cost of buying cheap. 

While you can benefit from it, you can also land yourself with a completely dead card that you paid 100 bucks for. My rule of thumb is never buy big pc items used. Ram is okay for it's simple cant-screw-it-up design but something like a gpu (especially aftermarket versions) have moving parts and internal components that can easily suffer from a bad overclock the previous owner might have used.

[eno 1049]

1 minute ago, SFRGaming said:

While you can benefit from it, you can also land yourself with a completely dead card that you paid 100 bucks for. My rule of thumb is never buy big pc items used. Ram is okay for it's simple cant-screw-it-up design but something like a gpu (especially aftermarket versions) have moving parts and internal components that can easily suffer from a bad overclock the previous owner might have used.

Suit yourself. 

[Parazight 1594]

4 hours ago, nufc1985 said:

6GB RAM 

 

[eno 1049]

Minimum Requirements- DayZ

OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 SP1.

Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz or AMD Dual-Core Athlon 2.5 GHz.

Memory: 2 GB RAM.

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 or AMD Radeon HD 5850 or Intel HD Graphics 4000 with 512 MB VRAM.

DirectX: Version 11.

Storage: 10 GB available space.

Sound Card: DirectX®-compatible.

 

Not sure if the mobo on that rig would take more than what he has now anyway- maybe with a bios upgrade? Keep in mind the Radeon 4800 was a 2008/9 era card when it was considered "high spec." 

 

Just being conversational... a RAM upgrade is usually a goto to breathe life into a computer but to be honest 8GB was practically unheard of for regular desktops back then. Not to overstate it as much as just to acknowledge that it certainly wasn't common.

[nufc1985 2]

I guess it doesn't have to be a gaming PC in order to play Dayz again. A new £400- 500 desktop could probably run it, on low settings. 

Edited July 3, 2016 by nufc1985

[nufc1985 2]

Considering my rig, do you think that the MSI GeForce GTX 960 would enable me to play Dayz?

[eno 1049]

10 minutes ago, nufc1985 said:

Considering my rig, do you think that the MSI GeForce GTX 960 would enable me to play Dayz?

Yeah... it'd be a solid choice. You won't get the most of it with your current setup but if the time comes to get a new machine you can swap the card over to that and have an upper mid-tier card. Just remember to thoroughly cleanse your system of your AMD / Radeon drivers before you install it. 

[SFRGaming 718]

On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 11:41 AM, eno said:

Suit yourself. 

I'm not saying this to suit myself. Buying used PC parts is a high risk business and rarely ever worth it.

[eno 1049]

3 minutes ago, SFRGaming said:

I'm not saying this to suit myself. Buying used PC parts is a high risk business and rarely ever worth it.

Speak for yourself.

[SFRGaming 718]

1 minute ago, eno said:

Speak for yourself.

What's your deal man? For an experienced PC enthusiast that knows what to look for, used PC parts might be a fine idea. But for the every day consumer that just needs something to work (especially with how cheap you can get quality parts that will output decent performance), there's no reason to gamble with used parts.

[eno 1049]

5 minutes ago, SFRGaming said:

 there's no reason to gamble with used parts.

Not having money sounds like a pretty good one to me. 

[sneakydude 480]

17 minutes ago, SFRGaming said:

I'm not saying this to suit myself. Buying used PC parts is a high risk business and rarely ever worth it.

I have to disagree.. You can get a great buy once in awhile. Most refurbs are checked over and diag if being put on the market from a Microsoft refurb agent.

I know I have been in the business for 30 years.

as for a new tower. Asus board, GIGAbyte, MSI (aim for Asus Pro quality). I5 or better, can be an older cpu i7 s1155,s1156, or s1150. New I5 or better, 16gb ram, HDD 1tb, or SSD 256 aim for the ones I have just purchased Samsung 850 pro's 256 or better.

There is options such as liquid cooling that will help but a quality CPU fan is required for gaming now. Stock is just that high temps... As for a video card anything 760ti 4gb or better is what you should aim for.

I would find a quality builder, or someone that is good at building, as warranties are important. You do not have to over clock jack, just use stock for now.

Run down

i5 Quad core, Asus pro board, 16gb ddr3, 1tb hdd or SSD is better, gtx 760 ti 4gb or better video card.

What more is there to say?? prove is in the pudding.

 

[SFRGaming 718]

30 minutes ago, eno said:

Not having money sounds like a pretty good one to me. 

Are you truly this daft? You can still find good, new PC parts for cheap prices such as the EVGA ACX 2.0 Superclocked card for $150.

[eno 1049]

Just now, SFRGaming said:

Are you truly this daft? You can still find good, new PC parts for cheap prices such as the EVGA ACX 2.0 Superclocked card for $150.

I'm not sure exactly how to put it but I could give less than two fucks about the subject at all- ever. I'm just saying whatever falls off my fingers. 

I already said my piece about it and moved on. Now I'm just enjoying watching you get all twitterpated about everything like anyone gives a fuck. 

 

[SFRGaming 718]

18 minutes ago, sneakydude said:

Run down

i5 Quad core, Asus pro board, 16gb ddr3, 1tb hdd or SSD is better, gtx 760 ti 4gb or better video card.

What more is there to say?? prove is in the pudding.

 

I love Asus boards however they do sometimes carry a heavy price tag. Of course the quality is superb but for budget, I usually try to stay away from asus unless they have a reasonably priced board for the build.

I do agree with the i5 quad core heavily and intel has a lot of new 1150 socket i5's that are tailored to any budget. i7's are getting some use with new games along with DX12; however, I would not suggest i7's in a budget still.

ram is cheap but with a tight budget, 8gb is just fine.

best budget Hdd is a 1tb Seagate barracuda (I think this is unrivaled lol)

and I would go for the 960 (is the ti out yet?) for the sake of the 900 series having the same price that the 700 series had when they were new

[SFRGaming 718]

3 minutes ago, eno said:

I'm not sure exactly how to put it but I could give less than two fucks about the subject at all- ever. I'm just saying whatever falls off my fingers. 

I already said my piece about it and moved on. Now I'm just enjoying watching you get all twitterpated about everything like anyone gives a fuck. 

 

You seem like the upset one here. If you feel the need to shit talk me, feel free to message me

[nl 986]

9 hours ago, SFRGaming said:

I love Asus boards however they do sometimes carry a heavy price tag. Of course the quality is superb but for budget, I usually try to stay away from asus unless they have a reasonably priced board for the build.

I do agree with the i5 quad core heavily and intel has a lot of new 1150 socket i5's that are tailored to any budget. i7's are getting some use with new games along with DX12; however, I would not suggest i7's in a budget still.

ram is cheap but with a tight budget, 8gb is just fine.

best budget Hdd is a 1tb Seagate barracuda (I think this is unrivaled lol)

and I would go for the 960 (is the ti out yet?) for the sake of the 900 series having the same price that the 700 series had when they were new

My personal experience with ASUS mobo's is not that great. I had several and all developed problems after about 3 years. Mostly with onboard sound chips and USB controllers. I also had several Asus GPU's which were all fine. I now have a MSI mobo which is serving me well for over 6 years now.

[SFRGaming 718]

7 hours ago, nl said:

My personal experience with ASUS mobo's is not that great. I had several and all developed problems after about 3 years. Mostly with onboard sound chips and USB controllers. I also had several Asus GPU's which were all fine. I now have a MSI mobo which is serving me well for over 6 years now.

I'm assuming they were much older asus boards. I will admit their quality back then was not that great for some people. I've used asus in my last 3 builds and the boards worked wonders. Of course someone always gets that one dud (its inevitable). Nevertheless, always run what works for you