Planet Coaster build/upgrade

npfman · 22 Mar 2017 at 16:23

Hi peeps,

Looking to upgrade/build to play Planet Coaster.

This is my current setup which I built in 2011 with advice from this forum

MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2)
XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)

I also need a monitor, was thinking about the Dell U2715H

Anyone have any thoughts?, is it a good time to upgrade?

Current PC is running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

Cheers

Nick

lee32uk · 22 Mar 2017 at 17:29

Hi

I would go with a new GPU and a bigger SSD (Maybe something like a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB) along with your new monitor and see what the performance is like. If you are happy then you could then up the ram to 16GB and leave it at that.

The other more expensive option would be to go with a new i7 7700K/Ryzen cpu along with a new board and DDR4 ram. Or if you don't mind 2nd hand then look for a Sandybridge/Ivybridge i7 to go in your current board.

There are also more Ryzen cpu's due on April 11th which will include the 6 core/12 thread R5 1600/X. They should come in at around the same sort of price as an i5 'K'.

Biggler · 22 Mar 2017 at 19:20

Have you tried overclocking your 2500k? Should get near 4.5ghz which would help.

npfman · 27 Mar 2017 at 20:24

Thanks for the replies, I overclocked i5 with a guide from here previously, worked well for 4 years at 4.5Ghz then I think the cooler unscrewed/unseated itself from the motherboard and killed the CPU, bought another i5-2500K and left it unoverclocked.

I'll upgrade RAM for time being and then look at complete new build i7/Ryzen.

Cheers again for replies

npfman · 28 Mar 2017 at 17:12

Changed my mind lol.

Might overclock my i5 2500k to 4.5GHz again, got some DDR3 12800 1600Hz RAM sticks spare to make it upto 16GB, think i've got a samsung 840 Basic 120GB SSD lying about somewhere.

Whats a good reasonably priced card at the moment? something like a GTX 1080? MSi again? Geforce, EVGA?, then in the future I can upgrade mobo/CPU/Ram and swap the card in?

Just looking to play Planet Coaster at 1440P with reasonable FPS.

Cheers

Nick

new boy · 28 Mar 2017 at 17:17

View CPU and GPU usage to see what's what

Planet coaster gets pretty CPU intensive with big parks with lots of visitors, but that's a weak GPU, so that could well be the weak link.