Upgrading a 10 year old pc?

BenDoro

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Just looking for abit of advice. Ive got a pc around 10 year old it was probably around the £1000 mark when i bought it and still stands up the games i play. Since i play quite casually now due to commitments now getter older i want to see if its possible to just get the pc to run the new age of empires on the lowest setting or if its inevitable to buy a new pc down the line.

It cant run the new age of empires 2 de, theres a benchmark to play the game online and im way off it understandbly i suppose with the age of the pc. I know next to nothing about pcs and wasted money upgrading the ram to absolutely no improvement.

the specs of my pc:
Proccesor - I7 920 @ 2.67ghz
Memory - 12gb ram (not sure on the speed)
Graphics - Amd radeon hd 6900 (total memory 6gb vram 2gb)
Motherboard - Gigabyte ex58-ud5

Any advice is appreciated
Cheers
 

BenDoro

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The power supply is a corsair tx 650w

upgrading to the above graphics card would be compatible with the motherboard etc? And you think thats all that would be needed to improve it considering the age of the computer?

after spending money on the ram and it having no effect i dont want to buy a graphics card if its gonna have the same outcome, sorry to be so clueless!
 

varkanoid

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just do a search comparing a hd 6900 to a 1050ti probably find its quite a big leap. Power supply will be fine recommended is 300w. Quick search shows it 58% faster than a HD 6900. It should be a lot faster anyway than a card from 2010!

Another search 3D Mark Firestrike benchmark

HD6950 3083
GTX 1050ti 7029
(Same I7 4790 CPU)

so a decent leap.

Next step would be completely new kit but at the moment if you want the latest its not in stock. For something in stock you can buy now probably looking at Ryzen 2 3xxx CPU/system which will be a massive boost. Only thing you could keep from your old PC would be PSU to save some money and drives maybe.

Have a read at this though

https://steamcommunity.com/app/813780/discussions/0/2914346777807873943/
 
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BenDoro

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Well tbh the only game i cant play that im interested in atm is the new aoe. If simply upgrading to one of the graphics cards above will solve the issue think thats the preferable option, been looking at new prebuilt pcs on overclockers around the £900 but feel like its overkill for what im needing.

in terms of the cpu i take it, it should be fine for now? Cause if i go with upgrading the graphics card i will probably just buy a whole new rig once the next gen of games im interested in comes out. On that basis is is worth looking at a higher end graphics card and then adding that to a new rig years down the line or just go cheaper for now?
 

BenDoro

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Just extremely laggy and unplayable with my current setup.
Theres also a benchmark score of around 1000 to reach to be able to play online cant remember off the top of my head buy my pc gets no where near it atm im way off at around 200 haha!
Cheers for your help mate, so i take it to the best of your knowledge changing my gpu and leaving the cpu should be enough?
 

varkanoid

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It should be reading the comments as I bet the HD 6900 doesnt have the tech or Direct X level that AOE II DE needs.

actually just read the specs on Steam and they are funny according to the recommended specs your GPU should play AOE II DE fine.
RECOMMENDED:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64bit
Processor: 2.4 Ghz i5 or greater or AMD equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GTX 650 or AMD HD 5850 or better
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 30 GB available space
Click to expand...

I think something like a 1050ti or 1650 would make it playable.

BTW what resolution are you playing at ?
 

BenDoro

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I just play at 1920x1080 its only a standard 60hz aswell.
Ill try give it a run tonight and see what is maxing out in the task manager?
Could it be something daft like the hard drive speed or anything like that? Its just a standard hard drive i havent upgraded it since i bought it so its not an ssd or anything
 

Randomface74

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defo need a new graphics card, 2gb of vram doesn't cut it

also an ssd if you haven't already

wouldn't do more than that due to the age of the system it'd be better to replace it all.
 

varkanoid

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BenDoro said:
With the price of a new graphics card and ssd is it worth the upgrade rather than buying a new system?
Click to expand...

SSD definitely you can use it in the new system. Even a cheap 256gb SSD would make a massive difference to Windows booting etc.

So upgrade graphics card and SSD for just under £200 or a new system for £650-800 ? (£650 was the cheapest pre-built system I could find for my nephew to satisfy his needs)
 

BenDoro

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Upgrading the graphics card is obviously just a plug in job.
Is it more complicated adding an ssd? The prices for ssds are a lot lower than i thought must have been along time since i last searched for them them as i remember them being quite “expensive”
 
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