Hi all, my PC has gone on for a few years now, without any upgrades (except for the secondary SSD). By now it seems tempting to look at upgrading it somewhat, even though it runs TSW3 fine. When I bought it I had little idea of PC's and had it assembled by an external company, and to be frank I still have no idea. As TSW3 is pretty much the only game I play nowadays (except for Transport Fever when it doesn't crash because of the mods), I thought this could be the right place to ask. So, with the parts listed below, what would you upgrade to improve the performance of my PC, especially for TSW3. Processor 1 x Intel Core i7 7700K / 4.20GHz CPU Cooling 1 x be quiet! Pure Rock Memory 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666MHZ 16GB Graphics Card 1 x Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB) Motherboard 1 x MSI Z270 KRAIT GAMING Primary hard drive 1 x Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (M.2 SSD) Secondary hard drive 1 x Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 Power supply 1 x 450W Corsair VS450 Sound Card 1 x Asus Xonar DGX WiFi reciever 1 x TP-LINK 300Mbps Wireless N I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on this, and maybe even learn a little about PC hardware.
Can't recommend any upgrades, but there's two things which immediately stand out to me here that I do think are worth pointing out. 1: Memory 16GB is plenty of memory in itself, but the choice of a single stick of memory is not a good idea. If it were up to me, or indeed anyone else who is even just mildly tech savvy I would've went with either two 8GB sticks, or two 16GB sticks. If you have two sticks you can take advantage of dual-channel memory. which allows faster transfer speeds. So even if you were to go with just two 8GB sticks it would still have a performance advantage over just a single 16GB stick. Not so much recommending you upgrade it now, I think you're probably still fine as is, but I would keep that in mind for the future. Always get two sticks, there isn't a big difference in price between 1x 16GB & 2x 8GB, and 1x 16GB slower. One more important thing though if you do decide to upgrade the RAM. Different types of RAM don't tend to play nice with each other, it's known to be a frequent cause of system crashes. Even if it's from the same brand and has the same specs, just generation newer than the RAM you got last time it can still cause this. So either make sure you get a second stick which is the exact same type as the one you have now. And if you can't do that, or it's cheaper to buy two new sticks then just buy two new sticks and set aside the old one. 2: Sound Card Simply put, sound cards are just unnecessary, the difference between the built-in sound on the motherboard and the sound card is minimal at this point for a casual user. Again, not so much recommending you upgrade, nor would I suggest tearing the sound card out of your PC. But for future reference unless your a audio engineer a sound card is unneeded. That money could be better spent toward upgrading other parts of your PC. Hope you find both tips useful.
As i said before: Never build a PC specifically for a badly optimized game like TSW3. Thats like buying a Ferrari to race on a icy lake. Yes you can race but the difference between a Ferrari and a Toyota will be far less noticeable then on a highway. Maybe you could get a new GPU like a 3060 or 3060 TI or 6600 XT or 6700 XT and a new power supply with over 550 or 650W. That would be a $500 upgrade with probably the biggest effect. You will notice a difference of a few FPS but TSW will still be TSW. If you would upgrade your CPU you would also probably have to buy a new MB and then its basically a whole new PC with new RAM and everything.
Not quite sure about that, unless you're upgrading to the latest CPUs DDR4's still viable, so you wouldn't need to ditch the RAM necessarily. Also stuff like the case, sound card, and the SSDs could likely be reused without issue, at most would need to do a Windows reinstall. Also could maybe reuse the power supply, although that would be iffy certainly depending on how much further you upgrade the CPU & GPU. I will say though that upgrading the CPU/Motherboard would need quite a bit of DIY work to swap it out. I wouldn't say it's hard, but it's certainly a bit time consuming, and also might be a bit intimidating if you haven't done it before. Not sure how much OP wants to go digging into his computer if he hasn't built one recently (if at all).
The main issue is your preferences for the future and financial possibilities. If you are satisfied with the game in 1920*1080 (FHD) resolution, you do not need to upgrade your PC. For this resolution, you have a good PC configuration. With the exception of one - it is necessary to ensure the operation of RAM in dual-channel mode. According to my estimates, your PC in TSW3 on ultra settings should provide 70-90 FPS. My personal experience on a laptop MSI GT73VR7RD (17.3 "FHD; i7 7700; gtx1060; DDR4 2*8Gb 2133MHz; 128Gb M.2; 1TB HDD) ultra settings 40-70 FPS. If you want to improve TSW3 for yourself and test it in 2560 * 1440 resolution (QHD), you should think about replacing the video card. Personally, I would upgrade the video card to rtx2070 or rtx3060. I think in this configuration your PC would provide a comfortable game in 2K. I admit that replacing a video card may require replacing the power supply with a more powerful one - 500-600W. If your goal is to play at 3840*2160 (TSW is great in 4K), you will need a full PC upgrade. For a budget option, I would recommend i5-12600 on the MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 motherboard. Video card rtx3070 (at the recommended DTG level for a comfortable game in 4k 60fps). RAM 2*16GB DDR4-3200Hz. Power supply 600-650 W. My personal experience in TSW3 on my new PC (4K; Monitor MSI 32" Optix MPG321UR-QD; Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6(5.0); MSI MPG Z690 Carbon Wi-Fi ; cooling system MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360; RAM G.Skill DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) 6000Mhz Trident Z5; MSI GeForce RTX 3070 SUPRIM X 8192MB;MSI SPATIUM M480 HS 3D NAND 1TB M.2;Power Supply MSI MPG 850W (A850GF)) settings all ultra - in the unlimited fps mode, the performance varies from 60 to 110 fps (there are dips up to 40 fps); CPU loading 18-25%, consumption up to 40W, temperature 50-73 degrees; GPU consumption up to 280W, 99% load, heats up to 83 degrees. - in limited mode 62 fps; CPU load up to 20%, consumption up to 40W, temperature 50-60 degrees; GPU consumption up to 260-270W, load 70-99%, heats up 65-73 degrees.
