Question My specs: what component can I upgrade to make Tarkov playable?

[Poita]

I’m looking to upgrade some components in my Desktop PC so it can handle the graphics work load of ‘Escape from Tarkov’. I suspect I might need to upgrade my graphics card and possibly my RAM type but I’m not sure.
I would appreciate any advice on:
1. What component or components should I upgrade?
2. What should I upgrade to considering the rest of my PC specs may become a bottleneck if I get too recent a new component? In other words, if you suggest a component to upgrade, can you recommend what version of that particular component also.
I prefer to play Tarkov at my monitor’s native resolution of 2560 x 1440 (I’ve tried 1080p and it’s horrible). I did turn all other graphics setting to the lowest possible but even with this, I am getting such a low framerate that aiming is almost impossible as the smallest mouse movement shunts my aim too many pixels past my target.

I don’t need to get blistering fast components, just enough more power to be able to play Tarkov and to give a few more years to my 4 year old PC.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I’ll list my specs in detail and also my PassMark and Geekbench scores.

GAME: Escape from Tarkov - (currently suffering very low frame rate on minimal graphics settings apart from resolution which is native monitor res of 2560 x 1440)

COMPUTER SPECS: ACPI x64-based PC (PassMark rating 4,192)
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
MOTHERBOARD: Asus maximus 6 Impact
CPU: Intel Core i7 - 4770S 3.10GHz, 4 cores, 8 Logical Processors (PassMark score = 9,358)
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333 MHz 2 channels (Kingston KHX1600C10D3/8GX)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 - 4GB Ram (PassMark average score = 5,362)
HD: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
MONITOR: DELL U2713HM 2560 x 1440 (I run two side by side but only use one for the game.

PASSMARK OVERALL PC RATING: 4,192 (79Tth Percentile Rating)
- CPU MARK: 9,632 (76th Percentile Rating)
- 2D GRAPHICS MARK: 633 (58th Percentile Rating)
-3D GRAPHICS MARK: 5,629 (75th Percentile Rating)
- MEMORY MARK: 2,358 (75th Percentile Rating)
- DISK MARK: 4,880 (88th Percentile Rating)

GEEKBENCH 5.1.0
- GEEKBENCH OpenCL Score 15,621

 

[Campy]

Yeah, you need a better graphics card. Tarkov is a demanding game.

 

[RLGL]

Start fresh, so much has changed since that build. This will help keep all parts compatible with no bottlenecks.

 

[Charlie98]

Definitely the GPU... but you will need to make a decision on how much you want to spend. There are two thoughts... spend a minimal amount of money to get a new lower-end card or a used middle-end card to carry you through a 'few more years' with your current PC, or drop the coin on a new mid- to high-end card that you can take with you when you replace your current PC and start to play newer games.

 

[Poita]

Definitely the GPU... but you will need to make a decision on how much you want to spend. There are two thoughts... spend a minimal amount of money to get a new lower-end card or a used middle-end card to carry you through a 'few more years' with your current PC, or drop the coin on a new mid- to high-end card that you can take with you when you replace your current PC and start to play newer games.

Thanks, that's a good point.
Is there not a bottleneck issue?
I think I'm ok to spend close £200 or $250.What's the most powerful card I can get for that?
I tend to prefer NVIDIA but if AMD are smashing it then I'll go with them.

 

[Charlie98]

If you put a high-end card... heck, a mid-range card in your current PC, yes... the CPU will become the bottleneck, but it will get you to, essentially, the max playing level without upgrading your whole system. RLGL is correct... if you want to maximize your game play, you are going to have to go all-in. If your budget doesn't allow it, the reasonable solution is a new GPU.

You'll have to tell us where you are at, and where you might be buying it from to get a better suggestion on a card.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

If good enough is the goal update your video card to something in the $250-$300 range.
16GB should be enough memory and buying faster memory never makes any real world difference, if benchmarks is your goal get faster memory.
If excellent experience is your goal a complete new build is likely what you need.

Personally I’d try it out with your current machine & current card, if it works well do nothing, if it doesn’t work well replace the video card, if it sucks and is completely unplayable then new build. Obviously use the updated card in the new build.

Warning: I am not a frames per second or ultra quality junky. Medium to high settings is fine for me, as long as the game doesn’t have regular stutters or pauses it runs fast enough for me.

 

[Poita]

I'm in the UK.

I've been running the game at 1920 x 1200 and I get a pretty good frame rate now. But I get some kind of visible refresh line flickering on the screen a lot of the time. You can see it on the attached screen shot at the bottom of the screen in the attached pic.

The card I'm looking at is is the Asus Phoenix GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC edition 6GB (it says GDDR6 but I think it's a typo and it means GDDR5) PH-GTX1660S-O6G
It's £199 here in the UK so that's about $258.
Do you reckon that's the best card for that price?
I looked at some benchmark scores for the GTX 1660 Super and they were pretty good and almost double my current card but it's always hard to know if the branded versions have the same specs.

 

[daveybrat]

I'm in the UK.

I've been running the game at 1920 x 1200 and I get a pretty good frame rate now. But I get some kind of visible refresh line flickering on the screen a lot of the time. You can see it on the attached screen shot at the bottom of the screen in the attached pic.

The card I'm looking at is is the Asus Phoenix GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC edition 6GB (it says GDDR6 but I think it's a typo and it means GDDR5) PH-GTX1660S-O6G
It's £199 here in the UK so that's about $258.
Do you reckon that's the best card for that price?
I looked at some benchmark scores for the GTX 1660 Super and they were pretty good and almost double my current card but it's always hard to know if the branded versions have the same specs.

The GTX 1660 Super is definitely the best card for your system. Should be a huge upgrade over your old 670 card.

The only thing i'd recommend is maybe getting a card with dual fans on it. I don't really like the single fan variants like that Asus one as they can get pretty hot under load.