Upgrade needed for Fallout4?

[gf4200isdabest]

I haven't been keeping up for a while on my computer upgrades and am wondering whether I need to upgrade my PC to play Fallout 4 on moderate settings. My current specs are:

CPU: AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core 2.5 GHz Socket AM2+
Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD
RAM: 8GB
Video: nvidia geforce 550ti 1GB

Do I need to upgrade? If so, what would be the best bang for my buck?

Thank you!

 

[Fallen Kell]

What resolution do you play and what framerate do you expect to receive?

You won't get to enable most of the effects with a 1GB 550ti, but I am sure there is a playable configuration. I really have a hard time recommending upgrading graphics cards right now, given that we are going to see the first new manufacturing node cards in 4 years appear in the next 6 months (and not only that, it is completely skipping a normal node decrease, so that they are going from 28nm to 16nm, which is almost a 50% shrink, and I wouldn't be surprised to see 50-60% performance gains).

 

[Artorias]

What resolution do you play and what framerate do you expect to receive?

You won't get to enable most of the effects with a 1GB 550ti, but I am sure there is a playable configuration. I really have a hard time recommending upgrading graphics cards right now, given that we are going to see the first new manufacturing node cards in 4 years appear in the next 6 months (and not only that, it is completely skipping a normal node decrease, so that they are going from 28nm to 16nm, which is almost a 50% shrink, and I wouldn't be surprised to see 50-60% performance gains).

It cannot come soon enough.

 

[Midwayman]

It cannot come soon enough.

No kidding. GPUs have been stagnant for such a long time. I'm ready for cards that can handle 4k high refresh.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

Interesting point about the new generation. In general my goal is to run games at 1600x1200, with settings on medium, at above 30fps.

 

[Raduque]

I wonder how my lowly 860m will do.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

My plan is to play the game and see how my pc does first before considering upgrading. Some people need 120 fps and some like myself can get by with 40. I'm not sure on the settings for fallout but I'm hoping medium settings and 40fps and I'd be happy.

 

[escrow4]

That CPU will bottleneck anything you stick in that system so you need a full system rebuild even to play medium. Skylake can use DDR3 on some boards so if your RAM is DDR3 it might be re-useable (1.5v preferably). The minimum would be an i3 with that RAM and a H110 DDR3 board. Slightly above would be an i5 for breathing room. For the GPU, a 380 or 960 would do medium, but since this is a rebuild you'd want a 390 non X or 970 at least to turn settings up. The cheapest option would be a console but performance is poor with fat dips so meh there.

 

[clamum]

I'm not very familiar with PC hardware, anymore at least, but my specs are below. Maybe you know more or can kind of gauge where your hardware lies in relation to mine:

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 2.6 GHz
RAM: 8 GB (DDR3?)
Video: Radeon 7870
SSD drives

I played Fallout 4 for two hours last night and it ran great at 1920x1080 with medium/high settings. I didn't get into any huge battles, but so far it's ran so well I'm going to try bumping some settings.

Hope that helps.

 

[Blue_Max]

That 550ti will play it, but any chance you have a SLI motherboard? I see 550ti's used for Cheeeeaap! Throwing in a second one would be fun to mess with!

 

[Janrabbit]

So can anyone confirm if the game is playable with a 1GB 550ti?

I match the specs in every other aspect, just a smaller GPU

thanks

 

[Fallen Kell]

I'm not very familiar with PC hardware, anymore at least, but my specs are below. Maybe you know more or can kind of gauge where your hardware lies in relation to mine:

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 2.6 GHz
RAM: 8 GB (DDR3?)
Video: Radeon 7870
SSD drives

I played Fallout 4 for two hours last night and it ran great at 1920x1080 with medium/high settings. I didn't get into any huge battles, but so far it's ran so well I'm going to try bumping some settings.

Hope that helps.

Does not surprise me that it plays pretty well. The 7870 is faster than what is in the Xbox One (which is able to play the game at around 1080p).