171 replies to this topic

[xWiredx]

MovinTarget, on 08 January 2016 - 05:20 PM, said:

Don't laugh me off teh interwebz but am running mwo fairly stable on a Dell precision mx4800 laptop. Has on board gpu and 16gb ram w/ mobile i7 chip...

It's my work laptop (b/c I told my boss I need a "serious" mobile workstation *cough*)

Yes all my setting are set to low but it is stable in the 48-55fps...

Right now trying figure out if I should bother upgrading my wife's stock Asus desktop (shipped w/ fx8350 and radeon(?) 270 gpu)... wondering if just a new high end gpu (and probably new higher wattage psu) would make it playable at low-settings.

I really don't want to plunk down for a whole new computer...

First - I can't believe you necro'd a 10 month old thread. Seems like you could have posted a fresh one. Either way, onto your question.

The FX8350 and a Radeon HD 270 should be capable of playing the game at something more than everything on low. I'm not familiar with the 270's performance at all, but I would think something on medium would be entirely possible and playable.

The problem here is the 8350's IPC. Bulldozer and Piledriver have terrible IPC. They're a step backward from the older Phenom II chips in that regard. They do, however, overclock like a champ. If you have a really good cooler in that tower then you can probably push it to a point where you can play on medium (and maybe even some things on high, if the 270 can handle it). It seems to me like ASUS might have been a company that went with the stock water cooler for some of their systems and they've been known for shipping higher-end systems with nicely unlocked BIOS. If you don't have a good cooler, they're relatively cheap. If, however, the BIOS is locked to keep you from overclocking, then it won't matter.

If the 270 is too weak (which again is a thing I can't really say either way if it is or isn't), then a GPU replacement is easy enough. ASUS might have put in a decent PSU. You should definitely check (and we can advise on that when you know).

[MovinTarget]

Asus m32bc-b01 is the machine I bought 6 months ago.

I thought it had a fx8350 but might be 8130... I know the gpu is only slot-powered so that's why I assumed any good gpu will need more power than the stock psu... doubt it has anything other than normal cooling at the ~$650 price point...

Just trying to determine if it'd be worth it...

I resurrected this thread since I found it when searching for fx8350 info...

Tnx

[MovinTarget]

Oh its a r7-240 gpu...

[xWiredx]

Hmm, that helps a lot actually.

300W PSU. Radeon R7 240 2GB. FX 8130. The good news is I believe the BIOS is unlocked to an extent AND overall this is a somewhat easy prebuilt to upgrade.

So yes, the PSU would need to be changed. You can get a nice Seasonic 500W one for not too much.

The GPU... yes, low-end. A 270 would have been more favorable by a lot. A 240 is meh. Entry level stuff. I'd recommend maybe a GTX 960 or higher, or Radeon 370 or higher.

The CPU... maybe you can upgrade it. Not entirely sure if the motherboard will support other chips. If it can then that beefier PSU can be put to use with an 8350 or 8370. If you open it up, there will probably be an ASUS model number on it that we can use to find out proper support.

[MovinTarget]

Sooooooooo the tdlr version is that gpu/psu upgrade is doable, but cpu would need to be cranked up as well?

I am fine running all settings on low if I can eek out 40-50 fps...

[MovinTarget]

Finally at home looking at the sys info...

Product is a m52bc_m32bc with a fx8310 3.4ghz 8 core... all other stats correct I think...

[xWiredx]

The CPU will do fine for low probably. Most of the settings can be turned up with a new GPU. To turn up particles, shadows, and environment you will need to either OC hard or replace the CPU with one that has higher base and turbo clock speeds.

[MovinTarget]

I think I will look to bump up the psu and gpu... I really don't want to drop more than $300 into this upgrade and I should be able to get those twords components for about that price, unless it's worth it to get one of the $600 gpus...

Either way, many thanks!

[xWiredx]

At stock clocks the CPU will be a small bottleneck so... Yeah, spare about $75 for a good PSU and that'll give you plenty of budget for a CPU. For instance...

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817151095
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127880

[Golrar]

MovinTarget, on 08 January 2016 - 05:20 PM, said:

Right now trying figure out if I should bother upgrading my wife's stock Asus desktop (shipped w/ fx8350 and radeon(?) 270 gpu)... wondering if just a new high end gpu (and probably new higher wattage psu) would make it playable at low-settings.

I really don't want to plunk down for a whole new computer...

Edit: Darn it, I must have been on the last page and didn't see all the above. Didn't see the 300W PSU. So forget everything I said about the 8350 that you don't have .

Edited by Golrar, 08 January 2016 - 10:47 PM.

[MovinTarget]

Golrar, on 08 January 2016 - 10:44 PM, said:

Edit: Darn it, I must have been on the last page and didn't see all the above. Didn't see the 300W PSU. So forget everything I said about the 8350 that you don't have .

Somehow I miseed your comments altogether, I thought wired was the only responding. I appreciated all comments...

I've been iffy about modding this pc... haven't built a pc in almost 15 years...

Edited by MovinTarget, 09 January 2016 - 11:30 AM.

[Golrar]

I must have been real sneaky on the edit then. Like a .