Hardware & Technical Hardware advice required

[Longhead23]

Good afternoon Commanders,
I have very little technical knowledge when it come to PC's. All I know is I used to love this game on the Electron, and I love the Beta of this game now 30 years later.
I purchased my computer in 2007, and I think it was a reasonable spec back then. It is above minimum spec, and ED does play on it 7 years later so it must have been OK.
However, I do think I may need to update to kit that I have.

So, my question? If I give the details (that I know how to obtain) of the spec of my system, would someone be kind enough to give me advice on what I need to upgrade to to make it a decent spec for ED. I will be on a tight budget, as I can't throw large sums of money at it.

Thanks
Dax

 

[natte hond]

if it runs you might be able to improve it allot with only a better graphics card.
post your hardware , then people are able to help.
erm your post is in the wrong place.

 

[Longhead23]

Hello Natte Hond and thanks.

Where should it have been posted?
Can I move it, or does an administrator have to do that?

 

[Cody]

I'm sure a kindly Mod will move it for you.

 

[Brett C]

Moved to beta discussions forum.

 

[uncle bulgaria]

You can probably upgrade your GPU fairly easily.

Post your current specs and we'll definitely be able to help one way or another. Biggest risk imho (and it's fairly small) is you'll need a new PSU but it's not a huge deal to change out to be honest.

 

[Aqualarius]

My machine is fairly old now (Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3317U CPU @ 1.70GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M 1GB) but I am able to run ED quite smoothly. I originally had the resolution turned down fairly low, but I now run it in 1280x720 and still get a good FPS rate.

Start with the Low preset (and turn the bobble head off) and set resolution to 1024x768. Then play around with the settings until you get it just right!

 

[Kernel Kwatz!]

I think that if it's 7 years old you will probably have to start from scratch. Or at least think about it. Posting your system specs will confirm whether this is the case or not.

You can go here to determine your specs. (Note that your browser will probably automatically block it and you will have to click a popup that might appear at the top or bottom of your screen.)

 

[Aqualarius]

Failing that press and hold the Start button on the keyboard and R, and type in dxdiag.exe. This will also display relevant stats about you computer.

 

[Reidquat]

Edit: Replied to the wrong person about the wrong thing. <doh>

 

[Aqualarius]

Its a laptop, rarely is it possible to make significant upgrades to laptops (sure you might find a higher up CPU than yours, but it will still be from the same generation), and graphics cards are also very rarely interchangeable on laptops, which is the real thing holding you back, the desktop version of the GT620 isn't really up to the job so I assume th eM version would struggle even more.

I'd suggest googling the model of your laptop to try to find out if the GPU is upgradeable.

Oh I know my laptop isn't upgradable I'm just saying that I still get good graphics and gameplay so the whole "you have to buy a pc that costs a grand to even be able to play" assumption that I keep seeing isn't strictly true...

That said if I had a grand spare that's probably what I would do!

 

[Reidquat]

Oh I know my laptop isn't upgradable I'm just saying that I still get good graphics and gameplay so the whole "you have to buy a pc that costs a grand to even be able to play" assumption that I keep seeing isn't strictly true...

That said if j had a grand spare that's probably what I would do!

I realised after I wrote that, I thought it was the OP's specs, I should learn to read fully before posting haha

 

[Longhead23]

You are all very generous, and I thank you.

I shall put my specs up either this evening, or tomorrow.

Hopefully tonight, but I have a 10K run this evening. This flight suit is getting awfully tight!

 

[Comrade Napoleon]

To Op

Not really describing in much detail what your setup is , but from 2007 , I think it is fair to say you should think of an complete upgrade.

2007 GPU are useless today.
A 2007 CPU is really old now
And th MOBO likewise.

If you want to play Elite you dont need latest and greatest you need ok.

I play on a z68v -pro asus mother board , with a I7 k2600 16 G , a Typical 2010 Top stuff, but with a 780 Nvidia in for Gpu.
Yuo can prolly pick up my setup without GPU for 250 € and the Gpu for 300 €
Processors have hardly moved the latter years.
Gpu's have.

Cheers Cmdr's

 

[Knarlfin]

Bear in mind even top end kit in 2007 is now getting long in the tooth. I think I was running Intel Core 2 Quads QX6700 and Q6600's around then with GeForce 8800GTXs then. The CPUs can still do a job but the graphics cards are obsolete now.

You could upgrade a component such as GPU (as a likely first candidate), only to find a marginal improvement because your CPU for example is then bottlenecking the entire system.

If you can I would monitor your system, to see which areas are limiting performance, CPU, GPU, RAM before spending anything.

But overall, even if you're on a limited budget you might be better considering a new system rather than throwing money after bad, and costing you more (for less performance) in the long run.

You'd also see some longer term benefits from a newer system as they are generally much quieter, run cooler, and more energy efficient.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Popped into the Hardware section.

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

hi, if you want to find out the full specifications of your system in a manner that's easy to copy over to the forums there is a free program called PC-wizard that will gather the information for you, you can find it here: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html

as you can see from the screenshot it gives real in depth information on the parts you have installed, the main bits we need to know to advise you on your possible upgrade path are:

CPU
motherboard
type and amount of memory
graphics card
power supply rating

the download link is in the right hand column of the page.

when installing make sure to take a close look at each page before clicking next as like a lot of free programs extra software is installed by default, un-checking one box prevents this from happening.


this is the sort of output the program gives you:

Mainboard : ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Crosshair V Formula
Chipset : ATI RD9x0
Processor : AMD FX 8150 @ 3600 MHz (max : 3885)
Physical Memory : 16384 MB
Video Card : AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
Hard Disk : Western Digital WD20EARX-00PASB0 ATA Device (2000GB)
Hard Disk : Seagate Desktop (2000GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : ASUS DRW-24B3ST
Monitor Type : Asus ASUS VS247 - 23 inches
Monitor Type : Asus ASUS VN247 - 23 inches
Network Card : Intel 82583V Gigabit Network Connection
Operating System : Windows 7 Home Premium Home Edition Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
DirectX : Version 11.00
Windows Performance Index : 5.9 on 7.9

hope this helps

 

[GHDW]

So, my question? If I give the details (that I know how to obtain) of the spec of my system, would someone be kind enough to give me advice on what I need to upgrade to to make it a decent spec for ED. I will be on a tight budget, as I can't throw large sums of money at it.

Thanks
Dax

The Elite: Dangerous launcher has a Display Hardware Survey accessed by clicking your email in the top right corner, after a moment an inventory of your machine will display in a text file. There is a lot of information and for privacy's sake I wouldn't post it all online, here is an edited example from my machine you can use as a template:

		<OperatingSystem>Windows 7 Professional 64-bit</OperatingSystem>
		<SystemManufacturer>MSI</SystemManufacturer>
		<SystemModel>MS-7752</SystemModel>
		<Processor>Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~4.2GHz</Processor>
		<Memory>8192MB RAM</Memory>
		<AvaliableOSMem>8142MB RAM</AvaliableOSMem>
                <CardName>AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series</CardName>
		<DisplayMemory>4095 MB</DisplayMemory>
		<CurrentMode>5040 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)</CurrentMode>
		<CardName>NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570</CardName>
		<DisplayMemory>4064 MB</DisplayMemory>
		<CurrentMode>1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)</CurrentMode>

If the motherboard is seven years old now placing a new beefier GPU and power supply may stress it beyond capacity. Hopefully not, but the risk of burnout increases with age. A new machine may be in order.

 

[schmerg]

Good afternoon Commanders,
I purchased my computer in 2007, and I think it was a reasonable spec back then. It is above minimum spec, and ED does play on it 7 years later so it must have been OK.
However, I do think I may need to update to kit that I have.

So, my question? If I give the details (that I know how to obtain) of the spec of my system, would someone be kind enough to give me advice on what I need to upgrade to to make it a decent spec for ED. I will be on a tight budget, as I can't throw large sums of money at it.

If it's above the minimum spec already, then you're unlikely to need a newer CPU as the game, in its current state doesn't seem to be CPU bound for most people.

Of course a new graphics card might, if enough of leap, lead to you being CPU bound, but it's a line call from then on.

So, working on the basis of the most likely path being a graphics card update, the key spec items for us to know are

- What's the current graphics card ? It's easier to replace an NVidia with NVidia and AMD with AMD etc, and we can guess how much of an improvement you might see.

- What physical size motherboard and case is it? What size card will physically fit? If it's a "full tower" and ATX motherboard, most any card will fit, but if it's a mini-tower or similar then you may be limited to shorter cards (we can probably guess this from learning the motherboard make & model, but the case type would be handy to know)

- What PCI-E slot will you be using (presumably replacing the current card)? What spec is that slot? Again, we can probably tell from the motherboard make and model number.

- What power supply do you have, what's the make and power rating, and does it have the supplementary 6 pin PCI-E power connectors that some cards need? (are these any spare cables from the PSU that look like this, and if so, one or two? You'll see you can get adapters to use molex plugs for these if needed...

Tight budgets are OK, but, for example, NVidia are bringing out new cards in Q4 and there might be a few people upgrading and so you might be able to pick up a decent used card for cheap...

 

[Asp Explorer]

Just grab a cheap i5 and mobo, some ram and an SSD, and have plenty fun playing on the integrated graphics at medium res. Once you have a bit more cash, plop a decent card in.

Much better than prolonging life-support on an ancient box.