PC gamers, what do you do when you hit the limits of your system?

[BathorysGraveland]

Well, most of the games I play are well before my computers time, and so I very rarely have any problems. In fact, the only games that run less than perfect on my PC is The Witcher 2 and Skyrim, and even then turning the settings down to a moderate pretty much does it. I get some slow downs here and there, a few CTD's and nothing much more. Whether I would upgrade my PC to play a future game, I don't know. Upgrading is usually very expensive and since I have no idea what to do myself, I'd need to pay a professional to do it for me.. even more expensive. So I probably just wouldn't play the game unless it was something I absolutely had to get. In that case, I wouldn't know what to do honestly.

 

[ResonanceSD]

When you've reached the limits of what you can push in terms of performance, what do you do?

Well, time of the year to visit GoG.

Good man,

OT:

I havn't.... yet.

I seem to be able to run most modern games on high settings without mishap.

However when it does eventually happen, then I guess I'll just upgrade my hardware a bit.

yeah that's my problem, i've hit a bottleneck in terms of not being able to upgrade the current system without changing a hell of a lot -_-'

Oh you are one of those "300% or nothing!" performance junkies, well for you the only solution is buying new, every month.

...Or just buy the right parts once and get by with them for 2 years. You could do that too.

But then how will people feign aggression when they hear about my first world problems?

 

[babinro]

I don't know much about computers beyond upgrading ram.

As such I just live with it. I'm perfectly content playing on a console or lesser PC settings for a while until I can justify a new machine. Computers typically last me a minimum of 5 years for strict gaming purposes.

 

[Badong]

Check if I actually remembered to download a goddamn video driver Honestly though, it was infuriating when I discovered that the reason ALL of my games lagged to a ridiculous extent on a brand-new custom built rig is because I forgot to update my drivers.

OT: Saving up for future upgrades aside, I stop buying new titles altogether when everything just bogs down, and just stick to playing old releases and reading books for a while. Saves me a lot of money too, considering that prices have already gone down once I've prepped my new system.

Or you know, play it on a console, or a good friend's console if you don't have one.

 

[Pelgrims]

This monster will carry me for a couple of years.. then its swapping out parts when they can't follow anymore.

 

[Vivi22]

Usually when I'm hitting the limits of what my system can handle it's old enough that I can start planning to build a new system. My current computer is five years old though, and after replacing the graphics card in November (old one kicked the bucket) it's handling everything I actually play on the absolute maximum settings, so I doubt I'll upgrade for another year or two at least.

 

[talker]

try to upgrade the system (new graphics card etc.) and if that doesn't work, tear my hair out, beat the ground with my fists and go to the local electronics shop for a new one (if i have had my current computer for long enough, say 5-7 years)

 

[Kargathia]

That's the thing, how far in advance are you plannign to build?

Generally this is more dictated by "when do I have the money for it?" than by "when does my system/components start to show its/their age?".

 

[Tayh]

What do you mean by "limit"? There is no limit! That's just something the Consolists made up support their choice of gaming platform! Dirty capitalists/communists(strike one)!

 

[Idlemessiah]

Wait for enough new games and stuff to justify a new system. I did want to upgrade when Windows 7 came out but my lappy was only a year old at that point. I'll probably end up waiting for Windows 8. By that time there will be plenty of new shiney games to play.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

A (somewhat) hypothetical question.

When you've reached the limits of what you can push in terms of performance, what do you do? Upgrade or live with it? I'm asking because a recent gaming session knocked my graphics card offline for a few minutes due to temperatures XD

Skyrim recently did this. To be fair it was a 3-4 hour straight session, but my 5770 just couldn't keep up. So I tweaked a few settings, downloaded a couple of mods and it hasn't done it since. Whether that first incident was just a blip or not, my card isn't getting nearly as hot now.

I'll try my damn hardest to not spend money, but I'm due a new graphics card anyway.

 

[Ralen-Sharr]

I wait until it really starts to become a burden. I don't upgrade my GFX card for giggles, I do it because I want things to look decent and have a reasonable framerate.

I usually upgrade in 4-5 year cycles

 

[tzimize]

Upgraaaaaaaade.....I love my PC. Customization ftw.

 

[xDarc]

In this day and age, the main concern will be your graphics card. Other nice things to have are quad core and SSD for OS/Games only. I was using a C2D E6600 that I bought back in 06 right up until last September. The only thing I ever did to it was upgrade the graphics card every coupe of years from an x1900->8800GT->GTX 260. Now my gf uses it to play Sims.

The new box cost about 1600 total I believe. Got a Corside Carbide 400R case for 100, dropped 5 bills on the 7970, 200 for a 2500K which is OC'ed to 4.2, 200 for an 128GB SSD, 100 for z68 mobo, 100 for 8gb ram. I also spent 160 on a 650 watt gold cert psu from thermaltake 2 years earlier, only used as tester/backup as I do a lot of work for friends as well. I also spent a couple hundred on a new monitor, and then there were odds and ends like new DVD-R, aftermarket coolers, etc.

I don't plan on upgrading for a while. An OC'ed 2500K should hold it's own for quite some time, and if in a few years the 7970 begins to slow down, I can always dial down the rez a bit to stretch it another 3.

When that time comes, I usually spend hours and hours at anandtech forums reading on new/future developments for all types of components and start over.

 

[loa]

I turn the settings down until the graphics card doesn't catch on fire anymore because no amount of prettily rendered shadows that do absolutely nothing for gameplay anyway justifies frying a costly piece of hardware over it?

 

[EHKOS]

Turn the settings down and or overclock. I got Sniper Elite 2 working on an ATI 4550, I'm rather proud of it.