Witcher 3 Upgrade Assistance

Wintergreen

Hey guys I was hoping I could get some help with upgrading my current machine. I am a huge fan of The Witcher series but have been unable to play the latest instalment as my PC is not up to meeting the minimum specifications.

Here is what I currently have;

- AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+
- MSI 760GA-P43 (FX), Sockel AM3+, ATX, PCIe
- Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W
- BitFenix Merc Alpha
- 4GB G.Skill RipJaws PC3-10667U CL9
- WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's
- Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 OC, 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express

According to Can You Run It (http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri) I lack sufficient RAM, as well as requiring a new CPU and GPU. I was just going to buy more of the same RAM to solve the first problem but was looking for advice regarding the other two components.

My maximum budget would be 400e including the RAM and shipping. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Digital Solitude

You could switch to Intel, get an i3 4160 for €115, a H81 board for €70 and a R9 270x card for €175, with €30 for the 4gb RAM. Would be a big upgrade from the 7770

Second hand 270x is €135 in cex to knock another bit off.

You'd pull back ~100 from selling the 6300 and board second hand

Eoinmc97

DS has a valid point, but even that build will struggle to run Witcher. It's been such a mess with downgrades and poor software optimisations, so even high-end systems struggle with it:

On a core i7, with hairworks removed.
GTX960, R9 285 and R9 380 achieve ~50 FPS on Medium.
GTX970 achieves 55 on High
Equivalent AMD cards achieve 49 FPS.

If you have a console, play it on that. If you don't mind playing at either lower settings or at lower frames, then Witcher will be fine.

TerrorFirmer

I would stick with the Fx6300 and put money into a card entirely. Witcher 3 isn't actually that CPU punishing, far more grunt required from your graphics card. The Fx6300 will be perfectly fine. No idea why i7's are even being mentioned.

€30 for another 4GB ram, €330-ish for a GTX970. The reason I recommend that above the R9 290 is that you would probably want a new PSU for the R9 290, but you don't need one for the GTX970, so it's just less hassle.

You'll be able to run the game at 1080P medium-high settings at an avg of about 50-55 frames per second, which is a lot better than console performance. It's locked to 30fps on the PS4 and XB1 and drops to 20fps sometimes.

Realistically even a €195 280X from CEX with 12 month warranty will offer a big improvement on the console experience.

Digital Solitude

A 270X is more than adequate at Mid-High settings.

An i5 would be a better processor but doesn't fit your budget so stick with i3 unless you want to push

GTX 760 and i3 4160 is solid 35-40, 270x is a little weaker so you'll handle Mid-30fps no issue

TerrorFirmer

A 270X will not run the Witcher 3 at mid-high. It's a very punishing game.

There is no need to switch to Intel for The Witcher 3 either. Unless you plan running a Titan X the GPU will limit you before the Fx6300 does.

You'd be wasting money dividing it between a new CPU/board and GPU when a new GPU will make all the difference.

Digital Solitude

Youtube has misled me. Stick with Terrors advice OP.

TerrorFirmer

People seem to have a natural tendency to totally overstate their machine's performance. Youtube is the worst at times, all sort of crazy and impossible claims being made.

Even as an example someone here was saying they're playing the Witcher 3 at 1440p at high-ultra at 60-80fps on a GTX970.

But if you check all the benchmark charts, the GTX970 at 1440p high manages 35fps average with a minimum of 15fps, while at ultra, it manages 20fps and lows of 10fps!

So how is the guy running at 60-80fps on high ultra at 1440p? The answer is, he's not. Some people have a strange definition of 'Ultra'. They'll be playing at some high, one or two ultra, with several options switched off - but for some reason they still refer to it as ultra or mostly ultra when it's just not the case.

It's possibly even one or two medium, one or two high, one or two ultra, and some options like SSAO, AA, PP switched off entirely. There's no other way you could get getting 60-80fps otherwise.

Obviously, you can play The Witcher 3 at high settings on a 270X if you want to, and it will run similar to the consoles, but the problem is the minimum frames will be bad - and I think people are often too quick to overlook minimum frames instead of average even though it has a far bigger impact of gameplay. Just look at Arkham Knight as an example of the story average vs. minimum framerates tells!

TheDoc

I had an MSI 270x for sometime. I managed to upgrade at a good price to a Sapphire Trix R9 290. I tried Witcher 3 on my 270x and it really wasn't worth while, might as well have bought it for my Ps4.

Came back to it for a quick run through using the R9 290 and it was a massive improvement, absolutely gorgous. I don't play games at Ultra, I typically hang around high settings to try get a high stable framerate, but at what I was playing it at was happy enough.

I picked up my card for €220 from adverts and it still has a decent warranty on it. The GTX970 the lads are talking about above will cost you a little more, but might offset costs in terms of not using as much power or generating as much heat.

Wintergreen

Op here sorry for the delayed response been really busy with work, really appreciate all the advice!

Was just looking on Hardwareversand and can see the GTX970 and additional RAM for around 400e including delivery which is what I was looking to spend.

Is the consensus that they'll do me for the moment and in the future I can come back and upgrade the Motherboard and CPU?

Gumbi

Wintergreen wrote: »

Op here sorry for the delayed response been really busy with work, really appreciate all the advice!

Was just looking on Hardwareversand and can see the GTX970 and additional RAM for around 400e including delivery which is what I was looking to spend.

Is the consensus that they'll do me for the moment and in the future I can come back and upgrade the Motherboard and CPU?

Absolutely, a 970 is an awesome 1080p card. When you can replace cpu/mobo to an i5 system you'll be sorted for a good while.

Gumbi

Wintergreen wrote: »

Op here sorry for the delayed response been really busy with work, really appreciate all the advice!

Was just looking on Hardwareversand and can see the GTX970 and additional RAM for around 400e including delivery which is what I was looking to spend.

Is the consensus that they'll do me for the moment and in the future I can come back and upgrade the Motherboard and CPU?

Absolutely, a 970 is an awesome 1080p card. When you can replace cpu/mobo to an i5 system you'll be sorted for a good while.

Wintergreen

I notice on Hardwareversand there seems to be multiple GTX970's at various different prices, which one should I be picking up?

Digital Solitude

MSI fairly good brand, not too expensive

vlad2009

Gigabyte g1 gaming. runs cool, and is a great overclocker for even more frames, the G1 can be overclocked to have the power of a 980 reference card.

imitation

I know your probably fully committed to the 970 at this stage, it is worth keeping an eye for a r9 290, I got the gigabyte version for €250 recently and I am very pleased with its 1440p performance with the Witcher 3.

Gumbi

Can't go wrong with a 970 at 1080p or a 290 at 1440p.

Wintergreen

I notice if you search for GTX970 you can find multiple MSI and Gigabyte versions at various prices. Is the card with the highest core Mhz essentially the best? Sorry if that is a stupid question but I have'nt a clue about this stuff!

http://www.hardwareversand.de/articlesearch.jsp

Gumbi

Wintergreen wrote: »

I notice if you search for GTX970 you can find multiple MSI and Gigabyte versions at various prices. Is the card with the highest core Mhz essentially the best? Sorry if that is a stupid question but I have'nt a clue about this stuff!

http://www.hardwareversand.de/articlesearch.jsp

They'll all boost to roughly the same amount. My suggestion is to go with the MSI one or Gigabyte one, they're both fairly cheap and do the job well

Also, use the website to get a better price on Hardwareversand (pick the Hardwareversand link.

MSI card:
http://geizhals.de/msi-gtx-970-gaming-4g-v316-001r-a1167950.html
Giga card:
http://geizhals.de/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-970-gaming-g1-gv-n970g1-gaming-4gd-a1167952.html

The MSI seems a nice bit cheaper, so I'd go with that. Can't go wrong with either of them really.

SterlingArcher

The gigabyte g1 should fit but perhaps a tight squeeze in that case. The msi one is smaller.

Just something to consider.

Wintergreen

Sorry to revive this old thread but I finally have the money to go ahead with this purchase when I noticed something and hope you can offer advice.

One of the attractive features of the GTX 970 was that it would not require me upgrading my PSU which is currently 450W however I've noticed that while the operational power consumption for this card is 148W, the data sheet still states a 500W PSU is required. My question is would I get away with what I currently have?

Also I'm looking at monitors but haven't much of a budget. I was thinking about getting the unit shown below and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts, it's received decent reviews.

https://www.hardwareversand.de/en/60+cm+%2824%29+/162039/Samsung+Monitor+S24D300H.article

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Digital Solitude

450w is plenty for a 970 with a 6300 once they aren't overclocked a whole pile

Wintergreen

Thanks for the response, I'll order this week. Dying to finally play this game, thanks!