Posted this in another forum but was advised to post here. Trying to get as much help as I can with this issue.
I’ve started to think of upgrading my computer in preparation for Shadowlands. I’m a pretty big newbie when it comes to this sort of thing, but it’s something I’m considering now that I’ve come into a little bit of money (the stimulus check).
My current video card is a “NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645”. This is what I’m looking at purchasing. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M25X363/ref=dp_cerb_1
For the most part I’m just wondering if this would be worth purchasing, or whether or not it would even be placable in my computer. I know absolutely nothing about this sort of process, what video cards are or how they work, etc. Would the price tag for something like that yield a worthwhile performance increase and kill my worries regarding the demands of Shadowlands?
Without even knowing your other specs I’m going to suggest getting a new PC. That card is 7 years old. Replacing it with a GTX 1050 Ti may not improve anything if your CPU is bottlenecking it. Just curious, but what are your other specs? And if you need to replace your PC, what is your budget?
Sorry I lost track of your other thread. You’ll probably also get some good advice here though so it was good to move. Here’s a link to it that has his dxdiag. Is this computer upgradeable for Shadowlands?
The 1050 ti isn’t a world beater by any means. It’s about 20% better than the gtx 760 which is the minimum requirement for shadowlands. It’s a pretty decent step up from your 645. I think it will get you through the expansion on low to medium settings at 1080p. Your psu can handle a 1660/ti/super, possibly need a 6 to 8 pin converter, but it would bump your cost up to about $250-$300+.
I’m not going to agree or disagree with this because I honestly don’t know. I would imagine its near the end of its life though. With the graphics card needing an upgrade, more RAM being recommended, and an SSD being a huge improvement I’d still go with a new PC. If your budget is very limited then the GTX 1050 Ti would be a bandaid fix that may play Shadowlands at an acceptable framerate.
If you have more of a budget, I would look for something with a Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of RAM, minimum of 500GB SSD, and a GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060.
If you want to attempt building a PC or know someone who can help, I’d be more specific and get a Ryzen 5 3600X, 16GB of fast DDR4 RAM, and I’m partial to EVGA graphics cards.
4/8 haswell+ chips are still “okay” for gaming, but they are getting close to the end. I’d say they are close to a Ryzen 5 1500x, which is still quite capable for a mostly 60fps experience.
An RX 580 or 1660 Super makes the most pairing sense with that CPU at present.
Hi OP, I can give you some ‘real world’ feedback as I had similar equipment.
I was running a 4440 with a GTX 645 for several years. I replaced the 645 with a 1050ti (Asus ROG Strix OC). While it was a great upgrade for me at the time (WoW is the only game I play), it isn’t a card I would recommend you buying right now. My son is a gamer, and I bought him a 1060 as he needed a bit more horsepower.
I upgraded us both to Ryzen 5 3600’s with RTX 2070’s and there is an incredible performance difference.
While I understand that you have budgetary constraints, I wouldn’t want to see you spend the money on the 1050ti or the 1650 that you just linked. Neither of these cards is a great price to performance purchase.
Sal’s and Mordrid’s recommendations are good ones:
How much can you afford to spend on a card now, and if you wait a few months and save a bit more? (My understanding is that you want it before Shadowlands changes the system requirements.)
That’s correct. Trying to get this matter settled before Shadowlands so I can actually relax and enjoy the expansion. xD Based on what I saw of Ardenweald it’s going to look like that kind of zone that will lag me to hell, if I don’t upgrade.
I’m not looking to spend more than 200-300 on a single video card though.
My first toon (when my son made me play wow with him) was named Polgara. It was also the first fantasy series he ever read.
I also reread both series every few years. BTW, I’ve been lurking for years, rarely post, but have appreciated your levelheadedness - I come here looking for info or to chuckle at the flame wars…
You can do really well in this price range. The 1660, 1660ti, 1660 Super, 5600xt and 2060 are all solid cards. (Personal preference would be a 2060 if you can find one in your price range - I got one of these for my brother with a 9600k)
If you have a Microcenter near you, you can see what they have in stock in your price range: https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntk=all&sortby=pricelow&N=4294966937+40+4294811334+4294810031+4294811407+4294811561+4294810754+4294809597&myStore=false
Don’t rush to buy anything ‘right this second’ - there are some people on here that know this equipment really well - and Yindar seems to have some knowledge about your particular PC/PSU… Let’s see what they have to add.
No worries, I’m willing to wait as long as I need to to feel confident in my purchase. Though I’ll be completely honest, I’ll probably be a little bit stressed either way until the card is actually up and running in my computer, with confirmation that I didn’t screw it up somehow and make the computer stop running xD. Because I really know nothing about this sort of thing and while I want to upgrade, I don’t really have anyone around me to help. So I’m just trying to play this out the best I can.
Just to be clear, OP (self described noob) do not put cake in the computer. Do not try to plug into cake, do not do anything with the cake besides eat it.
Now that we’ve avoided that catastrophe:
This is good advice. DDU is Display Driver Uninstaller and you can get it here when you are ready: https://www.wagnardsoft.com/
This is bringing back some bad memories. Around the time before Legion I asked for similar advice on trying to get my computer optimized, and without much help I followed some directions only to find my computer completely screwed and myself locked out of my own computer. Had something to do with booting into “safe mode”. It took about a day for that to finally get reversed and basically back to where I started, at which point I just put up with the lag in-game because I was terrified of going through that again.
I can’t stress enough how nervous and confidence-lacking I get when it comes to computer issues.
Someone did link this earlier to me.
My first toon (when my son made me play wow with him) was named Polgara. It was also the first fantasy series he ever read.