OK, Mass Effect Andromeda comes out soon and the Mass Effect series may be my favorite game series ever.
Unfortunately, my computer doesn’t seem to meet the minimum specs. I have a Core i7-920, NVIDIA GTX 970, 12 GB RAM, Windows 10. It’s all OK except for the CPU. My first question is, will it still play, if only on reduced settings? Or, is that CPU finally at its end of life? I’ve had no problems playing GTA 5 or Doom 2016, for what it’s worth.
Second, if it really won’t play, what’s a good processor that would go along with the GPU? And, what would I need to replace? Motherboard, RAM, and processor? That’s it, right? I have a mid-tower box, plenty of oomph in the power supply, SSD. I should be able to keep the SSD, case, and power supply, I think – this is the first computer I’ve built.
I think the RAM has to be replaced because those early i7’s had tri-channel RAM, which was pretty unique.
ME:A will run on the Frostbite 3 engine, the same engine that Battlefield 1 uses. I don’t have any problem running BF1 on my i7-860 @ 3.6GHz (overclocked) so I’d be a little surprised if your processor kept you from playing ME:A.
But maybe someone else here knows something I don’t.
Edit: I notice that your processor’s base speed is actually a little slower than mine was. Is it overclocked or or stock?
The processor is stock. I think I tried doing some overclocking at some point, but without much luck. I don’t have any special cooling system or anything like that.
In theory you can run triple channel RAM in dual channel mode. That said it seems to be hit and miss (I have seen people say it runs in single channel mode too).
If you are building a new system I would order new RAM, try both and benchmark them (assuming both work) and, if the new RAM gives you little benefit return it. Just make sure you buy from some place that will allow returns (and not charge a restocking fee). If they fuss about opened packages then leave it in the package and see if the old RAM works and if it does return the new RAM.
If you change your CPU you will have to change your mobo too. You currently have an i7 chip but not sure that you need one. They are useful if you do things like video editing. Otherwise an i5 will suit most people fine and save them money.
An Intel Core i5 6600K 3.50 GHz is probably your best bet for price and performance and the “K” designation means it is overclockable if you want. Some of the nicer mobos will figure out a stable overclock with a push of a button. Cheaper ones you will have to figure it out for yourself. Really cheap mobos won’t even let you try.
In short you are in for most of the cost of a new system: CPU, RAM (maybe but probably), motherboard, heatsink (get a good one…they need not be expensive to be good).
It would be very surprising if your CPU stopped you from playing the game. It seems that developers sometimes write their system requirements in very approximate ways when it comes to the CPU. Anything with 4 cores and 2.5-3GHZ+ should play just about any game. At most you’ll get occasional slowdowns. Lowering the graphical settings will change little if your CPU is the problem.
Will you get it on Steam? If so, you should be able to test it out and get a refund if your CPU can’t handle it.
The RAM is probably the cheapest part of the new setup, so I would probably get new RAM. I wouldn’t have to buy the case, the power supply, keyboard, mouse, graphics card, or hard drives, so that would save me a few hundred dollars.
I doubt it will be available on Steam, it’s probably an Origin game, right? Actually, I don’t know how I’m getting it – I’m hoping to get it as a present from my kids – big birthday coming up. An AARP card showed up at my house, but it was addressed to someone with a name similar to mine, but not my name, so I’m probably still a youngster.
You have plenty of RAM. I’ve had 8GB of RAM since early 2011 and it’s still amply sufficient for every game out there.
Barring some corner cases, the best places to put money are: SSD/hybrid drive, GPU and display. I don’t know what you have for drive and you have a pretty good GPU (consider overclocking it, I thought it was scary at first but it’s ok). What do you have for display? If money is really burning in your pocket, 21:9 curved displays seem really nice.
I have a 500GB SSD and the GTX 970 GPU mentioned above, so I’m happy with those. As SSD prices come down, I’m getting pretty tempted to move to a 1 TB SSD – as it is, only the most recent games go on the SSD and older stuff gets moved to one of the other HDs I have.
For my display, I have two 23 inch ASUS displays (or, maybe 21 inch?). The two displays are marginally useful for a few games, but I also use the computer when I “work” from home, and having two displays is really helpful for that.
I’ve been impressed with how the i7-920 has held up for so long – I think I built this computer 8 years ago or something close to that. That CPU was really a price/performance sweet spot.
Regarding getting an i5 instead of an i7, I like to hang onto my computers for a long time if possible, so getting an i7 may not do much for me today, but it lets me keep the computer going for another few years, it’s worth it to me.
From this thread, I’m hopeful that my existing setup will be able to handle ME:Andromeda. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed!
I have a borderline PC as well. In my case I have an older Graphics card with one gig of RAM and the game says it wants a card with 2 gigs but I have 12 gigs of “regular” RAM so I assume I will be okay. I am reading this thread with interest especially since I preordered.
Sorry, RAM and VRAM are not interchangeable. If the minimum system requirement is for 2GB of VRAM (video RAM on the GPU) and you have less than that, your game will either not work or will chug badly.
The engine supports DX 12 (I believe), so your old CPU should be fine, especially if targeting 30 FPS. Those old i7’s were 8 logical threads too, right?
I’d put GPU above SSD – you’ll never not be able to play a game because of your drive but you’ll be shut out by an obsolete GPU. And some games don’t really benefit from an SSD at all. GTAV has an obnoxious intro loading time but an SSD won’t help once it’s going or Rainbow Six Siege will let you load the maps faster but you still have to wait until all ten players are ready so it only helps keep you from being “that guy”. It’s a very nice thing to have but I’d consider it a Quality of Life improvement that can take a back seat to most other upgrades.
That said, I find that GPU requirements on games are usually overstated, with even the minimum being closer to the minimum at the quality they thing the game should have. Usually you can go lower, at lower resolutions, and possibly lower framerate.
Still, even if this is the case here, you’d get a much better experience if you looked into upgrading your GPU.
If ME:A is your main reason for upgrading right now, I’d hold off and see how it works. I think it’ll probably be fine. Not maxxed, of course, but you wouldn’t max it with a 970 no matter what CPU you have.
I’m actually surprised at how long it’s been since I’ve really needed to make an upgrade that required repurchasing motherboard and ram and processor, much less having to deal with a new type of graphics card slot. I too am short on the processor minimum for Andromeda, but if my computer chokes on the game I can still use the same motherboard for a more powerful processor. Used to be whenever one thing needed updated, it meant buying into a new set of standards.