I must be getting old, because while I used to know everything there was to know about computers, I now seem to now nothing. I used to be a big gamer on the PC years ago and mentioned to my wife how I would like to play the new Call of Duty Ghost. Being the wonderful wife she is I got the game for Christmas. The problem I have now is that my aging desktop (about 6 years old) doesn’t have the horsepower to run the game. So, it seems that a $60 Christmas gift is going to cost me several hundred dollars to purchase a new computer.
I’m not looking to spend thousands on a new box, I just want one strong enough to run the game smoothly. I don’t need a monitor. Looking at the game specs, the problem I am having is I don’t understand the cpu and graphics card requirements. The box obviously lists the requirements and then of course says “or better”. The problem being is that I am so out of date that I don’t have a clue as to what “better” might be. Meaning if I go to purchase a new box and the CPU or graphics card isn’t exactly what is listed on the game I won’t know if is “better” or not. So, could someone please clue me in on what I need to be looking for, remember I don’t want to spend a fortune, just enough to get the job done plus maybe a bit extra.
The game requirements are as follows:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66ghz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4ghz or better
Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeFOrce GTX 550 Ti or ATi Radeon HD 5870 or better
RAM 6 GB (hehhe I remeber my first computer had a grand amount of 4mb of ram and I upgraded to 8mb. That 4mb increase cost $170!)
Operating System: Windows 7 or 8 64bit
Also, does anyone know what version of Windows do I need in order to be able to play legacy games on it. Games that were originally written for XP or Vista. I have a ton of these and would like to still be able to play them. If that feature is available on Windows 8 vs 7 then 8 would be a better buy for me. I have read that Windows 8 isn’t that great, but they said the same thing about Vista and I had no problems with that OS.
I am open to suggestions if anyone has a link to a computer that might fit the bill. I am also aware that I might need to purchase a box and a seperate graphics card to fit the bill. Whatever works out to be less expensive is fine. Thanks in advance for the help.
Not too many issues with xp and vista games with win 7, but you need to give us all your current specs to see what you need to upgrade to play your new game. Since it is asking for a 64bit system you “may” need a newer motherboard but IDK as 64 bit machines were around 6 years ago.
I main problem with old motherboards is going to be the chipset. An upgrade of a CPU often (but not always) requires a new motherboard. New RAM will probably have issues with old MoBo’s too. Regardless, it doesn’t sound like the OP is thinking of buying new parts - a new system in general (sans monitor/mouse/keyboard etc) seems to be required.
Here is a CPU hierarchy chart. The 6th box down lists the CPU in those requirements you’ve listed, so if you find a machine with any of the CPU’s above it, then you should be fine.
And This is a GPU hierarchy chart. The 8th box down lists that graphics card, so again, anything above that should handle it. The higher the better, obviously, depending on how much you want to spend.
I’d definitely get a machine with Windows 7 professional. It has Windows XP mode, which creates a virtual machine, allowing you to install and use XP applications. But the compatibility in general with Windows 7 is pretty good. Sometimes there’s just a bit of tinkering around after a few google searches.
I’m unfamiliar with places where you’d actually go and buy a PC I’m afraid, since I usually build myself. If you’re from the US I hear Newegg is good. I’m sure if you link to machines you’re considering someone would be able to say whether or not it’d be a good buy.
Thanks for the replies, but I’m not looking to upgrade. I think that it would be much less expensive to purchase a new computer vs. trying to upgrade my CPU, video card and OS.
So, I’m looking at what CPU and video card I need to look at to meet the COD requirement. As stated I don’t mind buying a base bones system that I would have to install a graphics card in. The biggest issue I have is I don’t know how the newest CPU and graphics cards are numbered, so I don’t know odd a particular series CPU is better than what the game requirements are.
The best rule of thumb is that if it’s this year’s or last year’s Intel i5 series, it’s more than good enough. (and, the i5 chips are not particularly expensive)
All the i5s are quad cores, the only difference is relatively minor differences in clock speed.
i7s are faster on benchmarks, but never faster in games.
Decide how much you want to spend, then go to newegg.com or slickdeals/Fatwallet, and find a good deal on a card in the price range you are looking for that is highly rated on that Tom’s Hardware article.
For a console port like CoD : Ghost, any graphics card above $100 should run it perfectly. I would not spend more than $300, because the price : performance ratio diminishes sharply above that point.
Do not forget an SSD. If you buy a computer, and it does not have an SSD, buy one. They are mandatory equipment on a computer in 2014. You can set up a system with an SSD a few different ways. The easiest way is as a caching drive, but you get better performance if you have a main SSD with your OS and all your smaller programs, and a conventional HDD for mass storage (and large programs like games)
Okay, I’ve done a bit of looking around and or local Staples had a reasonably priced HP desktop that might fit the bill (we don’t have much around here in the way of computer retailers, Wally World or Best Buy being the only other options, neither appeal to me). The computer has 8GB of memory, but I’m not sure if the processor and graphics card are the right spec.
The CPU is listed as an AMD A6-5200 Accelerated Processor 2.00GHz 2MB Cache, is this equal to or better than the one required?
The machine lists the graphics card as an AMD Radeon™ HD 8400 Graphics. It doesn’t say if this is an integrated card or a stand alone. Is this card sufficient or would I need to purchase a separate card?
I apologize for the basic questions, but I just haven’t kept up on this stuff. I just want to “frag” at the least possible expense. Thanks in advance.
Well, AMD parts aren’t great. They tend to suck power and they are slower. However, for the game you have now, that machine will probably run it fine. You would need to look that card up on the VGA charts.
That machine is most likely all integrated, with the CPU and GPU on the same board. The problem with upgrading it is that the power supply is probably barely adequate for the parts it already has.
Another factor to keep in mind is that PC gaming has been held back for about 4-5 years now by the presence of consoles (since most game sales go to consoles). Now that the consoles have been refreshed with much more powerful systems, next year’s batch of PC games will require substantially more powerful desktop computers (since consoles currently have about $150 GPUs in them, and desktop computers have higher resolution monitors and less efficient operating systems)
I’d recommend you use the website fatwallet or slickdeals, and you find a desktop computer online at a good price in the price range you are looking for.
One consideration may be that if you’re going to spend more than $400-500, it may well be cheaper and easier to get one of the latest consoles (PS4/Xbone) for the same price. Under the hood they’ll likely have better hardware and horsepower for playing CoD:Ghosts.
An A6-5200 is neither processor enough nor graphics card enough (A#-anything is an AMD APU - integrated graphics). Most off the shelf PCs you see have integrated (mostly crap) graphics, or really bad non-integrated cards.
Warning the first about COD: Ghosts on PC. It doesn’t play 100% smoothly regardless of how powerful your computer is. Warning the second is that the number of players in multiplayer is awfully low, and you really only have the choice of Team Deathmatch or Domination playlists.
As far as a computer, the graphics card is the most important part. You can get playable performance at reduced settings on a few of the highest end integrated graphics systems (A10-5800k, A10-6800k). For a CPU though you probably want an i3, i5, or i7 - though vastly different in speed, basically any Intel i-series has enough horsepower.
For the graphics card, you need a chart (here):
It looks to me like any new card found on the list above row 16 or 17 could be made to work (starting on the row with: Integrated: HD 7660D and above), although you need to make sure you are getting a newer card with 1gb of RAM or more. For good performance, I’d say stick with the top 11 rows or so.
That’s quite an old CPU. The chances are that all you need to do is buy a new graphics card and upgrade the memory of your current PC. You may also need to upgrade to Windows 7 x64 but you can use your current license key so that’s cost-free.
This is one reason why I like ATi’s Radeon series: the number says it all. Nvidia is a bit more confusing with their letter prefixes (gtx, etc.).
The counter-intuitive thing about graphics cards is that the second digit can be more important than the first. Very often, vendors will release cards with older chipsets as the low-end models of the next generation. Thus, you could (if the generations overlap) get better performance with a 69xx than a 72xx.
With cpu’s, look at the number of cores and their speed. The # of cores is far more important than the individual speed of each (you could prolly get by with a lower speed, but too few cores will really hurt).
As for the RAM, the only trick there (and this is totally optional) is to get matching sticks. Most modern motherboards have a feature that splits memory operations across each stick when you’ve got matching pairs (kind of like RAID 0, but for ram).
I think this is overstated. I wouldn’t recommend an SSD unless you know exactly why you are buying it and why it will give you better performance. I think most people wouldn’t even notice the difference. I’m not sure if it would improve game performance unless there is a massive amount of I/O.
If you don’t notice switching to an SSD, you’d definitely notice switching back from one. Maybe not mandatory equipment, but I’d go so far as to call it standard. I got my parents one, and they just use email and some internet - if anyone I knew built a PC without one I’d look at them sideways :dubious: and ask 'em why.