Greetings. I've been playing R3E for quite some time now and it is my favorite sim (I've been sim racing since the Papyrus days...) though I've not played around with PC2 as much as I probably should, and I'd like to upgrade my rig to better enjoy R3E. A few years ago I bought a CybertronPC Borg-Q Gaming Desktop - AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, 8GB DDR3 Memory, 1TB HDD and also have a LG 27" 75Hz monitor running at 1920x1080 pixels. So here is my base level question - is there any point in just upgrading to a faster Radeon graphics card (the lack of GeForce support is annoying me my past few cards) or will it just bottleneck my computer? I can run medium+ on most R3E video settings currently. Should I scrap the above and just buy a new machine? I'm also not super hardcore, no fancy seating arrangement, just me playing R3E after the kids go to bed, at my computer desk with my Logitech MOMO wheel and pedals. I just want better eye candy. Thanks in advance, I appreciate it!
Depends on you, scrap it? May be. Are you really bothered about the latest and greatest, dosnt look like it to me. Do you have a good budget to buy a nice new system or maybe buy some 2nd user parts, there are some great bargains to be had if your prepared to do the groundwork. What about the fastest cpu for your mobo, maybe an nvidia 1050\60 gpu, little more ram. An ssd can help breath life into even the oldest of systems, it may not improve gaming performance too much, but on the os side of things it will be so much snappier. Your current gpu is ok, not too bad but i dont understand the lack of geforce support? It still has driver support? I just had a quick scan on ebay £185 will get you and i5 6600k 8gb ram and an asus z170 motherboard, night and day to what you currently use and a great price. Or you buy new but then how far do you want to go, an ok system well under 1K right up to top of the range fastest everything 2-3k+ Lots and lots of options, only thing stopping you is you. Me, if i had the budget, give the old one to the kids or aunty Sue or someone who may want it and get something a little more upto date. edit - i missed the last bit, you just want better eye candy, 2080 it is then Edit 2 - that ebay system and a 1050\60 would give you much, much better eye candy and at a reasonable price.
Is the 960 really that bad? My system is fairly low end. I5 3740, 8gb ddr3, 1050ti 4gb, SSD+HDD and it runs with everything on max apart from reflections on medium. Seems like your system should be performing better than it is ... Edit: not much in it between the two cards... https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-960-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti/3165vs3649 How many visible cars are you running? I find this makes a huge difference to FPS and subsequently the detail levels I can run. I have settled on 26 cars visible and I find it a good compromise....
Thanks for all of the feedback so far - I really appreciate it. I typically run against 19 AI opponents, generally GT3 these days. Thanks for the link to the bottleneck tool, it essentially said that as my rig is now there is a bottleneck and should be upgraded to FX-6300 Six-Core/Intel Core i5 or higher.
GTX 960 is fine card and upgrading it to GTX 1050Ti doesn't make any sense, as they're pretty much the same in terms of performance. I currently use the latter (for about an hour or so, gonna pick up RTX 2060 ) and I run most settings on high and usually get above 60fps in 1080p. Same for almost any other sim (needed to do some minor cuts for rF2) and only Assetto Corsa Competizione is too much for it and only in races with bad weather or night. I you'd also change CPU, I would aim for RX 580 8GB, but you'd need to look at your Power Supply as this is a bit power hungry package (assuming you'd still go for AMD FX CPU to use with same mainboard). Probably would need at minimum 500W with 8-pin connector (960 only needs 6-pin), preferably 550W+
You could pick up an FX8350 fairly cheap, I still run one in my second PC with a GTX970, does fine at 1080p although it would depend on the mobo you have, I wouldn't use an FX8350 on a 970 mobo only a 990 as the VRM's overheat on a 970 board and it only has 4 phase power rather than the 990's 8. If you are going to the expense then of upgrading the CPU and mobo you may as well go newer and get an i5 and some DDR4, I would upgrade the GPU after if you need to.