New PC time, but which one?

fluttereyes

I am going cross eyed here looking for a new PC. I only play Sims 3 on it as well as general computing requirements, like Office 2010. I'm a cheapskate so looking to do this as cheaply as I can while getting a PC that will give me a better experience with my game. I'm looking at GPU's and the Turing technology, etc and I'm getting lost under it all. My preference is NVidia, can anyone recommend the very best specs I'm looking for to play Sims 3, that will likely still be OK when 5 comes along, if it ever does? I'm in the UK if that helps. I play all EP's, chock full of CC and I use Nraas mods. My old Windows 7 PC is on it's last legs.

igazor

Sorry for the somewhat recycled response, but this is a pretty commonly asked question here. This is for desktops, we used to recommend at least an i7 and a slightly stronger graphics card for laptops but those higher reaching suggestions are not as crucial as they once were.

igazor wrote: »

Processor: For a desktop, an i5 quad core or higher, or the AMD equivalent, 2.4 GHz, the newer H-series processors that run at just under that are fine as they can turbo slightly to make up the difference and are designed to take the stress but a higher base speed will always be preferable. Avoid the U- and Y-series processors at all costs as they are meant for ultra-low power consumption, not continuous high speed processing.

RAM: At least 8 GB, if you want to be able to run other applications alongside of or while the game is paused then 12 or 16 GB. The game itself can only use just under 4 GB but Windows and other processes are going to claim a large amount for themselves.

Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1050/1050Ti or higher within that series, the newer 1600 series, or the AMD equivalents. The also pretty new GT 1030s and MX 130s and 150s should be avoided, they are not strong enough within the range.

Hard Drive: At least 512 GB to work with comfortably, of course the game doesn't need all of that space but one assumes other uses for the computer. Solid Stated Drives (SSDs) are great, but ones large enough to carry Windows, the game, and other things (so over 256 GB) will drive the price up considerably. Very small SSDs (128 GB or less) are meant to carry Windows and system processes only, and will typically come with a second standard HDD that provides more space to work with -- in this case the games would need to be installed on the second drive and the Documents library shifted over at the Windows level.

A few other things worth noting:

-- No budget has been stated, only an alleged cheapskate (let's call it Frugal) trait. It might help us a bit if we got a sense of how high you were planning to go, realistically.

-- As I understand it, others can correct me if needed, Nvidia cards with Turing technology would be ones in the RTX 2000 series. These would be way overkill for what a game like TS3 could ever possibly use. The game was designed in 2008-09 and can really only utilize 800 MB of video memory.

-- MS Office 2010 goes out of support in January 2020, which is not far away. That doesn't mean it stops working the next day, but elements of an office suite that rely on web services like Outlook or integration with Office 365 for example can tend to fall apart after this happens and Microsoft is not going to fix things any further to keep them going. I would recommend considering an upgrade to a current version, possibly at the same time you are acquiring a new computer, so as to get any painful parts of upgrading over with all at once. Sort of like with Win 7, Office 2010 has always been rock solid for me and my users, so I'm going to be a bit sorry to see it go myself.

-- We can't really make anything except wild guesses about what the requirements for TS5 might be. As far as I know, there is no information available to work with whatsoever.

fluttereyes

Thanks for your advice, I was actually looking at specs much higher, especially with the graphics card but I thought maybe it was overkill so asked what others think. My concern was that a higher end graphics card might be too much for S3, wasn't sure if Turing technology was compatible. It's ridiculous that I've let myself get so out of touch The machines I'm looking at are between £1,500 and £2000 but I'd much rather stay under £1000 if I can. This is what was coming up in my search but I do think I may be aiming too high. I know I need to update my office, would likely buy the latest one with the next PC. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gaming-pcs/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/317_3055_30057_xx_ba00010707-bv00308579-ba00012897-bv00311121|bv00311122-ba00002935-bv00308017|bv00308018-ba00010201-bv00307979-ba00013316-bv00313049/xx-criteria.html

fluttereyes

I did quite like this one because I have an HP now and it's served me well, just a pain deleting all the bundled stuff at the start.

If Turing is overkill, does that mean it won't play it or just won't access it. I want to be prepared for the next game.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/hp-omen-875-0051na-intel-core-i7-rtx-2060-gaming-pc-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10193600-pdt.html

fluttereyes

This was the other one, don't know this make but the cooler master tower is something I do like, I just hate that it lights up but it's in a desk cupboard anyway. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/pc-specialist-vortex-sr-intel-core-i7-rtx-2060-gaming-pc-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10193632-pdt.html

puzzlezaddict

Given how you've described your goals here—get the cheapest good option, play on ultra settings now, futureproof for a Sims 5 that may or may not ever exist—your best bet might be to get a custom build. You could get an Nvidia 1650, a graphics card that's relatively cheap but more than good enough for Sims 3, but select other components that would support a better card if and when you want to upgrade. GPUs are improving so rapidly these days, it's almost impossible to futureproof for games that haven't even been announced. It might be that in a few years, you could get a new card for £300 that's better than almost anything currently on the market besides the 2080 ti.

As far as Turing technology goes, there's no way Sims 3 can benefit, as igazor mentioned. Raytracing is amazing, but there are only a handful of games currently released that can even use it. So unless you're planning to play Control, or the new Wolfenstein, or some other new game that can take advantage of an RTX card, you might want to wait until you have another reason to want a stronger GPU.

On that note, you can absolutely stay under £1000 and get an excellent computer. As an example, this particular configuration, on

• CyberpowerPC's UK site, costs £980, and has:
• an AMD Ryzen 3600 processor
• Corsair liquid cooling for the CPU
• an Nvidia 1660 graphics card (swapping it out for a 1650 would save you £70 including VAT)
• 16 GB RAM 3200 MHz (AMD processors love fast RAM)
• a 512 GB Adata NVMe SSD (faster than a SATA SSD) plus a 1 TB HDD
• an MSI X470 motherboard, with room for multiple upgrades
• a Corsair 650W 80+ Bronze PSU

These are just the parts I picked out while poking around on the site for a bit, and trying to keep the price down without compromising on quality. It's very easy to swap out any particular part, other than the fact that some of the cheaper boards don't support certain hardware.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/saved/1789745

There are other sites that do custom builds as well; I'm just more familiar with this one, and it gives more flexibility than some others.

If you'd rather have a prebuilt system, you can certainly still get decent hardware. The difference though is that it might be more difficult to upgrade later, or at the very least you might need to buy a new power supply. It just depends on the company that makes the PC and what components they choose to use. I will say though that you can do better than Currys. Those prices look a bit more expensive than is necessary. If you have particular components in mind, e.g. a 2060 or particular processor, I can try to find something a bit cheaper.

fluttereyes

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

Given how you've described your goals here—get the cheapest good option, play on ultra settings now, futureproof for a Sims 5 that may or may not ever exist—your best bet might be to get a custom build. You could get an Nvidia 1650, a graphics card that's relatively cheap but more than good enough for Sims 3, but select other components that would support a better card if and when you want to upgrade. GPUs are improving so rapidly these days, it's almost impossible to futureproof for games that haven't even been announced. It might be that in a few years, you could get a new card for £300 that's better than almost anything currently on the market besides the 2080 ti.

As far as Turing technology goes, there's no way Sims 3 can benefit, as igazor mentioned. Raytracing is amazing, but there are only a handful of games currently released that can even use it. So unless you're planning to play Control, or the new Wolfenstein, or some other new game that can take advantage of an RTX card, you might want to wait until you have another reason to want a stronger GPU.

On that note, you can absolutely stay under £1000 and get an excellent computer. As an example, this particular configuration, on

• CyberpowerPC's UK site, costs £980, and has:
• an AMD Ryzen 3600 processor
• Corsair liquid cooling for the CPU
• an Nvidia 1660 graphics card (swapping it out for a 1650 would save you £70 including VAT)
• 16 GB RAM 3200 MHz (AMD processors love fast RAM)
• a 512 GB Adata NVMe SSD (faster than a SATA SSD) plus a 1 TB HDD
• an MSI X470 motherboard, with room for multiple upgrades
• a Corsair 650W 80+ Bronze PSU

These are just the parts I picked out while poking around on the site for a bit, and trying to keep the price down without compromising on quality. It's very easy to swap out any particular part, other than the fact that some of the cheaper boards don't support certain hardware.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/saved/1789745

There are other sites that do custom builds as well; I'm just more familiar with this one, and it gives more flexibility than some others.

If you'd rather have a prebuilt system, you can certainly still get decent hardware. The difference though is that it might be more difficult to upgrade later, or at the very least you might need to buy a new power supply. It just depends on the company that makes the PC and what components they choose to use. I will say though that you can do better than Currys. Those prices look a bit more expensive than is necessary. If you have particular components in mind, e.g. a 2060 or particular processor, I can try to find something a bit cheaper.

If I'm going to get one built I'd just go to the PC place here that built one for me before. I remember that the HP I've got couldn't really be upgraded due to it being an HP so thanks for reminding me of that. I'll just get one built to my own specs maybe. I was only looking in Currys to get an idea of what I could get, plenty of selections tools, then when I settled on what I wanted I'd have done the rounds, like Amazon for it. I'm not a patient person and I was looking for instant replacement, lol, I should hold back and wait for a decent build then I can choose my own tower, etc

lilovski

I've also been looking to buy a new pc to play TS4 but I understand nothing of this subject. Anyone willing to help me?

puzzlezaddict

@lilovski I'd be happy to help you pick something out. (I also saw your post on my wall, but only just now, and it's easier to have these conversations in a thread.) Sims 4 tech discussions typically belong at AHQ, since the TS4 help section on these forums was closed over a year ago, but this particular question is probably fine here. If you'd like to post over there instead though, this is the section you'd want:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/bd-p/The-Sims-4

(I'd be the one responding over there anyway, so it doesn't really matter where you post; either place works for me.)

In any event, I'd be happy to look for a few good options for you, if you'd like. Just list your budget, country, and any other details that matter to you (i.e. desktop or laptop, do you need extra storage), and any other games you'd like to be able to play or apps you'd like to run. Or, if you prefer, I can list the specs you'd need, and you can look yourself.

SuzyCue72

lilovski wrote: »

I've also been looking to buy a new pc to play TS4 but I understand nothing of this subject. Anyone willing to help me?

@lilovski - If you're going to play TS4 a desktop computer with good cooling is the better choice since it's known for heating up the CPU very much.

@puzzlezaddict - Are you playing TS4 too? If so, have you checked the temperature inside the computer while playing? I did that the last time I played it on one of my ASUS ROG gaming laptops, and it reached 94 degrees Celsius, which is only 6 degrees below boiling point. Needless to say I haven't dared play it again since then...

puzzlezaddict

@SusieCue I don't exactly play TS4, but I have installs in both macOS and Windows for the sake of testing. (Not the point, but it's quite useful to be able to test on the exact same laptop in both OSs, since it removes any question of hardware issues.) I haven't really done any rigorous monitoring on my MacBook Pro's Windows install, and I haven't even tested on that side of the partition since... I want to say a month ago... but temperatures have certainly never been anywhere near 94º C, nor did I see evidence of thermal throttling at any point. I can grab some numbers later, if you're curious.

With your reported temperatures, I'd say that either there was something wrong with the laptop's cooling system, or maybe, depending on your OS build, the issue is the fullscreen optimization settings or some other feature of Windows that doesn't work as well as it should. TS4 is certainly more demanding on a CPU than TS3, but if it were consistently driving temps into the 90s, we'd see a lot more reports of game and system crashes. There are some, to be sure, but not enough to suggest the game itself can't be run on a proper gaming laptop.

The other possibility, if you happen to have an AMD processor, is that the monitoring app isn't reporting the CPU temp correctly. Most of the tools in common use were designed with Intel hardware in mind, and I've seen AMD CPUs reported to be running as high as 125º C, which is definitely inaccurate.

At any rate, if you want to look into this further, feel free to ask. We're not really supposed to troubleshoot TS4 here, but you can always post at AHQ. (As a minor bonus, you can upload files directly instead of having to send them to a third party site.) On the other hand, it sounds like you'd prefer to play on a desktop anyway, so it might not be worth the trouble for you.

SuzyCue72

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

@SusieCue I don't exactly play TS4, but I have installs in both macOS and Windows for the sake of testing. (Not the point, but it's quite useful to be able to test on the exact same laptop in both OSs, since it removes any question of hardware issues.) I haven't really done any rigorous monitoring on my MacBook Pro's Windows install, and I haven't even tested on that side of the partition since... I want to say a month ago... but temperatures have certainly never been anywhere near 94º C, nor did I see evidence of thermal throttling at any point. I can grab some numbers later, if you're curious.

With your reported temperatures, I'd say that either there was something wrong with the laptop's cooling system, or maybe, depending on your OS build, the issue is the fullscreen optimization settings or some other feature of Windows that doesn't work as well as it should. TS4 is certainly more demanding on a CPU than TS3, but if it were consistently driving temps into the 90s, we'd see a lot more reports of game and system crashes. There are some, to be sure, but not enough to suggest the game itself can't be run on a proper gaming laptop.

The other possibility, if you happen to have an AMD processor, is that the monitoring app isn't reporting the CPU temp correctly. Most of the tools in common use were designed with Intel hardware in mind, and I've seen AMD CPUs reported to be running as high as 125º C, which is definitely inaccurate.

At any rate, if you want to look into this further, feel free to ask. We're not really supposed to troubleshoot TS4 here, but you can always post at AHQ. (As a minor bonus, you can upload files directly instead of having to send them to a third party site.) On the other hand, it sounds like you'd prefer to play on a desktop anyway, so it might not be worth the trouble for you.

No, it's an i7-4700HQ.


That could definitely be a possible explanation. I was using HWMonitor at that time, and it has proved not to be entirely reliable. I have it on my desktop computer too, and it reports right now that the mainboard is 118 degrees hot, but according to Speccy it's only 28... on the other hand, Speccy thinks that my little Lenovo low end laptop is 103 degrees inside, while AMD:s own software, AMD Overdrive says it's 35... it really is difficult to know which program, if any, you can trust.

But this question, whether TS4 overheats the CPU or not, is mostly theoretical in my case, since I'm not that interested in playing it anyway, it's just too boring and limited compared to TS3.


Yes, I would if I could, but none of them are connected to the Internet, and never have been. I use the laptops for that, it's more convenient since I can put them near the router, and plug them in via ethernet cable instead of the slower and less reliable wifi connection.

fluttereyes

So I just spent £1,107 on a new PC with everything I want in it. Now I wait for it to be built so I can pick it up, but I'm reading that I might not be able to install my Sims 3 collection on windows 10. I'm so angry. From what I'm seeing I need to do it through origin, which I most definitely don't want on my PC and is why I just can't get on with sims 4. My concern with Origin is that I have bought every one of my EP's, etc from Game UK and despite registering each game on purchase some didn't stay registered and when I enquire about it I'm told someone has already used my install code (yeah me), I was also told once that my code was invalid, so basically, even if I wanted to download them through Origin to install, I can't. So have I just wasted over £1000 to get better game play for a game that won't install on a windows 10 PC?

igazor

@fluttereyes - Well, that's an annoying setback to be sure although you do have options here. Game UK is an authorized reseller of EA games. How did they provide the game to you in the past if it was not by way of Origin codes? Did they used to offer their own downloadable installers -- some resellers did in the past, no one sells the game in that format any longer, but the older installers should still work. Or is it the case that the older installers are indeed still available to you but they are not compatible with Win 10?

On the Origin option, if the games are registered to your account then that should definitely work. I understand not really wanting an Origin/Patch 1.69 install but it's not usually fatal and this is the way EA now provides digital versions. Origin does not require install codes, just the one-time registrations to your Origin account. Authorized resellers have to provide a way to register purchased games this way or else they wouldn't be authorized any longer.

But if you must avoid Origin entirely, there is another way. You might consider repurchasing the game through Steam, which delivers it on Patch 1.67 with no Origin involvement. During their several times per year 75% or more discount sales, one can buy the base game and all EP/SPs (except Katy Perry which no one carries anymore) for under $100 (USD), prices will be slightly different in other countries. I put up with the nuisances of Origin and Patch 1.69 for a year myself before doing the Steam repurchase; I would rather not have had to do that, but the discounted prices were too good to pass up and I remain very happy with my Steam install as do many others. Under this setup, after the initial install one can still do a Launcher bypass to TS3w.exe and not have to startup the game through a third party system. Steam always runs this sale in June and December, but there are unscheduled specials at other times throughout the year.

fluttereyes

igazor wrote: »

@fluttereyes - Well, that's an annoying setback to be sure although you do have options here. Game UK is an authorized reseller of EA games. How did they provide the game to you in the past if it was not by way of Origin codes? Did they used to offer their own downloadable installers -- some resellers did in the past, no one sells the game in that format any longer, but the older installers should still work. Or is it the case that the older installers are indeed still available to you but they are not compatible with Win 10?

On the Origin option, if the games are registered to your account then that should definitely work. I understand not really wanting an Origin/Patch 1.69 install but it's not usually fatal and this is the way EA now provides digital versions. Origin does not require install codes, just the one-time registrations to your Origin account. Authorized resellers have to provide a way to register purchased games this way or else they wouldn't be authorized any longer.

But if you must avoid Origin entirely, there is another way. You might consider repurchasing the game through Steam, which delivers it on Patch 1.67 with no Origin involvement. During their several times per year 75% or more discount sales, one can buy the base game and all EP/SPs (except Katy Perry which no one carries anymore) for under $100 (USD), prices will be slightly different in other countries. I put up with the nuisances of Origin and Patch 1.69 for a year myself before doing the Steam repurchase; I would rather not have had to do that, but the discounted prices were too good to pass up and I remain very happy with my Steam install as do many others. Under this setup, after the initial install one can still do a Launcher bypass to TS3w.exe and not have to startup the game through a third party system. Steam always runs this sale in June and December, but there are unscheduled specials at other times throughout the year.

I bought the discs in Game UK shop, sealed and direct from EA to them, I preordered most of them. I used the codes in the box.

The issue is that some of my EP's are not registered, despite me actually registering. If you look at my owned games you can see they are not all there and I have all of them and registered all of them.

I definitely don't want to play my games through Origin, I paid for the discs so I didn't have to. I don't see why I should have to repurchase either. I want to use my discs that I own. I prefer to play on 1.67.

So are you also thinking I might not be able to install this from my purchased discs?

I should be getting the call to pick up the PC shortly and I really only got it in an attempt to improve my gameplay and graphics.

I just checked Steam and the prices are too high for a game I've already purchased. I feel that I am going to be very angry in a couple of hours.

I just checked and on first glace it looks like my games are showing up on the sims 3 site but I don't have origin installed to see if they are showing up there yet, this is going to be a long day.

fluttereyes

I just read that I can install from my discs using this method disc.Download Origin, I searched that and can't see whether I'm able to uninstall origin once done and play from disc, does anyone know?

igazor

Okay, wait a minute. I did not realize we were talking about sealed discs as the original purchase. Was the base game disc manufactured before Sept. 2012? It's only the ones that were released later that have an Origin requirement, they will have orange Origin logos on the box. The age and labeling of the other discs do not matter, it's only the base game. If the base game disc is from after Sept 2012, then it cannot be used to do a non-Origin install.

You can do an all-disc install, run EA's SuperPatcher, and stay on Patch 1.67 if you have an older base game disc. You do not need the Origin client program at all for this, anything Origin or EA/TS3 store related can be managed from the Origin.com website instead. The website will not try to take over and "upgrade" your game to 1.69 like the Origin client program wants to. When the disc installers offer the older EA Download Manager (EADM), do not accept because this was Origin's predecessor and it will keep trying to update itself to Origin.

As for the registrations, EA customer service should be able to help you with that if needed because again, you purchased from an authorized reseller. But if they are showing up under your account on the older TS3 site, the one that hosts the store, then you should be fine there. It doesn't matter what Origin thinks, especially if you will not be using it.

At no point was I suggesting paying Steam full price for a repurchase. The 75-80% off sales when they take place would make that purchase much less painful should it be required.

fluttereyes

igazor wrote: »

Okay, wait a minute. I did not realize we were talking about sealed discs as the original purchase. Was the base game disc manufactured before Sept. 2012? It's only the ones that were released later that have an Origin requirement, they will have orange Origin logos on the box. The age and labeling of the other discs do not matter, it's only the base game. If the base game disc is from after Sept 2012, then it cannot be used to do a non-Origin install.

You can do an all-disc install, run EA's SuperPatcher, and stay on Patch 1.67 if you have an older base game disc. You do not need the Origin client program at all for this, anything Origin or EA/TS3 store related can be managed from the Origin.com website instead. The website will not try to take over and "upgrade" your game to 1.69 like the Origin client program wants to. When the disc installers offer the older EA Download Manager (EADM), do not accept because this was Origin's predecessor and it will keep trying to update itself to Origin.

As for the registrations, EA customer service should be able to help you with that if needed because again, you purchased from an authorized reseller. But if they are showing up under your account on the older TS3 site, the one that hosts the store, then you should be fine there. It doesn't matter what Origin thinks, especially if you will not be using it.

At no point was I suggesting paying Steam full price for a repurchase. The 75-80% off sales when they take place would make that purchase much less painful should it be required.

My discs were bought in the order they came out and as soon as they came out to you can tell the dates from that. I can't remember the year Into the Future came out but in truth I can do without that if it doesn't work. I just looked, the base game doesn't say Origin but some of the EP's have Origin on the back, just an orange symbol and the word Origin, ITF and Seasons so far have that.

I have all the downloads from EA store that I'll need saved away in another folder so surely I can just install them via the launcher?

The registrations, I spoke to EA customer service and he couldn't find any record of my purchase, despite me pointing him to the S3.com site, not a concern if I can install from disc. This was discovered by me when I lost a registration code and called them to see if they could find it for me.

Steam, I'm sure you can imagine I'm desperate to try my game out right away as soon as I get my new PC, I already have a world in my head I'd like to build, lol.

Thanks for your help @Igazor. I think my next issue might be getting my mods to work, maybe I should just stop googling and wait and see how it all goes for me. I know some people had issues with upgrades to windows 10 but this is a new windows 10 machine.

igazor

To restate, and to be fair I did dump a lot of information on you all at once, it doesn't matter what the ages are of the EP and SP discs or what it says on their boxes. It's only the base game disc that is important. And if it's from 2009 or around there, then again you will be fine with an all-disc install, no Origin involvement, don't even install Origin if you don't need it for anything else.

Mods are operating system independent. They work (or do not work) exactly the same on all versions of Windows and even on the Mac version of the game on the macOS.

On the store content, yes the previously downloaded sims3packs should work. In fact, if you have access to a prior TS3 user game folder where they are already installed, you could try bringing the contents of that folder over to your new computer once everything program related is installed and confirmed to be working. But the absolute worst case should be that you have to redownload the store content; I had to do that for my Steam switchover, which was a bit time consuming but not all that bad. I never had to do that for a digital to digital crossgrade with or without Origin involved.

fluttereyes

igazor wrote: »

To restate, and to be fair I did dump a lot of information on you all at once, it doesn't matter what the ages are of the EP and SP discs or what it says on their boxes. It's only the base game disc that is important. And if it's from 2009 or around there, then again you will be fine with an all-disc install, no Origin involvement, don't even install Origin if you don't need it for anything else.

Mods are operating system independent. They work (or do not work) exactly the same on all versions of Windows and even on the Mac version of the game on the macOS.

On the store content, yes the previously downloaded sims3packs should work. In fact, if you have access to a prior TS3 user game folder where they are already installed, you could try bringing the contents of that folder over to your new computer once everything program related is installed and confirmed to be working. But the absolute worst case should be that you have to redownload the store content; I had to do that for my Steam switchover, which was a bit time consuming but not all that bad. I never had to do that for a digital to digital crossgrade with or without Origin involved.

I understood what you meant about the base game age, it's definitely from the first release, I pre-ordered just as the announcement it went gold was made, thanks for that.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding about mods not working and it could be the users not having a proper Mods folder in the right place.

I don't mind reinstalling all of my CC, in fact I intend to, that way I can just not install the stuff I don't use. The store stuff, I bought too much of that and in the end I have a folder called 'Cherry Picked EA' where I keep things I really use, I'd say I've only kept about a 1/4 of what I bought. I'll be going for full clean folder and going from there, a couple of days installing for me I expect. The only stuff I'll carry over is saved games and other things I need for my current game to work.

I'll just await the call to collect and get on with it once I have the PC here. I'll be keeping the one I'm using online until the new one is ready with everything on it, so if I get stuck I'll be back, lol.

Thanks again for all your help and advice

fluttereyes

I have the PC, installed the base game in the shop no problem. Now installing all the EP's and SP's without issue. The speed at which the game loads up is unreal, seconds and the loading screen is gone. I always run each EP after install to check. The only problem I have is the graphics card not being recognised but that's an easy fix. I was worried about nothing.

igazor

@fluttereyes - I don't know which graphics card you ended up getting, but hopefully you have or will soon take steps to cap its frame rates and check on the actual fps rates you get in-game. TS3 has no functional built-in fps limiter. With Nvidia that would typically be by using the Nvidia Control Panel to arrange for vertical sync and, when necessary, adding in Nvidia Inspector to explicitly cap the fps to the refresh rate of your monitor. This is much more important for performance and for the health of your GPU than getting the card formally recognized.

Hope you get to enjoy your game on your new system very soon.

fluttereyes

igazor wrote: »

@fluttereyes - I don't know which graphics card you ended up getting, but hopefully you have or will soon take steps to cap its frame rates and check on the actual fps rates you get in-game. TS3 has no functional built-in fps limiter. With Nvidia that would typically be by using the Nvidia Control Panel to arrange for vertical sync and, when necessary, adding in Nvidia Inspector to explicitly cap the fps to the refresh rate of your monitor. This is much more important for performance and for the health of your GPU than getting the card formally recognized.

Hope you get to enjoy your game on your new system very soon.

I went for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 I also use a 32 inch Samsung TV as my monitor, I've got no idea what the refresh rates are on it.

What I can say is that all my CC installed in lightning speed and I tested the game last night on high settings and it looked great. Now that everything is installed, including mods) I'm about to play for a bit and see if any issues arise but I'm glad I did this right now. I might be able to have more mods that I wanted without issues. The game is installed directly to the SSD drive which will only be used for games, my guy made SSD the C drive so no install issues with that. I have a separate D drive (HDD) for everything else and that has 2T storage. I've got 16gb of ram. I got the best I could for the price I could afford. The real test for it will be world building, I'll try that soon.

I'm well pleased for now and you were a great help to me, thank you.

igazor

@fluttereyes - You are very welcome, but I'm going to press the issue on the frame rates one more time. This is not optional, a GTX 1660 is capable of throwing wildly high frame rates that can destroy game performance, lead to graphics glitches, screen tears, lag, crashes, and can ultimately overheat and burn out your graphics card.

Most monitors, even televisions, run at refresh rates of 60 Hz. Some can/will run a bit higher. There are system tools that can confirm this, in Win 10 usually a right-click on the desktop and Display Settings > Advanced Display Settings will show your connected monitor's refresh rate.

No one needs their GPU to be trying to generate frame rates in the high hundreds or thousands that their monitors cannot possibly interpret. It's Nvidia Control Panel and create a profile for TS3w.exe (with the "w" as you are on 1.67) for vertical sync (for full-screen mode) and Nvidia Inspector to explicitly cap the frame rate for TS3 to 60 fps or whatever the refresh rate actually is if the Control Panel method doesn't lock things in or if windowed mode is required.

To see the actual frame rates you are getting in-game, ctrl+shift+C to bring up the cheats console, type fps on (enter). As you play and move the game camera around, you will see if and how far away your frame rates are running away with things. To make the display go away, cheats console again and type fps off (enter).