Getting back into PC Gaming

Synth_Wendigo

Hi all. So I am back in PC Gaming now that I'm in a place where I can do so. Anyway, having been out of touch for so friggin long, I've entirely just gotten left behind on what's what in terms of knowing enough of what I am doing to be able to make solid calls on upgrading my (prebuilt) PC. After seeing Jay's coverage on the upcoming NVidia 3000 series, I was considering upgrading to the 3070 given it remains in that projected pricepoint and I won't need too much more to make it work. 

But, this is what I am currently running. A prebuilt PC I bought from Amazon about...a year ago I'd say, and its from SkyTech Gaming ( www.amazon.com/SkyTech-Blaze-Computer-Desktop-GeForce/dp/B07NV1ZTHX/ ) Apologies if links aren't allowed, but hopefully its alright so others that know better than I can get a better idea of what I am running with.

This is the basic info I did grab from it. 

• Ryzen 5 1600 6-Core 3.2 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo) | 1 TB 7200RPM Hard Drive | A320M Motherboard
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 Video Card | 8GB Gaming Memory DDR4 2400 with Heat Spreader | Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• PCIe AC Wi-Fi with Antenna | No bloatware | 1 x DVI, 1 x Display Port (Version 1.4) | 1 x HDMI | 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports,4 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 | HD Audio and Mic
• 3 x 120mm Front Red LED Fans for Maximum Air Flow, 1 x 120mm Non-LED Back Fan | 1 x Cooler Master CPU Red Led Heatsink for Extreme Cooling (Not Stock Heatsink) | Powered by 80 Plus Certified 500 Watt Power Supply
• Thermaltake H18 Tempered Glass Case |

But, my whole angle to this upgrade I am considering involving the RTX 3070 is wondering if I would be able to upgrade this beast fairly painlessly, as I was banking on getting perhaps a couple of 8GB RAM sticks, or possibly two 16GB sticks depending on if I was able to find something not too insane on price and not in the realm of being more than I need. My whole push for this is to get next gen ready for things such as Cyberpunk 2077, as well as have a bit more muscle to handle a bit smoother performance for the games I do have and have mods running. Sorry if I am rambling on and on. Just working on figuring out if I can upgrade to next-gen and it not be too brutal on my bank account or what. Thanks in advance, especially for reading all this to this point.

Enamelized

Welcome back to the PC Gaming world!! The one thing I see from the information provided that you would need to upgrade would be the PSU from the 500w you currently have. Adding the RAM is easy and if you look around you can get a 32gb set of 4x8 for roughly $150-175 but if looking to just go with 16gb then easily $50-80 will take care of that. Best of luck on your upgrades and choices

Synth_Wendigo

Thanks a bunch. Had a lot of really good childhood memories with my dad playing Duke Nukem 3D, Myst, Riven, and especially the Gabriel Knight games. Not to mention the hours spent playing Quake and introducing me to better music with Quake II.

Anyway, I was pondering getting just two 8GB sticks to double the RAM I have going now, as I have one similar to whats in my machine atm (Vulkan) stored in a shopping folder from Amazon that's not too terrible on price. Shouldn't be too much of a headache to upgrade the power supply. My worry was I'd need to tear stuff down and might need a new motherboard from the mixed coverage I was getting from the 3000 series about how the connectors were a new system entirely and how it may need a new dedicated board for it. I'll look around for a couple power supplies and figure out which would be the easiest. Was weary with the CPU as well, since checking the specs for 2077 said the 5 I had was likely far from powerful enough. And I've been out of PC fairly entirely for a long while, and tech's evolved a bit far beyond the ol song of my generation with the 48.8k modems.

Was worried for sure I'd be doing a bit more than intended to make this thing next-gen friendly. Thanks a bunch, Enamelized. 

TSTonyV

The 3000 series GPUs will be PCIe 4.0, but they will be backwards compatible with PCIe 3.0 so they'll work with your board. In fact, all the testing and performance figures that NVIDIA talked about would have been tested with PCIe 3.0 because they were tested on an Intel i9 system, and currently Intel does not have PCIe 4.0 support worked in.

16GB of RAM should be plenty if your main focus is gaming. 

Synth_Wendigo

Thanks, Tony. Was just a bit confused with all the next-gen moves in terms of cards and all that atm. First actual upgrade I've even done since deciding to just stick to PC so I'm just trying to catch up on what's most important to switch out now, and what can wait a bit. Most of what I plan to do is mod a bit, possibly grab some recordings of gameplay eventually and maybe brush up on Creation Kit to make a few mods for Skyrim SE and Fallout 4, if anything, just to pass the time. 

Wasn't totally sure on the PCIe angle before, but I didn't even think of them having tested the card on a different motherboard. Derp. Still a lot to read up on with things. May go for a bit more RAM using my own justification as when I buy a TV - there's still wall showing...