Are these specs good for sim racing?

Jaycob Wallmeyer · Mar 19, 2012

I have just gotten a part time job and im looking at buying a good gaming pc. i currently play the simbin titles on a laptop so yeah ahah. there is a computer on ebay without a monitor or wondows 7 for around the 700 AUD mark., Intel Core i7 2600 3.4 ghz CPU, Intel HD2000/3000 graphics HDMI Full HD, Direct X 10, Dual channel 8gb RAM, 1TB HDD and USB 3.0.

I dont know if this is good enough to run sim games well with decent graphics and good frame rates, any help would be appreciated, is it worth it is my mane question? thankyou

Victor Ivanov · Mar 19, 2012

Very good pc but you'll have to buy a decent graphics card.

David Ignjatovic · Mar 19, 2012

I think 2600 is very slow GFX, and 2600K is faster slow GFX.
Ideal these days would be http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=82&bid=2&sid=87733 at least{$124}....but I have a 6850 which allows for most sims to be 1080p maxed, or near enough......of course, with many new racing games coming this yr, buying slow GFX could be a temporary solutiuon.

Jim Cole · Mar 19, 2012

As mentioned above the main system specs look good, but the graphics is very low end right now so might not be able to handle things well. If you have a look here you will see where that graphics card is compared to the rest of the ones available and out of date. From the chart, your graphics is about 21 places down from the top, which is not a great position to be in. I would suggest getting something near the top if you can and by looking at the other pages in the article you will be able to find a great card in the price range that you can afford to buy at.

Jaycob Wallmeyer · Mar 19, 2012

Thanks guys, you can upgrade to a 4gb graphics card for $109 so i think i will do that

Victor Ivanov · Mar 20, 2012

It's not the the VRAM which makes the graphics card good. It's important but it's not all.

David Ignjatovic · Mar 20, 2012

Jaycob Wallmeyer said:
Thanks guys, you can upgrade to a 4gb graphics card for $109 so i think i will do that

4 gig sounds like marketing.....what's the name of GPU?
If a GPU lacks grunt, it simply won't use that much ram, in fact, I doubt even the 6970 can produce playable framerates at 1.9gig vram usage.

Jaycob Wallmeyer · Mar 20, 2012

im sorry mate, but i have no clue what you just said.. lol. im no good with computers. are you saying i shouldnt get the upgraded graphics? or shoul i upgrade something else?

Jaycob Wallmeyer · Mar 20, 2012

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/INTEL-Co...p_dekstop&hash=item35b10fd9a4#ht_12777wt_1272

Jaycob Wallmeyer · Mar 20, 2012

4 gig sounds like marketing.....what's the name of GPU?
If a GPU lacks grunt, it simply won't use that much ram, in fact, I doubt even the 6970 can produce playable framerates at 1.9gig vram usage.

the link i sent is the computer im looking at, if you scroll down it has links to the upgrades you can make, what should i do for graphics etc.? i wont go higher than 200 for a graphics card. Please take a minute out of your time to have a look, much appreciated

Jim Cole · Mar 20, 2012

The best idea would be to get the best video card you can afford. Just because a graphics card has 4Gb of memory on it doesn't make it the best deal. Have a look at the chart I linked to in my earlier post and compare those upgrades to what is in the chart. From there you can decide which one is going to be the best upgrade option for you. The higher on the chart the card is, the more performance it will give you.

David Ignjatovic · Mar 21, 2012

Jaycob Wallmeyer said:
the link i sent is the computer im looking at, if you scroll down it has links to the upgrades you can make, what should i do for graphics etc.? i wont go higher than 200 for a graphics card. Please take a minute out of your time to have a look, much appreciated

I would add a 6850{which I think they sell for $180}.

EIF · Mar 21, 2012

If on a budget a 6870 is a great card, handles gmotor sims with ease and I can even run pCARS with very high settings (just reflections turned down a bit).

Jaycob Wallmeyer · Mar 22, 2012

yeah i think the 6870 might be the way, im in Australia and we get half back on computers through tax rebates because i'm a student so really im only going to pay $500 for a $1000 computer

haha