Help needed.

[jacowin80]

Hello, first post here and looking for a little help.

I got back into computers last year during lockdown, first been hooked on Colin Mc Rae 06 and then discovering TOCA race driver. Once lockdown ended I got enough cash together to buy a gaming laptop. A lenovo Y50-70 with 16gb ram and an 860m graphics card.

Coming from my work laptop this was a revelation and was soon downloading project cars 2, Assetto corsa, Asseto Corsa Competzione and Automobolista 2 and getting stuck in. I then discovered my wife had an old Logitech rumble wheel and have not looked back. When I first started playing the laptop bit was good I could sit it on my knee and play with keys, or controller. Now I have a logitech g29 and my laptop is fixed to a desk, so I am looking to get a desktop.

Would a ryzen 5 1400 3.2ghz Nvidia 1050ti With 8gb of Ram be an improvement (I guess it would be!?) and would it be a wise move, what do most people use and has anyone got any recommendations. I am looking to spend £500-£600 as looking to use the lenovo as part ex and also have some birthday money. If I went with the above system I could probably buy outright and then sell the laptop on ebay for more and use to upgrade down the line or purchase button box etc. Any thoughts would be welcome. Many thanks in advance

James.

 

[Novopaine]

8gb is the minimum you want to go with. 16GB is typically recommended if you have the funds. 8GB will work, but may not be very future proof.

ryzen 5 1400 - this is first gen Ryzen from 2017. It's 'ok', but I'd look for something more recent if possible as AMD made significant improvements in the last few years. An i5 Intel from 2017 was faster back then if you can find one.

The 1050ti is still a good card if you are using a single 1080p - 60Hz screen. Unfortunately GPU prices are insane right now due to shortages. It's impossible to recommend anything better if you are working within a strict budget.

 

[RasmusP]

- ram speed is quite important for simracing up until 3200 MHz. Not much to gain beyond that. However you really do need dual channel as that makes a massive speed difference!
This means either 2x 4GB is you really don't have the money or 2x 8GB!

- Ryzen 1400 is.. Basically the same as your laptop right now!
Have a look here:

Intel Core i7-4710HQ @ 2.50GHz vs AMD Ryzen 5 1400 vs Intel Core i5-7600K @ 3.80GHz vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Simracing titles only use 2-3 cores. It's nice to have more than 4 cores for some headroom for background stuff etc but the important factor for CPUs is Single Thread/Core performance!
As you can see:
Laptop i7 4710HQ = 1758 points
Ryzen 1400 = 1908 points
i5 7600k = 2565 points
Ryzen 3600x = 2675 points
Ryzen 5600x = 3378 points


This means, in fps:
If your current Laptop would achieve 40 FPS:

Laptop i7 4710HQ =40 fps
Ryzen 1400 = 43,4 fps
i5 7600k = 58,4 fps
Ryzen 3600x = 60,9 fps
Ryzen 5600x = 76,9 fps


Or in percent, when your Laptop = 100%:

Laptop i7 4710HQ = 100%
Ryzen 1400 = 108,5%
i5 7600k = 145,9%
Ryzen 3600x = 152,2%
Ryzen 5600x = 192,2%

In this case, you can rather keep your laptop and wait for the next generation so older parts will become cheaper and hopefully graphics card prices will go down.

The cheapest, viable choice would be a Ryzen 5 2600x. For modern titles like AMS 2 or ACC, you gain quite a lot from having 6 cores. 4 cores work well, but one more core gives a lot of headroom. Since there are no 5 cores CPUs, 6 cores is the next step.

The Ryzen 2600x scores 2411 points, which is at least somewhat close to the i5 7600k or Ryzen 3600x, while having a LOT better multicore score than the 7600k (14000 to 6800 ; Ryzen 1400 = 7800).

Intel alternative would be the 8600k.

You could buy a used combination of motherboard + CPU. They are often sold as a package, since most people upgrade both at the same time. Maybe even with a good CPU cooler and RAM

 

[jacowin80]

8gb is the minimum you want to go with. 16GB is typically recommended if you have the funds. 8GB will work, but may not be very future proof.

ryzen 5 1400 - this is first gen Ryzen from 2017. It's 'ok', but I'd look for something more recent if possible as AMD made significant improvements in the last few years. An i5 Intel from 2017 was faster back then if you can find one.

The 1050ti is still a good card if you are using a single 1080p - 60Hz screen. Unfortunately GPU prices are insane right now due to shortages. It's impossible to recommend anything better if you are working within a strict budget.

Thank you, this all makes sense. I was planning looking into upgrading the ram up to 16 or maybe more if possible, I was also wondering about upgrading the cpu and maybe eventually the gpu. I just didn't really want to go out and buy if most people said it wasn't really up to the task.

 

[jacowin80]

- ram speed is quite important for simracing up until 3200 MHz. Not much to gain beyond that. However you really do need dual channel as that makes a massive speed difference!
This means either 2x 4GB is you really don't have the money or 2x 8GB!

- Ryzen 1400 is.. Basically the same as your laptop right now!
Have a look here:

Intel Core i7-4710HQ @ 2.50GHz vs AMD Ryzen 5 1400 vs Intel Core i5-7600K @ 3.80GHz vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Simracing titles only use 2-3 cores. It's nice to have more than 4 cores for some headroom for background stuff etc but the important factor for CPUs is Single Thread/Core performance!
As you can see:
Laptop i7 4710HQ = 1758 points
Ryzen 1400 = 1908 points
i5 7600k = 2565 points
Ryzen 3600x = 2675 points
Ryzen 5600x = 3378 points


This means, in fps:
If your current Laptop would achieve 40 FPS:

Laptop i7 4710HQ =40 fps
Ryzen 1400 = 43,4 fps
i5 7600k = 58,4 fps
Ryzen 3600x = 60,9 fps
Ryzen 5600x = 76,9 fps


Or in percent, when your Laptop = 100%:

Laptop i7 4710HQ = 100%
Ryzen 1400 = 108,5%
i5 7600k = 145,9%
Ryzen 3600x = 152,2%
Ryzen 5600x = 192,2%

In this case, you can rather keep your laptop and wait for the next generation so older parts will become cheaper and hopefully graphics card prices will go down.

The cheapest, viable choice would be a Ryzen 5 2600x. For modern titles like AMS 2 or ACC, you gain quite a lot from having 6 cores. 4 cores work well, but one more core gives a lot of headroom. Since there are no 5 cores CPUs, 6 cores is the next step.

The Ryzen 2600x scores 2411 points, which is at least somewhat close to the i5 7600k or Ryzen 3600x, while having a LOT better multicore score than the 7600k (14000 to 6800 ; Ryzen 1400 = 7800).

Intel alternative would be the 8600k.

You could buy a used combination of motherboard + CPU. They are often sold as a package, since most people upgrade both at the same time. Maybe even with a good CPU cooler and RAM

Thank you, this is very helpful. It seems to me when something is cheap it is cheap for a reason. I was trying to get a local computer shop to build me something but am yet to hear back from them.

 

[Novopaine]

Thank you, this all makes sense. I was planning looking into upgrading the ram up to 16 or maybe more if possible, I was also wondering about upgrading the cpu and maybe eventually the gpu. I just didn't really want to go out and buy if most people said it wasn't really up to the task.

What's not up to the task for me may be totally up to the task for you. It all depends on what your plans are. If you're going to run triple 1440p screens or high end VR, the system you mentioned won't come close to cutting it. If you just have a single 1080p screen, what you posted will probably be all you need... at least until your inner upgrade bug kicks in.

 

[RasmusP]

Thank you, this is very helpful. It seems to me when something is cheap it is cheap for a reason. I was trying to get a local computer shop to build me something but am yet to hear back from them.

PC parts mostly have generational leaps but the great things from the old Gen mostly don't really get much cheaper.
So instead of a Ryzen 1400 you could probably get a Ryzen 3300x for not much more.

Then within one generation, efficiency and IPC are almost the same throughout the product range.
So the difference between a 1400 and a 1800x is the amount of cores and the boost clock speed.
If you don't need the cores, you can get the lower one and mostly simply overclock it.

However the more expensive CPUs are "better built", so they are more stable at higher clock speeds.
Mostly, the cheaper models are the expensive models with faulty parts that got disabled.
The high end models are therefore "flawless" and and more stable at the limit.

So you have to find the sweetspot!

For me, that's always the x600 series. Both with Intel (8th gen onwards) and with AMD.
They have 6 cores, which is all you need for simracing and for almost every other game!
You can overclock them quite a bit and while they cost half of the higher end models, they achieve 95% of the fps!

Which is why I would recommend a Ryzen 3600 to you. Great cpu if you can find it cheap.
9600k would be a good alternative.

I would personally buy the 5600x, 8gb ram, cheap b550 motherboard and maybe get a used graphics card like a gtx 960.

You can always lower the graphics settings, but graphics settings barely influence the cpu performance!

For racing, I want opponents and a fluid game. So 60-100 fps and 20 other cars.

Opponents, AI or online multi-player need cpu performance. And the underlying physics too.
A Ryzen 1400 wouldn't have good fps in ACC no matter the monitor used or how bad the game looks due to super low settings.

For this, you need at least a 3600x/8600k...

The other thing to consider is that a cpu upgrade (newer generation) often needs a new motherboard, windows re-install, full opening of the case, unplugging and re-managing all cables etc.

A new graphics card is only a task of unplugging 1-3 power cables, taking the card out, plugging the new one in and plug in the power cables at almost the same spot.
Doesn't take more than 5 minutes and doesn't even need a driver re-install most of the times!