Does anyone still game on an old PC? How competitive is this system?

I'm trying to figure out how well gaming PCs continue to perform at multiplatform games compared with consoles. One of the fastest computers back in around 2006 would have the following system specifications. This computer back from 2006 around when the current gen consoles were released would have been one of the most powerful ones that a person could get. I'd like to know whether such a system would continue to play modern games like Far Cry 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Dishonored, Assassin's Creed III, Mass Effect 3, etc. Would the visuals look at least as good as the same games on the PS3 or Xbox 360? Whether the system would be capable of playing at 720p or slightly less but with 30 fps is what I would like to know.

Hypothetical system:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512 MB

4 GB DDR3 667Mhz RAM

Does anyone here still play modern games on their old PC? I would like to know your experiences playing some of the latest games on your system.

Well a few years back (2009ish) i was stuck with a:

P4 3.2D

2gb of ram

Nvidia 512mb 9600GTX

Some games were ok - but GTA4 for example played like Max Payne bullet time. Crysis was fine, FallOut 3 was nice. However i dont think games like Farcry 3 or Skyrim would do to well. Overal i would say consoles have and will always age better then PCs bought on the same day and not changed in any ways.

That is pretty comparable to my gaming desktop, but I have a Radeon 5850 and my RAM is a little faster.

I think it's still adequate, but I haven't played many recent games on it.

There are A LOT of games that have been released recently that are not so taxing on your computer.

The new X-com ran alright and Civilization 5 (for the most part) was alright, and so was Starcraft 2. The problems I encountered were the long loading times (especially Civilization 5), but you can shrug these off.

And for FPS games I think you should be able to play Black Ops II alright; the CoD games aren't really demanding on your system (are they?). I don't think there are such huge technological jumps since they release one EVERY year. I played Black Ops I and I think I maxed out most of the graphics with few problems. The framerate was good (I couldn't remember a noticeable drop) and I had nothing to complain about. Multiplayer was a problem with DSL, but when I switched to cable I realized it was only my connection speed.

Add in older, but still fun games like Left 4 Dead and Payday: The Heist and there really isn't a shortage of games, but yes you probably won't be able to play Battlefield 3 with max graphics and Farcry 3 would be a problem.

You could always reduce the resolution and some of the graphical settings to increase your framerate. That's what I did for Dead Island and it ran like a charm; it was also because some games make me nauseous when set to fullscreen. Seriously, I don't know why it happens for some games and not others.

Dont know if this is old

AMD Athlon X2 5000+
HD4850 1GB

4GB DDR2 Ram

19"LCD Samsung Monitor

400Watt PSU CoolerMAster

160GB HDD

farcry 3 lists minimum requirements as a core 2 duo e6600, and an 8800gs which is equivalent to an 7900 gtx, sorry slower than the 7900gtx. So a good overclock on the core 2 duo e6600 to 3+ ghz and an overclock for the 7900gtx will definitely run the game nicely. Hopefully at 720p settings with minimum settings some settings medium maybe. This is still better than consoles. Also another thing you forget is that the pc versions of games are much cheaper than console versions. For example I just picked up darksiders 2 for $8.75 and picked up borderlands 2 for $21. With the money saved on games you will definitely be able to upgrade your hardware. Say you save $100 on 4 games buying pc games over console games... that means you can go to craigslist and get a beast of a graphics card like the 460 gtx or a radeon 5870 and run pc games on high settings again. Or if you want to spend $40 on an upgrade you can do so and get a weaker card like the radeon 5670 and run games at medium to high settings.

call of duty 3 modern warfare on 7900gtx

all settings high at 1280 X 1024 with 4x AA

fps around 9-24

he could easily drop the settings down to 2x AA and settings to medium and get fps to 30 or higher

I'm trying to figure out how well gaming PCs continue to perform at multiplatform games compared with consoles. One of the fastest computers back in around 2006 would have the following system specifications. This computer back from 2006 around when the current gen consoles were released would have been one of the most powerful ones that a person could get. I'd like to know whether such a system would continue to play modern games like Far Cry 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Dishonored, Assassin's Creed III, Mass Effect 3, etc. Would the visuals look at least as good as the same games on the PS3 or Xbox 360? Whether the system would be capable of playing at 720p or slightly less but with 30 fps is what I would like to know.

Hypothetical system:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512 MB

4 GB DDR3 667Mhz RAM

Does anyone here still play modern games on their old PC? I would like to know your experiences playing some of the latest games on your system.

greengloop

So up until the summer I had the same processor as you, and I had an 8800 GTX, with 2gb of ram (later upgraded to 8). I played things fairly decentl at 1680x1050. The witcher 2 was suprisingly medium, starcraft 2 was maxed, it held up really well. The biggest issue was the CPU, games like Rift struggled no matter what graphical setting because the CPU just couldnt keep up.

A graphics card upgrade will go a long way.dramaybaz

His CPU will be holding him back, I know because I had the exact same CPU up until June of this year.

[QUOTE="dramaybaz"]A graphics card upgrade will go a long way.way2funny

His CPU will be holding him back, I know because I had the exact same CPU up until June of this year.

Technically I do. But only with the GPU. The rest of the computer is recent (i5 3470 and 8gb DDR3 1336). The GPU is a 8800gts that my brother gave me after mine died. Haven't tried this years games yet with this specific setup but I have tried other stuff like Fallout: NV (1080p, high preset, ~45FPS) Crysis 2 (720p, very high preset which is just a fancy way to say medium, ~30FPS), Metro 2033(720p, medium preset, ~25fps), SFXT (1080p, highest settings available, 60FPS), Resident Evil 5 (1080p, highest settings available, DX 10, ~35FPS), C&C: Red Alert 3 (1080p, highest settings available, 2XAA, 30FPS), Crysis (720p, high except for medium physics, shadows and water, DX9, ~28FPS).

farcry 3 lists minimum requirements as a core 2 duo e6600, and an 8800gs which is equivalent to an 7900 gtx, sorry slower than the 7900gtx. So a good overclock on the core 2 duo e6600 to 3+ ghz and an overclock for the 7900gtx will definitely run the game nicely. Hopefully at 720p settings with minimum settings some settings medium maybe. This is still better than consoles. Also another thing you forget is that the pc versions of games are much cheaper than console versions. For example I just picked up darksiders 2 for $8.75 and picked up borderlands 2 for $21. With the money saved on games you will definitely be able to upgrade your hardware. Say you save $100 on 4 games buying pc games over console games... that means you can go to craigslist and get a beast of a graphics card like the 460 gtx or a radeon 5870 and run pc games on high settings again. Or if you want to spend $40 on an upgrade you can do so and get a weaker card like the radeon 5670 and run games at medium to high settings.

blaznwiipspman1

8800 GS was significantly faster than 7900 gtx at launch. It only got faster with newer drivers-

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GeForce_8800_GS/23.html

IDK if you were really into the PC gaming scene in 2006, but the 8800 cards made the 7800/7900 cards look like antiques almost immediately. It was kind of depressing for 7900 users, like myself.

[QUOTE="way2funny"]

[QUOTE="dramaybaz"]A graphics card upgrade will go a long way.dramaybaz

His CPU will be holding him back, I know because I had the exact same CPU up until June of this year.

Maybe, I went form an 8800 gtx to a 460 since my 8800 died and I got some better preformance in the more recent games, Again its going to depend on the game. Rift didnt run well at all even after the gpu upgrade, so it depends

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

farcry 3 lists minimum requirements as a core 2 duo e6600, and an 8800gs which is equivalent to an 7900 gtx, sorry slower than the 7900gtx. So a good overclock on the core 2 duo e6600 to 3+ ghz and an overclock for the 7900gtx will definitely run the game nicely. Hopefully at 720p settings with minimum settings some settings medium maybe. This is still better than consoles. Also another thing you forget is that the pc versions of games are much cheaper than console versions. For example I just picked up darksiders 2 for $8.75 and picked up borderlands 2 for $21. With the money saved on games you will definitely be able to upgrade your hardware. Say you save $100 on 4 games buying pc games over console games... that means you can go to craigslist and get a beast of a graphics card like the 460 gtx or a radeon 5870 and run pc games on high settings again. Or if you want to spend $40 on an upgrade you can do so and get a weaker card like the radeon 5670 and run games at medium to high settings.

hartsickdiscipl

8800 GS was significantly faster than 7900 gtx at launch. It only got faster with newer drivers-

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GeForce_8800_GS/23.html

IDK if you were really into the PC gaming scene in 2006, but the 8800 cards made the 7800/7900 cards look like antiques almost immediately. It was kind of depressing for 7900 users, like myself.

Lol I was running an ati 9200 plus pentium 4 from 2003 to 2010 when I jumped to an Athlone ii x3 440 and gefirce 240gt and was shocked at the performance increase. Then star craft 2., the game I bought a new pc for struggled like crazy I jumped to Intel and never looked back.

I'm trying to figure out how well gaming PCs continue to perform at multiplatform games compared with consoles. One of the fastest computers back in around 2006 would have the following system specifications. This computer back from 2006 around when the current gen consoles were released would have been one of the most powerful ones that a person could get. I'd like to know whether such a system would continue to play modern games like Far Cry 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Dishonored, Assassin's Creed III, Mass Effect 3, etc. Would the visuals look at least as good as the same games on the PS3 or Xbox 360? Whether the system would be capable of playing at 720p or slightly less but with 30 fps is what I would like to know.

Hypothetical system:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512 MB

4 GB DDR3 667Mhz RAM

Does anyone here still play modern games on their old PC? I would like to know your experiences playing some of the latest games on your system.

greengloop

urs still has some life left in it. grab a GTX 650 ish or ATI 7770, a new cooler and go OC!!!!!!!! even u really want to also some faster ram should work on that too (check ur mobo FSB)

I'd say it depends on how well the developer optimized the game for PC. I think games like Black ops II and ACIII will run as well as they would on a console because they're running on older engines and such. But with others it might require tweaking down the graphics even lower than their console counterparts, if they scale down that low.

I'm trying to figure out how well gaming PCs continue to perform at multiplatform games compared with consoles. One of the fastest computers back in around 2006 would have the following system specifications. This computer back from 2006 around when the current gen consoles were released would have been one of the most powerful ones that a person could get. I'd like to know whether such a system would continue to play modern games like Far Cry 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Dishonored, Assassin's Creed III, Mass Effect 3, etc. Would the visuals look at least as good as the same games on the PS3 or Xbox 360? Whether the system would be capable of playing at 720p or slightly less but with 30 fps is what I would like to know.

Hypothetical system:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512 MB

4 GB DDR3 667Mhz RAM

Does anyone here still play modern games on their old PC? I would like to know your experiences playing some of the latest games on your system.

greengloop

My daughter's gaming PC is somewhat similar:

Intel Celeron E3400 (Wolfdale) dualcore 2.6ghz

1gb AMD HD 5770

4gb DDR3 800 Mhz RAM

Crysis maxed out with DX10 at 1440x900 would be laggy. Forget Crysis 2 with DX11. Her PC can handle Crysis 2 so long as it's DX9 with a mix of Very High and a few Extreme settings. Bulletstorm, Bioshock, and Oblivion at 1440x900 are fine though.