Got my computer upgraded!
August 23rd 2024
Today I finally received my new computer parts!!! 2 memory sticks of 16 GB (giving me 32 GB of RAM) and an RTX 3060 graphics card!!! In comparison, I had 16 GB of RAM and a GTX 1660 Super.
The reason I wanted to upgrade was because my computer was starting to fall behind. I've had it for almost 4 years and with every year I was forced to put the settings to be a little lower.
But what really convinced me to upgrade are two things: Source 2 and Fortnite.
Source 2 is a beauty of an engine. It brings the Source Engine to the modern era with upgraded tools and a stunning engine. However, Hammer (which is the engine's level editor) is quite demanding, especially since on Counter-Strike 2 you need an RTX card to even compile maps with lighting! Asides from CS2, sbox also exists! It uses a heavily-modified branch of the engine to create... basically a replacement for the Unity Engine. However, it's editor is a bit demanding and it was slowing down my computer a bit especially with its heavy memory usabe.
Fortnite. Yes, I do play Fortnite from time to time with friends, since it can be really fun and I can play as Solid Snake! Anyway, the game's performance is terrible. With every season it gets worse and worse. I remember my old computer back in February of 2020 was incapable of running Fortnite well anymore when Chapter 2 Season 2 released, meanwhile with the previous seasons it could run the game perfectly! But it didn't matter when I got my current, unupgraded computer in September of the same year. Finally I could play Fortnite properly! Until recently when the game would lags occasionally even when my settings are between low and medium, which at that point the game looks awful, which I did not like as Fortnite on high settings looks fabulous.
So yeah. Because of those two reasons I ordered the aforementioned computer components 2 weeks ago and they came today.
Soooo guess what I did first!
DOOM! It can run Doom (on the PrBoom+ sourceport) so this PC continues to be a certified gaming beast!
Anyway, the next game I tried is Half-Life: Ray Traced!
And wow, the test chamber looks amazing!
With the expense of my framerate!!!
However that's easily fixable if I play around with the "AMD FSR 2.1" setting, which is weird that it works and Nvidia's DLSS is grayed out in the settings, and especially since there's no AMD-made hardware on my PC!!! Anyway, with FSR set to "Performance" I can get 75 FPS which is what I usually set my max FPS to as my monitor's refresh rate is 75.
The game looks quite well with RTX and I'm sure to play it like this the next time I will come back to replay it!
Moving on, I got on DOOM Eternal!
Now, my old GPU could perfectly run the game at 75 fps on high settings without frame drops. But with my new graphics card, I am able to run the game at mostly 75 FPS on all settings cranked up to the max WITH RTX and DLSS turned off.
The game itself is unbelievably optimised and I love it.
The next game I tried was Portal With RTX! and it was alright.
Too bad it is made specifically for the RTX 4090 as my PC struggles to run it!
But, it is Portal with RTX, with updated assets which I kinda prefer as they are more in line with Portal 2's assets.
And finally, Fortnite.
I can run the game well on all settings being set to Epic with DLSS! However, Nanite completely ruins the performance, probably because I keep the other settings to the max. And with RTX for some reason requiring Nanite to be turned on, it means I can't use it without making the game unplayable, which is fine as the game without it still looks stunning!
Aanndd that's all! Playing games (and also making games/S2 maps) should feel much more nicer now!
For some reason I feel a bit bittersweet about giving my old GPU to my sister after having used it for almost 4 years, but you always need to upgrade from time to time.