Optimizing PC for better gaming performance

[ZED]

The 1050ti is most certainly more powerful than a GTX 960. Especially in AAA titles of today.

User benchmarks show that GTX 960 is 4% faster than GTX 1050Ti: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare...-Ti/3165vs3649

Here is how it looks in action; 7 AAA games tested and GTX 960 is winning in most of them.

[Manny7]

As I mentioned before, you could try the following things to optimize your Windows for gaming: https://www.clanaod.net/forums/showthread.php?t=180580

You could also try this guide that I made for Battlefield 1 to prevent sudden FPS drops. Just simply do the same for any other game and simply specify the location of the game exe file in that command line:

I did and some of them helped me in Overwatch but sadly not in PUBG. I Guess 1050TI isn't good enough to boost my FPS anymore in PUBG

[ZED]

I did and some of them helped me in Overwatch but sadly not in PUBG. I Guess 1050TI isn't good enough to boost my FPS anymore in PUBG

Need to do some benchmarking and see how system utilizes resources in order to be able to help you more with the issue or answer this question.

You can use MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision XOC tool to check. MSI Afterburner has more detailed OSD tho. You can get MSI Afterburner from MSI downloads page: https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner
And same for EVGA Precision XOC: https://www.evga.com/precisionxoc/

You can use either one of those tools to Overclock your GPU to gain that extra performance too.

[TheDarkFlame]

8gb is fine for 1080p gaming don't waste your money on ram if you are using a 1050ti
the next upgrade you are gonna get the most framerates out is moving to a higher end GPU but your system seems to be fine now.


About the 8gb you do need to watch you don't leave chrome open in the background with like 10 tabs then you might run into your swap file. and that feels a bit like a brick wall.
if you don't believe me run your games alt tab out of it and run task manager if you aint got 100% usage out of your ram you don't need more.


if you run a lot of background apps that is another story but with only 4 cores and no htt you should run as few of background apps as you can close down everything you don't need when booting up your games OC your graphic card as high as it can go and that is about the best you can get out of your system.

[ZED]

8gb is fine for 1080p gaming don't waste your money on ram if you are using a 1050ti
the next upgrade you are gonna get the most framerates out is moving to a higher end GPU but your system seems to be fine now.

It really depends on what games you play. Latest AAA games at 1080p use over 8GB.
GTA 5 is using 11GB + 3GB Windows.
Project Cars 2 is using 8GB + 3GB Windows
Battlefield 1 is using 8.5GB + 3GB Windows
iRacing is using 8GB (unless you specify other-ways but you lose a lot of performance) + 3GB Windows

And the list goes on and on. I've personally done testing on multiple AAA title games. When I began building this rig in 2015 I had initially 8 GB of RAM but quickly found out that it is not enough and went with 16GB. Back then I had GTX 960, which is equivalent of GTX 1050Ti.

[effectiv]

It really depends on what games you play. Latest AAA games at 1080p use over 8GB.
GTA 5 is using 11GB + 3GB Windows.
Project Cars 2 is using 8GB + 3GB Windows
Battlefield 1 is using 8.5GB + 3GB Windows
iRacing is using 8GB (unless you specify other-ways but you lose a lot of performance) + 3GB Windows

And the list goes on and on. I've personally done testing on multiple AAA title games. When I began building this rig in 2015 I had initially 8 GB of RAM but quickly found out that it is not enough and went with 16GB. Back then I had GTX 960, which is equivalent of GTX 1050Ti.

2nd this.

If I had 8gb ram Doom, BF1, and some others would be unplayable.

If I can only run the game on 8gb RAM what’s the point?

Windows uses 2-3gb most of the time with just my drivers loaded on boot and EVGA Precision. There are plenty of games that use 5-6gb that would push the limits just by running the game and Windows with nothing in the background.

As games progressively get more intensive, RAM isn’t left out of that. 5 years ago, sure. 8gb would be fine. But things change.

Depending on the game played, perhaps you should look at upgrading the GPU first. But if the problem is related to RAM, you’ll still spike.

The only way to find out for sure is to monitor your system. When you notice a spike, alt tab and see where the spike happened. It will probably stick out in the graphs.


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[Manny7]

Well I'm trying to upgrade my GPU. And I did, what would I choose? Theyre pricy right now

[Toquenuke]

Well I'm trying to upgrade my GPU. And I did, what would I choose? Theyre pricy right now

Short answer, dont. Wait at least 4 months. Stock is starting to stabilize which should mean that GPU prices will become less insane (hopefully) soon. Also Nvidia might drop the 20XX or 11XX cards in the meantime.

Something that i have found useful is to have task manager running on another monitor (if you have one) and seeing if anything is using resources that it shouldn't be. HOTS was running like crap for me, and it turned out Onedrive was using the internet to constantly upload replay files that were being saved by the game. Telling onedrive to not sync the folder where the replays were saved stopped it from dropping the connection every 2 min.

[Manny7]

Short answer, dont. Wait at least 4 months. Stock is starting to stabilize which should mean that GPU prices will become less insane (hopefully) soon. Also Nvidia might drop the 20XX or 11XX cards in the meantime.

Something that i have found useful is to have task manager running on another monitor (if you have one) and seeing if anything is using resources that it shouldn't be. HOTS was running like crap for me, and it turned out Onedrive was using the internet to constantly upload replay files that were being saved by the game. Telling onedrive to not sync the folder where the replays were saved stopped it from dropping the connection every 2 min.

I have managed my background apps well. Can I even Overclock my system? Don't even know how anyways

[ZED]

I have managed my background apps well. Can I even Overclock my system? Don't even know how anyways

You can overclock your GPU and it is super easy. The only thing you should be really aware of at all times while overclocking is to make sure you keep system temperatures at normal. For example, 70C for a GPU is still considered to be normal, if you get below 70C then you are blessed.

To overclock GPU you can use any software that offers this. I would highly recommend to use MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision XOC. I have both these softwares but I use EVGA Precision XOC to overclock my GPU and run custom fan curve, while MSI Afterburner I use only when I'm benchmarking the game because it has more detailed OSD. I just like EVGA Precision XOC simplicity and its interface.

You may find these tools on manufacturer's official website.
EVGA Precision XOC: https://www.evga.com/precisionxoc/
MSI Afterburner: https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner

When you overclock your GPU simply keep increasing value by 50Mhz. Then test how GPU behaves in multiple games over long play sessions (in other words keep an eye on temperature). If the temperature is fine and there are no freezes or artifacts then you may add another 50Mhz. You can keep doing like so until you start getting game or entire system freeze or you start seeing too high temperature. You may also tweak fan curve to improve GPU cooling. For example, I have heavily overclocked my GTX 1070 and I run a custom fan curve that makes sure that my GPU temp never goes above 65C and the fan speed does not go over 50%. Thus, I have cool and quiet environment in my system. Also, in general you can check out what others are running for a specific GPU - there are plenty of YouTube video's out there that show what values they are running.

To give you an idea, here is how my OC and custom fan curve look like:

[Manny7]

You can overclock your GPU and it is super easy. The only thing you should be really aware of at all times while overclocking is to make sure you keep system temperatures at normal. For example, 70C for a GPU is still considered to be normal, if you get below 70C then you are blessed.

To overclock GPU you can use any software that offers this. I would highly recommend to use MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision XOC. I have both these softwares but I use EVGA Precision XOC to overclock my GPU and run custom fan curve, while MSI Afterburner I use only when I'm benchmarking the game because it has more detailed OSD. I just like EVGA Precision XOC simplicity and its interface.

You may find these tools on manufacturer's official website.
EVGA Precision XOC: https://www.evga.com/precisionxoc/
MSI Afterburner: https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner

When you overclock your GPU simply keep increasing value by 50Mhz. Then test how GPU behaves in multiple games over long play sessions (in other words keep an eye on temperature). If the temperature is fine and there are no freezes or artifacts then you may add another 50Mhz. You can keep doing like so until you start getting game or entire system freeze or you start seeing too high temperature. You may also tweak fan curve to improve GPU cooling. For example, I have heavily overclocked my GTX 1070 and I run a custom fan curve that makes sure that my GPU temp never goes above 65C and the fan speed does not go over 50%. Thus, I have cool and quiet environment in my system. Also, in general you can check out what others are running for a specific GPU - there are plenty of YouTube video's out there that show what values they are running.

To give you an idea, here is how my OC and custom fan curve look like:

I'll go with the EVGA one. Think you can come to TeamSpeak sometime and help me go through it?

[ZED]

I'll go with the EVGA one. Think you can come to TeamSpeak sometime and help me go through it?

Sure! I can be online sometime after 9pm EST

[Manny7]

Sure! I can be online sometime after 9pm EST

Might not be on, but ill get in touch.

[Skittle]

I've seen a couple of people suggesting Razer Cortex, but be aware that Razer Cortex may interfere with some other software you have installed. It messed up my audio when I used it a little while ago.

[effectiv]

I've seen a couple of people suggesting Razer Cortex, but be aware that Razer Cortex may interfere with some other software you have installed. It messed up my audio when I used it a little while ago.

Everything Cortex would do can be achieved manually through MSconfig and Task Manager.

I would not recommend any software that claims to be a game booster. They’re bloatware.

The reason it interfered with your audio is because it has no way of telling what processes you actually need to be running. It probably killed your audio driver running in the background.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Manny7]

Sure! I can be online sometime after 9pm EST

Teamspeak tomorrow around 9EST? Confirm via PM please <3

[KaosC57]

8gb is fine for 1080p gaming don't waste your money on ram if you are using a 1050ti
the next upgrade you are gonna get the most framerates out is moving to a higher end GPU but your system seems to be fine now.


About the 8gb you do need to watch you don't leave chrome open in the background with like 10 tabs then you might run into your swap file. and that feels a bit like a brick wall.
if you don't believe me run your games alt tab out of it and run task manager if you aint got 100% usage out of your ram you don't need more.


if you run a lot of background apps that is another story but with only 4 cores and no htt you should run as few of background apps as you can close down everything you don't need when booting up your games OC your graphic card as high as it can go and that is about the best you can get out of your system.

This is simply not true as ZED and others have said. And, I have experienced this myself when half of my 4x4gb kit of RAM died back in late 2016. I quite literally could NOT play Battlefield 1 when it launched due to my low 8GB of RAM. The game would refuse to run at a smooth framerate even on the absolute lowest settings at 1080p with a GTX 970 and 8GB of RAM (CPU is a 6600k overclocked to 4.5ghz) So, I did what any sensible person would do, after having the same kit die a second time after an RMA. I bought a new kit and went straight for 4x8GB or 32GB of RAM. That way, if this next kit has a stick or 2 die, I won't be stuck with 8GB of RAM!

Seriously though. Most AAA titles even at 1080p Low will most certainly take up more than 8GB of RAM, and Windows 10 is a power hungry mothertrucker and wants about 3GB of RAM or so depending on how many background tasks you have up.

In 2018, you need 16GB of RAM at a minimum to game decently. 32GB is a little overkill, but futureproofing is nice.

As for your GPU, the 1050ti on paper is actually a GTX 970 with a full 4GB of framebuffer, in the real world it isn't, but that's besides the point. It's a good GPU for Low to Medium settings at 1080p and general E-Sports titles at Ultra 1080p. But, it will do 60 FPS 1080p gaming better than a PS4 or XBOneX will. The 1060 6GB is still a decent bit better, and you will see that in the larger frame buffer and overall better performance.

[ZED]

This is simply not true as ZED and others have said. And, I have experienced this myself when half of my 4x4gb kit of RAM died back in late 2016. I quite literally could NOT play Battlefield 1 when it launched due to my low 8GB of RAM. The game would refuse to run at a smooth framerate even on the absolute lowest settings at 1080p with a GTX 970 and 8GB of RAM (CPU is a 6600k overclocked to 4.5ghz) So, I did what any sensible person would do, after having the same kit die a second time after an RMA. I bought a new kit and went straight for 4x8GB or 32GB of RAM. That way, if this next kit has a stick or 2 die, I won't be stuck with 8GB of RAM!

Seriously though. Most AAA titles even at 1080p Low will most certainly take up more than 8GB of RAM, and Windows 10 is a power hungry mothertrucker and wants about 3GB of RAM or so depending on how many background tasks you have up.

In 2018, you need 16GB of RAM at a minimum to game decently. 32GB is a little overkill, but futureproofing is nice.

As for your GPU, the 1050ti on paper is actually a GTX 970 with a full 4GB of framebuffer, in the real world it isn't, but that's besides the point. It's a good GPU for Low to Medium settings at 1080p and general E-Sports titles at Ultra 1080p. But, it will do 60 FPS 1080p gaming better than a PS4 or XBOneX will. The 1060 6GB is still a decent bit better, and you will see that in the larger frame buffer and overall better performance.

32 GB may be a bit an overkill at this moment but if you are planning to keep your system with no upgrades for the next 5 years then yes.

[Goofy1148]

Side question...is it better to make a separate user in windows for gaming or not? Since the whole fam uses my rig for everything, ive been thinking of setting up a user just for gaming with just the stuff i need for gaming running and what not. Not sure if its worth all the set up or not

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[ZED]

Side question...is it better to make a separate user in windows for gaming or not? Since the whole fam uses my rig for everything, ive been thinking of setting up a user just for gaming with just the stuff i need for gaming running and what not. Not sure if its worth all the set up or not

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Won't make any difference in performance if that's what you are asking for.
Otherwise, if you don't want them to mess up your files, desktop layout etc then yes, create a separate account for them but don't give Admin privileges to that account :-)))