General PC Maintenance

[Shepahoyson]

Specs:

X79A-GD45 Plus MSI Motherboard

Intel i7-3820 @ 3.60GHz

16.00GB of DDR3

GTX650

Windows 10 x64

 

Im trying to figure out how to,

 

1. Make my graphics card run better than it currently is, as it should be able to run games such as BeamNG Drive but crashes unless I have AI "Traffic" on the map.

2. Make the pc in general run better, I currently dont have heating problems or anything of the sort.

 

Ive gone through Disk Cleanup and file cleaning, As well as updating my drivers.

I have run into the issue of Windows not updating from 10.0.18362 but Ill come to that later.

Any tips other than a full rebuild?

[EpiCheeseTime]

What are your temps like when you play?

[CommanderAlex]

8 minutes ago, Shepahoyson said:

1. Make my graphics card run better than it currently is, as it should be able to run games such as BeamNG Drive but crashes unless I have AI "Traffic" on the map.

Have you repasted with fresh thermal paste on your CPU and GPU at all since the system has been built? 

8 minutes ago, Shepahoyson said:

2. Make the pc in general run better, I currently dont have heating problems or anything of the sort.

Declutter the storage of any unnecessary files on the computer. If you are still using a HDD, I would transfer files (clone) the HDD to a SSD to make the system faster. Clean the fans/ case for any dust as dust contributes to higher temperatures of computer components as it acts like an insulator. 

[Shepahoyson]

Just now, EpiCheeseTime said:

What are your temps like when you play?

My processor temps get into mid to high 80 Celcius. Idk how to check GPU temps atm

[EpiCheeseTime]

If you use HWmonitor, it will tell you all system temps.

[CommanderAlex]

1 minute ago, Shepahoyson said:

My processor temps get into mid to high 80 Celcius. Idk how to check GPU temps atm

MSI Afterburner is a good application to use and has support for OSD (On-Screen display) to display temperatures while gaming. You can also see temperatures when you open the application. 

 

HWinfo64 is also a very extensive app to monitor a whole bunch of system information, including sensor data for temperatures as well as voltage, power, frequencies. 

[Shepahoyson]

1 minute ago, CommanderAlex said:

Have you repasted with fresh thermal paste on your CPU and GPU at all since the system has been built? 

Declutter the storage of any unnecessary files on the computer. If you are still using a HDD, I would transfer files (clone) the HDD to a SSD to make the system faster. 

I didnt consider re applying thermal paste, I will try that when I can. And I ham using a 2tb HDD, Ive planned on upgrading for awhile, But due to this motherboard only taking DDR3 I will probably just do a whole new build.

[CommanderAlex]

4 minutes ago, Shepahoyson said:

I didnt consider re applying thermal paste, I will try that when I can. And I ham using a 2tb HDD, Ive planned on upgrading for awhile, But due to this motherboard only taking DDR3 I will probably just do a whole new build.

You can always use a SATAIII SSD in a DDR3 system as it uses the SATA interface as your motherboard has SATA III (2 ports) and SATAII (4 ports, wouldn't recommend due to bandwidth limitations of SATAII)  but since the system is getting pretty old, upgrading to a new platform is the only other option. 

 

Depending on the age of the HDD, I wouldn't do a massive amount of uninstalling from the drive due to the increased risk of hard drive failure and putting stress on the drive just in case you have information that you need. 

[Shepahoyson]

16 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

MSI Afterburner is a good application to use and has support for OSD (On-Screen display) to display temperatures while gaming. You can also see temperatures when you open the application. 

 

HWinfo64 is also a very extensive app to monitor a whole bunch of system information, including sensor data for temperatures as well as voltage, power, frequencies. 

BeamNG under 100% load, GPU temp of 62C and CPU of 75C. Might help that I have pretty good airflow and the basement is pretty cold

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, Shepahoyson said:

BeamNG under 100% load, GPU temp of 62C and CPU of 75C. Might help that I have pretty good airflow and the basement is pretty cold

That is actually pretty decent temps for that system. So temps are not your issues for performance hits (thermal throttling).

[Shepahoyson]

1 minute ago, CommanderAlex said:

That is actually pretty decent temps for that system. So temps are not your issues for performance hits (thermal throttling).

Considering it isnt water cooled, I find that to be very good temps. It did hit 62C and stayed there for 10 minutes before crashing. But that crash was caused by me, Accidentally open a different program

[truescot]

personally i would start with a clean install of windows and a cheap sata3 ssd, it will make the world of difference, also whilst your processor is old it is actually more than capable of running pretty much any game out there at reasonable quality.  I had an old 2600k with an rtx2080 super in it for a while there and had all the games i run on max settings without any problems (ok, not amazing games, things like rocket league, GTAV, Metro Exodus etc) but it didnt have any problems at all. then maybe upgrade graphics card, doing it bit by bit will hurt your wallet a little bit less and let you play whatever you want.