Looking To Upgrade Computer - Your Opinions Appreciated

[Kristahfer]

My current computer is a bit slow. Takes about 10 minutes to load Banished unmodded and approximately 1-1.5 hours to load modded. That is not counting generating a new map or loading and existing map.


Current Computer

   
• Dell All-In-One Touch Screen
• AMD A6-7310 APU 2Hz
• AMD Radeon R4  Graphics
• 4Gb Ram (3.44 Unable)
• 1TB Hard Drive
• Keyboard & Mouse
• Windows OS
• Tray Load Optical DVD Drive (Reads/Writes to DVD/CD)

Replacement Computer

   
• Dell XPS 8940 Tower
• 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-10700 Processor 2.9GHz
• NVIDIA® GeForce GTX™ 1660 Ti, 6GB
• 64Gb Ram
• 2TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive
• Bluetooth 5.1
• Keyboard & Mouse
• Windows OS
• Tray Load Optical DVD Drive (Reads/Writes to DVD/CD)

[theonlywanderer]

I haven't been a fan of Dell and their prices these days, they are way out of line.

This system is more than enough, it's actually way overkill for just Banished.

You a gamer other than banished?

64gb ram is overkill for most anything.   16gb is fine for most

The 1660 TI is more than capable in 1080p and will also reasonably manage 1440p



I have a i-7-9700k which often compared to the 10700 and my vanilla banished opens in like 8 seconds and takes about 21 seconds for a large map to generate and start.

[Glenn]

Yes, with a system like this make sure Banished is on the SSD and an unloaded version will only take a few seconds to load- a modded version with several Gbs of extras will only take a minute or two to load.

My laptop has 16GB RAM and has a SSD of 250GB ( Windows C drive on which the operating systems are stored)

My current game is on a large map (Kid wildlifestarts), has 3.18GB in the Windata file and takes less than 90 seconds to open, load and start the game.

The only issues I have having filled 80 percent of the map and 700 people is I find that 5xx speed is as fast as the game will go and when I move from one side of the map to another it is best to pause the game for a smooth transition.

You will have to let us know how things go using a higher RAM

[TheOtherMicheal]

While I agree that 64 Gig of RAM is probably overkill, I very much disagree with the idea that 16 Gig is fine. There are a few games that like to load all their assets into RAM as the game starts, if you have a lot of mods, RAM will fill up very quickly and your computer will start using virtual memory.
Cities: Skylines is a perfect example of this. Note that it does not matter how much onboard memory your graphics card has in this situation, the game wants to pre-load assets into RAM.
32 Gig of RAM is a good level if you have a reasonably high number of mods - if you have an insane level of mods then 64 Gig is probably more appropriate.

As for Banished, I recently upgraded my computer from 16 Gig of RAM to 32. Unfortunately my motherboard has a problem with one of the RAM slots (it's rather temperamental) so only three of the four slots work properly and thus I am stuck with only 24 Gig. However, I noticed a definite improvement in how fast Banished loaded (and I have a lot of mods added to the game) compared to having 16 Gig.

[theonlywanderer]

Banished with Megamod, the largest all-in-one pack hits 3.8gb....     I doubt the game would even load if you had 8gb worth of mods or more.

With that said, if a person is a multi-tasker, they may be using ram elsewhere... browser, video playing, etc...

I am a muti-tasker with 32gb ram.  I currently have 3 separate browser windows open, a video playing, Banished Megamod open along with qtox window, Outlook, and download manager.   Still only at 12gb.    I called up about 6 more videos and still only at 13gb.

So, yes 16gb is just fine for the most part.   Saying otherwise because of one game being an asset hog doesn't make sense.  Plenty of people play City Skylines just fine with only 8gb.

[RedKetchup]

yeah put just 32G ram, thats what i have and im super happy with it. And with that money saved, buy absolutely a SSD.

[catty-cb]

My current computer is a bit slow. Takes about 10 minutes to load Banished unmodded and approximately 1-1.5 hours to load modded.

I've got a HP All-in-One Desktop with 8gb of memory (plus 8gb of swap space), 4 CPUs and 1 terabyte hard drive running Linux Mint, on Banished with no mods it pretty much starts immediately and with 4.2gb of mods I would guess its about 10 minutes to load up my latest village

[TheOtherMicheal]

Banished with Megamod, the largest all-in-one pack hits 3.8gb....     I doubt the game would even load if you had 8gb worth of mods or more.

Plenty of people play City Skylines just fine with only 8gb.

Funny you should mention 8gb for Banished, my data folder for Banished is 8.84 Gig and it runs fine.

In regards to Cities: Skylines, obviously plenty of people only have a few mods installed for it then.
If you have a lot of assets/mods installed you will not play any game of Skylines very long with just 8gb of RAM. Once the population expands the game will constantly lag.
Most of the commentary I have seen, people have the 25 or even the 81 squares unlocked mod and up to 5000 thousand assets installed - yes five thousand. Some of them have more, even up to eight thousand.
This is why the loading screen mod was developed for Skylines.
I typically run with anywhere from 6000 to 7000 assets/mods installed

The whole point of this is that your computer setup is different to mine, your computer usage is different to mine, your game usage is different to mine, your experience is different to mine and also different to Kristahfer - which is exactly why Kristahfer asked for opinions about a proposed replacement computer in the first place.

[theonlywanderer]

@TheOtherMicheal

I get it, but there was no indication they were some extremely high end level gamer, especially since they are asking for computer advice on a Banished forum.    A gamer at the level you are will clearly not need advice of any kind, right?     So giving out advice based on extreme gaming requirements in this scenario is a bit much, that's all I'm saying.

[TheOtherMicheal]

You know, you really need to get off your high horse long enough to consult a dictionary and learn the meaning of the words "opinion" and "example"
I used Cities: Skylines as an "example" of a game that once modded, demands a lot from RAM
I gave this information as part of my "opinion" as to why 64gb of RAM was overkill but 32gb of RAM is a reasonable middle ground particularly if a person wants some level of future-proofing their computer

[theonlywanderer]

@TheOtherMicheal    Hmmm...  maybe you should do the same seeing as you decided to disagree with my advice first and give reasons for it, I just returned the favor.

[TheOtherMicheal]

I didn't critique your advice, I disagreed with it and gave my reasons for doing so.

But the two of us arguing over this is not helpful to Kristahfer, I suggest we drop it and move on

[theonlywanderer]

@TheOtherMicheal

Sure...  I fixed my previous comment to your preferred verbiage.   Odd how it still fits considering it's exactly the same.

[Goblin Girl]

I really can't recommend Dell.  The computers they sell to the business market are really solid workhorses, but the consumer models don't have the same quality at all.  So, I mean if you could buy a Dell through your employer, then sure.  Otherwise, don't do it.

Asus makes good gaming computers, either laptop or desktop.  Even if you play other games, I think 32gb of RAM is fine. Maybe just make sure it has empty slots to add more if you need to in a few years.  The other thing I'd say, that I didn't think about when I bought my new computer two years ago, was that I would miss having a Blu Ray drive.  I have some old games on CD, and I can't play them unless I buy them from GOG.  I don't love buying things I already own, so they're just sitting there.  I need to go get an external drive, but honestly I'd much rather have one inside the machine than outside of it.

I will also say, use the money you save by only getting 32 gb of RAM to get liquid cooling.  One primary reason for performance drops is heat, so keeping the CPU cool makes a big difference. 

[TheOtherMicheal]

Some good solid suggestions @Goblin Girl - I wish I'd though of liquid cooling when I got this computer, summertime here can be a bit extreme!
I too don't have much regard for Dell home computers. One of the places I worked used Dell desktops and every time we had a service problem, we couldn't get our regular computer shop to repair them, we had to go through the Dell service centre for whatever reason. Some time later on of my relatives got a Dell for home use and as soon as she had problems with it, her local computer shop told her that she'd have to send it to Dell to have it fixed.

That was a while ago now so I don't know if the same situation applies today, but having your repair options restricted like that is not particularly user friendly.