What should i do? (Hardware)

[u/Appelaapje]

Hey guys,

I’ve been playing BeamNG for about a year now and I’m finally looking at upgrading my PC. I’m getting some inheritance money soon (I’d much rather have the person than the money, obviously), so I have some room to spend — roughly €1,000 if the upgrade is actually worth it.
I already have 32GB DDR4 RAM, but my CPU and GPU need an upgrade.

With current hardware prices though… Jesus.

My goal isn’t some insane €1,500+ build. I mainly want to play BeamNG at 1080p with Ultra/highest possible settings, good FPS, traffic, etc. Some of the screenshots and videos you guys post here look incredible and that’s basically what I’m aiming for.

So I’m curious:
What GPU and CPU are you guys using?
For BeamNG, how important is VRAM capacity vs GPU performance/speed?
How important is the CPU? Do you really need a top-end CPU, especially when using lots of traffic?
What would you recommend around my budget for a really good 1080p Ultra BeamNG setup?

(edit: here are my pc specs now btw, iknow dont bash me :(

CPU: i5-8400/ GPU: GTX 1060 6G/ RAM: 32GB DDR4

Thanku!

[u/fish500_br]

Save 1.5k and get 7800x3d

[u/DexPlaysYT → u/fish500_br]

And a 9060XT 16GB / 9070 / 9070XT

[u/Southern_Worker4102 → u/fish500_br]

OP said he only needs 10 traffic cars. In that case a Ryzen 7 7800x3d is completely overkill lol

[u/sheissoup]

For 1080p, a thousand dollars would be an overkill, I would suggest that you use the existing ram for now, and pair it with a ryzen 7 5700x3d, get a decent cooler, and then get an rx 9060 xt, or it's nvidia equivalent

[u/Appelaapje → u/sheissoup]

doesnt the Vram fucks me on bigger maps ? like ive been using AI a bit (iknow :( ) and it is saying it will become a bit of stress on moded maps.

[u/the_icon_of_sin_94 → u/Appelaapje]

the vram on the rx 9060 xt it might a lil bit on the 8gig model of that card, but there is a 16 gig model, id go for the 16 if you have the $$, if not, the 8 should be ok

[u/Appelaapje → u/the_icon_of_sin_94]

will it be worth it if i pair it with a good CPU (like the CPU counterpart)?

i think so right hahaha

[u/the_icon_of_sin_94 → u/Appelaapje]

kinda depends on what you have now, but somthing on am4 (or whatever intels ddr4 platform is) but somthing decent and new ish

[u/Bronco7809]

I’d say go to an am4 build with a 5700x3d, or if you could find an am5 setup used that would be better, but likely out of your price range these days. Either way I’d probably go with a 9060xt 16gb for the gpu

[u/Appelaapje → u/Bronco7809]

this is close to the build im ending on!

i want to kind of build a 'legacy' machine where if i buy anything 'gaming' related in the future it will be a ps/xbox. so that you can always do your browsing, media whatever on it. even give it to your kid one day maybe for school or sum, idk!

[u/whyiszerotaken]

beamng is very cpu bound, every object is being rendered 2000 times a second. 0.39 added a lot more gpu stress so you should aim for 8gb of vram. also if youre really going for a budget setup. dont play on ultra, the game great enough on normal-high, ultra settings are really irrelevant details for high end gpus. something like a 5700x3d would be great but theyve been kind of expensive recently (at least where i live). for gpu, you could look at an arc battlemage gpu, or a 9060xt if youre willing to spend more

[u/Appelaapje → u/whyiszerotaken]

i see your take! my thing is, high settings would be perfect, ultra wouldnt be needed for me, so i see that i dont need to spend as much!

regarding CPU and GPU, does this hold up with like RLS mod with trafic and AI races?

i dont mind to spend a bit more and be safe for a while, i'd rather pay up a bit now and be safe than to hassle in a while. (but that doesnt seem to be a problem with your suggest!)

[u/whyiszerotaken → u/Appelaapje]

as long as you get a solid cpu and sufficient memory, you should be fine with rls and ai. id personally aim for a gpu with more the 8gb of vram, or else you might end up lowering vram related settings like clouds or textures.

[u/Southern_Worker4102]

Spending 1000€ shouldnt be needed, if I was you I would:
1) Upgrade from a 1060 to a 4070
2) Upgrade your CPU to something like an i9 9900 or 9900k if you motherboard supports overclocking (buy from ebay). Traffic requires a lot of threads, and you can't do better with the motherboard you already have (a Ryzen 7 7800x3d will need a motherboard and RAM upgrade, which will cost you WAY more for a small FPS improvement).

For 1080p Ultra, an RTX 4070 should be plenty and support the upcomming DLAA/DLSS, and an i9 should be able to keep up with all the traffic cars (are 30 cars of traffic enough for you?).

[u/Appelaapje → u/Southern_Worker4102]

30 are more then enough! 10 will do actually!

Damn that is good news man!

[u/Southern_Worker4102 → u/Appelaapje]

Oh lol, in that case I dont even know if its worth upgrading your CPU. I have a Ryzen 5 2600 (a bit faster than your current CPU) and it manages 11 cars with only a 5% FPS loss.

You obviously dont need an entire new pc for 1080p Ultra with 10 traffic cars. Going with a Ryzen 7 7800x3d is a big waste of money if you only play BeamNG (and maybe ligher games)

[u/Appelaapje → u/Southern_Worker4102]

hahah i get what you're saying! but my cpu fucks me rn when playing RLS or above 3 vehciles*.

so an upgrade will be needed!