What should I share with him? A story!
What should I share with him? A story!
So a while back I assembled a budget gaming PC for my brother-in-law. The machine was consistently achieving 80-120+ frames per second in most games at medium to high settings. He would later message me saying the performance had dropped recently.
The system specifications were: Windows 10, an i5 9400f processor, an XFX RX 580 graphics card, a 650W Corsair power supply, 16GB DDR4 RAM at 3200MHz, and an MSI Pro B650M-P motherboard. Since we’re about an hour apart, we rarely checked on each other’s devices, so I brought the PC home without noticing any issues. He admitted he was mainly watching videos of people achieving much higher FPS and seemed bored with his current performance.
I upgraded his graphics card to an RX 6600, which was available at a discount, expecting a noticeable boost in FPS. After some time passed without further updates, he told me he wasn’t complaining. I was curious—why not? He mentioned he wanted to reach around 165 frames per second. I thought maybe he’d gotten a new monitor! The previous one only displayed 70fps. Then I asked him to share a screenshot of his settings so he could adjust without causing too much visual distraction.
I reviewed all his configurations and everything seemed fine, but then I noticed the resolution listed was 1440p. That surprised me a lot. I was really puzzled—how could someone upgrade to a higher resolution when they already had a 1080p setup? I felt he was being misled into purchasing a 1440p monitor. This was clearly affecting his FPS performance.
I advised him to stick with the 1080p configuration until he could afford a full overhaul of his hardware. Then I suggested returning to a solid 1080p setup, as he was likely playing at very low settings to maintain acceptable FPS. I’m still unsure if he’s on 24-inch 1080p with 165fps and ultra-high settings, but I believe a 27-inch 1440p monitor running at 165fps should provide a much better experience compared to the current setup, which is stuck at around 50-80 FPS. Also, he mainly plays online competitive multiplayer games, not single-player titles.
PSU is 650 W CORSAIR, Corsair is the manufacturer, and the advertised wattage is 650W. What model is this Corsair unit? How recent is the PSU? I'm surprised you were convinced to buy a 1440p monitor when you already have a 1080p setup! This is why your FPS is dropping. Try to calm down a bit. Could you tell me the make and model of the monitor? Also, did you update from the RX580 to the RX6600 before replacing it? You might be able to upgrade to a better GPU later and a more reliable PSU if the current one isn't up to standard.
PSU: CX650M
Is this the grey marked unit or the green one?
Monitor is an HP Omen 1440p 165hz.
This;
https://www.omen.com/us/en/displays/165h...pec-anchor
?
MoBo: MSI Pro B650M-P
I just realized you selected the incorrect motherboard model, or perhaps your processor and RAM are mismatched too.
4K wouldn't matter much on that setup—he made a mistake right from the start. Suggest he upgrade to a better system. If he had waited a bit, he might have caught a good deal during Black Friday for 4K gaming.
The PSU is white label.
Yes, the monitor is white label but non-curved.
Correct! The board I originally mentioned is MSI Pro B360M, not an AMD one.
I’m not sure about the 4k reference—my monitor is 1440p, not 4k. Still, I think it was a mistake to buy a 1440p display for that system.
I made an error, 1440p equals 2K, I don't know why I thought it was 4K.
Most people rarely change their monitor settings compared to their PC. This issue about a 27-inch screen appearing poorly at 1080p mostly depends on your vision quality. I believe many would barely notice it, especially with all the upscaling happening nowadays.
To restore his 1080p performance on a 1440p display, another graphics card upgrade like the 7800XT is likely necessary, possibly along with a new power supply unit. It may be worth considering a full system overhaul aiming for around 165 FPS.