Yes, it should work.
Yes, it should work.
I'm considering upgrading my PC with a new processor and motherboard. After waiting nearly a week for Star Citizen to download, I installed it using my A10-6800k and R9 280 with 8 GB RAM. The initial gameplay was smooth, but performance dropped to around 25 FPS. I’m planning to upgrade later, but I don’t want to re-download the game. My question is: should I back up all the game files to an external drive, install the new hardware and Windows, update drivers, and then transfer the files back? Will this approach work after the upgrade, or could compatibility problems occur? (Notably, the game was originally built for an AMD processor.)
Sure, you're able to do that. Make sure the game files are back in their proper location, then click the "verify game cache" option when you right-click the game in Steam.
It seems the process you're thinking of isn't quite right. A better approach would be to install the patcher or client on your new operating system, open it, log in, and wait for the download to begin. Once it starts, copy the Star Citizen folder you've saved to the Cloud Imperium Games folder, which should now be in your Program Files directory. This method is reliable because renaming the Test(PTU) folder to Public avoids re-downloading everything. If successful, the patcher will just check files and fetch any missing parts. Good luck!
It seems the issue isn't with the components themselves. I'm seeing 45 frames per second on my i7-4790K with 16 GB RAM and a GTX 770 1.1. That should be sufficient, but I'm still unsure if it will resolve the problem.
I've been considering this improvement for roughly six months already.