Running the game

[httpsiob]

Hi, I am VERY new to PC gaming. I've played bg3 on console before and really wanting to play it on PC. I've just got a basic gaming PC with the below specs. The game runs, but is so laggy and slow it is unplayable, even with the lowest settings. I honestly feel like I'm playing runescape again....

Operating system is Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Processor is Intel Core i7-2600 CPU
Memory is 16GB
GPU is Nvidia GT 710

Is there anyone computer savvy who can help me please - I feel my issue is my graphics card and if so, which should I buy to replace it, ideally not one that is too expensive, I don't have huge need for an out of this world graphic card. I just want to play the game!!

Thank you in advance

[Levianne]

I would say 1K or 2K series Nvidia should do the trick. The 710 seems really to be the issue, as you said yourself (my other specs are on par with yours, so it's down to the GPU). I'm not an expert in graphic cards prices, so can't say how expensive those are, but you've said it yourself, there's no need for an out of this world GPU to only play a game. The 1K series should be affordable, maybe even the 2K series.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by httpsiob:

Running the game
Hi, I am VERY new to PC gaming. I've played bg3 on console before and really wanting to play it on PC. I've just got a basic gaming PC with the below specs. The game runs, but is so laggy and slow it is unplayable, even with the lowest settings. I honestly feel like I'm playing runescape again....

Operating system is Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Processor is Intel Core i7-2600 CPU
Memory is 16GB
GPU is Nvidia GT 710

Is there anyone computer savvy who can help me please - I feel my issue is my graphics card and if so, which should I buy to replace it, ideally not one that is too expensive, I don't have huge need for an out of this world graphic card. I just want to play the game!!

Thank you in advance

Getting a GPU for minimum requirements just for the sake of playing this singular game is not worth it. Seeing your hardware specifications it is cheaper on the long run to invest in a gaming PC.

[Thomas D.]

This are the minimum Specs of the game:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 8350
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD RX 480 (4GB+ of VRAM)
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space on an SSD
Additional Notes: Default API is Directx11. Vulkan 1.1 API also provided.

Memory: is fine, even as much as is recommend.

CPU is definitely lower than what is the minimum. This will cause definitely a less smooth experience but is probably not the worst point here.

Your GPU is a GT 710, it is 2 generations behind what is defined as minimum. And while the minium 970 was a highend GPU back than your 710 was the absolute lowend (= slowest) GPU even available in the whole generation (and worse than some mid-level GPUs from even several generations back). And probably worse than an integrated Intel GPU was.

This GPU was NEVER meant to be able to run any game even when it was the actual generation.

The whole computer is anything but a gaming computer.

Sorry to disappoint you but you will be never able to play this game on your actual hardware, even if you do some tweaks to increase the performance it will be never even remotely good. It's even astonishing that the game starts at all.

It's like trying to play a PS5 game on a PS3 where you replaced the GPU with an even slower model than it usually has.

The best you can do: get an halfway actual / decent (real!) gaming PC.

[httpsiob]

Originally posted by Levianne:

I would say 1K or 2K series Nvidia should do the trick. The 710 seems really to be the issue, as you said yourself (my other specs are on par with yours, so it's down to the GPU). I'm not an expert in graphic cards prices, so can't say how expensive those are, but you've said it yourself, there's no need for an out of this world GPU to only play a game. The 1K series should be affordable, maybe even the 2K series.

Thank you - out of interest what GPU do you have, and do you find the game runs well? Only because you mentioned all our other specs were the same.

[Thomas D.]

I have this hardware (bought at the beginning of last year, so almost 2 years old):

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (8 cores up to 5,4 GHz even when all cores are utilized at the same time). It's definitely more than you ever need for this game and for probably almost all games in the near future.

RAM: 2x 32 GB (64 GB in total, DDR5 don't remember the clocks and don't want to look them up but above what my CPU officially can handle). Also far more than the game and maybe the games in the near future will ever need.

GPU: NVidia RTX 4070 (12 GB, OC by manufacturer with good cooling). This one is probably the first thing I will need to replace because it is close to reach its limit and it's definitely anything but a slow GPU and probably more than 10x faster than your GPU...

But I play on maxed out settings (+ some extra settings via driver) in 4k (almost all games, including this one). For BG3 I have about 60+ FPS on this settings.

And then I even have stuff like 9 TB (3x PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD). Maybe will replace them, too when 8 TB SSDs get cheaper after 1-2 years.

[httpsiob]

Originally posted by Thomas D.:

I have this hardware (bought at the beginning of last year, so almost 2 years old):

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (8 cores up to 5,4 GHz even when all cores are utilized at the same time). It's definitely more than you ever need for this game and for probably almost all games in the near future.

RAM: 2x 32 GB (64 GB in total, DDR5 don't remember the clocks and don't want to look them up but above what my CPU officially can handle). Also far more than the game and maybe the games in the near future will ever need.

GPU: NVidia RTX 4070 (12 GB, OC by manufacturer with good cooling). This one is probably the first thing I will need to replace because it is close to reach its limit and it's definitely anything but a slow GPU and probably more than 10x faster than your GPU...

But I play on maxed out settings (+ some extra settings via driver) in 4k (almost all games, including this one). For BG3 I have about 60+ FPS on this settings.

And then I even have stuff like 9 TB (3x PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD). Maybe will replace them, too when 8 TB SSDs get cheaper after 1-2 years.

Thanks a lot for your advice Thomas, I have just got this computer - as mentioned very new to PC gaming - so for now I don't need the BEST graphics or performance I just want to play the game to a decent level. Getting expensive kit / completely new gaming PC also isn't an option financially right now.
In terms of the GPU potentially being the problem, if I were to purchase the recommended GPU (Eg. GTX 2k) could I run into any issues with compatibility with my CPU? Thanks again, I know next to nothing about this so it's very helpful.

[Levianne]

Originally posted by httpsiob:

Originally posted by Levianne:

I would say 1K or 2K series Nvidia should do the trick. The 710 seems really to be the issue, as you said yourself (my other specs are on par with yours, so it's down to the GPU). I'm not an expert in graphic cards prices, so can't say how expensive those are, but you've said it yourself, there's no need for an out of this world GPU to only play a game. The 1K series should be affordable, maybe even the 2K series.

Thank you - out of interest what GPU do you have, and do you find the game runs well? Only because you mentioned all our other specs were the same.

I have Nvidia GTX 1050TI, might not be the best in the shop, but it does its job well. The game runs pretty much, I don't really need the fancy graphics settings with the highest details, so it works for me.
Well regarding the other specs, yea, exactly same processor as you and 16 GB RAM memory.

[Thomas D.]

Originally posted by httpsiob:

In terms of the GPU potentially being the problem, if I were to purchase the recommended GPU (Eg. GTX 2k) could I run into any issues with compatibility with my CPU? Thanks again, I know next to nothing about this so it's very helpful.

If you had to replace a single thing in your computer then yes the GPU would give you by far the biggest performance gain and maybe might make it work good enough for you.

Changeing the CPU or even anything else will probably have near 0 effect if you dont also exchange the GPU (even the CPU might give you a slight increase).

But your CPU will be still below the specs but when it comes to compatibility: If it already runs the game (but just slow), the chances that there will be any compatibility issues are low. But Act 2 and 3 seems to be more demanding on the CPU side and since you are already below the min, I cant tell you for sure / gurantee you that it will run good.

And in Act2 there seems to be a situation where to many effects can crash the game. But I am not sure if a better / worse CPU will have an effect here (it could).

Also your GPU if upgraded to a GTX 2k might not be able to utilize its full potential with a to slow CPU, still you dont need necessarily a faster CPU to be able to use it and you still will heavily profit from it (compared to your actual GPU).

It will definetly work better in the end if it will work good enough depends also on what settings you want to use and how many FPS you expcet.

Another thing to consider: the game has long loading times / invisible stuff that pops up at the beginning after loading. If this bothers you you also had to use a SSD instead of a normal HDD. Its not ncessary but recommend (to decrease this effect and loading times).

[Levianne]

Another thing to look after is autosaves. The game does a lot of autosaving, even worse it doesn't overwrite existing ones, it creates new ones constantly. And having too many of those actually does affect performance, so deleting autosaves is recommended. I've just cleared all my three characters I currently have of any lingering autosaves.

Regarding performances in later acts, it's not that hot. My PC manages just fine, I'm currently having a mage and two Wyldheart sorcerers (moded class), the mage is in Act 3 and she's pretty fine so far no crashing, no big stutter, no significant issue.
The other two are still in Act 2, the latest being in multiplayer just reaching second Act of the game. Again so far no issues aside from some small bugs, but what game doesn't have those?

[juliejayne]

Originally posted by httpsiob:

Originally posted by Levianne:

I would say 1K or 2K series Nvidia should do the trick. The 710 seems really to be the issue, as you said yourself (my other specs are on par with yours, so it's down to the GPU). I'm not an expert in graphic cards prices, so can't say how expensive those are, but you've said it yourself, there's no need for an out of this world GPU to only play a game. The 1K series should be affordable, maybe even the 2K series.

Thank you - out of interest what GPU do you have, and do you find the game runs well? Only because you mentioned all our other specs were the same.

Frankly it depends very much on what sort of budget you have.
My old PC (now a lovely doorstop) was an i3 9100 (7 generations newer than yours) with a 1650 super GPU. But I realised that it was not strong enough to play BG3 at the quality I wanted.
I purchased 2nd hand my current PC for 400 euros, and am delighted with it.
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
GPU AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT