Default and gaming resolutions for old obsolete PCs

[*StonedKills*Goblin]

I have been currently stuck with an HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC model released in 2010 since first wave or second wave of covid. I have done only minute cheap upgrades so far as its all I was able to do at the time but hopefully I may have some upcoming chances to get a better GPU or maybe even a 10th gen Intel build.

Anyways I digress I am looking for suggestions and opinions on which of these two resolutions would be best with your added takes on their pro's and con's in gaming performance impact for my specs.

(Copied and pasted from the program Speccy)

Specs;

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10GHz 33 °C
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology

RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 657MHz (9-9-9-24) (1333Mhz in Task manager)

Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 1495 (SOCKET 0)

Graphics
DELL S2421H (1440x1080@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (ZOTAC International) 33 °C

Storage
223GB KINGSTON SA400S37240G (SATA-2 (SSD)) 39 °C
931GB Crucial CT1000BX500SSD1 (SATA (SSD)) 26 °C
447GB ADATA SU635 (SATA (SSD)) 43 °C
1863GB Seagate BUP Slim BK SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA) ) 31 °C
488GB General UDisk USB Device (USB )

Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected (I remove and reinstall it back and forth depending on my wants/needs.)

Audio
FxSound Audio Enhancer/Default High Definition Audio Device

I have a manual OC on my GPU as well.

Please and thank you for the help.

[_I_]

those are basically throw away e-waste pcs

no upgrade path
gpu limited to low profile, not much better than the 1030
any stronger will be cpu limited by the 2400 and psu limited
on many oems like that they do not use standard atx power connectors to the mobo

save up for an entire new build

for gaming res, older games at 1080p lower settings, or 720p/800p or similar at mid+ settings

DELL S2421H, should be 1920x1090 (1080p75hz) not 1440x1080
set it correctly in nvidia control panel

[*StonedKills*Goblin]

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

those are basically throw away e-waste pcs

no upgrade path
gpu limited to low profile, not much better than the 1030
any stronger will be cpu limited by the 2400 and psu limited
on many oems like that they do not use standard atx power connectors to the mobo

save up for an entire new build

for gaming res, older games at 1080p lower settings, or 720p/800p or similar at mid+ settings

DELL S2421H, should be 1920x1090 (1080p75hz) not 1440x1080
set it correctly in nvidia control panel

oh the reason I didnt have the monitor set to default was I remember being told a decade ago that alt tabbing from a game with a different resolution than you are running taxes the GPU overtime and such to that nature.

I alt tab a lot when gaming usually

Edit2: But everything else you stated I sadly knew when getting this I was on a laptop at the time still one that was much better than my previous but still had its limits and I wanted an actual PC badly so I overpaid for this model myself. The GPU and SSDs minus the one that was in this one I got/my friends got for me.

[*StonedKills*Goblin]

Still willing to hear from others I know I have huge limitations and etc just wanting to hear what you may have to share in terms of very low end low spec gaming settings ini file editing stuff like that.

[Set-115689]

If you have a nvidia card you can do Nvidia control panel/Adjust Desktop Size and Composition and select aspect ratio, perform scaling on gpu and click the box that says override the scaling mode set by games and programs. This lets you play 4:3 without stretching them to 16:9 or w/e aspect ratio.

Shadow quality, shadow distance, draw distance, water quality, AA type can have big effects. Might be optimization videos for the game you play.

When you boot up your pc see what the cpu, memory usage is.

Can turn off fast start up in windows (not fast boot in the bios), turn off superfetch in services, go into ask manager start up tab and disable extra stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmbsLnp3iIA

Set monitor to 1080p 60 fps vs 75.

[Illusion of Progress]

Just set it to what you feel comfortable with on a case by case basis? Why shoehorn yourself into a "one answer for all" approach?

Normally, you would want to adjust settings in games until you reach the performance level you desire. Where you need to put the settings to reach that might be different depending on the game. You should adjust the settings for your desired performance level, not something arbitrary.

[*StonedKills*Goblin]

Thank you guys

[Set-115689]

There's also geforce Now free version. 1 hour session limit with as many sessions per day as you want. The paid tier tries to drain you of cash. Only some games supported. Uses up tons of internet (10gb/hour) but can do custom settings. Might need to hook laptop up to router via ethernet cable due to input lag. Can play high end games on very low end pcs (much lower than yours since you have a gpu and the cpu isn't bad). Epic games has weekly free games you can test with. Epic games has a daily giveaway that might start mid December. Usually a AAA game given away at some point.

And there's reddit gamedeals forum that lists free game

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/

[_I_]

using nvidia display scaling can make everything blurry
if you do need to force a lower res, enable gpu scaling to center, so it will letterbox (add black boarders to lower res)

[*StonedKills*Goblin]

Thank you guys