Nvidia GeForce GTX 745 upgrade question

AndyTSJ · Aug 27, 2022

I'm looking to upgrade my existing graphics card so I can run Flight Simulator 2020, from the current GeForce GTX 745 to something that can handle that game as best as possible given my existing system architecture. Here's the specs:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz

Installed RAM 24.0 GB

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

I'm planning to upgrade the RAM to 32GB as part of the process of upgrading the graphics card.

What are my options within my existing hardware spec?

:)

Tezzerrific

best sales pitch i have seen in a while

JosefLBohorquez

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today Andytsj

Your processor can handle the 32GB of RAM
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/product...

But the important thing is check if your motherboard can handle it.
Please check your motherboard model and share it here
I can tell you if it supports 32GB of RAM

SwordofWhedon

Well I don’t get anything out of it.

However I know most people, myself included, or skittish about spending $500 on an Xbox, let alone dropping 1200+ on a brand new gaming PC so I try to remind people that there is a lower cost solution. If you want to spend money on a new gaming PC, have at it, I certainly won’t stop you

I just hope that after a year of trying to get a GPU when you finally get one that you don’t have one of the power plugs be bad on it and have it fail after a month and have to spend two weeks RMAing it like I am right now

Obsessive Power

To be honest, it's not really worth upgrading. Certainly not for one game. As a PC builder myself, it's not just a case of changing the graphics card either. You need to factor in the power requirements of a more powerful graphics card. If your PC is an OEM build (Dell, HP, Lenovo) it will probably have a power supply (PSU) that's just enough to run the current build and nothing more.

And as Tezzerrific has pointed out, most modern graphics cards would be bottlenecked by your older 4 core i7-4790. Even then you'll struggle with that processor. MSFS 2020 is as CPU heavy as it is GPU heavy.

I suspect that your RAM config is 8x2 and 4x2 = 24GB. With all four memory slots used up you'd be running in dual channel. But DDR3 is not very fast by todays standards. You can run MSFS with 16GB.

It would be more cost effective to buy something more modern now than waste buying kit that's just not going to last to play more modern titles going forward. Gaming PC prices have recently stabilised now that graphics cards are more plentiful.

Tezzerrific

would be just as cheap to get a new board, cpu and ram, your current cpu will be a severe bottleneck for any of the latest gpu's and as you are most likely running ddr3 and not in dual channel mode that will affect performance too.

you may even have to upgrade the psu too to support the latest gpu's.

what's your budget

Nvidia GeForce GTX 745 upgrade question