Upgrading Bundled HP for Half Life-Alyx

[richardparrker]

Hello

I bought the bundled Vive and HP Envy 750-415VHR several years ago.  I have upgraded the RAM to 16GB, but otherwise, this is still the older system:

Intel Core i5-6400 Quad Core CPU, 8GB DDR4 memory (now upgraded to 16GB), Radeon RX480 graphics card, and 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD

I've recently picked up Half Life-Alyx.

The game plays on my system now, but I'm sure it could be better.  After playing for a while, the screen gets pretty jumpy/ shaky.  Here are the minimum specs for the game:

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
RAM: 12GB RAM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) / AMD Radeon RX 580 (8GB)

 

Any recommendations on specific upgrades that are likely to make the game work more smoothly?

Thanks!

[HackPerception]

@richardparrker - Open up your resource monitor/task manager and try to figure out if you're GPU or CPU bound. That said, that GPU is considered min-spec for VR content nowadays (and you're below req for Alyx). The RTX2060/2070 are good upgrade cards and the 2060 is pretty affordable considering it's performance and will likely breath a few years of extra VR life out of your PC, even more so for the 2070. VR generally isn't CPU bound unless you're using wireless. I wouldn't generally recommend dumping a bunch of money into an older PC - I lean on the side of doing complete rebuilds every few years rather than trying to upgrade part by part. A good GPU can last you a while though.

[richardparrker]

Great - thank you!

Is it typically pretty straightforward to swap out the graphics card, or would I need to look at other components of the system for compatibility?

Thanks!

[HackPerception]

@richardparrker It's generally straightforward with the caveat that your power supply has to have both the right connector to attach to the GPU as well as enough capacity to drive the new GPU. The 2060s/2070's generally need a 500-600w power supply and 6/8 pin PEG connectors depending on the card. The other thing to think about is that modern GPUs are freaking massive - you want to ensure that your case can fit the full length and width of the card, most GPUs nowadays take up 2 PCI slots.

 

[richardparrker]

Thank you so much!  Super helpful