People love to play video games. They provide great escapism, and some games resonate with players on a personal level. Unfortunately, not everyone has top-notch hardware for the best gaming experience. Consoles and PC components are getting pretty expensive, and given the current shortage of computer chips, it’s going to be difficult to get the best hardware.
The great thing about technology, however, is that where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s possible to play relatively modern games on low-end hardware. Some solutions involve simple computer cleanups or more technical methods that require a little ingenuity. Here are some tips to get the best gaming experience on low-end PCs.
8/8 Play slower games
In intense games like first-person shooters, the ideal frame rate is crucial to be able to react quickly to threats. This is especially true for online games where a stuttering framerate can make it difficult to align the shot.
Luckily, this isn’t as much of a problem on slower games. This can include stealth games, puzzle games, or point-and-click adventure games. Many narrative first-person games, which some in the public snidely refer to as “walking simulators,” are more casual and far less twitchy.
7/8 Play older games
A low-end computer is great for older games. Yes, some of these games aren’t as graphically impressive as modern games running on tech powerhouses, but some like it half-life 2 have visuals that still hold up today.
Sometimes it’s also true that “they don’t make them the way they used to.” Some older games are classics that are still played by many today. demisehas been ported to virtually every existing platform, for example. Multiplayer games whose servers were shut down a long time ago are kept alive by the fans.
6/8 Play 2D games
There was a time when the video game industry fully embraced 3D as the wave of the future. Sliding polygons promised a more intense gaming experience. Now the industry has understood that 2D gaming is an art form worth celebrating.
The indie scene is populated with retro-inspired titles. These include the recently released hit platformers Celeste and the innovative, narrative role-playing game Undertale. The 2D visuals of other indie games are lovingly crafted to create an artistic piece of media that will stand the test of time.
5/8 Set games to the lowest graphics settings.
This tip falls under the obvious category. Most games on computers have a variety of graphics settings. It’s a good idea to experiment with them to see which setting has the most impact on game performance.
One of the biggest drags on a game’s framerate is resolution. Yes, 1080p is good, but 720p also gives a decent picture. Tools like Magpie have multiple options for scaling lower-resolution games to find the balance between a sharp image and a solid framerate.
4/8 Close unnecessary programs
This may seem obvious, but there are often programs running in the background that have nothing to do with the games that are running. When you open Task Manager, you get a record of what’s running and how much CPU and RAM it’s using.
Before closing anything that is using resources, these programs and services should be evaluated to see if they are necessary for the computer system to function. It would not be advisable to casually terminate programs and services when there is a possibility that doing so could affect the computer’s ability to function properly.
3/8 Set the game’s RAM priority to High
Some games have high RAM requirements. While a game is running, the computer is also running other processes that also use memory. It is possible to prioritize the allocation of RAM resources for programs via the task manager.
To do this, switch to the “Details” area in the Task Manager. Right-click on the game that is currently being played. A menu will appear. Hover your mouse over the Priority option and left-click on any of the options that appear. This should ensure a smoother gaming experience.
2/8 Edit configuration files
Computer games often have a variety of graphical options to choose from. However, sometimes that is not enough. A number of “hidden” graphics settings are available in the game files. This doesn’t require that much technical wizardry.
Some of these come in the form of .xml or .ini files and have variables that are assigned a numeric value. You can find them in the App Data folder, My Games folder, Documents folder, or wherever your favorite game launcher saves the games. You can affect graphical settings such as fog, reflections and even the appearance of grass models in the game. The LowSpec Gamer YouTube channel has hundreds of videos covering customizing these files for some of the most popular games over the past decade, and these tips will come in handy for getting other games up and running.
If there’s a way in video games, nerds will find it. The modding community has developed tools and mods that help some of the more graphically advanced games run on computers as weak as the Acer Aspire 3.
Such mods include The witcher 3‘s Ultimate Graphics Options Mod, which adds additional graphics options for pretty much everything, including textures and the number of NPCs populating the game world. Depending on how far the player wants to go, the results can be terrifying.
#tips #gaming #lowend #PCs
Leave a Comment