I measure in seconds per frame

I was just thinking about GTA 6 and how far GTA V has come over the years, and then it hit me… this game originally ran on the Xbox 360, a console with just 512MB of RAM. Half a gigabyte!

GTA V feels like a monster nowadays. Huge file sizes, tons of updates and increasing system requirements. This is a game from 2013. It was originally built for hardware that would struggle today to launch a modern bloated web browser.

I don’t have the time to try install an old version on a low-end PC. I just wanted to share that thought. Have any of you tried running older versions of GTA V on low-end hardware?

I've been a low end gamer for as long as I can remember, and I've been lurking on this subreddit for a year or two. I know the struggles of low end gaming, playing games on 640 x 480 resolution with Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 Ghz, ATI HD 2400 Pro GPU and 3 GB RAM, never increasing quality settings above the lowest, only playing 2D games or games older than 2013, waiting a few minutes until the computer opens, even having lags in games like League of Legends in teamfights... I know it all. Recently I put together a build of Ryzen 3 and RX 570, and my parts are arriving soon. My heart will always belong to low end gaming as it's the only thing I've known. I hope my eyes can adjust to FPS rates that are over 30. Thank you for all the low end game recommendations. I relate to this subreddit more than anything else.

Edit: This post got more interaction than I expected. I thank you all from the bottom of my 480p heart. Don't forget that there are a lot of low-end games that provide hours and hours of fun. I'll definitely be sticking around here.

Today I ordered an HP omen 15 gaming laptop, with an RTX 2060 and an i7 10750h and will be picking it up tomorrow. It has been an honor serving the under 30 FPS army. I will miss booting up a game and not knowing if my laptop will freeze or not. Thank you guys for being an awesome community.

Hello, I am not really a low end gamer, more like old end gamer (first generation i7 gamer), but one thing that made me kinda explode in rage was seeing some "master race" comments around the internet that are against low end gaming because "get a job and buy a proper 900+ usd PC" or "save up". Now, do those people think everyone lives in a rich first world country?

I will explain. I was born and raised and still live in Slovakia. I was lucky, almost 14 million people still die of malnutrition every year on this planet, but only a tiny few in Slovakia. The majority of population has access to education, modern medicine (through our healthcare is beset by underfunding and massive corruption), safe drinking water, decent food, which makes it a better country to live than many, even most, places in the world. It is the 39th richest country in the world, out of 198, and the 40th best living standard.

Despite all this, to the people living in the top 15 countries in the world, who take great luxuries for granted, our average income would seem horribly low. It is 945 euro a month, but a lot of that is in the capital, in the rest of the country, a lot of people earn 400-800 euro, depending on the region. In the eastern, poorest part, many people work illegally for like 300 euro a month to earn money for their families, and their low income never gets counted into the statistic. Now, I don't want to make anyone feel guilty, after all, our typical income is still 10x that of half the worlds population who live on under 2 usd a day.

What astounds me is however how a part of the gaming community looks down on people who game on "bad" hardware, and tell them to "get a job" or just "save up". Do they realize a person would have to literally eat dirt in most countries to afford the kind of "epic gaming rig" they have? Also, our electronics prices are actually HIGHER than in USA or other first world countries, what costs 250 euro costs 380 euro here. There is also the implication that gamers without pricy rigs are lazy fucks who just "need to get a job", do they realize that in most countries, you get a job so you feed your family and pay the bills, not to buy luxuries? I am not talking about some random "starving children in Africa" either, most of people in this country are richer than perhaps 4 billion people out of 6 in this world, yet I cannot but laugh at some bullshit some people spew. Do really some people do not see beyond their "middle class" (on a world scale, more like 1 percent) neighbourhood and assume just finding a job enables you to get a 2000 USD gaming rig? In the 90s, this was close to our YEARLY income. YEARLY. I am not talking about some African country, I am talking about a country that managed to transition from communism without major misery or social collapse, a country in the middle of Europe that has good relations with our neighbours. Now, it is much better than in the 90s, but nowhere near "just get a job and a GTX 1080 level" and it will not be at that level until 2030 at least.

Excuse me for this rant just wanted to get it off my chest and stimulate discussion.

As many of you have noticed, we have become the one stop shop for both low end pc gaming, as well as low end pc building, upgrading, and software or hardware tech support.

This was not really the subs intended scope, but.... we also pride ourselves (this means most of you too) on being a very helpful sub-reddit. There just simply is not a place to get help running hardware or games from 10-20+ years ago.

We could split into two subs, but that seem silly. We have been heavily moderating the hardware topics... but that has been hard on the users who really needed some help.

So instead, beginning this weekend, there will be MANDATORY flair on every post.

If you don't like the hardware posts, the flair will tell you. Not here to read about someones lowendgaming list of favorites? The flair will tell you stay away.

This gives the best solution to the most users, and makes some of your expertise available to the world.

Thank you to everyone that contributes, this really is the friendliest big gaming sub on Reddit because of the people who answer questions.

I'm getting a new GPU. To be precise, I'm going from AMD integrated graphics to an RTX 5070. It'll most likely arrive tomorrow. It's been fun with y'all, but I'm moving on. Can't wait to see you in 8-12 years once my new GPU will be considered "low end". Have a good one!

I've been working thru my backlog of free single player games I collected over the last year! Just beat Warhammer Space Marine, and been dabbling with ROtP and the OpenJulius/Ceasar3 engine.

** Thank you all for a very cool Live thread! We may do these once a week.

I got to try it out at a friend's house, and it was beautiful. It's the smoothest thing I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. But alas, 144Hz truly is a vile temptress. I've been in pain and suffering ever since. My RX 550 could barely play anything already. If my eyes were hurting before at 30FPS, now the screen spills forth pure acid. With only a 60Hz monitor, I can't even play old games at 144Hz. I can feel my sanity eroding every time I turn on the Afterburner OSD. I have no money for any kind of upgrades. I dread every new release knowing that I will never fully enjoy them within this decade. There truly is no respite from this hell.

Literally ordered and then cancelled a 9070xt within a half hour. I have 2 PC's. One with a 5070 and one with a 5060 that my wife uses. I JUST PLAYED RE9 Requiem and I had 200 fps on the 5060 using DLSS/FGx2. I thought it looked fine. I had fun. WTF am I doing?

A 9070xt is 700 bucks. That's like 12-14 nice dinners or like 15-30+ video games.

I'm 38. I grew up on NES > SNES > N64 as a kid. I use GOG and love indie games...currently I'm playing--get ready for this--a pixel art indie game called Look Outside and Gradius V for the PS2. I love both.

I don't even have a game in mind that I'd use or need a 9070xt for. I upgraded to my 5070 build when my 1660ti couldn't run Expedition 33 well. This time I don't even have a game in mind that I "need" a $700 card for.

What's wrong with me? Enough. Happy to discover this sub.

EDIT: Reading posts on this sub is a wake up call. I'm pretty fucking spoiled. Goddamn. I'm sorry you guys.

EDIT 2: The heated replies this topic has generated are fascinating to me. I feel like there's a camp of "dude, a 5060 is amazing stfu" and "dude, a 5060 is trash stfu." Truly a polarizing card! I'm decisively in the middle. I know it's not GREAT, but it's very GOOD for 1080p. I personally care about actual gameplay and fps more than ultra high def path traced eye candy. I'll just buy the next mid range card in 5 years and then play all of today's games that I miss in 1440p or 4k then lol.

/r/lowendgaming metrics:

Total Subscribers: 16,619

Subreddit Rank: 2,352

Subreddit Growth & Milestones: http://redditmetrics.com/r/lowendgaming

Can't play anything else, only that game.... what's your go to free lowend game?

Yeah you know what you did, you puffy fluuffy goofball. When compared this sub to any PC Gamer related subs, this is the nicest you can get. In something like r/pcmasterrace , saying you have a happy time using a low end PC is basically asking to be downvoted. PCMR are so cocky. They always said "why didnt you get a" but this sub from what ive noticed always like "thats good, but consider a". thats so wholesome. i believe this is because everyone aware of not everybody have the capability to afford a good pc. you all just want to make the best with what you got. even i, at some point found a probably a bait post, i was about to talk shit, but then i looked at the sub, i said " eh, being nice wouldnt hurt". this sub is seriously releasing some positive aura. seriously, if pcmr are nice like this, nobody wants to talk shit about it

A list of games I've played that run well on my laptop. Specs:

Intel Celeron CPU N3060 1.60Ghz 8GB RAM Intel HD Graphics 400

Very Playable: These are games I recommend to everyone.

• A Short Hike

• Blood and Bacon

• Baba is You

• Busy Room

• Celeste

• Cuphead

• Deltarune

• Do Not Feed the Monkeys

• Doki Doki Literature Club

• Don't Starve

• Death Road to Canada

• EGGNOGG +

• Factorio

• FAITH

• Fallout Shelter

• Super Fancy Pants Adventure

• Fnaf 4

• Forager

• FTL

• Enter the Gungeon

• Hotline Miami

• Hotline Miami 2

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

• Sort the Court

• Kingdom Classic

• The Last Station

• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

• Little Inferno

• Mari0

• Super Meat Boy

• The Messenger

• Minecraft Bedrock

• Minecraft Java

• Crypt of the Necrodancer

• Nuclear Throne

• Not Pacman

• Not Tetris 2

• Omnibus

• Papers, Please

• Party Hard

• Pewdiepie: Legend of the Brofist

• PICO*8

• Plague INC.

• Please, Don't Touch Anything

• Poly Bridge

• Poly Bridge 2

• POSTAL 2

• Potatoman Seeks the Troof

• Punch Club

• Plants vs. Zombies GOTY

• Reigns

• Shovel Knight

• Streets of Rogue

• Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion

• Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion HD Renovation

• Calm Down, Stalin

• Stardew Valley

• Draw a Stickman: EPIC

• The Henry Stickmin Collection

• Terraria

• Thimbleweed Park

• Two*Timing Towers

• Ultimate Custom Night

• Undertale

• You Have to Win the Game

• 7 Billion Humans

• Baldi's Basics Plus

• Carrion

• Dude, Stop

• FNaf

• Geometry Dash

• Kindergarten

• Luftrausers

• MINIT

• Monolith

• Nidhogg

• Pikuniku

• Reventure

• The Last Door

Playable: These are games I recommend if you're really interested, as they can get laggy sometimes.

• Amnesia: The Dark Descent

• Dwarf Fortress

• The Escapists

• Fallout 3

• Fallout New Vegas

• Lakeview Cabin Collection

• The Very Organized Thief

• Outlast

LOOK NO FURTHER!

i am currently on an toaster with the following specs:

os: windows 7 (32 bit btw ;) )

RAM: a whopping 4 GBs

Graphics Card: it's not even Intel HD, it's older :D

Processor: running at a STAGGERING 1.6 GHZ on an Intel processor.

model: freakin DELL LATITUDE

and i am here today, to help YOU!

don't let anybody tell you you can't have fun on a toaster! i have around 50 games installed atm on this beauty, and lemme tell ya, you are NOT limited to games from the 80s-90s.

im here to show you a list of fun games from the 80s-2010s you can run. however keep in mind this is for systems LIKE MINE or higher. if you are running something less then what i have well..i hear Zork is fun. so if that's not an issue, without further ado, let's begin!

Strategy games:

do you like war games? wish you could run Age Of Empires Definitive edition? or Starcraft 2? well..you probably can't. but that doesn't mean you can't have fun! here are several strategy games i recommend with a brief description.

Age Of Empires 1,2,3: the series needs no introduction. you pick an Civ and raise it, you can actually run 3 perfectly fine on an (EXTREMELY) low end system like mine, you shouldn't even have any issues with HD edition except it takes up 5 GBs of space. it ran perfectly fine on here. Age Of Mythology (not extended) works perfectly fine too btw. just don't run definitive edition and you're kosher.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmYlkgPwkhs

Buy it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/Age_of_Empires_II_2013/

Cossacks and American Conquest: same as AOE really, even older. i have NOT attempted to run 2 on here nor 3. but Cossacks + American Conquest work perfectly fine.

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVCFNAT_bmA

store: https://www.gog.com/game/cossacks_anthology

Cultures 1-3 : an old forgotten series where you are given vikings and have to build a village with them in the vein of Settlers.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0_McvZO7Jw

buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/cultures_12

Rise Of Nations: see AOE and this is NOT extended edition btw! this is for the original.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1v8EUIWjf4

buy it: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Nations-Gold-PC/dp/B0002UEDPG

Warlords Battlecry 3: you have 16 factions, tons of units. it's an age of empires clone but a DAMN good one.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olS5Q2S6_NI

store: https://www.gog.com/game/warlords_battlecry_3

Command And Conquer (up to generals): i got generals to run on a laptop from 2001. nuff said.

gameplay:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBlBvwGcefs

buy it: https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-the-ultimate-collection

Empire Earth: it's like aoe. i had some issues with 2 but 1 worked perfectly fine.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxATvzQApF4

buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/empire_earth_gold_edition

Heroes Of Might And Magic: 1-5 work perfectly fine with my specs. 5 is really fun, basically you pick a fantasy race and raise an army. im not sure about 6+ but 3 and 5 are considered the best in the series so..

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TB8h4vU_M

buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition (5 is on steam!)

Age Of Wonders: same as HOMM really except it's not on an isometric grid, and you have wizards.

1-2 and Shadow Magic work fine. 3 i have not tried nor will i. i recommend Shadow Magic,

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLZygAz_HpE

buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/age_of_wonders_shadow_magic

Stronghold Crusader: arguably one of the best and most fun RTS games around. you manage an economy and your army during the crusades. as per Firefly games, it has a lot of charm.

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSww4cL1QqI

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/40970/Stronghold_Crusader_HD/

Space Colony: the sims but in space, with pre-generated characters. and aliens. it's really fun and strategic. has a great soundtrack and all the Colonists have a personality of their own. highly recommend. and i ran it on a laptop from 2001 so.. don't worry!

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNNbgNujIf4

buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/space_colony_hd

Adventure Games

A.k.a

point and click goodness

Sam & Max series: you play as an Dog and Homicidal Lagomorph. you solve weird "crimes". the 1st game was made for DOS so you shouldn't have any issues, the Telltale series Seasons 1 & 2 work perfectly fine on my end.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWSUozBdAnA

store: https://store.steampowered.com/sub/7967/ (you can buy them separately as well)

Strongbad's cool game for attractive people: Another Telltale game and one i cannot promote enough, again. ran on a laptop from 2001. very funny and fun game. also be sure to check out the youtube series with Strongbad, Homestar Runner! flash goodness.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSVJDOfM7-c

buy it??: it WAS on GOG. since Telltale is gone now, try Amazon?

The Nancy Drew Series: (with my specs or higher) you should be able to run ALMOST all of them. you might have trouble with the later ones, like Alibi in Ashes or the Greek one. i tested them on a computer fairly similar to mine and had some fps drops. but for the most part you can run 85-90% of them im sure. i could even run the latest (from 2016) on an old windows vista 32 bit 3 GB of RAM pc. it had a dedicated video card but eh, should be fine on an intergrated. i HIGHLY recommend Blackmoor btw.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxAGfVpo7s

store: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=nancy+drew

The Secret Of Monkey Island: 1,2,3: 1 and 2 were remastered and should work fine. 3 is available via GOG with the SCUMM engine added.

gameplay :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycBnTsR9dIE

store: https://www.gog.com/game/the_secret_of_monkey_island_special_edition

Zork: i mean unless you're running an PC from 1981..it should work, bro.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNN4VPlRBJ8

store: https://www.gog.com/game/the_zork_anthology

Dracula Trilogy: These old (?) games basically revolve around you trying to break into Dracula's castle to stop his resurrection or something. i dunno but i know the third game is hard as hell. the puzzes are RIDICULOUS and you end up with a funny bootleg Dracula at the end. really creepy games with tons of puzzles. for a whopping $2 you can buy the trilogy if you're interested.they aren't scary jumpscare games but have a heavy creepy atmosphere.

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl5SrHJlD_E

store: https://www.gog.com/game/dracula_trilogy

Beyond Atlantis: these are old puzzle games from way back in the day, i loved them growing up. they are in the same vein as MYST or RIVEN. really weird too, you time travel to Ireland, China and Mexico via a Tibetan guy. you basically put your soul into another person and it's really weird. just see for yourself. there is also a part where you go into the Mayan underworld and have to talk to a bat. 10/10

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYci8wLJic

steam: https://www.gog.com/game/atlantis_2_beyond_atlantis

Ben there Dan That & Time Gentleman, Please! : Ok these games lack ANY voice acting at all. You HAVE to read the boxes. But the games are hilarious and full of British humor! the games are a love letter to LucasArts adventure games. they're very short and under $10. I highly recommend them if you love Day Of the Tentacle or Full Throttle type of games.

Gameplay: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0hZDldRHu9E

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/37400/Time_Gentlemen_Please_and_Ben_There_Dan_That_Special_Edition__Double_Pack/

Oddities

(stuff i have no idea how to classify)

Slayaway Camp: a slider puzzle game where you play as a serial killer. if you lower the graphics and turn off fancy junk, it's VERY playable. also a FREE Friday the 13th version exists.

gameplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcwszmfbns

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/530390/Slayaway_Camp/

Alien vs Predator 1 & 2: you play as an Alien..or Predator. or Marine. and you kill..Aliens, Predators..or Marines. MUCH better then the movies! both are quite old, i noticed to get AVP 1 working correctly you have to set compatability to XP. otherwise you'll get fps drops. but works very good! the 2nd game is abandonware as of now, so just download and play for free.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYIDCfORXI

store: https://www.gog.com/game/aliens_versus_predator_classic_2000

Plague Inc: you make a virus and try to infect the whole world, at first i was worried because it took a few minutes to boot up and kept spinning, but the game is 100% playable. even more so if you turn off fancy effects.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSat_gLDXPc

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/246620/Plague_Inc_Evolved/

Duke Nukem 3D, BLOOD and Shadow Warrior Classic: the classic build engine games. all work fine and run on open GL, i personally like Shadow Warrior Classic:

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFL6rXcSvBE

store: https://www.gog.com/game/shadow_warrior_complete

Sega Bass Fishing: Bass Fishing is a game i used to play on a windows 98, you catch bass. it's really relaxing and fun. 10/10

gameplay:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AXkZq3jfsQ

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/71240/SEGA_Bass_Fishing/

Kitty Powers Matchmaker: a dating game where you pair odd couples, it DOES feature LGBT couples so if you aren't pro LGBT you might want to avoid it! but it's cute charming and a feel good game. trust me, it's a really cute game.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Uy4J6MlrI

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/285740/Kitty_Powers_Matchmaker/

The Daily Cthonicle: this game has barely any graphics, it's buggy. but it's really fun! you run a newspaper company that specializes in Paranormal stuff. everything takes place within your office but you send out reporters to investigate stuff. it's cheap and fun. very Lovecrafteque.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41lwTzBeu8E

Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/490980/Daily_Chthonicle_Editors_Edition/

Swords and Sandals: ok so this is a collection of about 5 games, basically you make a gladiator and then you fight in an arena. they're cheap, they were originally flash games. i recommend 1-3. as 4 didn't work so well on my end. same with Crusader.it is NOT an extremely deep game, but if you're like me and grew up with flash gaming. it's fun.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdE2HoLgQ0U

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055430/Swords_and_Sandals_Classic_Collection/

Simcity 2000,3000 and 4: i used to run 4 on the laptop from 2001 so it's very low spec, 2000 is a DOS game and 3000 is a windows 98 game. all are amazing however so don't let that discourage you!

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW3IOVLUUeo

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24780/SimCity_4_Deluxe_Edition/

Tasty Planet: ok this is a REALLY weird game, you know Katamari? the game where you roll around a ball and collect stuff? this is kinda like that. you control a ball of goo. or a cat. and you eat stuff to become bigger. the games are REALLY fun and even the store page pokes fun at system requirements. 3 games in the series all cheap.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAyvIFd0Lgs

steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/687540/Tasty_Planet/

GhostMaster: god i LOVED this game growing up, ok so imagine the sims, but then add GHOSTS. ok MORE ghosts. you control the ghosts via orders (like rattle chains) and have to scare away the sims. but that's not always the goal. sometimes you have to get them to uncover a murder for example. look just buy and play the game, it's freakin amazing and fun. if you love the paranormal and the Sims, you won't be disappointed.

gameplay:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lSn3Ao1ppc

buy it buy it buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/ghost_master

Lakeview Cabin: like horror movies? no? ok nvm then. but if you DO, this game is a parody of popular horror movies. it features 6 movies, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th and Alien among the ones. you play as a person, and you have to kill the killer or survive. it's 2D but full of humor and raunchyness. if you love horror movies, you'll enjoy it.

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEpbFwPGgmI

store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/361990/Lakeview_Cabin_Collection/

Civ 1-4: keep in mind you will CANNOT install many mods for Civ 4 or your RAM will run out. but the base game is perfectly fine! you pick a leader of a civilization e.g Stalin, and you build a city e.g St Petersburg, and you research technologies and build an army to use in Turn based combat and conquer the map. MORE BABA YETU DAMMIT.

gameplay:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k60b1_9LTQk

BABA YETU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRUnoGmwNCA

store: https://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_civilization_iv_the_complete_edition

NeoScavenger: ok so this game on the surface looks like nothing special, but you're WRONG the game has an extremely deep crafting system and health system. It's a 75MB game and it works on pretty much anything, It's a masterpiece that will leave you frustrated and amazed. It's VERY similar to fallout 1&2 . Take a gander:

Gameplay: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YuoR9wJ0M0M

Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/248860/NEO_Scavenger/

RPG

(y'know. make a party or go alone and kill innocent goblins and sell their hide for gold)

Ultima 1-7: let's not add Ultima 8 or 9 even though you can run them, they're garbage. however 1-7 are FANTASTIC games as long as you don't mind the extremely dated graphics. the games run in DOS so..

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHb_oI3lf8g

store: https://www.gog.com/game/ultima_1_2_3

Might And Magic 1-8: these games are old school tile based movement games, but the art styles in them are amazing. World of Xeen is the best. but Mandate Of Heaven is good too.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Li7VoBTcg

buy it: https://www.gog.com/game/might_and_magic_6_limited_edition

The Elder Scrolls 2 Daggerfall: why am i talking about this and not Morrowind? because Daggerfall is incredible and everybody needs to know. yes you can run Morrowind. but Daggerfall is a game you can LITERALLY live in, you can own property, the game has thousands of generated towns, thousands of dungeons, also the game is FREE. c'mon,.it's so good.

gameplay:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyXpbK5aPEo

download it: https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/daggerfall

Diablo 1&2: Diablo 1 and 2 are amazing pc games where you pick a class and slay demons. i prefer the original Diablo however. it's so much creepier, takes up less space and is just great imo. but that's my opinion of course. if you want Diablo 2 you're welcome to it. it's fantastic. but hard to find i believe, (unless you buy it physically) keep in mind this game is from 1998, it's clunky as hell but still enjoyable! and oh boy is it tough..

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl5I5CUTqh4

store: https://www.gog.com/game/diablo

Terraria: is it an RPG? Is it Minecraft 2D? Who knows. Since it has RPG elements, it goes here. It just got a MASSIVE final update and it runs perfectly fine with my specs. It's less then $15 HEAVILY moddable. Grab it. However ignore the Steam page. The system specs are a lie. It runs fine on old PCs!

Gameplay: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cV3Cfed4RBU

Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/Terraria/

FREE GAMES

so you like free stuff eh?

Toribash: this is a downloadable game where you fight other players via martial arts. you have to watch the gameplay to understand what i mean. it's really odd but funny and enjoyable. keep in mind you WILL have to turn off Bloom and crap when you start it. when you disable all the effects and shadows and junk (you don't need them) it runs perfectly.

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0l9NVcPlDY

download link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/248570/Toribash/

Tales Of Maj'eyal: this is a roguelike, with tile graphics. it's also FREE. the expansion packs cost money but the game itself is free. what's it about? well it's FREE so see for yourself! worked fine on my end, just disable bloom and junk. :)

Gameplay:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUBEOGx24Uk

Download: https://te4.org/

Cataclysm: same as TOME, it's a roguelike except in the zombie apocalypse. it's VERY detailed and complex. like Dwarf Fortress. but it runs on LITERALLY a computer from the 80s (or claims to). it's in ASCII art so you'll want to download a tile set for graphics. but it's also FREE. so whatda got to lose?

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql_GFKXdSRA (skip about 30 mins into the video to see gameplay)

download: https://cataclysmdda.org/

have anymore suggestions or questions? advice? write it down below!

also i WILL be adding to this list from time to time! so come back and see if it's updated :)

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/

Free until May 21st.

I don't think I need to tell you how amazing the GTA series is. One of the best optimized open world games, long game play story for 1 player, or amazing online gaming via GTA Online or FiveM.

If you are unsure if it will run on your specs.... here is a great LSG video for low end pcs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfclRnmez0c

Min advertised specs:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit, Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)

I'll buy up to 5 games for random people 4.99 and less. Let me know what you want a d how to send it to you on steam. I'm just bored and generous

Deus ex (especially human revolution and game of the year 2000 edition with gmdx or revision mods) Immersive cyberpunk fps games with strong storylines huge amount of customizations and upgrades(weapons and augmentations) and detailed environments to explore. Can be very cheap during sales(deus ex game of the year 0,97 euros and human revolution 2,99 euros atm)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/6910/Deus_Ex_Game_of_the_Year_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/238010/Deus_Ex_Human_Revolution__Directors_Cut/

Observer might not be low end but if you are looking for a horror game that focuses less on combat and more on exploration can be a good choice.

https://www.gog.com/game/observer_system_redux_deluxe_edition

System shock 1/2. A classic cyberpunk style fps horror game.

https://www.gog.com/game/system_shock_2

Cloudpunk. Also an cyberpunk style exploration game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/746850/Cloudpunk/

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. Cyberpunk FPS/RPG. It has its flaws but if you are looking for something that might be weird or overcomplicated might be worth a check.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/91700/EYE_Divine_Cybermancy/

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

https://store.steampowered.com/app/233270/Far_Cry_3__Blood_Dragon/

Anachronox

https://www.gog.com/game/anachronox

Shadowrun

https://store.steampowered.com/app/300550/Shadowrun_Dragonfall__Directors_Cut/

Syndicate

https://www.gog.com/game/syndicate

Blade Runner

https://www.gog.com/game/blade_runner

Rise of the Dragon

https://www.gog.com/game/rise_of_the_dragon

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

I love this community man, from the people who regularly share links to free games to the guys who post benchmarks for low-end systems. You guys deserve a lot of love and appreciation from all of us that don't have access to a decent system. Thank you for everything and let's keep looking out for each other.

I have a vega 56 8gb GPU i7 3770 and 16gb Ram now.... I’ll miss you guys a lot ☹️ I love you with all my heart. You got me through so much. From my intel hd graphics to my amd A8 6600k apu to my gtx 750 ti. We have come so far 🥺. To anyone with low end specs.... do not lose hope!

The specs:

CPU: i7-4790 (A legendary heater)

GPU: ASUS GTX 1070 Turbo (Found it dead)

RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz

Mobo: Gigabyte B85M-DS3H

Monitor: An old VGA screen with a sketchy HDMI adapter.

The GPU Resurrection: A friend of mine was going to throw this GTX 1070 into the trash because it had factory VRAM defects. It was basically a brick. I spent hours researching, decided to risk it, and flashed a modded BIOS to tweak the memory voltages and clocks. Against all odds, it worked. It’s been stable ever since and handles everything I throw at it.

The "Cooling" System: If you know the i7-4790, you know it runs hot as hell. I found a tower heatsink, but it wasn't even made for the LGA 1150 socket and had no fan. I "jerry-rigged" the mount to make it fit, but since I didn't have a PC fan, I just pointed a giant household floor fan directly into the open case.

People laughed, but hey: this monster doesn't go over 65°C even under full load.

Everything else—the RAM, the mobo, the cables—was scavenged and repaired. It’s not pretty, it’s loud, and it looks like a bomb, but it's my $0 beast and I love it.

https://imgur.com/gallery/i74th1070-ezTxbzv

Title explains the conversation.... what PC games are you playing right now LowEndGamers?

I used to do these more frequently for this subreddit a few years ago, but due to the time it takes I haven't had time until recently. Anyhow, I just do this to try and help inform buying advice on older or used GPU's, specifically for those kind folks who have a hard time finding a modern GPU in their price point. There will be graphs in the links for easy viewing of data for those who are interested. There is also a video in the TLDR if you're not a fan of walls of text.

The test bench is an i5 9400f with 16gb of ddr4. It should be more than fast enough to not bottleneck the gpus tested.

The GPU's that I benchmarked were the GTS 450(GDDR5 variant), GTX 470, GTX 550ti, GTX 560, GTX 570. GTX 650ti, HD 5870, HD 6850, HD 7770, and HD 7850. These are the card prices as based off of the trending sold listing price as based off of the NA version of Ebay. Not everybody in every part of the world can find these GPUs for this price, but the 'relative price' should be similar, and the performance from each GPU will be the same.

The games that were benchmarked were, Shadow of the Tomb Raider(1080p Low), GTAV(1080p High), Skyrim Special Edition(1080p High), Squad(1080p Low),Overwatch(1080p High), Medieval Dynasty(1080p Low), Cyberpunk 2077(1024x768 Low), and Planet Zoo(1080p Low) .

Conclusion:

After testing that lot of GPU's I can say that the old Terrascale 2 cards(HD 5870, HD 6850) underperformed in all the games in comparison with the other architectures. The old architecture paired with the fact driver support ended in 2018 means any new game really struggles.

The old midrange fermi cards struggled as well, specifically the GTS 450, and GTX 550ti. The rest of the fermi cards( GTX 470, GTX 560, GTX 570) actually did quite well in all the games with the exception of Cyberpunk. Driver support ended for these cards as well, but they have held up quite well for most of the games tested.

The GTX 650ti was surprisingly "meh". It does still get modern driver support, but it was outclassed by the GCN cards in nearly every game.

The HD 7770, and HD 7850 were the cards that had the best driver support, and in general the HD 7850 was a very good performing card. It was the only GPU that managed to make Cyberpunk a playable experience.

Top Picks:

HD 7850- It has great driver support and will likely still get driver updates for the foreseeable future. It performed well in every game tested. Its not that power hungry either. Its a great little 1080p card if you don't mind turning the settings down.

The GTX 570- This GPU is still good enough for most 1080p gaming. In some games it struggles with artifacting due to limited driver support. But in general for the price its still an acceptable option if you temper your expectations.

GTX 650ti- Its an alright card if you need a DX12 capable Nvidia card that has the most modern drivers. It performed alright and is pretty good on power.

TLDR: The HD 7850, GTX 570, and GTX 650ti are good budget options if you can find them. The GCN based HD 7850 is still a kick-ass card for the price and is good enough for most 1080p gaming, except in the most demanding titles.

Also I do have a video that summarizes this, but I'd urge you to just look at the graphs. Its the same data.

I hope at least some of you can find this helpful :)

Or 900p low, yes this card was bad but if you have it you can still enjoy the game, we survived boyos this card is still playable, we can wait for future optimizations tho

Performance test:

https://youtu.be/yNzCzfTlQ0U