Question about Specs...

Would the following be an okay setup to run BeamNG Drive and GTA 5, and if so at what level?

CPU - AMD FX8350 8 core 4.0/4.2GHz
MOBO - MSI 970 Gaming
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4)
Case - ENERMAX Ostrog ECA3351B-BT
SSD (for Windows) - Sandisk 64GB Pulse
HDD - Seagate 1TB Barracuda
Graphics - Sapphire Technology Radeon R7 240 (1GB)

If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them, or if you think a different setup is better. This all comes to about £400, and that is as expensive I can go, I only planned on spending £200-£300 but I simply don't think it will run BeamNG Drive.

 

CPU will run beamng pretty well, everything under the T-series is totally playable, that can be used if you are willing to overclock. However that GPU is really really low end and will strugle pretty bad with any modern game even at medium...

 

CPU will run 4 basic vehicles in BeamNG. Super complex stuff like ARB's D/H series mods with the trailers attached or the T65/75 may be beyond its grasp due to AMD's lower performance for a given clock rate, BeamNG is more suited to Intel. But covet, D series, grand marshals etc, not an issue and you can easily guarantee 4 of them running. BeamNG is poorly suited to the AMD Siamese twin architecture though so you can't guarantee 8 vehicles (chips being 8 core chips), you may be able to cope with more than 4, but not guaranteed, to hit more than 8 will only really occur with super simple vehicles like the pigeon.
CPU is absolutely fine for GTA5, GTA5 isnt really a CPU limited game. It is highly recommended to have at least a quad core, but I run it on an old triple core AMD just fine.

GPU is a waste of money. Total waste.
Take its G3D score, 959. I run an obsolete GPU myself, a GTX460, score: 2655. Intels HD5000 integrated graphics arent far behind an r7 240 at 600 and HD4000 brings up the rear at 454.
BeamNG I have run on an HD4000. To make the game look pretty, you do need a decent GPU, but to make the game run, it doesnt need much.
But GTA5. No chance. Ignore G3D scores for a second and go to VRAM. To play the game at 1360*768 (below 1080p, native resolution of most tv's advertised as 720p) requires about 900mb of VRAM at base settings, you only have 1024mb to play with in the first place. 1080p will exceed 1024mb immediately. Increased pedestrian variety (which has no other performance hit) exceeds that quite rapidly, I can only bump those sliders up 1 or 2 notches on my ancient 1gb VRAM card. Increased texture quality which again has little performance hit besides VRAM usage, immediately bumps you to about 1500mb of VRAM used. For anything other than minimum settings, 1gb vram is not enough for GTA5. Its a game that can even max 2gb if going for ultra settings. Actual fps at those minimum settings. Again, I cant manage 60fps, it taxes my GPU to maintain a solid 30fps, yet mine is about 3 times as powerful as your planned GPU, increased resolution would decrease FPS further. GTA5 on that GPU will simply be unplayable.



On your budget. Ditch the SSD. Its unnecessary and 64gb wont let you see the true benefits of one anyway. Day to day usage, it makes no impact besides waiting 1 second instead of 2 for chrome to open (big whoopy do).

Look for a cheaper motherboard. Don't need to spend so much of your budget on a killer motherboard you cant use with your non killer hardware.

Then actually consider buying a power supply as you left one off the list.

 

Thanks very much for your detailed reply. I'm thinking of ditching the SDD, GPU and Motherboard. I'm going to completely ditch the idea of an SSD and have a slightly cheaper motherboard, to save money for a better GPU. Just wondered if you had any good GPU's that I could use, along with a compatible motherboard, thanks again. George.