After upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11, several games—including No Man's Sky, Coral Island, Cities: Skylines, and Kerbal Space Program—crash shortly after loading a save. This happens even with the graphics settings at their lowest. Task Manager doesn't show an obvious bottleneck when the crashes occur: CPU usage is around 50%, GPU usage about 70%, and memory around 40%. However, the error messages often mention insufficient graphics memory. I'm only aiming to play at 1080p. With a budget of about 1,000 CAD (roughly 700 USD), what would be the best first upgrade? My current system has a B450 Tomahawk motherboard, Ryzen 5 2600X, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, and a 500GB Samsung SSD.
3 Answers
A current-generation card with 16GB of VRAM would give you more breathing room for newer games and large city or simulation saves. After that, moving from the Ryzen 5 2600X to a Ryzen 5 5600 or 5600X would help with CPU-heavy titles such as Cities: Skylines and Kerbal Space Program. Before buying anything, it’s also worth checking GPU drivers, game files, temperatures, and whether the Windows upgrade left behind driver conflicts.
The graphics card is the most obvious place to start. Your GTX 1060’s 6GB of VRAM is becoming limiting in newer games, especially when the crash messages specifically mention graphics memory. The right choice depends on local pricing, but a modern card with at least 8GB—and ideally 12–16GB—would be a meaningful upgrade for 1080p gaming.
I’d upgrade the GPU first, then consider the processor. A Ryzen 5 5600 or 5600X would be a solid drop-in CPU upgrade for the B450 platform, assuming the motherboard BIOS supports it. Pairing that with a newer graphics card should provide a noticeable improvement without requiring a complete platform replacement.
My budget is around 1,000 CAD, or about 700 USD.