Appreciate some of the views here, but your idea of upgrading your components is probably going to be a better approach in my opinion.

Dedicated systems are often attractive at first, but these things tend to be churned out.

You have a nice case. Frankly that excellent. A case is for looking at. Otherwise they'd all be aluminium boxes!

Find a good vendor. Personally I like EVGA. They have loads of great stuff to daydream about, Their prices aren't bad and their after sales is excellent.


Look at your Power Supply Unit. Is it beefy enough? If you are going to build and expand, (as you seem to have done so far), then you need a bit of muscle. 750 to 800 Watts is a good start to aim at. Modular is tidy but more expensive. Save your money and get a non-modular.

Motherboard. Look for a good manufacturer. Cheap boards are flimsy and don't last. Asus is the best, and most expensive. EVGA has a good reputation. Personally I always buy Asus because the MB is the most essential and I want reliable, You will generally get your CPU to suit the board.
https://www.ranker.com/list/the-best-motherboard-manufacturers/computer-hardware

Be looking for your CPU cooler as well. A big passive cooler may not be pretty but it's better than liquid and a lot quieter. You should look for a lot of pipes. Don't skimp on this. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpu-coolers,4181.html

Graphics card. Be careful here. Tom's Hardware has run a hierarchy chart for some years and is the go to for comparisons. Go for the best you can afford. But be careful get a card that matches your CPU.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

Sound. Some people spend loads on sound. Personally, a couple of cheap speakers with built in amps do me. I like to keep an ear open for domestic horrors. But in any case, not essential.

Tell us how you get on.

You need to upgrade badly. And yes, just go for a new motherboard, graphics card, ram. This time go for something that will make use of the same kind of ram (8, 16, 32 ) not 20 that`s terribly inefficient. A good cpu (I suggest Ryzen) is the brain. You`ll likely need a new power supply as well , don`t skimp on it either as it is the heart.

Just go for a new computer. I`d say build your own but that`s probably a bit much. Do the research and if you can afford it go for something that will happily run NMS and be `futureproofed` for another few years. A Ryzen system with 16 gig of ram, 1060 graphics card would be nice. It`ll cost you, but be worth it in the end.

Yeah, I second that, I was just thinking that might be a good idea, the thing is like mbailey56 mentions, that most motherboards work with pairs of memory sticks that need to be the same size, if they are not it becomes inefficient.

I'll "third" that suggestion, The unusual RAM configuration might be a big part of your problems. I run NMS on both my desktop and laptop. The laptop has 16bg RAM and a GTX1060. It runs very well on Ultra settings.

Thank you all so much for your additional insights and information! Lots to learn here!

First, the easy path: I have asked hubby to remove the odd sized memory module and just keep the two 8 ones. That will probably happen sometime this weekend. Then I'll definitely report back, who knows this might allow NMS to run. I have some hope now - especially since at least one of you has the same graphics card as myself. I don't need BEST graphics right now, just, you know, see what the game is about at this point :)

As for building a new system vs buying a fully assembled one, well, in truth either will have to wait a little. So if tweaking the current settings and optimizing the memory doesn't do the trick (who woulda thunk that REMOVING memory would OPTIMIZE it! but in retrospect that makes so much sense), NMS will have to wait till the fall I'm afraid.

Either way I'll report back here. And again, I can't thank you enough for all your help so far!!

UPDATE.... and I'M IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were 4 memory modules in my computer, 2x2 and 2x8. He removed the 2x2 ones and... NMS STARTED!!! The star field was a bit jerky, but at least it works now.

Of course I was about to post here that it was stuck at initializing, then realized I had to press the E ;) I landed on a toxic planet and with failing equipment... and I thought my troubles were over :D

Again, thank you all SO MUCH... you did it!

Congratulations! I'm very glad to hear that you were able to get things working. As a rule, all the RAM in your computer should match in size and speed. Mismatched memory can cause a lot of problems. So, yes, in this case less is more!

Enjoy the game! Try turning down the graphic options to low and then slowly raise them until you get a balance between look and performance. Have fun!

I'm so glad that helped you. Way cool.

Yes it sure did, I never in a million years expected it to be the solution, yet here we are. I spent some time getting to know the controls, at first I was completely lost because every time I exited, it would put me on a new planet with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

But at last I found a way to survive long enough to find a space ship and have a saved status to return to, so I believe we're getting there :)

One funny thing, I can't change the graphics settings from within the game. I tried setting it to "enhanced" but it keeps reverting back to the lowest setting. I don't mind it that much though, I'm absolutely thrilled to have made it in at all!

Oh and a question if I may, can two people of the same household explore together in multiplayer mode? Or do I need to purchase another copy for that?

To the best of my knowledge you need the galaxy client for multiplayer, I would assume you need another copy.

Having said that, just try it out, spin it up on 2 computers through galaxy and see if it works.

Again I can't really help with a solution but tell you that it works for me (I'm this other one of the last gtx750ti-ians). Enhanced options work fine for me and the setting is saved. Er... you clicked that "Apply" button? (This would probably be the solution if I'd have this problem ...) Maybe save again after having changed settings. Did you change some files by hand when the game didn't start?

You are bound to your GoG-Account by Galaxy. There would be two Sophias in the network if it works at all. Keep an eye on your savegames if you start experiments.

Right, that makes sense.... well I am nowhere near testing multiplayer yet, I haven't even made my way off the first planet. I'm not a very skilled gamer ^_^

As for the saving of the settings: yep, I did click Apply (full disclosure: I only found that button the third time around, so your question is perfectly valid, heh). Unfortunately it just doesn't take. But you do have a point, when trying to get NMS going, I did manually edit the graphics file (TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS.MXM) so maybe that is what buggered it. I might uninstall the game one last time and see if that works... but really that is not very important. I think even at the lowest settings the graphics are struggling a little (I can watch things slowly being rendered as it is).

Scratch all the above, I am a total doofus!!!! You know... instead of LONGER clicking the Apply button, I clicked it too short... it's set to high now but I think I may need to tone it down a little, the lag is killing me... Once again, thanks for providing an answer to my problem :)

Just a quick follow up that the game is performing really well, thanks to all your help. I'm having fun with it. Managed to build the first base (on a rather dreadful planet, ugh) and made it to the space station.

I can't wait to finish all those mandatory missions and start exploring for real, and hopefully find a real nice planet as a base with green grass, a nice climate and friendly beasties. This one is too hot and so ugly!

Glad to hear you've got it working now. While there are a few bugs, overall things look and run well. Keep following the tutorials and you should be in good shape. And one thing to remember, you can pursue more than one quest at a time. You just to make sure you've got the quest you want selected in the "Log" section to make sure things are moving along. There's also a good Guide section that gives good info on the basics - how to build, upgrade, interact with aliens, etc.

And finally, good luck finding your dream world and building a nice base there. It's not an easy task, most worlds are somewhat harsh and prone to violent weather. But, there are more serene planets to be found, so keep looking. And there's nothing to say you can't build a base and then find a better world. You just pack up your base and move. The details are in the guides and online.

Happy exploring.