Becoming CPU-wise "ready"...

[Belphe]

Hi,

 

I would like to prepare my PC for the upcoming DCS Warthog. My Graphics Card seems to be powerful enough. I also have sufficient amount of RAM memory at decent speed. The problem is my CPU. I would like to get rid of my current AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and change it along with the Mainboard.

There is a wide variety of CPUs available in the price region I am willing to spend, both from AMD and Intel. I am not good at hardware stuff though and would appreciate your assistance in choosing the right "tools for the job".

Should I go for more cores but lower speed (GHz) or is it the GHz that matter most and the number of cores is not as much important. Please, bare in mind I will be using the PC mainly to play Warthog and even though we still don't know the EXACT requirements people that know about hardware and have experience in building rigs for previous Eagle Dynamics/Fighter Collection products may know the answer.

 

In case it's important, my other specs are:

 

- Windows 7 64 Home Premium

- Sapphire Radeon HD4850 2Gb

- ~2Gb RAM @ 800 MHz

- Saitek X52 + Saitek Pedals

- TrackIR 4Pro

 

As long it's not problematic (GPU vs CPU) I can switch from AMD CPUs to Intel CPUs.

These are the CPUs I might be choosing from:

 

- AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition AM3 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPA-AP21090T

 

- Intel i5 670 3.46GHz LGA1156 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPI-I5670

 

- Intel i7 870 2.93Ghz LGA1156 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPI-I7870

 

- Intel i7 950 3.06GHz LGA1366 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPI-I7950

 

I'd be grateful for your assiastance.

Thank you!

[MTFDarkEagle]

i7 950, easy choise if you bankaccount can have it ;)

Also, get a decent cpu cooler, and you can consider overclocking it for ultimate power ;)

And I would suggest getting another 2 gb of ram. 2gig is a bit low..

[sobek]

i7 950, easy choise if you bankaccount can have it ;)

 

Well, i don't know where you live but here in Austria, prices for the 950 have plummeted, so much that it's the same price as the 920.

[galagamo]

+1 for the i79fity

[MTFDarkEagle]

Indeed! they have been halved! dayum... that's makes an upgrade very interessting :P (no no no! note to self: one warthog in a month is good enough... (the thrustmaster that is))

[isoul]

I checked yesterday the "recommended" CPU for DCS:Warthog and thought...

 

"Should I laugh now or wait a bit..?"

 

ED recommends its customers to have one of the most expensive processors in the market! And what about its minimal requirements???

 

A Pentium4 3.0GHz..! Now that IS interesting... From one point you are told than in order to run the game you need a 5 year old CPU that worth less than 80euros and on the other point you are told that the recommended CPU is one that costs more that 800euros. So what I get with an in-between these two? A frustrating experience at the cost of 300euros only? An acceptable experience with the same cost?

 

Can we have a more realistic description of what we need to run the game at an acceptable level of both detail & performance?

 

For example, if you have the recommended CPU fr DCS:BS (E6850+) you could get an acceptable frame rate of 35-40 most of the time(not all of the time!). If you need an i7-970 for a similar performance in DCS:A-10... OK thank you, bye bye!

 

There are two chances... either ED is defining the word "recommend" too high or they just trying to recommend me buying their product in 2-3 years from now.

 

Sorry guys... I 'll stick around my Shark's tail!

 

PS : Maybe you should reconsider your recommendation or just state

 

CAUTION : Recommended system may be hazardous for your bank account (...and heart if you are at the wrong age)!

Edited October 8, 2010 by isoul

[Ragtop]

I would publish a 'Medium recommendation', and a 'High recommendation'.

 

My spec;

 

AMD Athlon 64 6000+ - 3.02gHz, which is available now under £70.

2 gig DDR2 6400, Aria PC's own brand, £25

nVidia 9800GTX+, again, the cheapest "Extreme gaming" (under nVidia's categories) GPU.

 

With medium settings throughout, full shadows, 1920x1200, no ingame AA, but high AA on nVidia control panel (the sim looks A1 smooth), I'm getting 50 on the ground and in the air. I've not played with HDR but its not something that interests me greatly as it stands, perhaps the wonderful dev team will twiddle with the effects a little :)

 

I'm expecting that with the beta updates I'll be able to squish a little more out of it too!

 

Overall I'm incredibly happy with my results, the graphics are about on par with SIMMOD's A-10A in FC2 while it's maxed out for me right now.

 

 

One question I have though, which part of my system do you all think would give me the most significant boost in capability?

I find that in my current settings, the sim runs fantastically, but as soon as I put the textures on high (which GREATLY improves reading things like the radio switches) the sim almost crashes out entirely. (Aware that it's a beta, but I imagine this will be somewhat true on a smaller scale in the FR) What would allow me to get that little bit extra?

Edited October 8, 2010 by Ragtop
Another test has shown even higher frame rates.

[CobaltUK]

Hi,

 

I would like to prepare my PC for the upcoming DCS Warthog. My Graphics Card seems to be powerful enough. I also have sufficient amount of RAM memory at decent speed. The problem is my CPU. I would like to get rid of my current AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and change it along with the Mainboard.

There is a wide variety of CPUs available in the price region I am willing to spend, both from AMD and Intel. I am not good at hardware stuff though and would appreciate your assistance in choosing the right "tools for the job".

Should I go for more cores but lower speed (GHz) or is it the GHz that matter most and the number of cores is not as much important. Please, bare in mind I will be using the PC mainly to play Warthog and even though we still don't know the EXACT requirements people that know about hardware and have experience in building rigs for previous Eagle Dynamics/Fighter Collection products may know the answer.

 

In case it's important, my other specs are:

 

- Windows 7 64 Home Premium

- Sapphire Radeon HD4850 2Gb

- ~2Gb RAM @ 800 MHz

- Saitek X52 + Saitek Pedals

- TrackIR 4Pro

 

As long it's not problematic (GPU vs CPU) I can switch from AMD CPUs to Intel CPUs.

These are the CPUs I might be choosing from:

 

- AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition AM3 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPA-AP21090T

 

- Intel i5 670 3.46GHz LGA1156 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPI-I5670

 

- Intel i7 870 2.93Ghz LGA1156 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPI-I7870

 

- Intel i7 950 3.06GHz LGA1366 Processor

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CPI-I7950

 

I'd be grateful for your assiastance.

Thank you!

 

It could just be my low graphics memory (512mb) but 2GB of system memory doesn't seem enough. I frequently get system low memory warnings interupting the sim. That is on LOW settings. MED or higher gives me memory related freezes and crashes.

[molleh]

Intel's I7 are the way to go right now if you really want good gaming power. Nothing else comes close really.

 

The problem is (for you anyway) even though the CPUs have come WAY down in price (here in the US, Microcenter has the I7 930 for $199) the motherboards are expensive, and you'll need DDR3 too. However, it's not too bad and you just can't beat the performance.

 

You could also look at the i5 750. It's pretty inexpensive now and it would still be a monstrous improvement over your current setup.

[MTFDarkEagle]

You could also wait a while, since intel are going to release their new sandybridge, and amd it's new bulldozer.

[sobek]

You could also wait a while, since intel are going to release their new sandybridge, and amd it's new bulldozer.

 

I am really thrilled to see how the GPU unit on the sandybridge will perform. Probably not too well, but still.

 

Competition is good, right :)

[MTFDarkEagle]

It should be cool for laptops.

[power5]

Worthless GPU on CPU for gamers. Takes up space that should be used for cache.

 

Any of the CPU listed are great. The extra speed of the i5 will probably be just about equal to the quads in this game as it does not take full advantage of multiple cores. I would opt for the AMD. Cheaper platform than the 1366 for the 950 and probably wont see much of a difference over the 860.

[MTFDarkEagle]

the 1366 platform has more upgradable potential, +the intel is good over clockable

[GaryIKILLYOU]

the 1366 platform has more upgradable potential, +the intel is good over clockable

Isn't the world record for OCing on a Phenom II? ;)