Recommended system for A-10 and Blackshark?

[crankshaft]

I was planning to buy a new system to play A10 and Blackshark and need some recommendations. I want it to run high graphics settings, smooth with a high framerate, 3 monitor view (1920x1080 X 3). I want intel and nvidia hardware. So, how much RAM, how many video cads and type, and what kind of CPU do I need for these results, without just buying the top of the line of everything.

 

I have a quad core 9550, 4 gig RAM, GTX 460 1 gig right now, and I find gets choppy at times, and it wont support 3 monitor view as is. It gets even worse when Helios is running on a second monitor. Of course, If this system can be upgraded in such a way to get the above mentioned results, without replacing 75% of the hardware, I would consider that. Thanks for the help.

 

 

crank

[71st_Mastiff]

in my sig works great

 

R3E||i7x970||GSkillz8gb1600||GTX580||

1200corsair||CBTitanium7.1||Win7x64||

TrackIr4Pro/irclip||Saitekst290pro||SaitekpedalsPro|

|X52ThrottleCntrlr||G15Keyboard/Ratz7Mouse||

32 1080p LCD 120hrz||2x 7inch lilliputs lcd 1x 9inc

//WartHog Hotas

[EtherealN]

Mastiff, sorry, but your system would NOT be able to do what he asks. Note how he wants a three monitor view, and your system only has one graphics card. With nVidia, this doesn't work. (Your lilliputs, I assume, are of the USB variety and don't count towards this purpose.)

 

Crankshaft, doing upgrades instead of replacements is, unfortunately, probably not worth it. Since that is a 775 system I assume you're on DDR2 RAM, and both socket 775 and the DDR2 have nothing new to offer really, anyhow. They both have to go. The only component that would potentially be worth keeping is the graphics card - though unfortunately it is too weak to be the main card. The PSU as well, perhaps, but this depends on whether it has the juice required.

 

What is the exact usage scenario you intend to pursue? By 3 screens, do you mean having them all do the same view (so to speak) for a sort of extra-wide main view, or do you intend to place instruments and stuff on one or two of them? If the latter, you might actually have a point in re-using the old 460 but as a secondary card, and hook up the secondary displays to that, thus removing the need of purchasing two new cards just because of the amount of displays. (And of course, another alternative is to use an AMD graphics card with Eyefinity.)

[crankshaft]

I plan on having front, left, right side view out of the cockpit, and have a touchscreen monitor below for my helios cockpit with the 2 MFDs on them. I heard you can use a second PC to run Helios on other monitors and network them to your main PC. If this is correct I can use my existing system to run those.

[EtherealN]

Yes, you can export via network to a secondary PC. The three-view-port issue is still a problem with nVidia though since nVidia's consumer cards are hard-limited to two screens (even if they have three physical ports, they can only drive two screens at a given time per card since two of the ports are actually just two different "outs" for the same logical port - for example one of the DVI's and the HDMI is actually the same one). So for this case I'd really recommend looking at AMD cards if you want to keep the number of cards down - otherwise you'll end up having to get two nVidia cards to do that job.

 

Though, if you go AMD card, the option of using the current 460 in the new machine for Helios etcetera as well does become more troublesome. It IS possible to run both AMD and nVidia cards in the same machine, but it is very easy to accidently jumble up the drivers and I'd caution against it. What kind of budget are you looking at?

[crankshaft]

Whatever it takes without getting ridiculous. By that I mean not just buying the highest of each piece of hardware of each type.

 

thanks

[Kuky]

Whatever it takes without getting ridiculous. By that I mean not just buying the highest of each piece of hardware of each type.

 

thanks

 

Well that's exactly what you will need if you want 3 monitors with all high settings and smooth framerate :music_whistling:

But by the way if you define smooth as steady 60fps as some do, you can't buy such PC today to do that... not on high settings and 3 monitors at least ;)

[Cali]

It took lock on how many years before people could get those kinds on FPS!

[PeterP]

When you have your hardware together - I won't comment on this, as most of the suggestions I would gave are said already -

 

Please take your time for a good planing of your multi-monitor Setup.

Because a good configuration of the DSC-render-area is as important as good hardware.

 

This includes...

 

Don't waste Render-area! - every pixel you save is less workload for DCS/your GPU/CPU and will result in better frames/ a smother game-expirence:

 

Here are some examples for a better illustration what you should

prevent and how you could reduce the workload even more by utilising softth - and being able to run in full-screen (with Helios visible):

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1399384#post1399384

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1412754&postcount=6

 

 

And when you think about to add small monitors for MFCDs and so on - please stay away from usb monitors - they add a extra workload to your system as they install virtual-graphicadapter and have to get the rendered image out of the V-Ram of your primary GPU. And than copied through the system-ram again. - This can be bottlenecking you whole Rendering. - these USB solutions are more than sufficient for desktop purposes - but not for gaming!

 

So look out for cheap vga solutions to be used with a adapter - directly at the graphic-card.

 

I often see in these forums people ar whining about the "so unoptimised" Engine of ED - but when having a look at their settings I can only shook my had and turn away... - please don't do the same mistakes.

 

I hope this tips I gave you will hep you to plan your upcoming set-up even better.

Edited March 6, 2012 by PeterP

[crankshaft]

If I use my old PC to run my helios/MFD display, and just use my new PC (with 2 - 3gig GTX 580s)to run the 3 monitors for my view, I hope I can achieve a high frame rate.

[cichlidfan]

If I use my old PC to run my helios/MFD display, and just use my new PC (with 2 - 3gig GTX 580s)to run the 3 monitors for my view, I hope I can achieve a high frame rate.

 

Keep in mind how big those 580s are when you look at mobos.;)