New computer for AH3

[mthrockmor]

I can't remember all the specs. The key one is my video card: GE 950 with 2G. The rest of the system can support an upgrade to the newest video card, which apparently is a GE 1040 or something.

Should a 950 card get me in the club?

Boo

[morfiend]

Boo,

  The 950 should work,I know several guys using the even older 750's in AH3. A 970 might have been a better choice and of course the new 1070 seems to be the best bang for buck out there ATM.

   You will likely have to scale back some eyecandy but depending on the other things,cpu,memory,you should be good to go!


     

[Estes]

Just for a point of reference http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

[Bizman]

Boo, if you take HiTech's development rig as an average, your GTX 950 clearly outperforms his GTX 660 which gets a slightly better score than my Radeon HD6970 in the benchmark Estes linked to.  I get a highly playable frame rate in the Beta using default settings. Don't hurry, your video card is golden.

The 1040 you referred wouldn't be much of an upgrade, the #40 cards have traditionally been entry level cards aimed for a fluent video experience on a living room pc.

[Condor]

Boo, if you take HiTech's development rig as an average, your GTX 950 clearly outperforms his GTX 660 which gets a slightly better score than my Radeon HD6970 in the benchmark Estes linked to.  I get a highly playable frame rate in the Beta using default settings. Don't hurry, your video card is golden.

The 1040 you referred wouldn't be much of an upgrade, the #40 cards have traditionally been entry level cards aimed for a fluent video experience on a living room pc.

Bizman, what's your secret? I have an HD6950 which scores just a little below yours but I can't get playable frame rates at unless I disable shadows and set the environmental slider at none. Of course maybe our definition of highly payable is different. I don't like to drop below 50. If I try default settings I get 20s to high 30s in DX9. I believe I have the newest drivers but have not tried the crimson drivers.

[Gman]

I'm not sure what the 950 will cost in the USA, but I'm certain that the 1060 will only be 100/150ish more.  This is the card you should go with IMO instead of a 950, by far.  1060 should outperform a 980, and I ran a 980 recently with AH/beta, and you'll be fine at max or close to it with that.  I'm not sure I understand your explanation of your system capabilities, if you're stuck with a PSU you can't use a 1060 or other card that needs connectors, maybe the 950 is your best option. 

[Bizman]

Bizman, what's your secret? I have an HD6950 which scores just a little below yours but I can't get playable frame rates at unless I disable shadows and set the environmental slider at none. Of course maybe our definition of highly payable is different. I don't like to drop below 50. If I try default settings I get 20s to high 30s in DX9. I believe I have the newest drivers but have not tried the crimson drivers.

Umm, yes, my reasonable playability starts somewhere above 30fps at the lowest in crowded situations. The count of running processes is below 35 (Win7) which may help a little. And I'm using a 2560x1600 monitor which adds some load on the video card.

For not lying I just downloaded the latest patch and joined a mission in the DX11 version. A steady 29 FPS with default settings was what I got, at some spots even 35. Setting the environment map from 1 to 0 didn't seem to have any effect, at least not when changed during the flight.

[Brooke]

I've got a GTX 750 Ti, and it gets me 50-60 fps in AH3 with default settings.  Seems to me that people with better graphics cards than that should be doing about 60.