Brand New System For AH3 - Need Expert Advice Before Buying

[DaddyAce]

... . . .

DaddyAce, I saw your thread about your build and followed it for some time and it gave me some pretty good insights as to what I was going to do with my build. With my monitor, the max resolution is 1920 x 1080 so it would appear that I can get at least 1080p. I don't have any expectations of going with a new television just to play the game and I would not even consider 4K so I have to base my decision on which GPU to go with based on 1080p.

Being an old fart and stuck in the past is a real PITA some times.   LOL

As for the GPU, I guess I need to give all of my options a second look and take all opinions into consideration since I am really out of my element when it comes to all the tech stuff involved with choosing a new video card.

Again, I appreciate all the comments and opinions that everyone has offered. I think I will be ordering all the components later on today and then getting it all put together when it arrives. And I will let ya'll know how that works out.   LOL



Vance

Hi Vance,

I should have been more clear, 1080p is shorthand for the resolution your monitor has, so you have, in shorthand, a 1080 p monitor.  So if you go with a 1060, a cpu that performs as the i3 6100 or better, I think you can expect to have all graphics setings maxed out on your monitor, and have a consistently smooth gaming experience on AH3, most typically running 60 fps with current maps.  With 1050 you may be turning things down some, and frame rate will more often take a hit when you're flying near cluttered ground, a lot, going on, nerar big airfields etc.  But even if you have to turn things down AH3 will still look pretty cool.

Hey, I was born in 49.       My formula is stay physically active and exercise my brain with learning new things and challenges such as flying in AH3.  You're doing it by diving into designing and building your own puter.   

Good luck bud!   

[oboe]

True, and I'm running a 75 Mhz 1440 p monitor on it now (A 1440 p monitor has about 3.7 million pixels vs the 2.1 million pixels of a 1080 p monitor, so the 1440 p monitor demands quite a bit more GPU power to produce the same frame rate).

Vance I haven't seen the resolution of your monitor.  That is a key piece of info with regards to the performance you can expect.  If your monitor is 1080 p I suspect you'll be more than happy with a 3 GB 1060, and likely happy 'enuf with the 1050.  I recall Skuzzy remarking something to the effect that AH3 at low settings was much more visually pleasing than AH2 at high graphics settings.  BTW, I built my puter earlier trying to hit the sweet spot with max performance for the $, and was also relying on advice from this community and my son, and am happy I hit it 'bout right.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the learning process as I did.   

Question for DaddyAce - you can see that may video usage from the screenshots is 935M ~ 1110M.  That's at 1080p, 1920x1080.  Just curious, what is your video usage at 1440?

Thanks!

[DaddyAce]

Hi oboe,

Just did a quick check offline in DX 11:  about 913 M in tower, 935 M on runway, and 954 M in hangar.  But this is just a measure of how much VRAM the game is using, in my case a little less than 1 GB of the 3 GB available.  This is the one main reasons I went with the 3 GB 1060; really don't need the extra 3 GB VRAM.....although in the case of the 1060 6 GB version, the processing part of the card was about 10 % faster, but at a cost of about 25 % increase in price.  It 's the processing part of the GPU that renders the graphics display, and keeps the image changing and moving....hope this helps!   

[Pudgie]

Question for DaddyAce - you can see that may video usage from the screenshots is 935M ~ 1110M.  That's at 1080p, 1920x1080.  Just curious, what is your video usage at 1440?

Thanks!

Hi All,

Unless I'm wrong here, when you're looking at the amount of mem used in the game HUD, that is the amount of system mem that is cached for the game to use to run....not what the graphics card is caching within it's own mem to hold the finished graphics frames...where the monitor resolution would affect this.......unless the graphics card's mem buffer is being overrun at which time the swap file will come into play, which will be set up in system mem.

Using my numbers from my box as an example, the game will use anywhere from 935Mb to 1024Mb of system mem as reported thru the game's HUD. But thru the MSI AB graphs where I'm monitoring the graphics card's mem amount being used at a res of 2560x1440, I'm seeing anywhere between 1235Mb to 1512Mb of graphics mem being used, depending on the map\activity being used at any given time.

FYI.......................... ..

 

[VanceVP]

So I pulled the trigger and ordered all the new parts for my new rig. Total cost ended up at $756.02 with shipping and extended warranties. According to egghead's website, I should have the parts in 4-7 days.

And just FYI . . . I ended up going with the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC video card.

Once I get the parts in, if I remember it, I will start a new thread showing my progress.

In the mean time, since it has been years and years and years since I put a machine together, is there anything I should be aware of? Anything special I need to consider?

I am assuming that everything still goes together basically the same way it did back in the 80's and 90's?

When I get the parts in, I will probably be back looking for more expert advice on putting it all together and getting it optimized before even downloading AHIII.

Thanks again for all the input, suggestions and comments regarding this new build. I do appreciate it.


Vance

[DaddyAce]

Hey Vance, looks like a good choice!  Like so many things now a days there's you tube videos to help assemble your puter:  You'll find a quick one if scroll down a bit on on this page, then a little more in depth one that follows the first one:  http://www.logicalincrements.com/

Thanks for the clarification Pudgie, I bet you're right and I suspect Skuzzy will verify.

 

[VanceVP]

Thanks DaddyAce

I will be sure to look into it, but I suspect things haven't really changed that much since I use to build on a regular basis.



Vance

[Bizman]

As it says in the link DaddyAce posted, it's like Lego's but for adults. It describes the procedure so well I believe many people have used that phrase without knowing how widespread it is - myself included!

Yet one hint: Lately the cases have become much more cable management friendly, there's lots of padded holes in the back plate and plenty of room behind it. As you may well remember, back then cable management usually meant a bunch of cables the size of your fist, tied tightly with cable ties. It wasn't long ago that I reorganized a shop built system built the old skool way. Needless to say the owner was stunned to see all the empty space through the side panel window!

[VanceVP]

As it says in the link DaddyAce posted, it's like Lego's but for adults. It describes the procedure so well I believe many people have used that phrase without knowing how widespread it is - myself included!

Yet one hint: Lately the cases have become much more cable management friendly, there's lots of padded holes in the back plate and plenty of room behind it. As you may well remember, back then cable management usually meant a bunch of cables the size of your fist, tied tightly with cable ties. It wasn't long ago that I reorganized a shop built system built the old skool way. Needless to say the owner was stunned to see all the empty space through the side panel window!

I noticed the improved cable management when I was looking at the new cases. And you are absolutely right . . . back in the day you could sure go through a LOT of plastic wire ties.   LOL