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General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: bockko on December 28, 2009, 02:35:58 PM

Title: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: bockko on December 28, 2009, 02:35:58 PM
Hey everyone, I just started flying again after a year away from the game. I am pondering an upgrade from my amd x2 5600/ddr2 pc6400/9800gt system to something more powerfull. When set at 1280x1024 I can currently fly without stutter in exteremly crowded situations if I don't turn on many of the advanced video options, which is *ok*. I have tried maxing out the advanced settings and see fr drop down to a low of about 45 in the offline environment. The game looks soooo much nicer with all of the eye candy turned on.  I wonder what system specs to look at for rock solid frame rates with everyting turned on. I could drop in an am2+ phenom 3gig quad core (ddr2 1066) into my amd mobo but I am not sure it would deliver enough added cycles to leave vid setting max'd. Also, is there an AH performance gain with a 64bit os vs 32 bit xp?

Thanks for any first hand experience.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Ghastly on December 28, 2009, 02:52:34 PM
Quote
Also, is there an AH performance gain with a 64bit os vs 32 bit xp

This one I can answer - No. (Important caveat - this assumes that all the device drivers work equally well under XP 32 bit versus 64 bit. If you have a driver for one OS that is much poorer than the other, it might affect you adversely - but the loss in performance in the game compared to the other OS will not be the result of the game, which is always running 32 bit.)

As to the hardware, I'll let others with more direct experience with the AMD chips you reference answer.

<S>
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: 1701E on December 28, 2009, 03:08:24 PM
"am2+ phenom 3gig quad core"  Is not really needed for AH, unless you want it more for other PC games.  AH only uses Two cores, and on most occasions, Two cores out-games Quad.

I have an AMD X2 4850e with a GTX 260 that runs the game fully maxed at typical 50Fr and up, but I don't play LW so I don't stress it much.  One thing that can help is OCing.  I got a small increase in Fr going from 2.5GHz to 2.9GHz.  Warning Do not Over-clock with out knowing how.  With the lower end CPU I have and the FRs I get, I would imagine a Phenom II X2/X3/X4 would handle AH perfectly.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Spikes on December 28, 2009, 03:32:21 PM
While processor matters, now the game is more Vid card dependent.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: bustr on December 29, 2009, 03:52:17 PM
Yes, video card dependant.

In Novmeber I upgraded to an NVIDIA GTX275 from an NVIDIA 9800GT. With the 9800 I was getting sporatic stutters and lowered FPS. With the GTX275 it stays at 60FPS. Now the only problem givieng me rubber bullets is my Internet connect. But the game runs on smooth and eycandy wonderful with all turned sliders turned up full along with the funny water and shadow effects.

XP Pro sp3
ASUS P5Q Pro
Intel Core Duo E8500 OC @ 3.89
4G GSkill RAM
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: bockko on December 29, 2009, 05:13:31 PM
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Its good to know the game only uses 2 core and is 32 bit. I did some testing last night and found a few interesting things. I found that DDR2 was running with a clock speed of 667 vs 800, so I fixed that. I still need to verify I have the ht bus set to the correct freq. I also found that if I leave the self shadow option off (leaving aa at max, all other options on) then things are very steady. I didn't get into a huge furball yet but I did get in some fights over/around a cv and fr didn't miss a beat.

I'll keep tweeking to see what I can get out of this.

Thanks!
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Rich46yo on December 30, 2009, 12:05:47 PM
Same experience with GTX275 and upgraded power supply. Different system now. The GeForce drivers have been excellent.

Dont forget power supply if you upgrade Vid cards.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: 1701E on December 30, 2009, 12:47:25 PM
While the game requires a decent GPU to run max, a CPU is still quite important.  A GeForce 9800GTX/GTX+ and Intel E7400 can run the game maxed (4K shadow) at 60FR with drops to 55, however a GTX 260 with an AMD X2 4850e maxed (4K shadow) will have larger FR hits due to the lower-end CPU.
Just saying, don't get a very powerful GPU and leave the CPU in the low-end of the range. :)

As for the Self-Shadowing thing, Self-shadowing takes a very big hit on the GPU's VRAM, Skuzzy said
4096 = 128MB of video RAM being dedicated to one texture.  Even with 512MB of dedicated video RAM, you could run the video card out of RAM with this setting.

8192 = 512MB of video RAM being dedicated to one texture.  A video card would have to have 1GB of dedicated video RAM to run this setting, and even then it will get close to running out of video RAM.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: OOZ662 on December 31, 2009, 01:08:23 PM
Quote from: 1701E on December 30, 2009, 12:47:25 PM
As for the Self-Shadowing thing, Self-shadowing takes a very big hit on the GPU's VRAM, Skuzzy said
4096 = 128MB of video RAM being dedicated to one texture.  Even with 512MB of dedicated video RAM, you could run the video card out of RAM with this setting.

8192 = 512MB of video RAM being dedicated to one texture.  A video card would have to have 1GB of dedicated video RAM to run this setting, and even then it will get close to running out of video RAM.

Always makes me wonder why they even put those options in when they know they'll have to tell a hoarde of people calling/emailing Support to turn them off... :)

For the casual passerby on this thread, remember that a 1GB video card tends to be slower overall than its 512MB counterpart.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Motherland on December 31, 2009, 01:23:49 PM
Quote from: OOZ662 on December 31, 2009, 01:08:23 PM
Always makes me wonder why they even put those options in when they know they'll have to tell a hoarde of people calling/emailing Support to turn them off... :)

For the casual passerby on this thread, remember that a 1GB video card tends to be slower overall than its 512MB counterpart.
It turns off if your card runs out of RAM. Presumably they could be useful in the future so why not stick em in now?
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: OOZ662 on December 31, 2009, 01:26:44 PM
Personally, I'd add the support, but disable the option in the GUI. But that's just me.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Motherland on December 31, 2009, 01:30:17 PM
Why? If the shadows just turn off if you don't have the required RAM to run them, and seem to have no effect on the game anyway?
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: OOZ662 on December 31, 2009, 01:34:08 PM
Poor thread, so derailed...oh well. :noid

Because you'll still get support calls from people infuriated that the game doesn't "hold its settings," not knowing their computer (or anyone else's at that point in time) simply can't do it.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Ruler2 on January 01, 2010, 12:44:47 PM
Go ahead and get the Phenom II Quad core, I LOVE it, I am using it with an 8800GTS 640MB and I get FRs of about 80- 140 most of the time, but with that card the FRs sometimes drop in big gv wars or bomber runs, but your card shouldn't have that problem.
Here are my specs just to give you an idea:

AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE ( You should really spend the extra 20-30 bucks to get the 945 which is AM3, that way you can get an AM3 mobo with faster HT speeds and some with DDR3 RAM.)

old RAM: 3.5GB Samsung and Apacer DDR2 @ 400 or 667 MhZ    new RAM (has not been tried out yet) : 4GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066

PNY 8800GTS 640MB

Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H mobo ( I'd get the UD4H if I were you, more capabilities)
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: bockko on January 01, 2010, 02:19:48 PM
Hey Ruler2, thanks for system specs. It is nice to see how similar systems perform. I'd like to know how your memory upgrade works out. I suspect that you will get quite a peformance boost with the ddr2 1066 memory. I believe you will have to set the timings manually in the bios.
Title: Re: what specs will 'max' out the game?
Post by: Ruler2 on January 01, 2010, 04:43:10 PM
Yeah I think I'll have to do some tweaking, I've been doing it through AMD OverDrive, it gives you very detailed specs and statuses compared to the BIOS, and, if you make the OC too high or raise the voltage too much, you can just restart your PC without having to clear the CMOS again like you would with a BIOS overclock.