Hardware and FPS survey

[scottydawg]

I'm getting ready to spec a new system for home and was wondering if you all would mind taking a moment to reply with the following info, please:

CPU type and speed
Amount of system RAM and speed if known
Hard drive type (SATA, IDE, etc.)
Video card type and vid ram

and

minimum FPS flying alone in MA and in furball or over field in MA.
AH2 resolution and texture settings (128,256,etc.)
detail slider settings and disabled features (effects)


I was checking out my system last night and found that it runs great until I get into a furball or over an airbase, then the fps plummets to 12. Bleah.  The Gunmetal demo runs at about 40 fps on my box until it hits a lens flare, then it drops to about 13.  Isn't that weird?

Anyhoo, I'm thinking about an alienware aurora 5500 or a custom spec PC from ibuypower or cyberpower.  Something with SLI sounds fun.


Thanks in advance, I'm trying to see what video/cpu combo really makes the grade in AH.  I've been building PCs foryears and am a sysadmin so I don't need any basic primers... thanks!

[Stone]

Is there any way to LOG the FPS.

It is very hard to say how low my FPS drop.

I can get over 50FPS but I suspect they drop under 10FPS in furbal.

AMD 1.4GHz / GF Ti4200 64MB / 512MB / Win98
All sliders are to the Right / 128 textures + other settings for speed.

[Kev367th]

ASUS A8V mobo
AMD 4400X2
2 x 1Gb Mushkin CAS 2 memory (2Gb total)
BFG 7800GS 256mb video card
SATA and IDE drives

Run game -
1024x768
1024 textures
All cached to system memory
No AF (game doesn't support it)
4 x AA
Game sliders maxxed
Always run animated water off, looks cheesy, and I lose my depth perception.

NEVER drop below 70-80fps, sits mostly 100fps (monitor limit).

[Bronk]

MSi neo4 plat
AMD  64 3000+
2 x512 meg rosewill 3200  (1 gig total)
gygabyte 6600 gt vid card
IDE drive

Run game-
1200x1024
512 texture
system mem cached  
preloaded skin
af off
aa game sets
game sliders 7/8 full
water off because off  loss off depth perception.

I have take off from capped bases with all kinds of stuff on fire and get in the 40's. This is in a new style  cockpit.
Normal for me  in most fights  40-70 depending on numbers in fight and location of fight.
GVing can slow it down to high teens depending on terrain and numbers of gvs. But mostly 20-30  (trees seem to really stress my system).


Bronk

[Brenjen]

Sort of a waste if you can build a great one yourself...but here is my specs:

CPU type and speed: Athlon64 4000+

system RAM and speed: 2GHZ DDR400 dual channel

Hard drive type: SATA

Video card and ram: 7900GTX EGS W/512mb ram

minimum FPS flying alone in MA: 100fps (monitor refresh rate limit)

minimum FPS furball or over field in MA: 70 (roughly)

resolution and texture settings: 1024x768 @ 512

detail settings: all detail set to 3/4 up (left) only animated water disabled

Of course all these settings change if I change my video card settings or my refresh rate (it affects the maximum frame rate not the minimum) or my view; shift F1 (all) is best frame rates & shift F4 (ground) is the worst. I can max out all my detail settings, set my video card to render 2 frames ahead instead of 3, overclock my video card with coolbits etc., enable animated water & set my refresh rate on 75 & I will get a 75fps frame rate in single flight & no less than 40fps in a furball with ground view enabled. So it's really subject to individual settings inside & outside the game.

[38ruk]

1280X1024, 2XQ AA ,  AH texture 512, game sliders default , preload system memory , No skin preload .  Its pegged most times at 120fps (monitor cap) , very heavy furball 65-70fps . System specs below .

[Roscoroo]

my main gamer

asus a7n8x-e dlx  (4.27 international drivers) win98se sp1.5 (Tweeked)or w2k pro (tweeked) dual booties
2500+ M barton @ 2.4 ghz (air cooled 41c)
512 ddr x2 in dual
crucial Radeon 9600 pro 128  (4.7 or 4.12 cats work)
dual 80 gigs

1024x768 32colour full excell @ 85 hz
512tex
vsync on
2x aa

game sliders @ 3/4's    (2/3rds for karelia terrain)
water off ..every thing else on and maxed

85 fps is norm 65 avg ... 35 is lowest in those mog furballs i enjoy .

wanna know a secret  watch your mem ussage in game ...

Say ur set at 512   so you see 500 or more used at your norm fps .. go in and move the sliders down just a touch til you see 310- 450  used at norm fps
keep adj til your in that area . now go find the biggest nastyest furball and dbl check as long as you have less then the 512 (i like 490 area) in mem used in game your fps should be ok ,,,,, mine dips to 35 area but is ussually around 45-65 in these conditions.

[Eagler]

the truth of the matter is you need a top of the line system to really appreciate the game.
yes you can play it on much less but to really see all the effort that has been put into this game, you need a better than average box, the more average the better

that also means a very good high speed internet connection

I just upgraded to a 7800gs co from a ati 9800 and bumped my ram from one gig to two and was able to turn up the textures from 128 to 1024, went from 1024x760 to 1280x1024, ah sliders from 25% to 100%

the game looks awesome now! besides the i-candy, the game is smoother and aiming seems better

3400 AMD64
Asus 8VA
cable modem
19" 930b
audigy2
80 gig wd sata raid drive c

[GunnerCAF]

I don't believe you need a top of the line computer to enjoy the game, but I do believe many believe this  

This is not a top of the line PC, just dam good and built on a budget.

AMD 64 3200+
ASUS A8N-E (Built in sound card, LAN card)
2G DDR RAM (Coursair Value)
160G IDE HD ($100 specal)
Safire X800 GTO ($135)

In AH
All sliders max
Everything on (including animated water)
Preloaded everything
Hi Res Textures - 1024

Frame rates run at 80fps (monitor speed)
I don't know what the drop to, I don't think below 60.  I have never noticed any frame rate problems.

Gunner

[Balsy]

FX53
Corsair XMS Super duper low latency 2-3-2-6 1 gig
2x 300gb Sata II RAID 0 drives with 16 somthing  transfer rate
BFG 6800GT
NEC 22inch SBDUPER SKUZZY Approved CRT monitor
A8N-SLI Deluxe


1600x 1200 x 32 sliders near pegged left

70-75 FPS all the time

50-60 in a Furball


Dont waste your time with SLI, your better off putting your $$$ into a higher grade CPU, or cooling system to overclock. Nothing on the market will push a 7800 to its fullest potential, so dont bother with 2 of em.

Buy Tir Vector 4 instead.

Balsy

[OOZ662]

3.0GHz Northwood Pentium 4, 800MHz FSB
1GB(2x512) DDR400(PC3200) Corsair ValueSelect RAM; CAS latency of 2.5
120GB IDE HDD
Unlocked XFX 6800 128MB (DDR2, I believe) AGP

Runs ~45-60 FPS with full sliders, animated water, and hires everywhere except Karelia at 1024x768.

[715]

2.8GHz Northwood Pentium 4, 800MHz FSB, HT on, Intel 865PERL MB
1.5GB DDR400 (PC3200) Corsair XMS RAM; 2 3 2.5 6 (I think)
120GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD
SB Live 5.1 sound card
Asus Radeon 9600XT, 128MB, AGP
1280x1024x32, 4xAA, no AF
AH sliders full left, animated water off, 512 textures, loaded into RAM (not graphics card RAM)

Ozkansas P1 SW runway Spit V cockpit: 40 fps.

The fps depends entirely on terrain (Karelia is much lower), location, smoke, density of other planes, and view.  For example, going into the T34 gunsight view, setting zoom to max, and looking into a forest will drop the fps to low single digits, like 4 - 5 fps.  Tank gunsight view is what limits AH for me- flying never causes serious fps problems.

My experience is that AH, like most flight sims, is CPU limited.  For example: replacing my 9600XT with an X800XT (which should have had 3 times the performance) had no effect whatsoever on AH frame rates under the conditions listed above.  My recommendation is to max out CPU power and go for a mid range GPU- but your mileage may vary.