Author Topic: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?  (Read 1607 times)

Offline Morpheus

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 10167
have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« on: December 25, 2023, 10:54:30 PM »
I think this would be for some local CT hardford County Connecticut players... Has anyone here ever heard of "PCW" for working on any of your computers? I'm thinking about tossing in another bigger more powerful processor in my desktop. I have a pretty much brand new HP desktop that I needed to just dedicate my $$ for a stronger processor. Right now I only have a11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11400 @ 2.60GHz.

It's in no way anything good for this game and with a new processor I'm planning on playing more again...
Thats all... Thanks.

Morph<S>
If you don't receive Jesus Christ, you don't receive the gift of righteousness.

Be A WORRIOR NOT A WORRIER!

Offline hazmatt

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1368
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2023, 11:59:31 PM »
That processor is overkill for AH3. You might want to look at a GPU instead. You'd probably get a much more substantial performance increase.

I upgraded a 4770 cpu to a 12100 using a 1080ti video card and only saw a minor increase in FPS. Your CPU is about the same as my 12100 and with the 1080ti I'd get FPS of 200-300 at 1080p when I used to play.

I think that taking the money you were looking to spend on a CPU and putting it toward a graphics card would yield you a much bigger performance increase in the game then any CPU upgrade you would do for the same amount of money.

Online Bizman

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 9608
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2023, 03:03:00 AM »
Back in the day Skuzzy used to say that the base frequency being above 3 GHz would be golden. The recommendation for setup still says 3.2 GHz but the models mentioned are already over a dozen years old so take it for what it's worth. The base clock rates haven't gone up too much during the years, more seems to have happened in the buses that transfer data.

That said, the recommendation is made for AH3 meaning that the video card already plays a bigger role than in previous versions. Doesn't that mean that the 3 GHz idea still is valid?

As your computer already is a couple of years old the prices for used ones don't differ much to open box or even brand new ones - the prices seem to be around 200 so looking for a bargain for a new one might be the safest option. There's some models of i5 between yours and the 11600K but their base clocks are on the same level with yours. The K model is the only one that really has a better performance.

Hazmatt, no wonder you didn't see much of a boost with your upgrade. The base clocks for both are way past 3.5 GHz. The new one is much faster in benchmarks but the old one was plenty sufficient for AH3. The old CPU wasn't bottlenecking this game at all.

A note for caution: HP can be very nitpicky to upgrade. The CPU should be a piece of cake as you likely only can choose among 11th gen Intel models. The GPU can be a tougher call, HP has been known to use a hard coded "whitelist" of components that can be used. Basically that means that you can upgrade to models that were/are built at the same time as the actual computer. You might be able to find upgrade options at the HP website for that specific model.
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni

Offline hazmatt

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1368
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2023, 04:08:29 AM »
Hazmatt, no wonder you didn't see much of a boost with your upgrade. The base clocks for both are way past 3.5 GHz. The new one is much faster in benchmarks but the old one was plenty sufficient for AH3. The old CPU wasn't bottlenecking this game at all.

I should have been more clear. I didn't see a huge gain in AH3, maybe 30 FPS. I did see big gains in other games I play. In my experience AH3 performance is much more GPU based then CPU based.

I know most of the HP/DELL whatever computers that are not specifically built for gaming like Alienware or whatever come with the most basic GPUs or intergrated graphics. I bet that a GPU upgrade to such a system would provide much more of a performance increase for the money. I just hate to see him spend a bunch of money on a CPU upgrade when the system he has is using integrated graphics like a lot of these do and get a minimal performance improvement.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-pavilion-desktop-tp01-3025t-bundle-pc?jumpid=ma_red-tag-sale_product-tile_desktops_10_22u57aa_hp-pavilion-desktop-

Upgrading this CPU to a 12400 to a 13900 might give you 30 or 40 percent more on your CPU performance but that $500 upgrade not going to do as much as that money spent on a 4070 GPU upgrade would.

Here's an example of how clock speeds can be misleading:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-11400-vs-Intel-Core-i3-12100F/4112vs4125

The 3.3Ghz beats the 2.6Ghz by 4% even thought it's a generation newer, if the only thing we are comparing is clock speeds.


One more link since I'm up and can't sleep.

Here's the massive performance increase you can get from a 7 year old video card that you can get for under $100. (I'm sure these days there are much better options but this is one I personally own)

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GT-1030-vs-Intel-UHD-Graphics-730/m283726vsm1500304


Good luck with your upgrade no matter which way you go. Hope I'm not too incoherent, it's 4am and I can't sleep. And now I'm going to try to sleep again :)

Online Bizman

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 9608
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2023, 08:10:45 AM »
Preciseness and clarity... Trying to tell in layman terms without being condescending in just a few lines using a foreign language has its challenges.

AH3 is a lightweight game compared to most "realistic world" games of today. There has been talk about it using more than one core of the CPU but the latest news about it was back when quad cores were becoming available and the official opinion was that more than two cores aren't needed for AH3, clock rate was more important. Extra cores could be used for background tasks given the operating system could target the tasks cleverly. That's the latest news I've read here. So unless HiTech has made some multi-core adjustments to the code without telling I'd still rely on the requirements on the front side - with some side notes.

Reading the recommended requirements tells that they were written way over a decade ago. At that time resolutions past 1080p and speeds way over 60 fps were rare not to mention VR. Thus if your goal is to use 1440p or 4k at 144Hz or faster the original requirements are outdated. That's also where a faster CPU is required, to feed the GPU. Gone are the days when you could play AH with a laptop workstation.

Quote
I didn't see a huge gain in AH3, maybe 30 FPS.
I wonder what your starting point was! To me that's huge, even if we're talking about 144 to 170+ and there's players that willingly pay serious money for that.

Speaking about video cards, almost anything can beat Intel UHD graphics. I was assuming there already is a card that's capable to run the game. That said I've met people who have been playing hardware intensive PC games for decades but aren't interested in the hardware as long as it works. They just buy something that is plenty good. There's a squaddie who asks every 5 or so years which gaming laptop to buy and our community looks at the alternatives and tells him.
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni

Offline hazmatt

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1368
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2023, 02:23:20 PM »
Preciseness and clarity... Trying to tell in layman terms without being condescending in just a few lines using a foreign language has its challenges.
Hope I didn't sound condescending. If I did it was 4am so that's my excuse :)
AH3 is a lightweight game compared to most "realistic world" games of today. There has been talk about it using more than one core of the CPU but the latest news about it was back when quad cores were becoming available and the official opinion was that more than two cores aren't needed for AH3, clock rate was more important. Extra cores could be used for background tasks given the operating system could target the tasks cleverly. That's the latest news I've read here. So unless HiTech has made some multi-core adjustments to the code without telling I'd still rely on the requirements on the front side - with some side notes.
From what I've see he hasn't. If you don't show the cores in your process manager it shows low usage but if you split out the cores you'll see the one that AH is running on is getting hammered.
Reading the recommended requirements tells that they were written way over a decade ago. At that time resolutions past 1080p and speeds way over 60 fps were rare not to mention VR. Thus if your goal is to use 1440p or 4k at 144Hz or faster the original requirements are outdated. That's also where a faster CPU is required, to feed the GPU. Gone are the days when you could play AH with a laptop workstation.
I wonder what your starting point was! To me that's huge, even if we're talking about 144 to 170+ and there's players that willingly pay serious money for that.
I mostly use VR and have a 1080p monitor. When I used to play AH3 my framerates would stay maxed in VR unless I was over one of those large towns with a bunch of autos shooting and a bunch of planes there. On my 1080p on my monitor I would get between 250 and 400 fps with an average somewhere in the middle with Vsync turned off.
Speaking about video cards, almost anything can beat Intel UHD graphics. I was assuming there already is a card that's capable to run the game. That said I've met people who have been playing hardware intensive PC games for decades but aren't interested in the hardware as long as it works. They just buy something that is plenty good. There's a squaddie who asks every 5 or so years which gaming laptop to buy and our community looks at the alternatives and tells him.
In my experience in helping other AH3 players with upgrades or building systems (mostly through PMs) I have found that this is NOT the case in my experience. It seems to me that most have lots of CPU horsepower, RAM and storage, however in my experience most are using whatever came with their machine and most either have integrated graphics or a very basic GPU. This is why I tend to recommend GPU upgrades first.

Online Bizman

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 9608
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2023, 03:21:27 PM »
I wasn't offended at all.
It seems to me that most have lots of CPU horsepower, RAM and storage, however in my experience most are using whatever came with their machine and most either have integrated graphics or a very basic GPU. This is why I tend to recommend GPU upgrades first.
Yepp, there's too many people thinking that "new" is synonymous to "capable" which is why I tend to look at the joining date, assuming that in a decade or two people already know that they need a gaming rig instead of the cheapest bargain for home office. Then again, the marketing people seem to boast that anything with a separate video card will "boost your gaming performance to unseen levels". If that were true for a $499 PC, then why would anyone need a $700 GPU...
 
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni

Offline save

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2852
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2024, 07:26:34 AM »
Switching to other games/higher resolution can be hard on your computer.

When I switched to 1440 resolution I had to tune down a few things in AH3 to have acceptable FPS.

When I switched to IL-2 sim @ 1440, my old computer (Nvidia 1080, and an older overclocked Intel CPU ) badly needed replacement.

Changing only CPU to an AMD 5800 and 32gig memory - made some difference for AH3, but IL-2 still struggled.

Changed to a Nvidia 3800 12gig memory and problem was gone.


My ammo last for 6 Lancasters, or one Yak3.
"And the Yak 3 ,aka the "flying Yamato"..."
-Caldera

Offline Meatwad

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 12801
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2024, 05:31:09 PM »

A note for caution: HP can be very nitpicky to upgrade. The CPU should be a piece of cake as you likely only can choose among 11th gen Intel models. The GPU can be a tougher call, HP has been known to use a hard coded "whitelist" of components that can be used. Basically that means that you can upgrade to models that were/are built at the same time as the actual computer. You might be able to find upgrade options at the HP website for that specific model.

I can personally vouch for that as I have an HP workstation desktop that if you insert a video card that is not on the HP "support" list of approved video cards, it will not boot, just gives error beeps. Tried all working video cards and no post screen until the "official" video card was put back in
See Rule 19- Do not place sausage on pizza.
I am No-Sausage-On-Pizza-Wad.
Das Funkillah - I kill hangers, therefore I am a funkiller. Coming to a vulchfest near you.
You cant tie a loop around 400000 lbs of locomotive using a 2 foot rope - Drediock on fat women

Online The Fugitive

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 17963
      • Fugi's Aces Help
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2024, 06:45:30 PM »
This thread is over a year old. Im pretty sure the OP has bought a new computer instead of up grading his old box.

Offline SKOzone

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 35
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2024, 09:49:35 AM »
PCW is located north of me in West Hartford. They have been there for years, but I have never had occasion to use them. Their Yelp reviews are mixed, for whatever that may be worth.

SKOzone
Skyknights Bomber Group

Offline AKIron

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 12822
Re: have you ever heard of you uesed this company?
« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2024, 05:46:22 PM »
Old thread but still relevant to some perhaps. There are some sims that will show you in game whether your frame rate is CPU or GPU bound.
Here we put salt on Margaritas, not sidewalks.