Hi guys. I need to build a new computer and though SOE is far from perfecting their code, I would like to know what I need to play this game. I played PlanetSide1 and it was IMO the best game I have played to date (only because my computer can't handle Skyrim well.) I have heard of people comparing PlanetSide2 to ARMA2, and I can say they don't compare at all. With medium graphics on Arma2 I can get a steady 60 FPS. when I log into Planetside2, I get about 2 frames every 5 minutes. So the question is; What do I need to build to play this game at a steady 60 FPS? I don't need more then that because I've never really played a game with more then that. I don't want minimum graphics, I want to enjoy sharp textures and proper lighting with a large (possible max) draw distance. I don't need super fancy particle effects but the game just needs to look good. I want to build something that is going to last without my needing to upgrade it every few years. Seeing how unless something can over take PlanetSide2 in the MMOFPS market I don't see my self getting any new parts, unless something brakes (of course). I know very little about computers my self, but I just want to be able to play this game. I hiped this game to all my friends and everyone else I met since I heard of it coming out, and now it seems I'm the only person I know that can't play it. My computer is a Dell XPS 410 with an old Nvidia graphics card thrown in after the original card broke. I thank you all for any and all help you can give. PS: Just about any computers I have seen so far would take me a few months to get the money for, so even though I would like to say cost isn't in issue, I'm going to need to put in quite a bit of work and work means time and I would like to be able to play this game as soon as possible.
You want 60FPS? get saving dude. you can play this game more than adaquatly with a lower framerate. your self imposed requirements regarding graphics means you are going to be looking at an i3 or an i5, and you will need atleast a GTX550Ti to push the picture with. You don't state what resolution you want to play at, so i'm going to base my reply around a 17" monitor displaying at 1024 x 768. so long as you're not trying to play it on max everything with a 22" LED monitor, you'll see decent FPS with something like http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-v...0-gb-85XX.html?refs=43170000-4294944187&src=3 as your starting block. You should really aim to have a 64Bit OS, so Win7 or Win8. If you can only manage 32Bit Win XP, then 4GB of RAM is your limit. IF you Can streach to 64Bit, then get 8GB of DDR3 (something unfussy like http://www.dabs.com/products/kingst...7N57.html?refs=468490000-51540000-50543&src=3 x2) Graphics wise, you need to be really buying either a GTX550Ti (or AMD Equivilent) or one of the newer 6 Series cards (GTX640 are quite cheap but don't go mad and get a 670 or you will need to buy a new PSU to replace the standard PSU one that comes with the barebones kit as faster cards need higher power PSUs). All in all, you need to set yourself a budget, blue-sky dreaming in PC builds gest expensive very quickly. Your 3 main areas to prioitise your money should be ; 1) CPU 2) Motherboard 3) Graphics card and in that order, if you ignore the CPU and just get a big graphics card, your CPU will not handle it, your PSU most likely won't handle it either and you've got an under performing card. You could have saved money and got the slower card and seen no difference (seen so many who think that if they spend £300 on a GTX670 their E4700 will suddenly play 1080P@60FPS on max setting lol) My main rig (see sig below) is a little out of date now, but i built that about 18 months ago for about £650, i get a max of 109FPS on Esamir, and it generaly doesn't drop any lower than 40FPS in big fights on Indar. The game as it stands put most stress on CPU, so make sure you buy as good as you can get (wouldn't worry about i7, i5 is enough, the Hyper-Threading on the i7 is wasted on this game)
60fps at all times? Funny. You'd need a $300+ processor overclocked to like 4.8 for that and I still don't see it doing better than drops to ~52. More reasonable is 40+, which you can do with an i5-3570k and a GTX560Ti with one or two settings changed. If you want 60fps with ultra win settings all the time GPU-wise, you pretty much need an overclocked 660Ti at the minimum, preferably a 670 or better. Wanting something that doesn't need an upgrade every few years is unreasonable unless you plan to spend like $3000 right now for an extra year or two of life. It's better to spend $850 every three years than $3000 every four and a half.
Well, you CAN buy a highend cpu, motherboard and ram, and have it running everything on max for 4-5 years... youll just need to upgrade the gpu at least every 3rd year. Thats what ive done anyways^^
Odd.... my system gets a fairly steady 70-80fps with occasional drops to 50 (but it does not stay there) at ultra settings and it is under $1000. I find myself wishing I had gone for a 660ti or sprung for higher end. I am happy with it right now.
I'm not sure 60 FPS Ultra is possible with any graphics card, the CPU is the problem here, choking on shadows and model quality I think. And really, beyond 3570k single-thread performance (which is the actual bottleneck) doesn't go up much higher. Sure, you can get more L3, hyperthreading and two extra cores, but that'll be more of a liability than an asset here. That said I'm running constant 70+ FPS here, 1920x1200 resolution at the specs in sig. Graphics set to custom ultra-low and lots of tweaks.
I do 60+ on Ultra with an overclocked 660Ti, it's not that extremely demanding. You're right in that a constant 60+ is impossible only because of the eventual CPU bottleneck in large battles, but I was discussing only the GPU aspect of it at that point. Agree that OP should steer clear of i7s as for 95% of people it's pointless and they should stick with a 3570k. I was also referring to framerates at max settings since OP stated he wanted the eye candy. 60fps at all times is certainly possible with an overclocked Ivy i5/i7 and all of the proper tweaks at lower settings.
Would a; 3rd gen i5-3330 up to 3.0GHz with W7-64bit and 8G (4Gx2) Duel Channel (what ever that means) DDR3 up to 1600MHz and a GTX660 1.5GB GDDR5 on 19inch flat screen monitor at 1280 by 1024 with a 240W power supply do? I also assume they will be doing quite a bit of optimization in the months to come. And while I'm here; Does it take more CPU/GPU to fly in PlanetSide2 Or is it actually easier on the CPU/GPU? PS: Would this also run Skyrim well? It seems a shame to ask on the SOE boards but it would be nice to know.
The price difference between a 3330 and a 3570k is like $30 and the 3570k is better due to a nearly 20% higher boost clock and the unlocked multiplier. The 3330 at 3.0/3.2 boost will not do a solid 40+ fps in massive battles without significant tweaks in my opinion. Dual-channel memory is somewhat self-explanatory in that it means there are two channels of communication between the RAM and the memory controller. This gives you the ability to move more data. Imagine two roads. One has one lane in each direction and the other has two in each direction, thus carrying double the number of cars. 8GB memory is perfectly fine and 1600 is a good middle range speed. A GTX660 is fine enough. I'd never buy a 240w power supply because having absolutely zero room to upgrade is a no-go for me. The way that's posted absolutely screams pre-built. You're probably wasting your money and could get something better for the price by building it yourself. What's the brand and model in this case as well as what they want to charge you for it? Personally I would go i5-3570k, GTX 560Ti/660/HD7870, 8GB of 1600/1866 RAM, any decent Z77 mobo, PSU depends on the card. Skyrim would run very easily on that PC as it calls for a quad-core processor (vague ftw!), 4GB RAM, and a GTX260 according to the UESP wiki. edit: looking back I've said some of this in a previous post but repetitiveness isn't always bad
I refuse to believe that a 240W will ever be enough to support something like the 660GTX. It will alone consume upwards of 140 Watts. Pair that with a high power processor, harddrives and whatnot and you have a disaster for recipe. I would never go below 500W (from an enthusiast manufacturer for better 12v stability) if I built for anyone - I personally have a 550 modular PSU from Corsair which has no problems pulling four harddrives, an overclocked 2500K and a 7870.
Wait what? *looks, actually reads properly and thinks* That will...break. An Ivy and a 660 consume like 210-230 together, not to mention I don't know - everything else? Now I really want to know what company is trying to sell these things to people. They probably tested it and the system draws like 239.85 watts under average load so they go WELP 240 IS ENOUGH. Also, disaster for recipe
Hehehe - Well very low power machines CAN work with those tiny PSU's. My homebuilt NAS/HTPC uses an i3 2100T which has a TDP of a whopping 35W
240 watts? are you sure you don't mean 240V input? I find it unlikely you found a 240 watt power supply.
You mean like these 200, 220, and 250w ones? They exist, they're just made for ultra-cheapness and cutting down to the absolute bare minimum mostly for prebuilt systems. Hence my point of never buying one for a gaming system as even if they work right now any upgrade whatsoever will force you to buy a new PSU.
hey Guys I found a pre-built computer for $1300 that has; CPU: intel Core i5 3570K 3.40 GHz (Unlocked CPU) mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V LX (Intel Z77 Chipset) RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance Series PSU: 600W Corsair GS Storage: (1TB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/Samsung (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections), GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB (Includes PhysX) Audio: Integrated Motherboard Audio Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (High Performance Cooler), Standard Factory Chassis Fans Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition). I already have the 19 inch flat screen monitor running at 1280 by 1024. And there was a $1600 version but it seemed like the the same thing with a little extra push. It just has slightly better versions of the same parts. And I don't mind the Audio because I play with the sound in most games low or just off and just liston to youtube/MP3s on a cheap USB headset. I'f I wanted good sound I would just find a way to hook my amp up and play w/e through that. PS: I don't want a liquid cool system, just in case it brakes down, lot more mess then a faulty fan. And I don't mind if you can hear the fan, so long as it works.
$300 cheaper if you buy it all off of Newegg. $1,105.91 including my sales tax for living in NJ. If you don't, it becomes $1,023.91 + shipping which for me is $10. There's also $50 worth of rebate cards (2x$20 and 1x$10). You can get that $1,300 computer for $970 by putting in two hours of work. Fine, you would need a case. An overly expensive $120 case still puts you at a net $200+ saved. You didn't mention the case so I didn't either, but I doubt it's worth the $330 discrepancy. Link to the handy-dandy Newegg wishlist that I made to prove my point. The hard drive was vague so I tossed in one of the drives I use in my array. It's probably [definitely] better than what they planned to give you. I don't like the 3/5 rating on that motherboard by the way. I didn't actually read the reviews but you should look into that if you want to buy it. [edit: quite a few DOA boards, fun. I'm going to as usual recommend my own board for that price range, but that's my biased opinion] Also you may want to consider a factory-overclocked 660Ti for $10 more after rebates. It's entirely possible I have forgotten something minor but I can't find it if I did. Please don't get ripped off like that.
But the problem is I know very little about computes and all though I know how to install an OS, getting everything to work together and get the the drivers to work and installing some of the components, I just don't know how to do. And more importantly will the 600W PSU handle all those posts including the overclocked GTX660ti and the mobo you suggested? Also do you have a case that might work for all this?
Newegg TV has a pretty solid tutorial here. He starts the build internally around 22:00. There are plenty of tutorials you can find around the Internet showing you what you need to do. If you're still a little confused, ask us! If you're totally and hopelessly lost on a particular aspect and can't find something helpful, PM me. I'll take mine apart and record that specific step for you. As long as you're careful with static buildup and not dropping/smacking things to pieces, it's easy and safe. What I don't think he mentions is the importance of avoiding static discharge onto a sensitive part. Just touch anything metal that is grounded occasionally or before picking up each part. I don't bother with the wrist straps, I just continuously touch bare case metal. The point is to equalize yourself with the case and not send a sudden blast of static at a part. If you have a large fluffy Maine Coon or similar, get him out of the room because cats are cats and will immediately try to poke around what you're doing because they're curious. Fluffy cats are effectively mobile static generators that gravitate towards sensitive electronics. Don't wear track pants or wool clothing. My preference is jeans and a cotton or linen shirt. Higher humidity also helps prevent significant static buildup. Also, never touch the CPU pins on the underside or the pins on the motherboard's socket. Ever. Don't force things too much - if it's not going in with moderate force then chances are there's a clip or something you forgot about. Most things go in relatively easily. If it really feels like you're going to break it, you probably are. If you have any problems, either post here and we'll try to help or feel free to PM me and I'll assist you if I can. The 600W PSU should handle those parts just fine with some room to spare. The 660Ti even overclocked should draw under 150w at max load. Parts are steadily becoming more efficient. The 850w I have is total overkill just because I wanted to have excess upgrade room. The case is mostly up to you. I have a personal problem with those strange Lian Li and Apevia cases. I like Corsair, XCLIO, Rosewill (certain ones), Antec (overpriced IMO, but good), Thermaltake, and Cooler Master. As my sig says, I have an XCLIO Windtunnel. I like it. If you want a $50 case that simply does the job, the Rosewill Challenger accomplishes what it needs to. The Rosewill Blackhawk does the same in the $90 category, comes with five fans pre-installed, and is a tad larger. Around the same price point is the Cooler Master CM 690 II. Those are all mid-tower cases (and all 5/5 rated), the full-tower is a large and more expensive class that usually breaks the $100 mark. Again, it's really up to you. Most non-stupidly-cheap cases are going to be decent enough, it's your interest in the appearance that you have to think about. After all you're probably going to see it a lot. edit: Disclaimer - if you are *totally* clueless here and truly do not believe you can do this without damaging something and so on, don't. Just know that it's a rewarding skill to have and saves you money. I highly recommend that all but the absolutely least technically inclined users build their own computers.
