I'm planning to build a new PC for PS2, because sub-30 FPS on min settings is getting pretty old. I basically want to be able to run on High settings (Ultra textures) at a reasonable FPS in all fights. Ultra is a bonus but framerate on high settings is my priority (willing to sacrifice some lighting/particle quality). Anyway I'm planning to go with a Gigabyte GTX 760 and 8GB RAM, but I'm not sure about the CPU. I was looking at the i5 4570, because I want to keep the overall price down, but will this be sufficient or should I go for an i7 instead? This is assuming SOE never optimise the game any better than it is now. All advice is appreciated.
The following build is an idea. You could take the Gigabyte card over the Asus if you want.There is no CPU cooler in it. This choice is up to depending whether you plan to overclock or not. I'd definetely recmmend OC for PS2 since as you noted, the game is badly optimized.An optical drive is optional. It is up to you if you need to one. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£160.79 @ Aria PC) Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£69.95 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers) Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£79.99 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£189.76 @ CCL Computers) Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.99 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: be quiet! 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.34 @ Scan.co.uk) Total: £664.80 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.) (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 07:09 BST+0100)
Overclockable CPU and MB suggest buying separate CPU cooler, therefore replace BOX CPU with OEM to save few coins. Also samsung evo SSDs have rapid mode and not much more expensive.
Stick with core i5, just make sure to overclock it. As far as I know, the only advantages of i7 vs i5 is better IGPU, which you're not gonna use, and Hyper Threading, which doesn't do much for gaming.
If you're just going to play this game, then what you're thinking of is fine. An i7 will be a waste because this game doesn't even utilize 4 full cores, if you play several other games then an OC'd i5 or any i7 will be fine. I love my i7 but most games don't even take advantage of half the threads the i7 has. However if you're thinking about 2 years down the road an i7 wouldn't be a bad idea because of the next gen console and how games are often being ported from there.
If you had read my entire post, then you wouldn't have to point that out. Which doesn't add much notiable performance and uses RAM. As we are only using 8GB, this would likely lower our performance. So the EVO is a bad choice here.
I read and found nothing about OEM CPU. Never saw PS2 taking close to 8 ram, also Rapid Mode is not mandatory and EVO is damn fast for his price category.
The computer i built (see below) runs PS2 damn good, it gets fps from high 50's to the 70's in full blow out 48+/48+ spam fest battles, generally runs anywhere in the high 80's to low 100's in med/large battles. now it does on occasion dip into 40's during huge battles but recovers quickly. my GTX 760 is a Gigabyte 4gb ddr5 256bit windforrce version. I play on ultra settings, except shadows thats on low to lessen the CPU load. Render Quality 100% and Render distance of 6,000.00. I only use this computer for games and adobe cs6 so it doesnt have a bunch of crap running in the back ground all the time, i think that helps somewhat.
The 4570 and 760 are fine but now isnt the best time to buy. The 9 series chipset motherboards and the Haswell refresh is almost out as well as the 800 series GPUs. A 4570 and a 760 is a good value but you might be able to do slightly better in a few months. https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2...e-can-i-run-it-upgrade-advice-threads.170564/ Theres my comprehensive guide. Most important part is "get a high quality PSU" for this power virus of a game. I have an ancient i5-2320, 16 GB DDR3 1333, and a 20% underclocked 660ti. I run everything on ultra and use these driver settings so it looks awesome. https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2...ttings-for-ps2-as-well-as-other-games.171010/ DO NOT use an Nvidia or Intel GPU with a TV resolution monitor(1920x1080) over HDMI or DisplayPort either. Heres the info and the tool to fix it. http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=83
In my opinion it doesn't make much sense to wait. Haswell refresh will just add 100MHz and you will maybe achieve better OC results because of an optimized process. That's it. The 800 series GPUs will be interesting but waiting several months is exaggerated for what we are going to get - mid range chips for high end prices. Also the process will still be 28nm, so nothing interesting here. Then to your guide: I know that it is a bad idea to get a garbarge PSU but there is obviously something inbetween - CWT would belong there. It sounds as you just differ between good and garbage. I also think that you emphasize PSUs a little bit too much. Sure they can kill your hardware and probably you. But as long as you don't buy untested Chinese import articles, there won't happen anything. Saying that only 80+ bronze is important and everything else is optional seems also weird to me. What do you think is the difference between 80+ and 80+ bronze?
This article explains why you should wait for a 28nm GM architecture chip. If they scale like they have been and they release the small chip for the 800 series and save the big chip for the 900 series an 880 will likely be about 6.4TFLOPS SPmeaning an 860ti will be about 5TFLOPS and be around the SP performance of a 780ti. With the 10x larger cache the new architectire has it also means a GPU with a 256bit bus will be able to keep up with the big chips 384bit bus. http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...750-Ti-Review-Maxwell-Architecture-debuts-150 The fact that its a new architecture is more important than the switch to a 20nm node. Heres an article explaining it in detail. http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/the-status-of-moores-law-its-complicated Since the Haswell refresh CPUs are basically out it would be stupid not to get one vs a standard Haswell. http://www.pcper.com/news/Processor...ocessors-Coming-Next-Month-Desktop-and-Mobile I dont make much of a distinction between garbage and good PSUs because the way their priced and marketed means theres very little reason to buy one thats in between garbage and good. Take Corsairs which are recommended often. They rebrand from several OEMs including CWT. Why pay the same or more for a CWT when you could buy a Seasonic or Delta? As i explained 80Plus is just an efficiency rating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus It doesnt tell you how well the PSU handles transients, ripple or noise. It doesnt tell you what brand the capacitors are or how big the heatsinks are. It is just a voluntary efficiency rating that doesnt indicate the most important aspect of a power supply: quality. That is usually determined by whi ACTUALLY manufactures it, not the rebrander or 80Plus rating. Considering that PSUs are typically most efficient at 50-80% load, a 450W PSU is too small and doesnt give much room to upgrade. Would get rid of the SSD and get a bigger PSU.
Wait what? Why spend upwards of $500 on a 4670k and Mobo when you can get a perfectly fine 2500k and Mobo too-close-to-make-a-case-for performance--both overclocked, both at their max safe and stable voltage/clock speed on air (cheap cooling)? I get waiting for Haswell refresh (probably not worth it) but if you're building a gaming PC today I suggest dumping the vast majority of $$$ into your GPU as the K series lintels (with regard to future and present gaming prospects) offer very little difference performance, but a great deal in difference of performance to $$, providing you are buying an older Gen CPU like sandy bridge or ivy bridge. Anyone who tells you Haswell non-refresh is worth the extra dollars is really telling you they believe that 5-10 FPS should be obtained through a CPU, instead of obtaining a whole 20-30FPS MORE by downgrading your CPU choice and upgrading your GPU choice while overclocking your cpu. Phew. Goodnight. Probably has a million spelling mistakes but I don't care at this point. Good luck sir.
Thats correct. If you have a Sandy Bridge i5 or i7 there is literally no reason to upgrade to Haswell or Haswell refresh. He didnt specify what CPU he currently has however. If you have a Sandy Bridge or newer then the next significant upgrade is going to be Broadwell with Crystal Well eDRAM on it. Intel doesnt advertise it but the eDRAM used for the GT3e(the little e is important!) Is also an L4 cache for the CPU cores! Those have 76.8GB/s memory bandwidth using dual channel DDR3 1600 vs 25 for the standard chips and 50 for the LGA 2011s! Thats 300% the bandwidth of standard LGA1150 CPUs and 150% the bandwidth of the LGA2011s! The Skylakes with the eDRAM will be a similar improvement and will use DDR4. I currently have a Sandy Bridge i5 and when i built it in January 2012 i planned to get a Skylake as my next CPU. Broadwell with Crystal Well at the earliest.
UPDATE FROM OP I got some advice from a mate today (not a PS2 player); was trying to work to a rough budget from Australian stores. Current spec are looking to be: i5 4670 (probably won't bother with OC'able version) Gigabyte 2GB GTX700-series GPU 8GB GSkill 1600MHz RAM Cougar 700W Modular 80+ Bronze PSU Samsung 840 EVO SSD alongside a 1TB HDD Asus 87M-E Board with 4x DDR3 PCI-E etc Biggest point of contention for me was whether to get a 2GB GTX760 OC or pay an extra $100 and go for a a 2GB GTX770 OC. Will a 760 do the job or should I go for a 770? Bear in mind I would settle for High over Ultra settings as long as I can hold good FPS.
Do you really need that modular PSU? Why not buy a cheaper non-modular one, like FSP Aurum 500W 80+ Gold... so you can buy a GTX770.
I disagree. If OP wanted a gaming rig that doesn't focus on Planetside's engine, then he probably wouldn't have made this thread here. While it is true, that the raise of GPU power will result in an significant increase of your average FPS, these will be solely obtained by an increase of maximum FPS. The noticeable performance gain with a faster CPU will be significantly higher in PS2. @OP The build you provided is a good way to go. The argument brought in by Scure is valid though. If you can, then I would follow this advice.
I couldn't find that PSU model on the websites of any stores in my country, and I haven't been able to find any reputable PSUs for more than $25 less than the model listed above anyway. ie the money I'd save on a different PSU is still negligible compared to the $100 difference between the different GPUs I'm choosing between.
Yeah you don't really need that big of a PSU for that build, unless you plan on add another GPU later on for SLI. Modular is always nice, but I've been finding that most cases has the PSU slot on the bottom now and the non-modular clutter doesn't bother me.
PS2 is unusually CPU demanding compared to other games. The GTX760 should do pretty fine (it compares roughly to my HD7950, and my GPU is kind of bored with PS2). The only concern i have with it is that it only has 2 GB VRAM, which might make you running into a bottleneck in future games with big textures or at high resolutions, so you might consider going for a R9-280 with 3 GB VRAM. Your CPU choice is also reasonable since the i5-4670 is actually quite powerful, and don't go for OC models, because you just pay for the extra gamble of maybe getting a CPU that still runs stable on higher clock rates. I would however be careful with the PSU. Try to find some reasonable tests of the exact PSU model that you want to buy - by reasonable i mean that they should also rate build quality and quality of used components as well as the quality of the output (basically a PSU test without opening the PSU and looking at capacitor manufacturers and soldering quality as well as evaluating the fulfilment of the ATX specification is not reasonable). PSU's are one of the few parts of a PC (aside from HDD's and fans) that are subject to wear and tear, and a broken PSU is just plain annoying.