What does CMBB (1.03) need for best performance?

[Amscot]

Is it processor, RAM, or Video? I've got a middle range PC (P4 2.8/1Gb Ram/FX5200 128)and find playing the larger battles problematic.

Cheers,

Scott

[Redwolf]

What exactly do you find problematic?

[Schrullenhaft]

From your setup, it looks like what could use the most improving is the GeForce FX5200 videocard. Generally it should be fine in most circumstances; it's big weakness is complete subpar performance for DirectX 9-based effects. For CMBB it generally should be OK, but upgrading to something else may help your map scrolling (moving around the map to issue orders, etc.).

Your CPU should generally be fine. The biggest effect is on 'turn crunching' where the data for the turn is calculated (hits, penetrations, LOS checks, etc.). This is seen as the 'blue progress bar' at the end of a turn. The CPU can affect other things too, but turn calculation is usually one of the most noticeable. A faster CPU could potentially help with turn calculation, but simply purchasing a higher clock-speed Pentium 4 may not result in a lot of differences. Depending on what your motherboard can support CPU-wise (Socket 478 or LGA778, among other things) and what core your current 2.8GHz is based on (Northwood or Prescott or ???), you may only get a very marginal difference with a "faster" CPU. Typically a faster Northwood-core CPU would probably be the best bet for CM, but those can get quite hot and they're getting very hard to find.

Your 1GB of RAM is plenty for the CMx1 series. I don't believe even the largest battles will need anything beyond that. CMx2 may be a different story, but I'd guess that 512MB to 1GB should be fine for most situations.

When it comes to your videocard, if you have the money, you should consider a GeForce FX 6800 series videocard (assuming that AGP is what your motherboard has rather than PCI-Express). While CMBB won't be taking advantage of any of the advanced lighting/shading effects offered by the new GPUs, the memory bandwidth increase should be a sufficient improvement over the FX5200 to warrant the change. With very large CMBB battles, you still may not get the improvement you're looking for, but it should be a noticeable improvement.