Specs for running CM:N

[Khane]

I am going to purchase a new computer very soon. I would like to know if the following specs will be OK/enough to run most of the upcoming CM:Normandy scenarios properly ?

Intel Corei7 Quad 2.80GHz

MotherBoard: DX58SO Intel SmackOver

GeForce 9500GT 1024MB DDR2

Memory: Kingston 3x1024 1333MHz DDR3 3GB

[7thGalaxy]

Well, given that my computer is at best 1/2 those specs, I hope so!

[BFCElvis]

GeForce 9500GT 1024MB DDR2

That is the card I have and it is great. Bought it in January and when I fired up the game I was surprised at what I had been missing with my old card (both CMSF and CM:N).

[umlaut]

Looks so to me, but I´m certainly no expert.

I´d suggest you try posting this in the "Tech Support" forum. That´ll ensure that Schrullenhaft sees it. And he is usually extremely helpful in these matters.

Cheers

[Barkhorn1x]

Should be fine. D/L a Shock Force demo to be sure.

Can I ask why the odd RAM gig number? Why not go to 4?

[Cid250]

The weak point it's in the Graphics Card... too much CPU and not so high GPU.

It feels like unbalanced power CPU vs GPU.

A 9500GT will be enought for CM, but in other games it will be in the low end... for example good simulators to be released this year, like Storm of War: Battle of Britain.

May be if you can save a bit in CPU, you can raise the power of your GPU to a more well balanced gaming computer.

[Cid250]

Should be fine. D/L a Shock Force demo to be sure.

Can I ask why the odd RAM gig number? Why not go to 4?

May be he is still attached to a 32bit operating system... you must jump into a 64bits operating system to handle properly any GB of Ram over 3Gb...

I've moved myself to 64bits tree years ago (WinXP64 in the beginning, and now with Windows 7 64bits, and Debian 64bits)... i can't be more happy with my 8Gb of RAM being used to full power when i do a RAM intensive task, like CAD etc...

[Khane]

Should be fine. D/L a Shock Force demo to be sure.

When Shock Force came out in 2007 I played for a couple of months only and it ran great with the computer I had then and I still have today: GeForce 7600 GT, AMD Athalon 64 3500 2.21GHz , 2GB memory. But 3 years have past and I assume that the upcoming CM:Normandy will be more demanding from a graphic point of view that the original CM:SF.

Since 2007 I almost did not play any new PC games so I have no experience with the newer games of today. Not long ago I downloaded the "Empire:Total War" demo and I could only play with the graphic set on "Low" (with a bit of lag). "Medium" is almost unplayable and the game does not even give me access to the "High" option and of course certainly not to "Very High". In 2007 I played other games of the Total War series ( Rome and Medieval II ) with the graphics on "High" with my present computer without problem. So I guess that my computer is quite out of date for some of today's games.

Can I ask why the odd RAM gig number? Why not go to 4?

I am not a PC geek and I have no idea. The proposal I received from the store has this "3GB Kingston Triple Channel" thing in it.

A 9500GT will be enough for CM, but in other games it will be in the low end... for example good simulators to be released this year, like Storm of War: Battle of Britain.

I don't play flight simulators. Apart the Strategic Command series and "Total War:Medieval II", CM:N will be the first game I purchase since CM:SF. I only spend very little of my spare time with gaming and when it happens I play almost these kind of games.

you must jump into a 64bits operating system to handle properly any GB of Ram over 3Gb

That's the link to the CPU specs. I guess that it is 64bits technology.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=41447

[slug88]

I agree with Cid250, a 9500GT is a poor choice for a new computer. That's a budget card, not intended for serious gaming use. Not a good pairing with a comparatively high end CPU. CM:N will run fair on it I'm sure, but you won't get much mileage with many other current games. If you look around for good deals you can get an Nvidia 470 or an ATI 5850 for ~$200US.

[c3k]

+1 to slugg88 and Cid250. Go ahead and look at the specs for the cards slug88 listed and compare them to that 9500GT. The cost difference is negligible, but it would future-proof your machine for years.

As well, RAM is cheap. I would price out 6Gb (3 x 2GB modules) as a minimum.

However, to answer the original question, the specs you list will run CMx2 very well. We can only assume that CM:N would run in a similar manner.

Good luck with the new rig.

Ken

[Schrullenhaft]

From a CM:N perspective the computer specs should work fine. As others have pointed out, you may want to consider a faster video card and more memory.

The GeForce 9500GT will probably work fine for CM:N, but something faster is almost always nicer. Future-proofing your purchase a little with a faster video card would be a good idea, if you have the funds. Be aware that at the moment there is a bug in the Nvidia drivers that causes problems with night-time/dusk scenarios and the lighting. We don't know when or if Nvidia will address this problem. CM:N MAY offer an option to turn off dynamic lighting at some point in order to avoid this problem with Nvidia's drivers.

I would recommend the fastest CPU you can reasonably afford. This will enable you to play battles that are as large as possible with less slow downs.

I would also suggest upgrading to the 6GB of RAM (3 x 2GB modules). This is just a general system recommendation. The CM series will NOT utilize this extra memory, now or in the near future. However when and if you move over to a 64-bit OS the additional memory will be a good idea. Even under a 64-bit OS however, the CM series will STILL NOT utilize more than 2GB of RAM.

The performance of CMSF should be a fairly decent indicator of performance with CM:N, with the exception that Normandy will have more trees. Most of the vehicle, soldier and building models should be an equivalent quality/number of polygons as CMSF's. Large numbers of trees will probably slow things down a bit and a faster video card can help with that.

[Mord]

So would a 1 Gig Vid card show considerable results in CMSF or CM:N? Getting decent frame rates and smoothness out of this game is a game within' itself. It can't utilize more than one core of CPU so...

What is the best option? What would the ideal comp set up be?

My specs are

Foxconn C51GU01 Motherboard

Socket 939

AMD 64X2 Dual Athlon

Core Processor 4200+ 2.20 GHZ

1.50 PC3200 DDR....(was 2Gig but lost a dimm)

BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR

EDITED: Oh and running WINXP Media with all the updates.

I know I need more ram and a bigger vid card...is that enough to show some real results?

Mord.

[Cid250]

That's the link to the CPU specs. I guess that it is 64bits technology.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=41447

Doesn't matter if your CPU is 64 bits, but you Operating System is not... You are in some way throwing money to the trash can with your 64bits CPU if you install WinXP 32 bits.

You will need to update some day to Windows 7 64 bits if you want to use more than 3GB of RAM.

To Stick with a 32 bits operating system today in a "New Computer" is a bad choice... for a gaming computer you will need +4Gb of RAM sooner than later.

[MeatEtr]

A 64-bit OS is not a must-have IMO. For starters, next to no games on the market today take advantage of more than about 3-4G of RAM. Even still, in most cases 2G is fine. But if your set on that CPU then you should really get a 64-bit OS to take full advantage of it. But don't sweat getting more than 4G of RAM, at least not for a couple of years.

I bought a new PC in March of 09 and gotta 32-bit Vista with 4G RAM. But only 3.3G is seen by the OS and IIRC this is determined by how much memory your graphics card has(mine is 9800GTX+ 512mb). So even on a 32-bit OS the 4G RAM is still well worth it.

I can pretty much play all the latest games at max settings, no problem. Big reason for this, and it doesn't get discussed as much, is because it's on a CRT monitor at a lower rez of 1024x768. Those with LCDs usually are forced to play at a much higher rez, thus killing performance in most cases.

[Khane]

Thank you guys for helping

The weak point it's in the Graphics Card... too much CPU and not so high GPU.

May be if you can save a bit in CPU, you can raise the power of your GPU to a more well balanced gaming computer.

So if I cannot afford myself a Intel Core i7 Quad 2.80GHz + let say a GeForce 460GTX 1GB, then a Core i5 Intel 2.80GHz PCU + a GeForce 460GTX 1GB graphic card + 4BG memory will give me a better result/performance than the Intel Core i7 Quad 2.80GHz + GeForce 9500GT 1024MB + 3GB memory combo from my original post?

By the way the brands avaible for the GTX 460 1GB in the two stores I visited where: Gigabyte, Gainward and Zotac. Is one among these brands more recommended than the two others?

[Schrullenhaft]

Khane - Are you thinking of purchasing a Socket 1156 or a 1366 motherboard ? The Core i7 2.8GHz CPU is available for both sockets, but there is a significant difference between the two. The Socket 1366 motherboards support the Core i7 CPUs with 'triple-channel' memory and the Intel X58 chipset, typically the 9xx series of i7's. The Socket 1156 supports 'dual-channel' memory and the Intel P55 chipset. The Core i7 8xx series, the Core i5 7xx/6xx series and the Core i3 series CPUs work on this socket.

The Core i7 8xx and Core i5 CPUs ('Lynnfield') have some easier overclocking built-into the chips ('Turbo Boost') than the i7 9xx series. The Lynnfield CPUs will automatically overclock a bit high than the previous 9xx series. This can be VERY handy for CMSF and CM:N since these programs will run on one core and that core can be overclocked automatically to a significantly higher speed - which can really benefit CM quite a bit (primarily in larger and/or more intense battles).

So if you can afford it, I'd suggest a Core i7 8xx series CPU (the 2.8GHz one is the '860'). This is probably pretty close in cost to the i7 930 (which also runs at 2.8GHz), however the Socket 1156 motherboards (P55) will probably be a little less expensive than the Socket 1366 motherboards (X58). The memory for the Socket 1156 motherboards will be dual-channel, so you would probably get 4GB of DDR3 memory (2 x 2GB).

The difference between the i5 7xx CPUs and the i7 8xx CPUs is Hyper-threading. The 8xx (and 9xx) CPUs have it, while the 7xx (and lower) CPUs do not have it. Hyper-threading will probably make no difference to CM itself, but it can be useful for other programs. However with 4 cores this may be less than necessary (since so few programs will use more than one or two cores). The more 'multi-tasking' you do, then the better usage you may get out of a quad-core with hyper-threading.

The difference between the X58 and the P55 motherboards other than memory may be the amount of PCI-Express bandwidth you can get with the X58 compared to the P55. This is primarily an issue if you use AMD-Crossfire/Nvidia-SLI multi-GPU setups. At this point I don't assume you'll be using such a configuration, so the downside to the P55 chipset won't be a significant issue for you.

If you were considering the i5 760 (2.8GHz), that can work fine too, though it lacks hyper-threading. That will work with the P55 motherboard with dual-channel memory.

The Nvidia 460/465 GPUs should be quite sufficient for CM:N. They would definitely be nicer than the 9500GT and there will be a noticeable speed improvement with the 460/465 over the 9500GT.

In terms of video memory, 1GB isn't necessary nor does it guarantee better performance. More video memory does allow for the storage of more textures to be immediately available to the GPU and/or allow for speedier anti-aliasing. However the GPU speed, number of processor cores and the video memory speed will have a bigger impact on performance than the amount of video memory.

Regarding video card brands, Gainward has been a good brand in the past and Gigabyte has been fairly decent too. Zotac is fairly new to me, but they seem to be pretty decent with some of their video cards so far. You may want to find which specific models you're looking at and search for them to see what reviews exist. Newegg is a fairly decent source, though you will find users with bad experiences with almost any product.

[Khane]

Schrullenhaft,

Not being a computer geek ,most of the technical stuff about the difference between Socket 1156 or a 1366 motherboard , Core i7 8xx and Core i5 CPUs and i5 7xx CPUs and the rest is new to me and I will re-read it again. It is very important for me not to buy this new rig only according to what the computers store salesman recommends to me; I prefer to buy it one or two weeks later but not before I have a good understanding of what I purchase. I will not be able to connect to the Internet for the next couple of days but I will be back later. Thank you very much for the useful information.

[costard]

Second that. Thanks Schrullenhaft.

[MeatEtr]

It is very important for me not to buy this new rig only according to what the computers store salesman recommends to me; I prefer to buy it one or two weeks later but not before I have a good understanding of what I purchase.

What store are you thinking of buying from? From my experience you can always find better deals online versus in-store ones. I bought from cyberpowerpc.com and have no complaints, got a great deal. Also I've heard good things about ibuypower.com. Although sites like alienware.com and falcon-nw.com make top notch systems, but are way overpriced.

Good to hear your willing to take the time and do your homework before making a purchase. I remember it took me like three months of comparing, researching, and tracking down prices before pulling the trigger.

By the way, this is a great tool to help you compare performance from one card to the next.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-q3-high-quality-update-1/3DMark06-v1.1.0-3DMark-Score,1533.html

[Barkhorn1x]

I am another very satisfied Cyberpower customer. Better value and you can build your own from the plentiful options they give you.

[Schrullenhaft]

Khane lives in Tel Aviv Israel, so purchasing from an American or European online store may not be that cost effective once shipping and handling and duty/VAT taxes are tabulated.

[c3k]

Schrullenhaft,

Excellent post describing the differences between the various flavors of processors that intel is marketing these days. (Written on an intel machine so that my AMD machine doesn't get jealous.)

Now let's start talking about overclocking...

Ken

[Khane]

What store are you thinking of buying from?

In Tel Aviv where I live, certainly at the same place where I purchased my previous computer. Their prices are fair, maybe not the cheapest but they are well known for their excellent and fast customers service. I bought my present rig on May 2006I and I called them once because of a technical problems: a technician arrived at my home the same day and solved the problem. During 3 years from the purchasing day they try to help you first by phone and if it does not help a technician comes to your home the same day or the day after, solves the problem there if he can and if not he takes the computer to repair. No need ever to bring the computer to them.

Khane - Are you thinking of purchasing a Socket 1156 or a 1366 motherboard ?

I entered the web site of the place from where I am going to purchase my computer (they have a page where you can build your own system like cyberpowerpc.com) I built two systems, one "budget" and the second more expensive:

Budget rig:

CPU: Intel i5 - 760 Core 2.8GHz

Motherboard: P55 Intel WhiteSburg

Memory: 4GB Kingston Dual Channel 2x 2048

Video card: Gainward GeForce 460GTX 768 or 1GB ( $40 more for the 1GB)

+ WD 500GB Hard drive Caviar Blue + HEC case + Antec TruePower 300 W

More expensive rig:

CPU: Intel i7- 930 Quad 2.8GHz

Motherboard: X58 Intel SmackOver

Memory: 3GB Kingston Tri Channel

Video card: Gainward GeForce 460GTX 1GB or 1GB

+ WD 500GB Hard drive Caviar Blue + HEC case + Antec TruePower 300 W

The expensive rig cost $400 more than the budget. The price of the "budget" is a bit tight for me and to add $400 is quite a problem.

The question is how much noticeable will be the difference between playing with the budget and expensive one? In which cases will the difference be really noticeable?

[Lethaface]

Hi Khane,

In your case I think the budget one is the right choice. Especially since you say you don't really play a lot of games and you don't use your PC as a workstation for high demanding applications like CAD. In CM:N you won't really notice any difference probably; only when using programs which are hard on the CPU and can take advantage of hyper-threading. For example extracting a large 7z file will be a lot faster on the hyper-threading i7.

Triple channel RAM is in theory better than dual channel RAM but it won't make a daily difference. Furthermore you should get 3x2GB in case you go for the i7 on the 1366 socket(which means even more $). For CMx2 the budget one might even be faster since it has the turbo boost for when only one core is used.

So in short; in my opinion you should keep the $400,- in the pocket (or out of the red digits? ).

One thing you might look into is your power supply; i'm not sure if the 300W will be enough.

P.S. I have a corei7 920 since december 2008 and I'm very happy with it. However it cost me a lot of money, if your not really planning on using your PC that much for different things than playing CM or basic PC usage, I don't think it is worth it to spend the 400 extra dollars on CPU/MOBO/RAM.

Good luck!

[umlaut]

One thing you might look into is your power supply; i'm not sure if the 300W will be enough.

I think Lethaface might have an important point here: When I recently purchased a new GPU, I was told that almost all new GPU´s demand at least 450 W.

I don´t if this is true - but you might want to check it out.

Cheers