Total War:Shogun II System Performance Test

[Maizel]

I was wondering if one of you guys could help me. My knowledge of all things CPU are near non existant. I did that scan and my lame rig just about limps over the minimum requirements (pic attached)

So, an upgrade is needed (been looking at one for awhile) but the budget is tight, so a friend reccommended i have a custom build one. Problem with, i dont have a clue what im asking for, and whats value for cash.

So i have 2 builds im looking at, all roughly within the same price range, could any of you tell me which one will give best performance on S2TW whilst still being good value.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The first one is £801 and its specs are
Intel i5 2500k quad core, (3.3gb, 6mb cache)+HD graphics
ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI: MICRO ATX MAINBOARD, LG 1155, SATA 6.0Gb/s motherboard
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)


The 2nd is £749 and its specs are
Intel Core i5 760 (4 x 2.8 GHz) 8MB
Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-12800 1600MHz
1GB XFX HD 5770 Graphics Card with IP-5X fan, Eyefinity
Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2 motherboard
OCZ 500W Stealth XStream - Low Noise
750 GB SATA-II HDD 7200 32MB

Seems like a load of jibberish to me!

Would either of them even be close to playing S2TW at recommended levels?

If you have the money to buy either, go with the first one. The processor in that one is faster, but in games should be comparable to the second listed system.

The socket for the first one is newer however, and will probably enable you to upgrade better further down the road. The PSU is a bit on the low side as far as wattage is concerned, but it should be able to handle the system as listed. It won;t have much room for anything more powerful, but I;d still go with the first, if only because it uses the new socket. Socketchanges are a lot more annoying and expensive than a PSU swap.

[♔ Tsar ♔]

I'm happy, here is my test:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[RazorbackII]

According to that I can play it on my MPB 13" ffs, albeit not well haha. That either means my PC will be fine, or the test is crazy.

[Blog]

If that site is accurate then CA created a failure.
If 90% of the people will have to spent from 100$ (new grafics card) to 800$ (new pc) then the sails will be rare. In this world finansial crisis people will stay with old TW games...

I think a CA member must give an answer to this "question".

What exactly is your question? Do you think that CA should not try to improve their games graphically and technically by utilising new technologies and instead just produce the same games with very little to no visual or technical improvements?

[AnthoniusII]

What exactly is your question? Do you think that CA should not try to improve their games graphically and technically by utilising new technologies and instead just produce the same games with very little to no visual or technical improvements?

No but i 2core pc wirh Windows XP and 1g grafic card is to "new" to be replaced. In many countries pcs are to expensive to be replaced every two years don't you think?
For example i have an Intel Core2 Quad Q8200@2.33Ghz with Windows XP (the best windows for modding/ but they use one core only) that "see" 3.2 from my 4Gb from my RAM and they are suported by an GeForce GTS 250 (1GB).That system is one years old and i do not inteand to repleace it for the next 4-5 years and defenently not just for a game.
I think there are many others that have similar or a bit older pcs too...

[RazorbackII]

To be fair on CA, their games have always been powerwhores and it has always sold well. And besides, your performance test shows unless you want everything on the absolute maximum the game will run both smoothly and beautifully.

It also seems to be very much optimized for older GPU's, as my 4870 is apparantly on the upper end of the performance scale. It is CPU hungry game, which makes me wish I hadn't gone for the i5-750 which is decent, but not amazing. Maybe I'll get a new CPU this time next year

But anyway, my point is I do not think CA are creating games that are impossible for casual PC users to play. Sure, it needs a good PC, but what good PC games don't? And the majority of real PC gamers aren't going to have a GPU from 8 years ago.

[RazorbackII]

Would upgrading the RAM make a difference on CPU performance? I have an i5-750 and really don't see the need to upgrade that. If adding better RAM would help though, I would do that. Mine is pretty average atm.

[Praetorian121]

I'm happy, here is my test:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have same results for Napoleon and Empire, but i cant play on high, so this test is for shi.t.

[Blog]

No but i 2core pc wirh Windows XP and 1g grafic card is to "new" to be replaced. In many countries pcs are to expensive to be replaced every two years don't you think?
For example i have an Intel Core2 Quad Q8200@2.33Ghz with Windows XP (the best windows for modding/ but they use one core only) that "see" 3.2 from my 4Gb from my RAM and they are suported by an GeForce GTS 250 (1GB).That system is one years old and i do not inteand to repleace it for the next 4-5 years and defenently not just for a game.
I think there are many others that have similar or a bit older pcs too...

I agree with you that it is a bit expensive to be upgrading your computer every two or three years, but I think that is only really necessary if you want to experience the very best from every game you own. I built my current PC almost three years ago now and it is still running most new games on very close to the maximum settings, and according to that website I should be able to run the game on medium/high settings. That said, I do feel tempted to upgrade my graphics card, because upgrading some (or all) of my PC is something I do whenever a new Total War game comes out.
As someone else also said, it looks like your PC will be able to run the game with high settings, so it should not be too much of a problem for you. Unfortunately, spending money on upgrading PCs is one of the realities of PC gaming.

[RazorbackII]

I agree with you that it is a bit expensive to be upgrading your computer every two or three years, but I think that is only really necessary if you want to experience the very best from every game you own. I built my current PC almost three years ago now and it is still running most new games on very close to the maximum settings, and according to that website I should be able to run the game on medium/high settings. That said, I do feel tempted to upgrade my graphics card, because upgrading some (or all) of my PC is something I do whenever a new Total War game comes out.
As someone else also said, it looks like your PC will be able to run the game with high settings, so it should not be too much of a problem for you. Unfortunately, spending money on upgrading PCs is one of the realities of PC gaming.

I'm the same. Had mine just over a year, and I've already been bitten by the upgrade bug. I would have only upgraded the HDD, GPU and Monitor. But still...

Anyways, after seeing that my 4870 can stay, as it's obviously the CPU that's limiting my games. And tbf I never really had problems with Napoleon on Ultra so I shouldn't complain. Maybe this time next year I'll get a new GPU or even go for Sandy Bridge.

No sense in upgrading now though. Only the monitor imo needs touching. I don't have one =_= hah

[Greve Af Göteborg]

I wouldn't put so much faith in these scan programs.
They are usually very inaccurate.

[TW Junkie]

Funny, this thing doesn't work on either my home or work computer. I've tried it in Opera, Chrome, IE and Firefox. Ah well, I don't need its advice just wanted to see what it was all about.

[MemnonOfRhodes]

Funny, this thing doesn't work on either my home or work computer. I've tried it in Opera, Chrome, IE and Firefox. Ah well, I don't need its advice just wanted to see what it was all about.

have you updated java?

[TW Junkie]

Yeah my java is up to date as well. It just says it can't determine what my hardware is or something along those lines. Says either my hardware is too new or too old. Neither of which is true.

[MemnonOfRhodes]

Yeah my java is up to date as well. It just says it can't determine what my hardware is or something along those lines. Says either my hardware is too new or too old. Neither of which is true.

Weird cuz that fixed it for me,what are your specs?

[♔ Tsar ♔]

I have same results for Napoleon and Empire, but i cant play on high, so this test is for shi.t.

Stvarno je sranje ako imamo iste rezultate, jer je tvoj komp dosta lošiji.

[Praetorian121]

Here is my test for Napoleon, test is wrong because i have lag on medium, not to mention on high


Uploaded with ImageShack.us





Tsar neznam kakvi su mi rezultati za Shogun II nisma probao, a ni neću kad ovaj test nevalja ništa.

[MemnonOfRhodes]

Probably because of the 2GB and CPU,you should really go for the 4GB

[Noif de Bodemloze]

Inter Core would be nice to my computer and it is not even expensive here. So sad I wont set it.

[InF3sTeD]

Here is my test for Napoleon, test is wrong because i have lag on medium, not to mention on high


Uploaded with ImageShack.us





Tsar neznam kakvi su mi rezultati za Shogun II nisma probao, a ni neću kad ovaj test nevalja ništa.

I like how the recommended settings are less then 1/2 of what they are for Total War: Shogun 2.