Build a PC for Rome 2 / Hardware Recommendations and Advice Thread

[AngryPolack]

Hey guys I assembled the enthusiast version of your recommended builds (4670K and GTX 760), so far this rig rocks so a big thank you. I oc'd the 4670K to 4.2 but I left the core voltage set to "auto". Is this OK? I ran the Shogun 2 DX11 1080p benchmark test and got 78 fps. Is that good?

[A Barbarian]

I oc'd the 4670K to 4.2 but I left the core voltage set to "auto". Is this OK?

Auto usually applies too much voltage which can be bad. Please check the 'real' voltage of your CPU when it's under load with something like GPU-Z and report back . After you have reported your voltage you should also do a heavy load test to check temperatures since the 4670K CPU can get pretty hot, especially overclocked.

I ran the Shogun 2 DX11 1080p benchmark test and got 78 fps. Is that good?

Yeah, that's very close to the top.

[A Barbarian]

Actually, 2560 doesn't put much more load on the CPU compared to 1920 and Shogun 2 @ 2560x1440 with 4xSSAA (SSAA was the reason I bought a 2nd 7970) looks fantastic.

[Cold_Mac]

Hi guys,

I'm going to upgrade my PC (current build - Gigabyte Z77-DS3H, 16 GB Kingston RAM, Pentium G850, Radeon HD 5770) - good enough to play Rome II at low levels of unit size and other adjustments, I guess.
My proposed targets are the Nvidia GeForce GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 & i5-3470 Prozessor. Since I'm a piss poor student that has to be spending-cautios, how much of an performance boost will those two ingredients be and are they compatible to the other hardware?

Thankful for any help.

[Outlaw]

hey guys

I have a 560ti and it lags in shogun 2, normal sized units everything on normal. No AA.

I am thinking about upgrading to a 6 series, any suggestions? Maybe a 660Ti?

[Virtanen]

hey guys

I have a 560ti and it lags in shogun 2, normal sized units everything on normal. No AA.

I am thinking about upgrading to a 6 series, any suggestions? Maybe a 660Ti?

None of this has any meaning if you don't tell us what sort of CPU you have.

Total War games are very CPU intensive.

[Devils_Advocate]

hey guys

I have a 560ti and it lags in shogun 2, normal sized units everything on normal. No AA.

I am thinking about upgrading to a 6 series, any suggestions? Maybe a 660Ti?

Your problem is either cpu or ram, or both.
I have the same graphic card from zotac (overclocked edition), an i7 at almost 5ghz and 8gigs of ram, and I can play shogun 2 (with darth mod) on the highest/ultra settings mostly perfectly smooth. Shadows and AA need to be lowered at worst clashes to maintain an acceptable framerate.
A 660ti would not be that much of a step forward. If you feel you need an new gpu, depending on your budget, I´d recommend a 670 or 760, those have a very fair price/performance ratio.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

[Aruberikku]

Just placed my order for my new rig
Damn, it did hurt a bit to spend all that money (especially when I should be keeping it for more important things), but let's hope Rome II makes it less painful.

Normally I was going to go for a i5-4570, but for some reason the store where I ordered decided to suddenly increase its price by €35 to a whopping €209!!! So I ended up picking an i5-4760K for €11 less!

CPU: Intel Core i5-4760K 3.4GHz with Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
GPU: MSI N760 2GB GDDR5
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 2x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CAS 8
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H
PSU: Seasonic G-550
SSD/HDD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB + Seagate Barracuda 1GB

Can't wait to assembly this baby! Big thanks to this thread to help me make decisions.

[Biggus Splenus]

Just placed my order for my new rig
Damn, it did hurt a bit to spend all that money (especially when I should be keeping it for more important things), but let's hope Rome II makes it less painful.

Normally I was going to go for a i5-4570, but for some reason the store where I ordered decided to suddenly increase its price by €35 to a whopping €209!!! So I ended up picking an i5-4760K for €11 less!

CPU: Intel Core i5-4760K 3.4GHz with Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
GPU: MSI N760 2GB GDDR5
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 2x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CAS 8
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H
PSU: Seasonic G-550
SSD/HDD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB + Seagate Barracuda 1GB

Can't wait to assembly this baby! Big thanks to this thread to help me make decisions.

Was the GPU 4670K, or 4770K? Everything you chose is really good, you probably got some of the best price/performance at the high end, any higher and you'd be loosing a lot of value. Well done mate I love your avatar btw.

[Aruberikku]

Was the GPU 4670K, or 4770K? Everything you chose is really good, you probably got some of the best price/performance at the high end, any higher and you'd be loosing a lot of value. Well done mate I love your avatar btw.

CPU you mean? It's a 4670K, mixed up the 6 and 7.
A 4770K for €198 would have been a bargain!

And I love your avatar too

[Stívarðr Reynitré]

Just upgraded my custom built rig last week...got a new MoBo, CPU and GPU in preparation...

OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit


CPU:
Intel Core i5 3470,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.2GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 32x Ratio, 77W


PSU:
500w Corsair CMPSU-500CXUK Builder, 80% Eff’, 120mm Fan, Single Rail, ATX


RAM:
14GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3 Classic


GPU:
2GB Zotac GTX 760, 28nm, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 993MHz, Boost 1059MHz, Cores 1152


MOBO:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H, USB 3.0 Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0, D-Sub/ DVI-D/ HDMI, ATX

[Biggus Splenus]

Looks good apart from that stupid amount of RAM mate, wasted your money there You'll be lucky to utilise even a quarter of it.

[Stívarðr Reynitré]

Looks good apart from that stupid amount of RAM mate, wasted your money there You'll be lucky to utilise even a quarter of it.

I know...

I was really green at first and bought 2x2GB of Ram originally...then added some more by adding another 2x2GB later. Which obviously meant I had 8GB.

My cousin just told me to use one slot and gave me an 8GB a few months back.

I have that 8GB in plus 3x2GB simply for the craic...Although I could probably just eBay them.

Don't judge me! lol

[resthal]

Hey guys
Thinking of buying this setup... will it perform well and can you see any bottlenecks or other? Cheers. :-)

OS - Windows 8
CPU - Intel i5 4670k Haswell
Motherboard - MSI Z87-G45
GPU - Gigabyte 760oc
RAM - Corsair DDR3 PC1600 8GB CL9 kit Vengeance
SSD - Samsung 840 Series MZ-ZTD250 250 GB
PSU - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2
Cabinet - Fractal Design R4

[Biggus Splenus]

Hey guys
Thinking of buying this setup... will it perform well and can you see any bottlenecks or other? Cheers. :-)

OS - Windows 8
CPU - Intel i5 4670k Haswell
Motherboard - MSI Z87-G45
GPU - Gigabyte 760oc
RAM - Corsair DDR3 PC1600 8GB CL9 kit Vengeance
SSD - Samsung 840 Series MZ-ZTD250 250 GB
PSU - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2
Cabinet - Fractal Design R4

Thanks for the PM mate

Most those parts are great, but here's a few things:
- you should try get a Seasonic PSU, bronze or gold. Seems as you live in Netherlands, if may be fairly expensive or rare to find. I'm not a fan of Corsairs TX series though, but in the OP there's a few links to reviewers, check them for some reviews on the product maybe I'm wrong.

- I guess that's it I love the 760, its amazing value, I wish I got it. Good luck!

[resthal]

Hey Splenyi
Thx for taking the time to look at my post mate! Actually I'm from Denmark, but it's close enough :-) Think the prices are about the same... The Corsair is about 143 AUD and the Seasonic bronze is about 162 AUD, but I'll look at some reviews as you suggested :-) Read in a newer post about someone having trouble with his 760 though? Hope it's just his rig that needs tweaking and not a common problem...
Guess I'm just about ready then! Can't wait for the game to come out :-)
Thx again Splenyi!!

[Romulus&Remus]

Hey,

I have a small question, since I'm not entirely sure if I understand it correctly.
When looking at the benchmark thread I can see the FPS that a CPU and GPU can achieve in Shogun 2.

Let's say for example I'm interested in this CPU:
Intel Core i5-4670K, 4,1 GHz, Haswell C1, 22nm lithography, 84 Watts TDP, DDR3 1600 MHz CL9-9-9-24, Dual Channel: 42 FPSAnd now I want to find a good GPU for that. So when I compare a few video cards, for example:
EVGA GTX 670 FTW (MLAA): 67 fps
NVIDIA GTX 660 (MLAA): 53 fpsNVIDIA GTX 580 (MLAA): 49 fps
All these video cards have a higher FPS than the CPU, is this what they call a bottleneck?
Woudl I be fine taking the lowest one and have the same quality? Or do I get benefits from going higher?

Many thanks!

[Rafa-K]

Hi guys,
this is my first post to TWCentre as I'm a new member.
First, I would like to thank all of you for sharing this valuable information, wish I knew about this forum before I built my new rig
As I'm a huge fan of TW series specially Rome (I played all of them except Shogun as this era didn't interest me) I decided to build a new rig specially for Rome II, I've been doing research for the last few months on hardware components as my last rig was 5 years old. I end up having this rig:

Case: Thermaltake level 10 GT
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Gene X-79
CPU: Intel Core i7 3930K @3.2 GHZ
GPU: Gigabyte GTX Titan Windforce
RAM: Corsair Dominator 16GB (4x4) Quad Channel 7-8-8-24, 1.5V
PCU: Corsair 1200AXi
Monitor: Asus 27" VG278HE 2ms 1920x1080 144Mhz 3D
SSD: Sam"""g 840 Pro Series 512 GB
HDD: WD 3.5 Black 1TB
Sound Card: Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus Sound Card
Water Cooling: Thermal Take Water 2.0 Extreme
Optical Drive: Pioneer Blu-Ray Combo
LED Light: NZXT Hue RGB LED Controller
Water Cooling Fans: 2x Noctua NF-F12-PWM 120mm 1500 RPM
Extra Case Fan: 1x Noctua NF-S12A-PWM 120mm 1200RPM
Keyboard: Corsair Vengeance K95 Fully Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Mice: Corsair Vengeance M95
Speakers: Corsair SP2500 2.1 Speakers
Mice pad: Corsair MM400

after reading most of this thread pages, I know that the only thing I might need to do is OC my CPU which I have no idea how to do it as I never OC anything in my life before, when I tried to search to find an easy guideline to explain how to OC 3930k on x79 mobo, I couldn't find an easy one, I don't feel comfy playing with all of this numbers (multiplayer, vcore, voltage, etc.), I know that 3930k will boost to 3.8 GHZ on turbo when it's needed, hopefully that would be enough to run the game on the largest unit size without lag when I zoom in or huge melee battles (I know that the rest of settings depend on the GPU).
I would like to say special thanks to alQamar Splenyi, SamueleD and Epic28 even if I don't know you guys personally but honestly, I never seen that in my life, your willing to help people to build their own rigs, spending time searching websites for them, provide feedback, try to solve their problems, it's really overkill me .

[TheNewKing]

I have G.Skill 8GBXL Main Memory DDR3 8 GB PC1600 CL9 Ram Kit 2x 4 GB

and just bought

Kingston Technology KTH9600C/4G 4GB 1600MHz Memory Module

to add another 4gb ram, do i need this new 4gb ram and will i benefit from it, if not i can put it in my other pc
please help.?

[alQamar]

I have G.Skill 8GBXL Main Memory DDR3 8 GB PC1600 CL9 Ram Kit 2x 4 GB

and just bought

Kingston Technology KTH9600C/4G 4GB 1600MHz Memory Module

to add another 4gb ram, do i need this new 4gb ram and will i benefit from it, if not i can put it in my other pc
please help.?

You will not benefit in total war. Spend it to another computer.