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

[Agamemnon]

Alright, thanks a lot. I'd prefer to play on the ridiculously huge classic unit sizes (600+ men in a single unit), but even just average settings are a huge improvement over what I currently use (tiny unit sizes and minimum graphics, still have lag).

Of course, this is my current PC:
http://www.engadget.com/products/tos...e/l505d/specs/

Actually it's rather older than what that was written about, HDD is only 300GB and I sincerely doubt the processor is 2 gHz.

[Biggus Splenus]

It does run at 2Ghz, but it has a pretty low IPC in general, especially for lightly threaded apps. So it would seem pretty slow. A modern Intel processor at 2Ghz would sweep the flaw with that AMD Athlon though

I doubt you'll be able to play at that high unit size smoothly though, I doubt any PC could, depending on how many units you'd have. I'd imagine the animations would get pretty laggy... Who knows, I haven't played NTW on my PC before

[Agamemnon]

Good, seeing that my current PC runs at 2 was kinda worrisome, as a new one is hardly any better.

[alQamar]

Oh, nice. Okay then, so I should prefer Haswell refresh. Probably doesn't matter anyway if I'm looking for a laptop though, as I think I've probably already goins the best deal for my price range. Will a quad-core 2.4 gHz Haswell that can turbo to 3.4 gHz be enough to play, say, The Great War for NTW on high settings?

I think so. Furthermore I would agree that you cannot even compare an i3 with 2 GHz and your Athlon II from 2009. As Splenyi said the CPU you have is very bottlenecked in its architechture, including the caches and the fact your are running on DDR2 RAM too. Changing to an i3 or i5 will be a good move. While the CPUs are very potent now in notebooks the graphics mostly aren't so it is hard to get a balanced pick with a good CPU and a good GPU for a reasonable price. This is why I never like to recommend notebooks for playing demanding games, as TW games are basically. Imho notebooks are just too expensive for the little bang they give compared to a desktop.

However bear in mind that NTW unlike to Rome 2 does only support (take advantage of) dualcores afaik, but I never made any technical investigations on the cpu load as I did in Rome 2. As for the Haswell refresh CPUs for notebooks I haven't seen them yet (techarp delivers the the most comprehensive tech spec comparison on the web, imho http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.a...tno=347&pgno=8. This article about turbo boost may be an interesting read http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=657&pgno=0

[Agamemnon]

Thanks a lot. So which games take which cores? I always thought that TW games could only use the first core, but apparently that's a myth.

[Biggus Splenus]

Thanks a lot. So which games take which cores? I always thought that TW games could only use the first core, but apparently that's a myth.

Yea that's a myth. It's true for the older games (Medieval 2 and back), but games on the warscape engine (Empire and up) are slowly improving in multi-core performance.

Just tested it on Shogun 2, and it looks a lot better than I remember It was a pretty small battle, but the 1st thread was about 80% load, 2nd and 3rd between 40-50%, but the 4th thread was only about 10%... so it's safe to assume that any cores higher than 4 wouldn't be beneficial at all. I could only guess that Rome 2 would be improved in multi-threaded performance, if only a little, but I've only got my laptop to test this out atm, and don't have Rome 2 installed.

Just like to mention that my CPU is only a 2 core model, but it has hyperthreading.

[Agamemnon]

Ah, alright. Thanks. Most of the time I play M2TW, but I have ETW and NTW that I play a fair amount. I don't own S2TW as my computer can't run it, and I don't honestly have any dreams of lag-free playing of R2TW. Maybe by the time I can afford a monster desktop rig the patches will finally make the game what it's supposed to be.

[alQamar]

any questions left Aga? I think if you go for a laptop an i5 or i3 will do for your above mentioned games.

[Agamemnon]

Well, I want to play better ones, my current laptop can run those. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can get a laptop that's good in other categories without an i7 in it, so that's almost the only option. For other games, I'd really like to be able to play games like Skyrim and Fallout and such on max settings, which I'm hoping is possible with the ASUS I was looking at (ROG 750 or something).

[IamOdysseus]

Hi,

Do you know if GTX 750 Ti 2 GB performs well with Rome II?
Now I have a 650 GTX and a i7 3770 @3,4 processor with 8 GB of RAM.
It seems that it has the same energy requeriments and I suppose that if my PSU can afford the GTX 650 it could afford the 750 Ti.
Thanks

[alQamar]

I would need to know your overall PSU wattage and also the Ampere for +12 Volt rail(s). basically changing for your 650 to 750 would not make a difference. As you said they have the same power requirement so it is more a relabled GPU than a technical better one. The least GPU I would recommend you is a GTX 760, especially as you have a decent CPU and enough RAM.

[IamOdysseus]

I would need to know your overall PSU wattage and also the Ampere for +12 Volt rail(s). basically changing for your 650 to 750 would not make a difference. As you said they have the same power requirement so it is more a relabled GPU than a technical better one. The least GPU I would recommend you is a GTX 760, especially as you have a decent CPU and enough RAM.

My PSU is TACENS Radix 500 Silent 500 W. I say it because I have seen this (the third benchmarking) http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/t...iew-maxwell/17

[Biggus Splenus]

The 750 ti is extremely efficient, much more than the 650 ti. So you should definitely be able to run it. The performance isn't that much better at stock, but if you want to overclock, then it probably is. Let me do some research.

[Biggus Splenus]

OK, in Rome 2, the 750 ti is about 20% better performance than the 650 ti, and uses 10% less power. That's without overclocking. The 750 ti is probably the best overclocking card on the market, so that performance increase would be even larger if you were willing to overclock, maybe giving 30-35% higher performance. Sounds like a worthwhile upgrade to me.

[IamOdysseus]

OK, in Rome 2, the 750 ti is about 20% better performance than the 650 ti, and uses 10% less power. That's without overclocking. The 750 ti is probably the best overclocking card on the market, so that performance increase would be even larger if you were willing to overclock, maybe giving 30-35% higher performance. Sounds like a worthwhile upgrade to me.

I see but in the same case as the CPU, overclocking the GPU requires extra cooling?

[alQamar]

OK, in Rome 2, the 750 ti is about 20% better performance than the 650 ti, and uses 10% less power. That's without overclocking. The 750 ti is probably the best overclocking card on the market, so that performance increase would be even larger if you were willing to overclock, maybe giving 30-35% higher performance. Sounds like a worthwhile upgrade to me.

Hi splenyi if I may refer to his anandtech link I do not think that a 750 ti will satisfy him. Spending money for just +14 fps on high quality and med shadows, as we all know the high quality preset in Rome 2 actually not worth the name?!
I suggest him to go with the 760 still. If he spends money then he should gain performance more sustainable as he would do with a 650 ti.

Computerbase tested the PSU and said it does not deserve its 80plus certification as the efficiency is leveled at about 70%. Still the PSU should be powerful enough (350 Watts output if we lay down the 70% efficiency) to serve the 760.

[IamOdysseus]

Hi splenyi if I may refer to his anandtech link I do not think that a 750 ti will satisfy him. Spending money for just +14 fps on high quality and med shadows, as we all know the high quality preset in Rome 2 actually not worth the name?!
I suggest him to go with the 760 still. If he spends money then he should gain performance more sustainable as he would do with a 650 ti.

Computerbase tested the PSU and said it does not deserve its 80plus certification as the efficiency is leveled at about 70%. Still the PSU should be powerful enough (350 Watts output if we lay down the 70% efficiency) to serve the 760.

Ok If I can afford I'll get the 760 in any case. Thanks alQamar.

[alQamar]

no problem you are welcome. btw. I did not want to say that splenyi is wrong with what he stated but I just think going to the 750ti is not giving the bang for your hard earned bucks compared to your current GPU. I hope you know what I mean

[IamOdysseus]

no problem you are welcome. btw. I did not want to say that splenyi is wrong with what he stated but I just think going to the 750ti is not giving the bang for your hard earned bucks compared to your current GPU. I hope you know what I mean

I fully understand .

[Biggus Splenus]

Yeah good call guys, 760 is much better value