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

[Agamemnon]

Also, I've learned from my current computer than 8.1 is significantly faster than 7 at seemingly everything. I am running Classic Shell so I don't have to bother with anything that makes 8.1 look like 8.1, but the OS seems snappier in general. That could just be that I have way better hardware now, but I have a feeling the OS is sleeker as well.

[Iain81]

The 2nd one, definitely. AMD CPUs run fairly poorly on Total War compared to Intel CPUs. For the graphics card you can go either way, Nvidia and AMD perform about the same in this price bracket, but here's a link to the benchmarks if you want to see the exact benefits in each game http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1038

Cheers

[alQamar]

They are all quiet Spartan, because the TDP is lower even lower than my 670, which is also quiet with a stock cooling. The noises I talk about is not about the fans / cooling but originated from the use of low quality parts (coils).

here is a video about the coil noise, to be honest the video is not that great because it is hard to seperate the fan noise and the coil noise. In real life the coils do make very high frequency noised which is really annoying..

http://www.computerbase.de/videos/20...-spulenfiepen/

on the Gainward you can hear it very much because its fanless. The Gigabyte Windforce model too.

[SPARTAN VI]

here is a video about the coil noise, to be honest the video is not that great because it is hard to seperate the fan noise and the coil noise. In real life the coils do make very high frequency noised which is really annoying..

http://www.computerbase.de/videos/20...-spulenfiepen/

on the Gainward you can hear it very much because its fanless. The Gigabyte Windforce model too.

Yeah, I've had my GTX 770 for over a year now and it has a coil whine under load, though it only seems to kick in when my framerate is high (above 100 fps). It was the first time I've heard anything like it out my hardware, so I could definitely peg the difference between that and fan noise.

EVGA has been taking flak for their idle fan nose. It can be easily remedied if you have the know-how to set your own fan speeds, but I'd bet a majority of Joes out there wont even think of tinkering with that. The reviews on Zotac's AMP! cards were the most promising to me at the time.

[Kaelnaar]

Haven't played Rome 2 since release, due to horrible performance. But now with EE out it seems like an improvement, not where I would like it to be, mind you, considering that Shogun 2 still looks and runs better.
So I was wondering - will OCing my CPU give me a noticeable fps boost? Currently I'm running the game on a mix of Ultra/Extreme settings with Large unit size, low shadows, and vegetation alpha turned off. And depending on how massive the battles are, I'm getting anywhere from 55 - 60 frames, in medium - small skirmishes, to roughly around 45 - 50 fps in something like siege of Carthage Historical battle.
My specs:
2500k at 3.3ghz (3.7 with turbo)
7970 ghz edition 3gb
8GB RAM

[SPARTAN VI]

Haven't played Rome 2 since release, due to horrible performance. But now with EE out it seems like an improvement, not where I would like it to be, mind you, considering that Shogun 2 still looks and runs better.
So I was wondering - will OCing my CPU give me a noticeable fps boost? Currently I'm running the game on a mix of Ultra/Extreme settings with Large unit size, low shadows, and vegetation alpha turned off. And depending on how massive the battles are, I'm getting anywhere from 55 - 60 frames, in medium - small skirmishes, to roughly around 45 - 50 fps in something like siege of Carthage Historical battle.
My specs:
2500k at 3.3ghz (3.7 with turbo)
7970 ghz edition 3gb
8GB RAM

R2TW is more CPU intensive than most games and scales well with OC'ing. If you dip into the benchmark thread, you can get an idea of how much a difference an OC makes.

Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.2 GHz, Ivy Bridge, 22nm lithography, 67 Watts TDP, DDR3 1600 MHz CL9-9-9-27, Dual Channel: 36 FPS
Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.5 GHz, Ivy Bridge, 22nm lithography, 67 Watts TDP, DDR3 1600 MHz CL9-9-9-27, Dual Channel: 41 FPS (13.8% increase)

Granted that's only the CPU benchmark. When factoring in your GPU, I think that's something you should test yourself.

[alQamar]

R2TW is more CPU intensive than most games and scales well with OC'ing. If you dip into the benchmark thread, you can get an idea of how much a difference an OC makes.

Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.2 GHz, Ivy Bridge, 22nm lithography, 67 Watts TDP, DDR3 1600 MHz CL9-9-9-27, Dual Channel: 36 FPS
Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.5 GHz, Ivy Bridge, 22nm lithography, 67 Watts TDP, DDR3 1600 MHz CL9-9-9-27, Dual Channel: 41 FPS (13.8% increase)

Granted that's only the CPU benchmark. When factoring in your GPU, I think that's something you should test yourself.

Thanks for referring to my dusty thread. That's true. a 2700K, just as I still have one can drive up to 5 GHz but safely with 4.5 GHz. Please note: do not change the BCLK of 100 but only the turbo multiplicator for all cores (e.g. x45)

[SPARTAN VI]

Thanks for referring to my dusty thread. That's true. a 2700K, just as I still have one can drive up to 5 GHz but safely with 4.5 GHz. Please note: do not change the BCLK of 100 but only the turbo multiplicator for all cores (e.g. x45)

It's probably one of my favorite threads here. Are you still publishing updates on the OP?

[Kaelnaar]

Decided to report back after fiddling around with the OC. At the moment I have a stable 4.4 overclock, was trying to push for 4.5, but with the temperatures getting up to 77 during prime blend, and it requiring around 1.33v or more, decided it was too much of a hassle for just 100mhz.
Anyway, now I can turn up the shadows to ultra and get the same fps as if on low. If I'm using the same settings as before, during the Carthage historical battle the lowest fps I'm getting is 50, but generally it stays around 55. So overall I'm quite happy with the results.

[oppaiO_O]

gtx780 or gtx970? cant decide which to get. The 970 seems to be a lot better and its cheaper. Will the front page be upgraded? just trying to see in which category will the new gpus fit in

[Biggus Splenus]

I've been meaning to update the OP for a while, in the mean time just post requests here

970 is better than the 780, definitely go for that one! A little more performance, probably a little cheaper, and it's got a few more nifty features.

[alQamar]

I've been meaning to update the OP for a while, in the mean time just post requests here

970 is better than the 780, definitely go for that one! A little more performance, probably a little cheaper, and it's got a few more nifty features.

+ lower temps and consumption

[revan.be]

i would ask you to search for a decent laptop with a good discount ofc on the internet ,
preferably one thats got an i5 (or equivalent) and at least a decent 1gb graphics card ,
portable if at all possible ( meaning light , not necessarily small , bigger screen is good to have as alternative to small laptop)
my (soft limit) budget would be 500 euros , though i may be persuaded to go a bit higher if this is either unrealistic,
or i could get a really good deal for a bit more ....
( and as you'll probably guess by now , i look at how good a deal something is first )

I had already been advised
MSI GP60-2PEi585 Notebook


for about 600 euros ,
unfortunately on a german site that did not deliver to belgium for non-VAT customers ....

I could perhaps get this through an acquintance ,
but i would ask if any of you knew any other alternative without such hassle.....

Even if it is from Korea or somesuch , as long as the (discount) deal is good enough,
to be worth BOTH the shipping costs AND the hassle of long wait, difficulty of support/warranty if ever needed.
(God forbid actually needing the warranty if its from somewhere far like korea ...)

Also if i could ask , what happens if i take up the rather goodsounding deal
of buying that laptop from Germany with the VAT needed,
What would be the consequence of using my own name on the order form
with the (consentually used) VAT of that acquintance?

[Agamemnon]

Honestly I'd suggest you save your money and invest in a better laptop than that. Personally, I was aiming for different things, but this is what I purchased:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FY4-MgodSDMAOQ

It's significantly more expensive than what you were looking for and neither small nor light, but it can run anything you want, and if you're looking into this as a possible desktop replacement (which is why I assume you're asking here rather than buying a super-cheap laptop you can carry around and having a nice desktop at home) and you have any interest in gaming on this computer, you'll probably wish you had spent more on a nicer computer.

Just my two cents, obviously not everyone wants to carry around a 10 lb monster of a laptop.

[revan.be]

My own 'old reliable' laptop i currently use is a 10lbs + laptop ,
512mb graphics and dual core 2.0 (5 years old thereabouts), but runs Rome2 quite smoothly ...

However , i have learned that due to the weight , i normally dont take it out to go gaming,
unless its a special occasion, and when going boardgaming and roleplaying and such ,
i found myself wanting to have a laptop with me to play some background music ....
Besides this suggested one would add the sheer cost to the mix of reasons NOT to take it with me...

the cost of it is also what i would spênd later , maybe next year on a real PC for gaming,
this new laptop i am asking help with being a good system to tide me over , since i already had to delay buying a PC several times now...

[Agamemnon]

Ah, makes a bit more sense. Well, then I'd say that the PC you were looking at isn't a bad choice, but I really haven't looked into lighter, cheaper PCs, as that wasn't what I was going for.

[alQamar]

Hi revan we can meet again tomorrow i have time again. please whatsapp me if you like.

[McBride]

Im currently looking for a new pc - aiming to play RTW2 on ultra, possibly Attilla as well.
I've been playing TW series since Medieval, but always on a low/mid-end rig and I got tired of compromise and need to sacrifice the quality for sake of decent performance.

Specs of my planned purchase:

RAM - G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 2x4GB 2133MHz CL9 (F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM)

cooler - CPU Thermalright HR-02 - Macho - Black White FM1 AM2 AM3 AM3+ LGA775 LGA1150 LGA1155 LGA1156 LGA1366 LGA2011 - TR131

MoBo - Asus Z97-P Z97 DualDDR3-1600, SATA3, RAID, HDMI, DVI, D-Sub, DP, ATX - (Z97-P)

SSD Crucial MX100 256GB SATA3 2.5" 550/330 MB/s 7mm (CT256MX100SSD1)

Intel Core i5-4690K, socket LGA1150, 64bit, do 3.9 GHz, 88W, cache 6MB, BOX (BX80646I54690K)

MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4096 MB DDR5 - (GTX 970 GAMING 4G)

What are Your thoughts on that? Will it be sufficient to run RTW2 on maxed-out graphics, possibly with some mods? Im thinking single player mode, as Im not an MP fan.

I read the whole thread and chose I5 4690k over the I7 4770k - or should I reconsider?

Basicallly, any input and advice would be most appreciated - thank You in advance.

[alQamar]

Hi Bride, that sounds like a good build. You do not need the i7 for Rome 2 though. You might look out for 2400 MHz CL10 GSKILL, they have quite the same price. If you budget allows it you should also think about 16 GB.
The price should be even doubled to the 8 GB Kit but you will experience that there are a lot of games which actually support 64 bit and so 8 GB is a bit short for them. Total War will sooner or later step on this train too. For the most games 8 GB are fairly sufficient but as DDR3 won't play a big by the next year due to DDR4, the prices will raise usally and so it would be wise to pick 16 GB instead of having problem to get the SAME RAM for a stable upgrade. I can run Rome 2 maxed out with mods also on my "old" rig and a 670 GTX so you do not have to mind having to less performance.

I miss a power supply and case in your compilation.

Cheers,
al Qamar


By the way. For anyone that is looking for a low price gaming laptop I might say that revan.be and me finally found a solution:

https://www.alternate.de/MSI/GP60-Pr...oduct/1161146?

The model number chosen by MSI is very shady! A higher is not equivalent with more performance.

The Proi545FD has a faster setup than the Pro585 I proposed earlier. The additional price is 100 €, though the GTX 850M is much better than 840M, especially the pixel shader performance and memory throughput.

Here is a comparison about the GPU kevin has now and the 840M and GTX 850M

9600M
DX 10.0 32 CUDA Cores, 500 MHz 1250 MHz Shader,16 Texture per Clock, 8 GT/s 4 GP/s 128 bit 512 MB GDDR3, 25,6 GB/s
840M
DX 11.1 384 CUDA Cores, 1029 MHz ,24 Textures per Clock, 24.7 GT/s 8 GP/s 128 bit 2 GB GDDR5, 16.0 GB/s
GTX 850M
DX 11.1 640 CUDA Cores, 936 MHz ,40 Textures per Clock, 37.4 GT/s 15 GP/s 128 bit 2 GB GDDR5, 80.0 GB/s

In addition to that we decided to include a MSATA drive with 250 GB size (about 100 €) for the OS and games. I am convinced that he will be very happy with this pick and sure he will give us a report how it runs.

[McBride]

Thank You, alQamar. For the cooler, I was advised to get Cooler Master G550M 550W Modular 120mm 80+ (RS-550-AMAA-B1). Case is just a run-of-the-mill Zalman Z3 Plus, so nothing great.

I had to make my mind fast, so I went with the 8 GB RAM, but I'll make sure to upgrade it with the 16 GB some time next year, as You suggested. I am now worried a bit about the RAM thing, as I will run it on Win 8.1. 64 - should I expect any lags other issues with RTW2, or is it something more to worry about with Atilla TW and other titles?