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

[SamueleD]

and you can use FXAA I am not sure if AMD use it as well. Any information about that? If they're not this would be a bad deal. And additionally you know NVidia will strike back soon mate.

Don't know about what AMD has in mind, but I know that this exist http://www.radeonpro.info/ and, though not official, has made life easier for many AMD owners, particularly with Crossfire, it also allows for FXAA and a lot of other shiny things.

[Biggus Splenus]

Good joking splenyi
If I see the small advantage of a 770 to a 670 I doubt that would be reasonable but more experimental. Can't image you have any performance issues on a 780, do you and you can use FXAA I am not sure if AMD use it as well. Any information about that? If they're not this would be a bad deal. And additionally you know NVidia will strike back soon mate.

Hmmmm....
An Nvidia fanboy will say Nvidia always ends up on top, and AMD fanboy will say AMD will always end up on top.

The other people say that they just leapfrog each other, and this is the truth.

Personally, I see AMD in front most the time, because they're always the first out with a new die shrink.

The advantage of a 670 to a 770 will be totally different from AMD's 7970 to a 9970; smaller die architecture, means more performance per watt, more stuff in a smaller package, and a new architecture.

Anyway, I'm fairly sure the 9970 will outperform any Nvidia card. Just look at the way the 7970 outperformed the 580... absolutely cleaned the floor with it, while consuming much less power. That's only if the 9000 series will be as much of a huge improvement as the 7000 series was.

My 780 does lag on Shogun 2 with AA x8 and a few full stack large (not ultra) sized armies.

FXAA definitely does work on AMD cards, just as well as Nvidia.

And I don't believe Nivida will be releasing a new series this year, the 700 series was just released, if they release another one in 6 months, they will be pissing off a lot of people. They'll stick to their annual cycle of mid-year releases.

Just built my new pc.

Its a 4570k, msi g45 gaming mobo. Hyper 212 evo. 850w coolermaster silent pro modular power supply. 256gb Samsung pro ssd. 1tb black cavier hd. Gigabyte 770 4gb. All in a cm storm stryker running windows 8. Also picked up corsair k70 keyboard, a razer 2013 mouse and a benq xl2420t monitor.

And im very happy.

Congratulations mate but I'm sure you meant the 4670K

Those Gigabyte graphics coolers really do keep the card cool as ice. It's suppose to be rated at 450W even though the card doesn't even consume half that.

[RDH376]

Hey,

Just wondering whether overclocking an i7 2600k really gains that much of an fps boost compared to upgrading the gpu?

For example, based on my experience with Shogun 2...I have to cut back on many ultra settings and the unit size to maintain a smooth experience, but even then my fps goes into the teens when approx 4000 men are in melee. I know TW games are CPU intensive games but I've never really looked into overclocking before and I'm a bit nervous of causing more harm than good lol... I mean as an estimate, how many fps could I look to gain by OCing the processor?

my current rig is below:

i7 2600k not OC
8gb ram
GTX 560 OC edition

i've just ordered a new GTX 770 (EVGA SC ACX) which is mainly in preparation for Rome 2, so I'm hoping this will get me decent fps including when melee occurs/zooming in etc.

any advice would be appreciated

After the helpful replies to this and some research i've decided to aim for a modest 4.5ghz overclock on my i7 2600k

I have the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro as a CPU cooler currently and the consensus i've found on the web is that this won't be sufficient for a 4.5ghz overclock. I'm looking at the Xigmatek Aegir which i've heard will do the job and hopefully fit in my Antec 900 case (heard some people have had to saw the fan bay clips off the side of that case to accommodate some CPU coolers)

Installed my GTX 770 yesterday and there is already a massive improvement in FPS in Shogun 2 even in the close up melee fights which is good. All i think i need now is that 4.5ghz overclock and i'm set for Rome 2... the excitement builds

[DukeValois]

I guess I am getting a new build as well. I knew initial promises sometimes don't work out. Always hoped it would still have same shogun 2 graphics requirements.

[DukeValois]

Actually a whole new laptop. Damned Integrated cards.

[Audacia]

Any chance the newest MacBook Pro running Windows 7 via BootCamp and 8GB of RAM will be able to run the game?

[SamueleD]

Any chance the newest MacBook Pro running Windows 7 via BootCamp and 8GB of RAM will be able to run the game?

It depends, are you talking about the one that has only the Intel integrated graphics card or the one with the discrete graphics card? Both will run it, but the first one only on really low settings.

Just tell me what processor it has and what graphics card (it should tell you if you go in "Info on my mac" or something like that), the ram is plenty.

[Audacia]

It depends, are you talking about the one that has only the Intel integrated graphics card or the one with the discrete graphics card? Both will run it, but the first one only on really low settings.

Just tell me what processor it has and what graphics card (it should tell you if you go in "Info on my mac" or something like that), the ram is plenty.

I'm talking about the 15in Retina which has the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics card and a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor.

[SamueleD]

I'm talking about the 15in Retina which has the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics card and a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor.

Should do fine, more or less, just don't run the game at the full 2880-by-1800 but at 1920 by 1200.

Oh, and, since it has Hyper-Threading, you should tweak a particular setting in the preference file for optimally running Shogun 2, maybe it will be the same in Rome II.
The setting is:
number_of_threads 0; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #

and should be set to either:
number_of_threads 8; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #

or:
number_of_threads 16; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #

[Audacia]

Should do fine, more or less, just don't run the game at the full 2880-by-1800 but at 1920 by 1200.

Oh, and, since it has Hyper-Threading, you should tweak a particular setting in the preference file for optimally running Shogun 2, maybe it will be the same in Rome II.
The setting is:
number_of_threads 0; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #

and should be set to either:
number_of_threads 8; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #

or:
number_of_threads 16; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #

Thanks for the tip! +Rep

[alQamar]

I hope so we cannot effort to loose a competitor to intel and NVidia. No question they are market leaders but as we see with Total War how technology suffers with no competition.

With that specs your mac book should work fine on low or mid settings because of the "retina" resolution is higher than 1080p

[babydoc]

7970 or the 670?
I would buy the 7990 but the GPU market is like changing socks and the comp will only be used for Rome 2 anyhow.
Or will I benefit from a 7990 for Rome2 actually?


I have the 7850 massive OC'ed
AMD 8350 @ 5GHz
8GB ram
256x3 SSDs forgot name tho. Not Intel Im sure of that.

[alQamar]

Your card is well enough for Rome a change now will be a vaste Doc. Wait for the game launch and new benchmarks and the new cards in October

[babydoc]

Your card is well enough for Rome a change now will be a vaste Doc. Wait for the game launch and new benchmarks and the new cards in October

You have any clues on what AMD will release CPU wise in a near future?
I know of the 5GHz centurion I think it was called lol @ the price.
I mean can we expect a new AMD CPU in a near future?

Yeah I propably play Rome2 with the 7850 and see.
But what da are the top cards for? I mean which games?
Ive been away from the industry for too long it seems

[LEGIO_XXX ULPIA]

I've a I7 3770k...16 gb RAM...and GTX660TI...

what do you think?

[alQamar]

Dunno what the top cards are for. Playing king of the Hill in 3Dmark but definitely not needed for average games like total war lad!

---

Your ivy bridge is ok. Leave bclk at 100 Mhz and push turbo to 45 if you have not a stock cooler and a z77 board
Use the preferences.script.txt enchantment limit to 16 instances refer posting above with mac book.
Your 660TI should eat rome easy at full ultra settings then and use FXAA using the NVidia driver settings turn off ssao and msaa in game then.

[paularsen]

CPU AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0 GZ
GPU ATI Radeon HD 5700
RAM 4 GB
HDD 500 GB
Any problems?

[RDH376]

Hey,

Just wondering whether overclocking an i7 2600k really gains that much of an fps boost compared to upgrading the gpu?

For example, based on my experience with Shogun 2...I have to cut back on many ultra settings and the unit size to maintain a smooth experience, but even then my fps goes into the teens when approx 4000 men are in melee. I know TW games are CPU intensive games but I've never really looked into overclocking before and I'm a bit nervous of causing more harm than good lol... I mean as an estimate, how many fps could I look to gain by OCing the processor?

my current rig is below:

i7 2600k not OC
8gb ram
GTX 560 OC edition

i've just ordered a new GTX 770 (EVGA SC ACX) which is mainly in preparation for Rome 2, so I'm hoping this will get me decent fps including when melee occurs/zooming in etc.

any advice would be appreciated

[alQamar]

Hey,

Just wondering whether overclocking an i7 2600k really gains that much of an fps boost compared to upgrading the gpu?

For example, based on my experience with Shogun 2...I have to cut back on many ultra settings and the unit size to maintain a smooth experience, but even then my fps goes into the teens when approx 4000 men are in melee. I know TW games are CPU intensive games but I've never really looked into overclocking before and I'm a bit nervous of causing more harm than good lol... I mean as an estimate, how many fps could I look to gain by OCing the processor?

my current rig is below:

i7 2600k not OC
8gb ram
GTX 560 OC edition

i've just ordered a new GTX 770 (EVGA SC ACX) which is mainly in preparation for Rome 2, so I'm hoping this will get me decent fps including when melee occurs/zooming in etc.

any advice would be appreciated

We have to clarify a fact here total war uses 2 complete independent engines. And so two types of FPS inflicting each other.

The one engine is doing the graphics and the other does carry out the units pathfinding and for our bad the unit animations at battles.

As seen in my tests your fps regarding the graphics is basically not limited by your cpu. This limiting will occur in battles because the cpu engine is not that capable. Every "inch" of GHz counts here so OC a 2600k to 4.5 GHz is the best performance / economical balance as the most recent Haswell is about 10 percent faster. 10 percent aren't even a plus of 10 fps so the difference is in fact negligible.

I would recommend to upgrade a 560 as it is teriffic slow compared to a 770 BUT you will have huge fps drops when you zoom up in a big scale battle. Not because the 770 but because the mentioned battle engine limits your fps in the graphics engine.

To avoid misunderstanding the CPU is not limiting your GPU abilities!
But the 2 engines in warscape limiting each other depending on the fps output of the CPU! That's why OC helps and the threaded setting trick I revealed, to improve the combined FPS

Don't miss to register your evga to get use of the warranty extension and other offers.
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@Splenyi you are absolutely right with your posting. I was not about to start a fan war . The problem stated above will not be solved by the new AMD or Nvidia series. If they would have done gpu supported battle engine (so gpu assists cpu in some calculations aka cuda and sorts) this damn limit would be vanished and we finally would get a remarkable performance advance with new gpus.
I just want you to not get disappointed at least in total war.

Would be nice if we can get this clarification in the OP. And you could make a small index of all topics in tge OP above the tiers. Is that okay for you?

Why do you use msaa still u don't see a visible advantage over FXAA?

[alQamar]

CPU AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0 GZ
GPU ATI Radeon HD 5700
RAM 4 GB
HDD 500 GB
Any problems?

Should be ok run the free tool gpu-z the 5700 is not a type of GPU but the series to estimate how it runs I need the model and your psu brand and wattage plz EDIT your posting not make a new to keep this thread compact.