Attila Computer & Hardware Recommendations

[A Barbarian]

Lulz, 4xMSAA performance is completely borked for 7970 (probably for most ATI cards).

I can run almost everything @ max (and shadows on max performance because of CPU bottleneck) and get pretty good performance even on 2560x1440. But as soon as I activate 4xMSAA with everything else at very low I get single digit numbers in the benchmark, lol (CPU is a 4770K@4.3Ghz, RAM is 32GB @ 1866Mhz and OS is Win7-64 bit). It's also astonishing that CA overlooked to add a 2xMSAA mode (especially with SSAA that would be very useful).

Btw, Shogun 2 I can run with 4xSSAA (4xMSAA + SSAA mode in CCC) @ 2560x1440 with > 20fps.

CF also doesn't really work. If enabled I just get 2x50% utiliziation. Only when I use the generic AFR (alternate frame rating) profile I get a big performance boost from 2nd GPU but then there is heavy flickering.

AMD needs to update their drivers ASAP (their last driver release is from almost 3 months ago, lol). AMDs lack in driver skills will be the main reason for me to switch back to NVIDIA for my next GPU upgrade (I pretty much alternate between AMD and NVIDIA since 10 years). AMDs GPU hardware is better value from the specs but their drivers and software pretty much suck.

[Boicote]

Next month I'm going to buy a new PC. This is what I have in mind:
Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ Quad Core
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GT 840M
RAM 16 GB
HDD: DDR3L-1600 2x 8GB

What do you think? Is this a decent PC to play TW games in the next five years? If not, what do you recommend me?

My budget is +/- 1000€.

[A Barbarian]

@Boicote
If u can wait a little longer, it might be worth to wait for the update of the NVIDIA notebook GPUs line which should come out in the next weeks:
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-g...-architecture/

[m-m-n]

Hello everyone, i'm looking into playing Attila in ultra setting and i was wondering what sort of upgrade would i require to make in order to achieve such goal; currently, this is what i'm working with: Processor->AMD FX(tm)-6350 six core Processor 3.90 ghz, Ram-> 10.0 gb, graphic card-> NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660. I thank you all for your help and suggestions.

[SPARTAN VI]

Here's my take on the "fair tier" at just over $650 USD.
I threw some of the budget toward a Corsair 350D, doubled the amount of RAM, upgraded to a i5 4570 and a R9 280.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 280 3GB IceQ OC Video Card ($182.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $658.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

This will buy you a nice little multi-tasker with considerable gaming horsepower. If you want to maximize gaming performance, I'd drop the 350D for a case at about $40, then move that $40-50 savings toward the GPU budget, which opens us up for a R9 280X or GTX 960. The GTX 960 will yield higher Attila TW performance, but the 2GB of VRAM would likely hold you back in othe games.

My "good tier" recommendation:
Same as above, just upped to a R9 290.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 290 4GB IceQ X² Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $725.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

My "very good tier" recommendation:
Same as above, just upped again to a GTX 970 since it runs Attila considerably better than its AMD counterparts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($328.99 @ Directron)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $804.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

[alQamar]

- After seeing alQ's tests on core and HT performance, I'm almost convinced that an i3 is minimum

I am not that sure I hope I will be able to test Attila in this regard. For Rome 2 even a single core CPU seem sufficient now, while to have an i3 was big advantage at release.

[A Barbarian]

For Rome 2 even a single core CPU seem sufficient now

That's pretty amusing. Since CA wasn't able to code proper multi-threading they probably decided to reduce the number of threads and thus at least removed some thread synchronization overhead which can be quite significant.

[apostolis]

dear friends (especially alQamar). is there a way of knowing what is the maximum amount of GHz that Attila uses in the extreme quallity settings per core? i noticed that , if we put overclocking out of the equation , many ivy bridge and haswell chips can turbo boost up to 3.8-4.0 GHz except i7 4970k which has a speed of 4.4 GHz in turbo mode. so is the i7 devils canyon the best CPU for the game out there?

[alQamar]

dear friends (especially alQamar). is there a way of knowing what is the maximum amount of GHz that Attila uses in the extreme quallity settings per core? i noticed that , if we put overclocking out of the equation , many ivy bridge and haswell chips can turbo boost up to 3.8-4.0 GHz except i7 4970k which has a speed of 4.4 GHz in turbo mode. so is the i7 devils canyon the best CPU for the game out there?

my OC experience so far on normal Asus mainboards (I don't even believe the expensive models are worth for modern overclocking anyway):

leave the BCKL 100 Mhz < don't use the auto OC functionalities of your mainboards they suck as they change this parameter, which is not sufficient in intel CPU after the i900 series

properly Aircooled, so not recommended with the stock cooler as he cannot deal with the higher TDP due to overclocking
"up to" because it is depending your cooler, mainboard, bios version (which also updates the CPU firmware), and last but not least the quality of the material of your CPU.

Sandy Bridge i5/ i7: up to 4,4-4,6 GHz turbo multiplicator 44-46, BCKL 100
Ivy Bridge i5/ i7: up to 4,4-4,5 GHz turbo multiplicator 44-46, BCKL 100
Haswell i5/i7: up to 4,2 GHz turbo multiplicator 42, BCKL 100
Devils Canyon 4,2-4,4 GHz turbo multiplicator 42-44, BCKL 100

I am planning to make a benchmark to find out how much OC really gives you in Attila. It was not scalable in Rome 2.

[Creasy]

Feedback from someone with a weak laptop. Lenovo g500 (i5-3230M 2.6 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GeForce GT 720M). In Rome 2 I had average 25 FPS with constang lags on both global and battle maps. It was unplayable.

I run Attila with lowest graphical settings, everything turned off, 1366*768, large unit size. I am getting stable 30 FPS at campaign map, stable 25 FPS in battles! If I look closely at intense combat the framerate drops to 15, but in general the game is very much playable, which I did not expect. In-game benchmark gave me 20 FPS average, but actual performance is better.

What a pleasant surprise

[m-m-n]

Hello everyone, i'm looking into playing Attila in ultra setting and i was wondering what sort of upgrade would i require to make in order to achieve such goal; currently, this is what i'm working with: Processor->AMD FX(tm)-6350 six core Processor 3.90 ghz, Ram-> 10.0 gb, graphic card-> NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, windows 8.1. I thank you all for your help and suggestions.

[SPARTAN VI]

Hello everyone, i'm looking into playing Attila in ultra setting and i was wondering what sort of upgrade would i require to make in order to achieve such goal; currently, this is what i'm working with: Processor->AMD FX(tm)-6350 six core Processor 3.90 ghz, Ram-> 10.0 gb, graphic card-> NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, windows 8.1. I thank you all for your help and suggestions.

Upgrading your GPU will yield the greatest improvement for the least amount of cash. The FX 6350 isn't ideal for Warscape, but it will have to suffice if you don't have the budget to upgrade everything.

[m-m-n]

Upgrading your GPU will yield the greatest improvement for the least amount of cash. The FX 6350 isn't ideal for Warscape, but it will have to suffice if you don't have the budget to upgrade everything.

Firstly thank you for your swift response, i really appreciate it. So now budget isn't really an issue, i just want to be able to enjoy the game to its full potential. And i thought this community will be my best bet to get to know what i'll need to be able to do so; i'm not really big in computer part as much. I will do as you have suggested on upgrading my GPU and you're suggestion was the FX 6350. in amazon for $125.99 (AMD FD6350FRHKBOX FX-6350 FX-Series 6-Core Black Edition). I found one hopefully i'll be buying the right one.
Thanks Again

[SPARTAN VI]

Firstly thank you for your swift response, i really appreciate it. So now budget isn't really an issue, i just want to be able to enjoy the game to its full potential. And i thought this community will be my best bet to get to know what i'll need to be able to do so; i'm not really big in computer part as much. I will do as you have suggested on upgrading my GPU and you're suggestion was the FX 6350. in amazon for $125.99 (AMD FD6350FRHKBOX FX-6350 FX-Series 6-Core Black Edition). I found one hopefully i'll be buying the right one.
Thanks Again

I thought you already had those components? If you haven't built that machine yet, then I absolutely would NOT recommend you buy a FX-6350, or any AMD CPU for that matter. If you need a more detailed recommendation, answer these questions first:

1) What will you be doing with this PC other than gaming? (e.g. Photoshop, video editing, CAD, etc.)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? "No budget" is not an answer.
3) Which country do you live in?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Keyboard/mouse? Speakers? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Hey guys, thanks in advance for your input.

Im looking to upgrade my 2011 build which is
i5 2500k @4.5ghz
gtx 570
750w power
Gigabyte z68
16gb ram

obviously my cpu will bottleneck me at some point but what gpu would you recommend I upgrade to?
games I play total war and paradox

Your CPU should last a little bit longer actually. You got a nice OC on it. I'd only recommend GPU upgrade at this point, especially if you're strapped. What's your total budget for your upgrade? When do you plan on upgrading?

[m-m-n]

I thought you already had those components? If you haven't built that machine yet, then I absolutely would NOT recommend you buy a FX-6350, or any AMD CPU for that matter. If you need a more detailed recommendation, answer these questions first:

1) What will you be doing with this PC other than gaming? (e.g. Photoshop, video editing, CAD, etc.)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? "No budget" is not an answer.
3) Which country do you live in?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Keyboard/mouse? Speakers? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes i actually have everything that i've mention, i completely misunderstood your reply earlier. i just notice that i did post that i had that part according to my pc information. my actual question was what i needed to get in other to improve my PC. Sorry for confusing things, like i've said i have little to no clue on parts, apart from reading reviews and rating on them i wouldn't know up and down. i'm not trying to spend money on the wrong things. For a budget lets say $600 hopefully thats not to small and for shipment purposes i am in the US. Thank you for your time and help.

[kmcwilli]

Your CPU should last a little bit longer actually. You got a nice OC on it. I'd only recommend GPU upgrade at this point, especially if you're strapped. What's your total budget for your upgrade? When do you plan on upgrading?

yea I'm glad I did my research on the sandy bridge. If budget wasn't an issue and I want to upgrade now for Attila, what gpu would you recommend would maximize my performance. So my gpu is currently my bottleneck but what would be the most cost effective gpu to make my cpu be the bottleneck?

[kmcwilli]

Hey guys, thanks in advance for your input.

Im looking to upgrade my 2011 build which is
i5 2500k @4.5ghz
gtx 570
750w power
Gigabyte z68
16gb ram

obviously my cpu will bottleneck me at some point but what gpu would you recommend I upgrade to?
games I play total war and paradox

[jaafar11]

Intel Core I5 4690k
Nvidia GTX 970
8 gb ram
game debate gives the cpu and gpu 10/10 for attila
any suggestions?

motherboard: MSI H97M-E35
EVGA 500 Watt 80+ Power Supply

[Ballacraine]

Should be OK, I reckon.

I'm finding it acceptable with a GTX 660 & 8 gig of RAM.

[SPARTAN VI]

Yes this should be fine for the max quality settings.