Will Horizons run on a dual core CPU?

Zaite12 · Feb 15, 2017

Hi Folks

I have an old PC that I'm hoping to upgrade for a friend. The minimum specification for Horizons states Quad Core CPU. But will the game run on a dual core (Core 2 Duo). I'm not worried about how well it runs, but simply will the game run on a two core rig? I need to buy a few upgrades so I can't test it, and there's no point buying the upgrades if it refuses to run

Thanks

anikaiful · Feb 15, 2017

Horizons? I sort of doubt. Base game, sure. Just a hunch, based on that I ran base ED ages ago with dual core (core 2 duo) laptop.

Mr T · Feb 15, 2017

It will run on a dual core, I did it for a while before I bought my new PC. However, you will have to turn down the graphics settings quite a lot to get a decent frame rate. Even then, it could be a little jumpy in places and take a while to do the transitions (ie. from Supercruise to a Station) and bring up Station Services etc.

Zaite12 · Feb 15, 2017

miketuppen said:
It will run on a dual core, I did it for a while before I bought my new PC. However, you will have to turn down the graphics settings quite a lot to get a decent frame rate. Even then, it could be a little jumpy in places and take a while to do the transitions (ie. from Supercruise to a Station) and bring up Station Services etc.

Thanks. Is that definitely Horizons (not the base game) ?

Certacito · Feb 15, 2017

I ran horizons until about 3 months ago on a dual core. 750ti graphics card and 4Mb of RAM. It ran fine, but as has already been said, most of the settings were on medium and the frame rate hovered around 40 until I went into and station or lots of ships were about, then it dropped to about 30. Always playable but not epic.

hunvagy · Feb 15, 2017

You will probably see some horrible horrible frame drops once you get to a system where there is more then one landable planet in render range. Technically there is a slider to delegate CPU work to your GPU, but for that you will need a beefier GPU (which I kinda doubt judging by the dual core base setup). If you don't mind lowering the settings for terrain quality and co, you might be able to get it to a playable framerate.

Noddie · Feb 15, 2017

why not find out what cpu your chipset and socket would support, and get a used one on ebay?

a used quad core and some thermal paste would cost very little.

the100thmonkey · Feb 15, 2017

hunvagy said:
You will probably see some horrible horrible frame drops once you get to a system where there is more then one landable planet in render range. Technically there is a slider to delegate CPU work to your GPU, but for that you will need a beefier GPU (which I kinda doubt judging by the dual core base setup). If you don't mind lowering the settings for terrain quality and co, you might be able to get it to a playable framerate.

That's not what the slider does. Doing geometry on the CPU is a bad idea.

I run the game on an i7-5500u (dual core, two threads per core) and a GTX960m 2GB. On medium settings, I get 60fps in space, 45-55 in stations and about 40 on a planet surface.

hunvagy · Feb 15, 2017

the100thmonkey said:
That's not what the slider does. Doing geometry on the CPU is a bad idea.

I run the game on an i7-5500u (dual core, two threads per core) and a GTX960m 2GB. On medium settings, I get 60fps in space, 45-55 in stations and about 40 on a planet surface.

That is actually not bad, on my old R9 280X with my i5 4570 I got 40 on ground too.. until I switched the lights on. As for the slider, the help text made me think you can have it do less work on the CPU for the ground rendering, my bad.

neonox · Feb 15, 2017

Zaite12 said:
Hi Folks

I have an old PC that I'm hoping to upgrade for a friend. The minimum specification for Horizons states Quad Core CPU. But will the game run on a dual core (Core 2 Duo). I'm not worried about how well it runs, but simply will the game run on a two core rig? I need to buy a few upgrades so I can't test it, and there's no point buying the upgrades if it refuses to run

Thanks

When the upgrade price is to high to get elite running on low settings, maybe an xbox one is the better choice for you.

the100thmonkey · Feb 15, 2017

hunvagy said:
That is actually not bad, on my old R9 280X with my i5 4570 I got 40 on ground too.. until I switched the lights on. As for the slider, the help text made me think you can have it do less work on the CPU for the ground rendering, my bad.

I was pleasantly surprised myself!

I will have to go back and check the planet surface settings, as I've noticed that there are specific settings - such as shadows, as you've noticed! - that absolutely murder the GPU.

WRT the OP, if the CPU is a Core 2 Duo, you should be able to buy a Core 2 Quad Q6600 on the same socket for cheap and OC it to about 3GHz in 5 minutes.

hunvagy · Feb 15, 2017

the100thmonkey said:
I was pleasantly surprised myself!

I will have to go back and check the planet surface settings, as I've noticed that there are specific settings - such as shadows, as you've noticed! - that absolutely murder the GPU.

WRT the OP, if the CPU is a Core 2 Duo, you should be able to buy a Core 2 Quad Q6600 on the same socket for cheap and OC it to about 3GHz in 5 minutes.

Shadows and interestingly particles. I put my brand spanking new RX480 through it's paces, and got 80-110 fps on planetside with everything cranked as high as it goes. Then I had the audacity to shoot the ground with the beam laser of my Taipan. It went straight from 80 to 30, then 15 as the dust cloud got thicker. It is VERY weird.

the100thmonkey · Feb 15, 2017

hunvagy said:
Shadows and interestingly particles. I put my brand spanking new RX480 through it's paces, and got 80-110 fps on planetside with everything cranked as high as it goes. Then I had the audacity to shoot the ground with the beam laser of my Taipan. It went straight from 80 to 30, then 15 as the dust cloud got thicker. It is VERY weird.

I've actually bug-reported that. You can do the same with mining lasers or beam lasers in RESes. I can crush a GTX1070 with an i7-6700K to 5fps with two beam lasers.

Hellakitty · Feb 15, 2017

the100thmonkey said:
I've actually bug-reported that. You can do the same with mining lasers or beam lasers in RESes. I can crush a GTX1070 with an i7-6700K to 5fps with two beam lasers.

I have no issues at all with 2 mining lasers with everything maxed out, a reshade running and supersampling set to 1.25x (1080p native res). GTX 1070 here too. Do you have threaded optimisation turned on in the nvidia control panel?

hunvagy · Feb 15, 2017

the100thmonkey said:
I've actually bug-reported that. You can do the same with mining lasers or beam lasers in RESes. I can crush a GTX1070 with an i7-6700K to 5fps with two beam lasers.

Ah I see, guess I just try not to create a tornado of dust until then.

CMDR Hellakitty said:
I have no issues at all with 2 mining lasers with everything maxed out, a reshade running and supersampling set to 1.25x (1080p native res). GTX 1070 here too. Do you have threaded optimisation turned on in the nvidia control panel?

mining lasers as far as I remember don't create particle clouds on impact. The issue is that continously firing a beam laser into a solid surface at close range it generates a really cool looking cloud of dust, but it absolutely murders performance.

EDIT: Also sorry OP, we probably shouldn't hijack your thread for this

Sentenza · Feb 15, 2017

The game definitely runs on a dual core, even if it can overload in certain situations, like combat in a CZ. You might want to at least upgrade the graphics card to offload work though.

Zaite12 · Feb 15, 2017

neonox said:
When the upgrade price is to high to get elite running on low settings, maybe an xbox one is the better choice for you.

Two of us already play on PC, this friend is currently playing on XB1 and we're getting him going on PC so we can all play together.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the input everybody, I'll go ahead with buying a few components

the100thmonkey · Feb 15, 2017

CMDR Hellakitty said:
I have no issues at all with 2 mining lasers with everything maxed out, a reshade running and supersampling set to 1.25x (1080p native res). GTX 1070 here too. Do you have threaded optimisation turned on in the nvidia control panel?

I asked the regulars in the VR forum to confirm it, and they did. I'll check whether threaded optimisation is turned on when I'm at my desktop and recheck.

- - - Updated - - -

Zaite12 said:
Two of us already play on PC, this friend is currently playing on XB1 and we're getting him going on PC so we can all play together.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the input everybody, I'll go ahead with buying a few components

What's the specific model of the CPU? I suspect it's LGA 775. You can get a quad-core used for beans.

Zaite12 · Feb 15, 2017

the100thmonkey said:
What's the specific model of the CPU? I suspect it's LGA 775. You can get a quad-core used for beans.

I've checked the motherboard spec in this Compaq system (P5LP-LE (Leonite2)), according to the spec it only supports up to Conroe E6x00.. I've bought an E6600 from ebay for £6 but I don't believe it supports the Core 2 Quads

hunvagy · Feb 15, 2017

Zaite12 said:
I've checked the motherboard spec in this Compaq system (P5LP-LE (Leonite2)), according to the spec it only supports up to Conroe E6x00.. I've bought an E6600 from ebay for £6 but I don't believe it supports the Core 2 Quads

Holy moly.. if the HP spec page is to be believed, that mobo still uses DDR2 RAM. Now that is one venerable mobo. And yeah, the CPU list doesn't have the Core 2 Quads, just up to Duo.