Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

[Mobius]

I see everyone has a quad core but the question remains, will ED even take advantage of quad core. I would hazard a guess that the game will only use 2 cores and that the limiting factor will be what memory your gpu has.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I see everyone has a quad core but the question remains, will ED even take advantage of quad core. I would hazard a guess that the game will only use 2 cores and that the limiting factor will be what memory your gpu has.

If the game is written with threading in mind then the OS should take care of that and use all cores right ? Failing that the OS for background tasks should run smoother anyway.

 

[Hamerstein]

I see everyone has a quad core but the question remains, will ED even take advantage of quad core. I would hazard a guess that the game will only use 2 cores and that the limiting factor will be what memory your gpu has.

You raise a good point. I was having a browse the other day and found an old 2010 article on Toms Hardware which tested how much of an effect having multiple CPU cores had on gaming performance. Pretty much everything at the top performance end (of games) at the time still only utilised 2 cores to any significant degree. At that point home users had had dual core CPUs for 6(?) years .

3 years on and 2 core implementation should be standard, but couldn't we expect 4 cores to be the target for a 2014 game?

I'm not a hardware expert so what could we expect from utilising 4 cores? Would it alleviate bottlenecking at the CPU for high performance GPUs or something else, or nothing significant? To the layman (me) it appears that having higher clocked dual cores is better for gaming than lower clocked 4+ cores.

 

[scrufferpops]

Same cpu (intel i7 4770k quad core 3.5ghz-3.9 ghz with turbo)
16 GB ram
windows 7 home premium
Radeon HD 7870


Should be plenty of processing/graphical rendering power to run it

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I'm not a hardware expert so what could we expect from utilising 4 cores? Would it alleviate bottlenecking at the CPU for high performance GPUs or something else, or nothing significant? To the layman (me) it appears that having higher clocked dual cores is better for gaming than lower clocked 4+ cores.

More cores means more things can be done simultaneously if the software is written / compiled the right way. A specific example of this would be to Google "Mandlebrot generators" and delve into it .. At deep levels the computations can take minutes (to say 100K iterations) but if you enable multi-core threading on a quad core chip a correctly written generator will segment the screen and give each core a task and the finished result will take far less.

 

[scrufferpops]

By the way I get regular fps of 80 odd in world of tanks
Its gone up as high as 102 frames per second

Though admittadly world of tanks isn't particularly graphics intensive.

 

[Hamerstein]

More cores means more things can be done simultaneously if the software is written / compiled the right way. A specific example of this would be to Google "Mandlebrot generators" and delve into it .. At deep levels the computations can take minutes (to say 100K iterations) but if you enable multi-core threading on a quad core chip a correctly written generator will segment the screen and give each core a task and the finished result will take far less.

Thanks Liqua.

So the software needs to be specifically written, and (from what I have browsed) it becomes more difficult to debug, because it's more complex the more threads you try to utilise?

So there must be a higher economical limit to the amount of cores you'd want to try and use - against the difficulty of debugging and the general increased complexity of the code.

I can see how running multiple applications would benefit from increased cores, and all PCs perform background work as standard (but this appears to be not very CPU intensive most of the time). But for a single (main) application (like ED), there's only a real benefit if that app. has been specifically written for multiple cores.

I guess it's a trade-off then, at what point does it become uneconomical to program for more than 2 cores and would the game really suffer on 2 cores if the rest of your system is of a certain "standard".

 

[Memnoch]

I've sure my 580 an i7 975X will run it just fine. The game looks great but we aren't talking Crisis here, at least graphics wise. Who can say right now whether this game is going to be CPU or GPU bound!?

 

[rab]

i7 3770K mild overclock@4.2 ghz
8gig ram
Asus Z77 Pro mobo
Corsair Ax850w PSU
x2 7970ghz in crossfire
x2 WD black edition 750gb HDD
Logitech G15 keyboard and G600 gaming mouse
W7 64bit
Dell Ultrasharp 30" monitor 2560x1600
Corsair Vengeance 1400 gaming headset

Hoping this set up should be enough to keep me going for a few years.

 

[thor-god-of-thunder]

don't know what all the fuss is about ... I have had my double sided double density twin drives serviced ... my BBC model B cleaned and ready to go ... can anyone tell me how many floppy discs it comes on as I think downloading on my modem might take too long

 

[Arexack]

I've grown used to running games on outdated rigs that can barely even run the OS. Kind of like my habit of using old rundown pythons to bounty-hunt.

Recently...last december or so... dished out for a new gamers rig to run the new UFO/enemy unknown. Suspect it will run smoothly enough.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Just completed my GPU upgrade to R9 280X - needed a new PSU as well.... My rig:

AMD FX 8350, Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO;
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3;
4x 4GB G.Skill 12800 CL9;
Sapphire R9 280X OC Vapor-X;
Sandisk Extreme 120GB SSD; 2x 1TB Samsung HDD; 1x 2TB Samsung HDD;
Corsair CM750X Modular PSU;
Antec 302 Case;
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1.

Scored a Passmark of 3,259 this evening (here) and P9377 on 3DMark 11 (here).

 

[Memnoch]

don't know what all the fuss is about ... I have had my double sided double density twin drives serviced ... my BBC model B cleaned and ready to go ... can anyone tell me how many floppy discs it comes on as I think downloading on my modem might take too long

Assuming that the game is an 8GB download, and you had double sided 80 track disks which could hold 400KB of data, 200KB per side, that would be 3276.8 floppy disks. That would give you a stack of disks 5.24m high. And then there is the DLC.....

 

[Commander Mick]

I'm hoping it will run smoothly (maxed out) on my HP Pavilion DV7 Laptop:

Core i7, 16GB Ram and GeForce GT630M (2GB) Graphics.

A HP Pavilion was one of the first computers I ever brought. Though it didn't turn out so well and was completely useless within the next two years.

It cost me nearly $4000 and that was back in the late 90's.

I have since brought another computer in the mid-00's for half that price and it lasted a little longer.

Right now I use a old computer (A Median) and laptop (A Acer that is always plugged into big screen television) that belonged to my father.

The computer was pretty good, has a decent graphics card and plenty of memory (Although, it's mostly full at the moment) and only cost about $750.

The laptop runs a lot better though, and it's the only one I use at the moment as I had smashed the keyboard on the other one.

The only other problems with them is that the sound quality is really bad on both of them. Although the sound works slightly better on the bigger computer, and is almost no existent on the Laptop.

So, I really want to buy a better computer with a decent sound system and plenty of memory. As computer are getting cheaper all the time. I don't think I should have to spend more than $1000.

That won't be until sometime early next year, before the game is ready. if only I can find the room for it as well.

I think have spot among the other seven computers we own.

 

[thor-god-of-thunder]

Memnoch ... looks like a lot of disc swopping during game play ... LOL ....

 

[Variform]

Intel Core I7 2600k, 3,4 Ghz
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 (Sandy Bridge / Z68)
16 GB RAM Corsair Vengeance Kit PC3-12800
Intel HD Gfx 3000
Asus GTX 560 GTX 1GB GDDR5
Crucial M4 SSD 128 GB
2x 1TB HD's
Logitech MX 518 mouse
Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500

PSU Adata HM Series 750W
BenQ 3D XL2420T
Samsung Syncmaster 740 BF
Antec P180 case
Nvidia 3D Vision Kit
Windows 7 x64 Premium

I plan on upgrading my gfx card next year and maybe get a 16 GB RAM kit. Possibly get another SSD (they rule ultra!!!!) and maybe an Occulus Rift, I think the rest will surely do for the time being

 

[OneoftheLost]

Ugh, I'm pretty much going to have to buy a new card.

I have an excellent PC, but the video card has really lagged, I need to stop mucking about and upgrade it.

I have a 512vram ATI card, and I hope it will run Elite on low settings, but in case it won't I have been looking at cheap 1gig cards.

My problem is I have no idea how to install a video card, or even if a 1gig will fit? (Despite the fact that my PC is a desktop, it reads my video card as a laptop...

AMD Radeon HD 7470 is what my Device manager tells me. Not sure if that is removable or not.

Bleck. Spent most of my formulative computer years on a laptop, don't know a THING about desktops.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I see everyone has a quad core

Oh no, I still have a single core processor. But I intend to upgrade, even if for internet, the office automation, and videos, my computer is very fast. ED will be the pretext to mount a race machine

 

[Commander Mick]

Is ALIENWARE any good?

Are they a reliable brand of computer?

Would the latest model the Alienware X51 good enough to run Elite - Dangerous the way it's meant to be.

I am thinking of getting one of those.

Can anybody talk me out of it?

 

[Squicker]

Ok, i have 2 goals 1 - Play Elite MAX settings
2 - Play BF4 MAX settings

I have just bought:

Intel 4770K
Corsair H100i
EVGA Classified GTX780
Aus Maximus formula motherboard
Corsair AX860i PSU
Sandisk extreme SSD
32gb Corsair vengence pro RAM
If that wont run elite they have excluded 99% of people who have a worse rig!!

What are you gonna run it on?

I have pretty much the same rig except went for the Superclock EVGA. Nothing yet makes my rig break a sweat, even in 3DVision, so we should be good to go.