Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

Squicker

S
Pyros said:
I think you uniwingly made a pretty good case for GPUs :p
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Other way round! Even though Wookie has a comparatively weak GPU his FPS is good, because he is driving it hard. Whereas the people with weak CPUs - Q6600 - are CPU bound and get **** poor FPS.
 

NeilF

NeilF
Squicker said:
Earlier in the thread
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Hmmm... And COSMOS sort of backs that up:-
It runs really smoothly for the most part.. usually 30/40 fps on everything on full gfx settings at 1080p..

I have been running it with the CPU overclocked.

That said, the last scenario slows right down, with all those ships, and it would appear its bottle necked by the CPU.. but there is a ridiculous amount of stuff going on. GPU was at 40% load and was getting <20fps.
Click to expand...

...but I still can't fathom how it's really putting pressure on any of the CPU. There's games around that are surely far more taking with lots more to display, and calculate, that still run at a far higher FPS?

Confused where ED is eating the CPU up? :S
 

PvtTUX

P
The RAM speed on the older platforms will also have an impact I'd imagine, there is HUGE difference between my Sandybridge setup and my brothers Q6600.
I'm fairly confident he will be able to play it just fine though with some graphical options lowered for now.
 

Squicker

S
NeilF said:
Hmmm... And COSMOS sort of backs that up:-


...but I still can't fathom how it's really putting pressure on any of the CPU. There's games around that are surely far more taking with lots more to display, and calculate, that still run at a far higher FPS?

Confused where ED is eating the CPU up? :S
Click to expand...

That was it, thanks I couldn't find it. So, I think it being alpha is one reason - non optimised code. But we have to remember a q6600 can be four times slower than Haskell in CPU intensive stuff, memory bandwidth is far far lower, for example, and no doubt at least this cut of the code is put together with modern rigs in mind.

Whilst we can speculate here, and its interesting to do so, we won't really have anything concrete to go on until beta where we have full environments with multiplayer etc. We could find things far leaner.... or worse due to MP!
 

NeilF

NeilF
Squicker said:
That was it, thanks I couldn't find it. So, I think it being alpha is one reason - non optimised code. But we have to remember a q6600 can be four times slower than Haskell in CPU intensive stuff, memory bandwidth is far far lower, for example, and no doubt at least this cut of the code is put together with modern rigs in mind.

Whilst we can speculate here, and its interesting to do so, we won't really have anything concrete to go on until beta where we have full environments with multiplayer etc. We could find things far leaner.... or worse due to MP!
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My sort of gut feel is in game, an overclocked Q6600 would be approx half the speed of a reasonable i5/i7?... Guess as far as ED, time will tell :)
 

Squicker

S
NeilF said:
My sort of gut feel is in game, an overclocked Q6600 would be approx half the speed of a reasonable i5/i7?... Guess as far as ED, time will tell :)
Click to expand...

I think its really hard to say and it depends on resolution, how busy is the multiplayer area you are in etc. The q6600 has aged well IMO.

Basically, if you and I crank the res, AA etc a point would come where our GPU Was the limit, if our cards were the same, then we would get roughly the same performance.

But remove that bottleneck - lower resolution, SLI, different AA, then the CPU would be able to run unfettered.

My personal view is core architecture is more important than peripheral, but you can slice these things many ways. But a point does come where you simply can never compensate for too low processing power, that point varies from app to app.

When beta comes we can run some more detailed tests amongst ourselves.
 

resonic

resonic
I think a last-gen sandybridge/ivybridge or current haswell CPU should be cheap to buy nowadays including a new board and fast RAM.

Board, 8GB Ram and an i5 (3570) CPU cost less than 200 GBP. So it should be a cheap update to run E:D smoothly. Alternativ would be an AMD A10 + 8GB + mainboard. The rig to run E:D should not be that expensiv.
 

resonic

resonic
i5:
http://www.transparent-uk.com/intel...&istBid=tztq&gclid=CLvH6eHrubsCFYUewwod4CUA6w

RAM:
https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/p...a=X&ei=VZ6xUoeBCOGo4gSY5IC4Bw&ved=0CH8Q8wIwAA

board:
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/motherboa...CFWzHtAod33sAvQ#srcid=11270&nopopup=1&merch=1

These components are not that hard to find. Just use the google shooping search:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw...ymnnZuJ_WMw#q=ivy+bridge+motherboard&tbm=shop

Depending on which i5 you choose you end up below 200 or between 200 and 250 maximum(!). A current gen Radeon isnt that expensive too: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=radeon+250&tbm=shop
Well its not THE killer hardware at all, just current mid range level, but still quick enough to play the majority of the current games smoothly.

Im planning to upgrade my HTPC to run EDat the moment. So i was thinking about getting an upcoming "Kaveri" AMD A10 APU for ~120 , additional 8GB of RAM for ~50 and a FM2+ mainboard which costs like ~40.
 
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resonic

resonic
Well, this always depends on personal preferences. Some like nvidia, others like AMD Radeon also some like AMD, others Intel. Also some people like Crucial over Corsair or different memory brands.
Well its hard to give any recommendations for this, but its definitly not a problem to put a maximum 200 GBP upgrade together to run ED.
 

HaiderGill

H
Pyros said:
Don't get me wrong ;) - I'm not saying that only GPU matters - it is always a question of balance, although GPU usually takes priority for most games.

The issue of that particular newegg system is that it combines a top of the range gaming CPU (for gaming the i5 4670k is on par with the 4770k) with probably the weakest GPU available besides integrated stuff :p

It is more or less the same as pairing an Atom with a 780Ti and calling it a gaming platform.

That is why I said that for that budget level a quad core AMD and a r9 270 level GPU would be a better solution - a bit less CPU and a hell of a lot more GPU, for the budget level (600-700USD).

Of course that it also depends on the specific software being run - in this case, Elite Dangerous. And alpha faction mission, as referred, showed us an instance quite demanding on CPU. And there is also a nice caveat regarding CPU/GPU balance - while you can reduce the demands on the GPU (lower eyecandy and resolution) there is no way of doing the same for AI and other engine calculations (with some rare exceptions)
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Also the market is heading towards GPU compute...
 

The Space Pirate

The Space Pirate
OK; I'm probably going ahead with this some time in the New Year.

http://www.ebuyer.com/467647-cpu-core-i5-4670k-3-40ghz-lga1150-box-bx80646i54670k

vs

http://www.ebuyer.com/349029-intel-...b-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80637i53570k

Is the extra £13 or so worth it?

with

http://www.ebuyer.com/339598-corsair-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-vengeance-memory-cmz8gx3m1a1600c10

I might go 4gb; I can easily add another 4gb later.

on

http://www.ebuyer.com/507047-gigabyte-ga-z87-d3hp-socket-1150-hdmi-dvi-atx-motherboard-ga-z87-d3hp

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/507048-gigabyte-ga-z87-hd3-socket-1150-hdmi-dvi-atx-motherboard-ga-z87-hd3

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/603583-ga-z87-...rd-ga-z87-ds3h

Total: £282 if I go 4gb RAM. What are your thoughts on those components?
 

Pyros

P
Pick the 4670K and go for 8 GB (2x4GB) if possible, to activate the dual 64bit memory mode.

If you pick 4GB you either will be working on 64 bit mode or very low granularity memory - when you want to add 4 more GB you will have either to replace your memory modules or you cap your computer memory at a mere 8GB. If you really have to go for 4GB, pick a single module.
 
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