GPU and controllers - some guidance would be welcome!

Babakoto Conilocks

Babakoto Conilocks
Hello folks,

I stopped playing ED some years ago, but seeing Frontier's recent re-engagement with the community and more frequent releases of new features I am excited to come back. But I know my old laptop setup will struggle to perform. I know there are other threads here on GPUs etc but I don't speak tech and I understand almost nothing anyone has posted, so if anyone can provide answers as if I am a 5 year-old I'd be much obliged.
I'm looking at buying an off-the-shelf laptop from a local shop (I can't go much above €2k) and I'm not sure what set-up will work best for the game. I also need guidance on a controller.
  • Would an RTX 3050 4GB + 16GB RAM keep me happy? I've heard the 3050 isn't great at 6GB for many AAA games, but if the 4GB will give good performance for Odyssey then it might meet my needs as I play very few other games... Or should I definitely aim for something else?
  • As for controllers, I have happily used a simple Mad Catz v1 stick for ED before Odyssey, but I imagine it won't do the trick for the current game. Can you guys give advice as to what I should be thinking of as a controller for Odyssey today?
Thanks for your patience with a clueless old man! All recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Coni

p.s. the CPU will be an Intel Ultra 5 or 7
 
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DjVortex

DjVortex
I agree that performancewise an RTX 3050 is probably passable, but that 4 GB of video ram is going to hurt. Granted, I don't know much vram ED in particular is happy with, but a card with 8 GB ought to be better.

An RTX 3060 might be a good budget card to aim for.

As for HOTAS, I have no experience so I don't really know what's a good budget stick out there. I myself use a game controller (the Xbox One X controller, to be more precise.)
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
For the amount of money you have indicated your budget can stretch to, a 3050 6GB is a very poor choice of GPU. It was widely derided for being a poor GPU as a desktop part. Laptop parts will perform worse.

Odyssey is rather heavy on VRAM. As forbiddenlake points out, even an 8GB card can struggle - I had to turn on FSR to get performance I found acceptable when I had that card, albeit at 3440x1440 resolution.
  • I'd suggest that 8GB VRAM should be the absolute minimum. If you can find a laptop with a GPU with 10 or even 12GB VRAM, that would be better.
  • As indicated above, 16GB system RAM should be fine. However, a new laptop will come with Windows 11, which can eat quite a lot of RAM. 32GB would avoid having to upgrade later.
  • For the kind of stick you are replacing, pretty much anything will be an improvement. I know - I used to have one. Even the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro is better. You can get some pretty good, feature-laden sticks for surprisingly little money these days.
 

Neilski

Neilski
I would agree that with a €2k budget you should aim higher than a 3050.
However, I played on a GTX 970 (desktop) until about a year ago and while it wasn't great - especially on foot - it was still playable.

I have so far always played ED with an Xbox-style controller. Would love a HOTAS/HOSAS setup but space limitations get in the way, and a controller is good enough for most kinds of flying.

I bought a Lenovo laptop a few months back, and while I haven't tried ED on it (yet), I'll outline the specs to give a feeling for what you should be able to get for considerably less money than your limit: mine cost ~£1.4k for 32 GB of RAM, RTX 4060, 8845HS (and that price included £60 for a warranty extension). I'm expecting it to be perfectly serviceable for ED when I finally try it, though certainly not with maxed-out settings.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
The 8845HS looks like a really nice mobile CPU - it outbenchmarks a 5800X.

I know I really shouldn't be, but I'm so tempted to buy a mini desktop with Oculink and just dump my bulky desktop entirely. I know I shouldn't want one, but I do.
 

Dougie

Dougie
I have a 4 year old laptop with a RTX 3060 6GB DDR6 - it runs odyssey fine at 1080 High (but struggles in surface CZs for example) - it runs lots of other stuff better than high, Ody just prefers more VRAM I think - Horizons for example can run Ultra at 1440 but I keep to 60Hz refresh.

You should have no trouble buying a decent laptop well within your budget - I would echo the comment about looking for 8GB VRAM* - the actual laptop ram you can always stick in an upgrade module - I did that to up the 8GB stock with a 16GB module to give 24GB total (easy to do yourself).


* My main PC has a RTX3070ti with 8GB and I wish I had been able to get a card with more VRAM back then (larger ram GFX cards seemed to be short supply back in Nov 2022).



EDIT: I forgot about the controllers part. I use 2 VKB Gladiator NXT (one omni).
 
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GroG79

G
2k laptop with a 3050? Nah this is not Oke. More like a rip-off

And what resolution you plan to play? This is important when guestimating performance.
 

Feitochan

F
Babakoto Conilocks said:
Hello folks,

I stopped playing ED some years ago, but seeing Frontier's recent re-engagement with the community and more frequent releases of new features I am excited to come back. But I know my old laptop setup will struggle to perform. I know there are other threads here on GPUs etc but I don't speak tech and I understand almost nothing anyone has posted, so if anyone can provide answers as if I am a 5 year-old I'd be much obliged.
I'm looking at buying an off-the-shelf laptop from a local shop (I can't go much above €2k) and I'm not sure what set-up will work best for the game. I also need guidance on a controller.
  • Would an RTX 3050 4GB + 16GB RAM keep me happy? I've heard the 3050 isn't great at 6GB for many AAA games, but if the 4GB will give good performance for Odyssey then it might meet my needs as I play very few other games... Or should I definitely aim for something else?
  • As for controllers, I have happily used a simple Mad Catz v1 stick for ED before Odyssey, but I imagine it won't do the trick for the current game. Can you guys give advice as to what I should be thinking of as a controller for Odyssey today?
Thanks for your patience with a clueless old man! All recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Coni

p.s. the CPU will be an Intel Ultra 5 or 7
Click to expand...
I have a laptop with a core i5 11400h and an RTX3050 4GB along with only 8GB of RAM and ED runs perfectly on medium settings with upscaling set to normal (which is required to avoid almost all the UI text being unreadable) with the only exception being the commonly noted stuttering.

As for controllers, I've been going between an xbone controller (so the same would be true for the newer series controllers), an elite series 2 core (although it does have connection issues which I think is more down to the laptops bluetooth where it just stops working without any explanation and has to be turned off and back on again to get to working again) and an 8btido ultimate 2C wireless controller without any issues, although I am thinking of getting a proper HOTAS since it's a massive pain to get my extreme 3D pro configured for ED since it has no configuration options available even though logitech is still selling it.

And TBH 2k should be able to get you a decent desktop PC with a monitor, keyboard, mouse and controller with change to spare for more games and even if you want a laptop, you'd be able to get systems with better graphics options for the maximum that you want to spend, and if the shop is only offering a laptop with an RTX3050 4GB for that amount they're nothing but rip off merchants and you should go elsewhere (like Amazon).
 

Morbad

Morbad
Anything below 8GiB of VRAM starts to need some significant concessions in Odyssey. Personally, I'd consider 4GiB a non-starter. The game will certainly run, but unless you're ok with it looking like mud, you are going to run into areas of very poor and inconsistent performance, due to VRAM contention, at times.

As others have mentioned, 2k EUR should buy much more than a 4GiB 3050 anyway.
 

Rhialto

Rhialto
Babakoto Conilocks said:
Hello folks,

I stopped playing ED some years ago, but seeing Frontier's recent re-engagement with the community and more frequent releases of new features I am excited to come back. But I know my old laptop setup will struggle to perform. I know there are other threads here on GPUs etc but I don't speak tech and I understand almost nothing anyone has posted, so if anyone can provide answers as if I am a 5 year-old I'd be much obliged.
I'm looking at buying an off-the-shelf laptop from a local shop (I can't go much above €2k) and I'm not sure what set-up will work best for the game. I also need guidance on a controller.
  • Would an RTX 3050 4GB + 16GB RAM keep me happy? I've heard the 3050 isn't great at 6GB for many AAA games, but if the 4GB will give good performance for Odyssey then it might meet my needs as I play very few other games... Or should I definitely aim for something else?
  • As for controllers, I have happily used a simple Mad Catz v1 stick for ED before Odyssey, but I imagine it won't do the trick for the current game. Can you guys give advice as to what I should be thinking of as a controller for Odyssey today?
Thanks for your patience with a clueless old man! All recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Coni

p.s. the CPU will be an Intel Ultra 5 or 7
Click to expand...
As a controller i use the Logitech/Saitek X52, which works very well in elite.
 

Vlad plus

Vlad plus
Babakoto Conilocks said:
  • As for controllers, I have happily used a simple Mad Catz v1 stick for ED before Odyssey, but I imagine it won't do the trick for the current game. Can you guys give advice as to what I should be thinking of as a controller for Odyssey today?
Click to expand...
in terms of price/quality, this is Belarusian VKB , if you plan to fly in fa-off, then this + this (hosas), if in fa-on, then this + this (hotas).
 
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