Is it good enough for now?

Tom Sloman

T
I know it's below the recommended spec, and i am planning to upgrade with a system specifically for the game when the either the gamma or the retail drops, to take advantage of the cheaper and better hardware available then, and to get a system i know will take full advantage of the finalised spec...

But for now, the only Windows PC i currently have is a laptop with a dual-core i5 @ 1.8 GHz, 8 Gig of RAM and HD4000 iGPU, running Windows 8.1.

It wasn't previously a problem, because i don't have Alpha, just first round Beta, and i thought that would be fine, but the more i watch "Let's play" videos, the more i want to upgrade to the Alpha, especially with the multiplayer Alpha, and the two additional Alphas yet to go. I am only £50 short of Alpha, but i won't be able to afford to upgrade my system just yet, and will have to make do with the hardware i have now for a little while.

Does anyone know if the laptop i have now would be good enough to at least play relatively smoothly (15 - 20 fps, or better, low settings are fine), or should i hold off until i can buy better hardware? Has anyone used a system of similar spec? How does it run the game?
 

avow555

avow555
I'm sticking with my AMD phenom II 4 core 940 @ 3ghz and ATI 5870 GPU until I look at beta. If it runs okay then not gonna bother upgrading as there is way to much hardware testosterone flying around this forum already.

I hope your rig runs adequately for you Tom and I would save yourself the 50 quid on getting alpha at this late stage.
 

P4UL

P4UL
A smooth 15 fps is not really playable IMO but I guess the best way is to wait until the BETA is out and then try and see what it runs like and then if it's too slow you can upgrade / get new laptop etc.. but until you have the game to try you can't really tell exactly how it's going to run. (unless someone has this same GPU and has tested it) Btw I think your CPU is fine for what you want..

Personally I would save the money by not getting the Alpha and put it towards the upgrades that will help a little bit :p

One thing I wish FD would do is release a benchmark app so we could test our machines ahead of the game launch.
 

munkor

M
im not sure if the internal gfx card u have will even run it past 10fps, likely less

CPU and RAM seem fine though, but on a laptop, thats not much consolation
 

Tom Sloman

T
So CPU and RAM look good, thanks for the replies.

Is there anyone who has tried the Alpha with an HD4000 on low settings?

It's very easy to underestimate this iGPU, because it's not discrete, but actually it is pretty good. It runs left4dead 2, borderlands 2, and especially minecraft very well. I don't need twitch gamer level top-end performance, i just need it to be smooth enough to not be annoying.

If it's below 10 fps, as suggested, that's just not playable, but 20 plus fps would be good enough for now. Remember that all the early Disney cartoons were filmed in 12 fps, and they all look fine. Higher is better, but consistently above 20 fps and never dipping below 15 fps is entirely playable.

Won't know for sure until someone who has actually tried the HD4000 can give a definite answer though.
 

Tom Sloman

T
munkor said:
problem is man, anyone with an HD4000 isnt going to try the alpha for the reason I stated above...
Click to expand...

I didn't realise you had tried it. From your phrasing i thought you had just guessed that figure without a practical test.

Could you tell me the actual fps you got with all the settings on low in your field test on an HD4000 iGPU please? Was it consistently below 10 fps during your entire test of it?
 
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Rog

Rog
I'm in a pretty similar situation: £50 short of alpha, but with a 2.4GHz i3 laptop, also with HD4000.

So..... although difficult, I'm going to wait the month or so until 1st beta comes out, if the laptop runs it then I'll put off a new machine build until just before release.

I suspect it might just run it acceptably (to me) on low settings, but honestly can't say for sure.
 

Tom Sloman

T
Rog said:
I'm in a pretty similar situation: £50 short of alpha, but with a 2.4GHz i3 laptop, also with HD4000.

So..... although difficult, I'm going to wait the month or so until 1st beta comes out, if the laptop runs it then I'll put off a new machine build until just before release.

I suspect it might just run it acceptably (to me) on low settings, but honestly can't say for sure.
Click to expand...

We're both in the same boat, and neither of us has a paddle.

If it won't run Alpha, even on a good-enough-for-now basis, then i don't hold out much hope for Beta being optimised enough to make it any better, particularly with how much more complex Beta will be.

I highly doubt they'll finish off Alpha 2, and then complete two further Alpha stages all within a month, so i highly doubt that Beta will be next month, or even the month after. Beta will come when Alpha is done, and if i had to guess right now, i would say 3 or 4 months. We'll see though.

I suspected before i even asked that it probably won't be good enough, but until someone with a second system or something can clearly confirm they've tried it, we won't really know for sure. I am more interested in practicing with the flight model than i am with combat, so i don't need it to be perfect yet, just good enough to control the ship and learn how it flies, which would be fine at 15 - 20 fps plus.
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Do you be able to distinguish with the naked eye a game at 30 frames per second and a game at 60 frames per second ? Not sure ... (The right one is 60 FPS)

5104250.gif
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
The eye and the human brain, can't perceive more than 30 FPS (Finally, it is not really sure. It depends on innumerable opinions on the internet)

;)
 
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Tom Sloman

T
I haven't found a real world tested answer yet, but this list shows a MacBook Air with an HD5000 running ED Alpha at 20 - 30 fps at the same resolution as my laptop (1366 x 768).

The HD5000 is around 25% faster than the HD4000 i believe, which should roughly translate to around 15 - 20 fps, all other things being equal. The fact that my system has double the RAM and a faster CPU should boost the speed up a bit closer to the performance of that MacBook Air.

So it seems, in theory at least (if that MacBook Air speed is accurate), that it should be at least be flyable, even if combat would be beyond reach.

No real way of knowing for sure until someone actually tries it though.
 
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