23 replies to this topic

[red71rum]

I have a Core I7 920 with 12 gigs of ram. The weak point of my system is the gfx card that I am using, a radeon 4650. When I put together my pc, I got a low-end card because I had moved away from pc gaming. Now that Mechwarrior Online is coming out I have to get a new gfx card. I realize they are not releasing the specs for this game until next year, but I wanted to get an idea of what I will need. So, what kind of card do you think I will need to run this cryengine 3 powered game on ultra settings?

[Silent]

Geforce GTX 560 Ti

[metro]

Heh....GTX 580 w/ 3 gig so Im set!

[Garth Erlam]

Any of the DX11 cards should be fine for the Cry Engine 3.

I'm not giving out specs for our game but I think assuming it'll be close to Cry Engine 3 is a good way to go. I have a radeon 6950 1gb at home and I've yet to find a game I can't max out, so anything in that area is gold.

I have a personal motto that nothing I ever buy for my computer should be over 250 bucks.

[CeeKay Boques]

Ha, same here. I always buy cutting edge!

Last years cutting edge.

[Tannhauser Gate]

The below was taken from http://3dg.me/gamede...l-documentation and it was written 2AUG11. Of course, better hardware makes for a better game but this should give some notion of whats required for a developer and therefore a gamer.

------------------------

CryEngine 3 SDK — System Requirements
Many PC's for many years will be BSOD'ing when they hear the word "Crysis". Crytek have taken into account their mistake and made Crysis 2 ( and CryEngine 3 ) less demanding in terms of hardware ( cross-platform nature of the engine most likely played its role as well ). Still SDK requires up-to-date PC configuration to be comfortable to work with. For development with CryEngine 3 SDK you will need following configuration ( or better ) :

• Supported OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7
  
• 64-bit CPU ( multicore highly recommended )
  
• 2 Gb RAM ( 4 Gb recommended )
  
• Graphics card with support for Shader Model 3.0 ( Nvidia GeForce 6600 or better, or GFX cards from ATI/AMD in the same generation )

Obviously, better hardware is better . From my side I could recommend having 4-cores CPU, 8 Gb RAM and graphics card GeForce 460GTX / AMD HD4850 ( or better ).



End users ( gamers that will play your game ) have slightly lower requirements:

• Supported OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7
  
• 32-bit or 64-bit CPU ( multicore highly recommended )
  
• 1 Gb RAM ( 2 Gb recommended )
  
• Graphics card with support for Shader Model 3.0 ( Nvidia GeForce 6600 or better, or GFX cards from ATI/AMD in the same generation )

Crytek noted that CPU requirements highly dependable on the AI and physics usage by your game. The more AI and physics computation involved into gameplay, the faster CPU required. For original Crysis game minimal system requirements was such: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or better, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or better, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better.



Thus, CryEngine 3 isn't good solution to stick with for casual game development, because system requirements will be unreasonably high, while for modern 3D games its will be OK.

Also for CE3 SDK you will need additional software:

• DirectX End-User Runtime ( August 2009 or later )
  
• Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86 and x64)
  
• Latest gaphics drivers

Edited by lakedaemon, 22 December 2011 - 09:14 AM.

[CyBerkut]

Obviously, anything we (non-developers) say now is just a guess.

Bigger is better, of course, when you say you want to run ultra settings. AMD has just made their initial, limited release of the HD7970, and the reviews so far have it edging out nVidia's current top end single GPU card. The HD7970 should become more widely available in early January, and we'll probably see the more economical HD7950 in January, as well. I believe the HD7990 (dual GPU on one card) is slated for Feburary. Google up reviews and make up your own mind, depending on what else you want to play besides MWO. Historically, some games do not play well with Crossfire / SLI setups (which includes the dual GPUs on a single card)... so you may want to factor that in to your purchasing decision.

If your wallet can handle it, look at either a HD7970 or HD7950 when they are available. I would imagine either one could handle CryEngine 3 games at the highest settings, and you wouldn't have to mess with Crossfire unless you decided you wanted more GPU power later on. Short of that... An HD6970 or maybe even an HD6950 would probably work well enough... But that is just a guess. (Try to get one that has 2 Gigs of RAM, instead of just 1 Gig, to give yourself some options/breathing room) Even if you go the HD69xx series route, it would probably be wise to wait until January, to let the new HD79xx series cards drive the prices down on the HD69xx cards.

Good luck with it!

[Waffles]

From my understanding a lot of MMO's go for the middle ground approach. So as long as you don't have last decades top of the line you *should* be fine. But the Far Cry 3 engine looks pretty sweet, so might want to lean on the side of top of the line for the last few years or so, or i suppose you can turn it down graphics until you get MW2 again

[red71rum]

Silent, on 22 December 2011 - 06:34 AM, said:

Geforce GTX 560 Ti

Metro, on 22 December 2011 - 06:54 AM, said:

Heh....GTX 580 w/ 3 gig so Im set!

Garth Erlam, on 22 December 2011 - 08:59 AM, said:

Any of the DX11 cards should be fine for the Cry Engine 3.

I'm not giving out specs for our game but I think assuming it'll be close to Cry Engine 3 is a good way to go. I have a radeon 6950 1gb at home and I've yet to find a game I can't max out, so anything in that area is gold.

I have a personal motto that nothing I ever buy for my computer should be over 250 bucks.

Thanks for all the replies. I thought a DX 11 card should be sufficient. My monitors max res. is only 1680 x 1050 so I am trying to gauge what card I should get. I am looking for a card under $150 right now. I am debating whether to wait until next year after the new Radeon 7000 series comes out and the 6000 series drops.

[red71rum]

lakedaemon, on 22 December 2011 - 09:10 AM, said:

The below was taken from http://3dg.me/gamede...l-documentation and it was written 2AUG11. Of course, better hardware makes for a better game but this should give some notion of whats required for a developer and therefore a gamer.

------------------------

CryEngine 3 SDK — System Requirements
Many PC's for many years will be BSOD'ing when they hear the word "Crysis". Crytek have taken into account their mistake and made Crysis 2 ( and CryEngine 3 ) less demanding in terms of hardware ( cross-platform nature of the engine most likely played its role as well ). Still SDK requires up-to-date PC configuration to be comfortable to work with. For development with CryEngine 3 SDK you will need following configuration ( or better ) :

• Supported OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7
  
• 64-bit CPU ( multicore highly recommended )
  
• 2 Gb RAM ( 4 Gb recommended )
  
• Graphics card with support for Shader Model 3.0 ( Nvidia GeForce 6600 or better, or GFX cards from ATI/AMD in the same generation )

Obviously, better hardware is better . From my side I could recommend having 4-cores CPU, 8 Gb RAM and graphics card GeForce 460GTX / AMD HD4850 ( or better ).




End users ( gamers that will play your game ) have slightly lower requirements:

• Supported OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7
  
• 32-bit or 64-bit CPU ( multicore highly recommended )
  
• 1 Gb RAM ( 2 Gb recommended )
  
• Graphics card with support for Shader Model 3.0 ( Nvidia GeForce 6600 or better, or GFX cards from ATI/AMD in the same generation )

Crytek noted that CPU requirements highly dependable on the AI and physics usage by your game. The more AI and physics computation involved into gameplay, the faster CPU required. For original Crysis game minimal system requirements was such: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or better, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or better, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better.




Thus, CryEngine 3 isn't good solution to stick with for casual game development, because system requirements will be unreasonably high, while for modern 3D games its will be OK.

Also for CE3 SDK you will need additional software:

• DirectX End-User Runtime ( August 2009 or later )
  
• Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86 and x64)
  
• Latest gaphics drivers

Thanks for the information, I think that it will help me a decsion.

CyBerkut, on 22 December 2011 - 09:11 AM, said:

Obviously, anything we (non-developers) say now is just a guess.

Bigger is better, of course, when you say you want to run ultra settings. AMD has just made their initial, limited release of the HD7970, and the reviews so far have it edging out nVidia's current top end single GPU card. The HD7970 should become more widely available in early January, and we'll probably see the more economical HD7950 in January, as well. I believe the HD7990 (dual GPU on one card) is slated for Feburary. Google up reviews and make up your own mind, depending on what else you want to play besides MWO. Historically, some games do not play well with Crossfire / SLI setups (which includes the dual GPUs on a single card)... so you may want to factor that in to your purchasing decision.

If your wallet can handle it, look at either a HD7970 or HD7950 when they are available. I would imagine either one could handle CryEngine 3 games at the highest settings, and you wouldn't have to mess with Crossfire unless you decided you wanted more GPU power later on. Short of that... An HD6970 or maybe even an HD6950 would probably work well enough... But that is just a guess. (Try to get one that has 2 Gigs of RAM, instead of just 1 Gig, to give yourself some options/breathing room) Even if you go the HD69xx series route, it would probably be wise to wait until January, to let the new HD79xx series cards drive the prices down on the HD69xx cards.

Good luck with it!

Unfortunately I don't think my wife would allow me the top of line: ) Like I mentioned earlier, I think I want to spend under $150. I appreciate all the info.

Waffles, on 22 December 2011 - 09:13 AM, said:

From my understanding a lot of MMO's go for the middle ground approach. So as long as you don't have last decades top of the line you *should* be fine. But the Far Cry 3 engine looks pretty sweet, so might want to lean on the side of top of the line for the last few years or so, or i suppose you can turn it down graphics until you get MW2 again

I am constantly looking at slickdeals.net for a good deal, and saw that the Saphire 6850 can be had for $129 at Amazon. I definately do not want to have to turn the graphics down though, so I would probably pass on the 6850.

[Dirty]

red71rum, on 22 December 2011 - 06:20 AM, said:

I have a Core I7 920 with 12 gigs of ram. The weak point of my system is the gfx card that I am using, a radeon 4650. When I put together my pc, I got a low-end card because I had moved away from pc gaming. Now that Mechwarrior Online is coming out I have to get a new gfx card. I realize they are not releasing the specs for this game until next year, but I wanted to get an idea of what I will need. So, what kind of card do you think I will need to run this cryengine 3 powered game on ultra settings?

I use dual Nvidia 570gtx 1.2. run everything in ultra mode. Im getting 99-124 fps a sec in world of tanks a similar game to mechwar online

[red71rum]

Dirty, on 22 December 2011 - 10:03 AM, said:

I use dual Nvidia 570gtx 1.2. run everything in ultra mode. Im getting 99-124 fps a sec in world of tanks a similar game to mechwar online

I have not run cards in SLI since my old Voodoo gfx cards(I am old) I think that would be overkill for me, although it sounds like a really nice setup.

Edited by red71rum, 22 December 2011 - 10:33 AM.

[red71rum]

I see the 7970 will be out in january according to this review: http://www.anandtech...-hd-7970-review That is one expensive card. I imagine the prices of the "older" cards will drop when that comes out.

[Catamount]

There's a few things we can pretty well guess about this game for system requirements, but not necessarily GPU-wise.

CPU-wise, it's obvious the game will be either dual or quad threaded, and won't CPU bottleneck on any reasonably modern chip, as has been true with every game these past few years (prior to which to the only difference was that all games were single-threaded).


RAM-wise, it's unlikely we're looking at a 64-bit executable, as with basically all games, so Windows will cap the game's RAM usage at 2GB, as it does for all 32-bit processes, so the game will run in an envelope that will easily fit within 4GB of RAM with everything else, again, just like every other game (unless your OS and background processes take more than 2GB of RAM, in which case, yer doin it wrong ).



GPU-wise, honestly the OP's 4650 would probably run the game, just not exceedingly well. OP, if you want to run at the absolute maximum settings the game can throw at you, including 16x MSAA, then $150 is not realistic. However, you can get something that would probably run the game pretty well, at higher settings, with a bit of AA, especially if they include post-processing AA which produces almost no performance hit, and still give good frame rates.


Right now, the fastest card in the price range is a Radeon HD 6870 (1GB of vram is easily enough to run anything at 1680x1050), such as this one here: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814131378

That's a hair above your price range before MiR, and a hair below after.


Right now, that's basically your one option (unless you went with a 6850). Nvidia has cards in that performance range, but they're just not competitive on a price/performance basis (Nvidia as a whole is, just not really in the sub-$200 market, and it gets worse for them the lower prices get).

Nvidia's equivalent to the 6870 is the 560 (non-TI), and at the resolution you play at, they're just about even with each other (they'll trade small blows here or there, but generally nothing significant), but the 560 is $20 more expensive, and has a higher TDP (it sucks more from your PSU, and puts out more heat).


Had you the money, there are good cards from both companies I'd recommend. The 560 TI is quite nice and a good value, but starts at $210, and the 560TI Core 448, which is a great card, starts at $300.

It's not the end of the world if you don't have a bulging budget though; believe me, you have more money than I at the moment

A 6870 is a good card, and if you were willing to wait, the 7800 series is probably not terribly far off, although if one thing is clear, it's that AMD is no longer in the massive undercutting game like they were with the 4000 and 5000 series, so even if the 7800 faster, it will be more expensive, until Nvidia can compete with Kepler (which has practically been delayed until the Second Coming).

In short, I don't think anything will beat the 6870 in your price range for while, probably not until Q3 2012, though I wouldn't blame you for wanting to wait and see how it all turns out if you don't have need to replace that GPU right this second.

Edited by Catamount, 22 December 2011 - 10:50 AM.

[red71rum]

Catamount, on 22 December 2011 - 10:49 AM, said:

There's a few things we can pretty well guess about this game for system requirements, but not necessarily GPU-wise.

CPU-wise, it's obvious the game will be either dual or quad threaded, and won't CPU bottleneck on any reasonably modern chip, as has been true with every game these past few years (prior to which to the only difference was that all games were single-threaded).


RAM-wise, it's unlikely we're looking at a 64-bit executable, as with basically all games, so Windows will cap the game's RAM usage at 2GB, as it does for all 32-bit processes, so the game will run in an envelope that will easily fit within 4GB of RAM with everything else, again, just like every other game (unless your OS and background processes take more than 2GB of RAM, in which case, yer doin it wrong ).



GPU-wise, honestly the OP's 4650 would probably run the game, just not exceedingly well. OP, if you want to run at the absolute maximum settings the game can throw at you, including 16x MSAA, then $150 is not realistic. However, you can get something that would probably run the game pretty well, at higher settings, with a bit of AA, especially if they include post-processing AA which produces almost no performance hit, and still give good frame rates.


Right now, the fastest card in the price range is a Radeon HD 6870 (1GB of vram is easily enough to run anything at 1680x1050), such as this one here: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814131378

That's a hair above your price range before MiR, and a hair below after.


Right now, that's basically your one option (unless you went with a 6850). Nvidia has cards in that performance range, but they're just not competitive on a price/performance basis (Nvidia as a whole is, just not really in the sub-$200 market, and it gets worse for them the lower prices get).

Nvidia's equivalent to the 6870 is the 560 (non-TI), and at the resolution you play at, they're just about even with each other (they'll trade small blows here or there, but generally nothing significant), but the 560 is $20 more expensive, and has a higher TDP (it sucks more from your PSU, and puts out more heat).


Had you the money, there are good cards from both companies I'd recommend. The 560 TI is quite nice and a good value, but starts at $210, and the 560TI Core 448, which is a great card, starts at $300.

It's not the end of the world if you don't have a bulging budget though; believe me, you have more money than I at the moment

A 6870 is a good card, and if you were willing to wait, the 7800 series is probably not terribly far off, although if one thing is clear, it's that AMD is no longer in the massive undercutting game like they were with the 4000 and 5000 series, so even if the 7800 faster, it will be more expensive, until Nvidia can compete with Kepler (which has practically been delayed until the Second Coming).

In short, I don't think anything will beat the 6870 in your price range for while, probably not until Q3 2012, though I wouldn't blame you for wanting to wait and see how it all turns out if you don't have need to replace that GPU right this second.

Thanks Catamont for the detailed response. Coming from the console world, I have not had to deal with AA. I imagine that the prices on the 6950 and 560 Ti will drop a bit after Christmas with the 7000 series coming. Aside from maybe getting in on the Flight beta, Mechwarrior Online is the only game right now that makes me want to get a gfx card. I still play BF3 on my 360 and probably could wait until a good deal comes out next year.

[Rakett]

I intend to run my Voodoo2. It'll be fine, I have the 12MB edition.

[CypherHalo]

I hope they take into account that we don't all have supercomputers. I want the game to look great but I'd rather it scaled well (like Starcraft II, why can't all games be like that?) then look super-cool.

[red71rum]

Rakett, on 22 December 2011 - 11:30 AM, said:

I intend to run my Voodoo2. It'll be fine, I have the 12MB edition.

Those were the days.

CypherHalo, on 22 December 2011 - 11:37 AM, said:

I hope they take into account that we don't all have supercomputers. I want the game to look great but I'd rather it scaled well (like Starcraft II, why can't all games be like that?) then look super-cool.

I imagine it would scale to a point, and as you said, not everyone has the latest and greatest. Although I very much doubt it would run well on my 4650.

[Kaemon]

I hope they have an optional 64 bit client install for us that want to try to get to 32 x 32 matches.

And Eyefinity support.

[lpmagic]

LOL I just went to the world of tanks web site and looked at the faq there, I can run the game (wot) at mid level with my current set up (do not laugh)
core 2 duo 2.53 conroe
8gb DDR3
Nvidia 8600gt
Comcast 15g

This worries me a bit, I know my machine is not top notch by any stretch, and it plays crysis 1 and 2 just fine so hopefully this will be ok, I'm going to be HOT if an FTP on-line game requires a whole lot more then this from my machine it seems to me that the balance of the computing should be done on their server side?? from this convo I would guess I'm wrong LOL we shall see, I hope they at least give us enough toime to make adjustments before the game is released. There are Just a ton of old players like myself that have probably not kept up with the "PC Gamming" world in the last few years, and I'm betting we are all chompling at the bit to try this new one (been waiting forever) If your looking DEV's sys requirements as early as possible would be very considerate thak you for your time!
Lpmagic