New Computer Specs

[Xichael]

Hello,

I am about to purchase a new desktop (currently using my laptop to play, it can only handle tiny/duel maps with few civs/city states to run somewhat decent late game).

The specs i'm looking at getting right now are:
Intel Core i7-2600 (8MB Cache) Overclocked Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1866MHz
Dual 1.5GB NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 - SLI Enabled

Not sure if anything else is important...

But I assume that will run CiV pretty good. I'm not very good with computers so I look to you guys for help because CiV is one of the games I want it to run really good on with some decent sized maps and large amounts of civs.

I have the option of saving some cash if I drop the 8GB of 1866MHz DDR3 Dual down to 12GB of 1333MHz DDR3 Dual. I don't know how much RAM CiV uses at peak (late game). I have heard the difference in quality from 1866 and 1333 is negligible but CiV seems like it is very RAM intensive so I may as well go for the good stuff if it's needed.

Thanks in advance!

 

[tokala]

No, Civ5 will not use more than 3GB of RAM (if that), and different RAM speeds make almost no difference for non-professional applications.

Get 8 GB DDR3-1333.

A i5-2500 will be almost as fast in Civ5, for ~$100 less

And a GTS 450 in SLI is pointless at best, get a single 460 or 560 instead.

This whole offer looks like something from a dubious shop for me.

 

[Inception7]

No, Civ5 will not use more than 3GB of RAM (if that), and different RAM speeds make almost no difference for non-professional applications.

Get 8 GB DDR3-1333.

A i5-2500 will be almost as fast in Civ5, for ~$100 less

And a GTS 450 in SLI is pointless at best, get a single 460 or 560 instead.

This whole offer looks like something from a dubious shop for me.

Um, great advice except for the video card. Change out the 450 and go with a Gtx 570 or even Sli. If you are running 1080p you are going to be in trouble with a 450.

 

[tokala]

some rough price/performance comparison for the nVidia cards:

              Price Performance
450           100%  100%
460-1024MB    150%  160%
560 (non-Ti)  200%  190%
560 Ti        250%  210%
570           350%  240%

starting with the 570 you begin to pay a lot more for not so much more performance.
And keep in mind that SLI never scales with 100% and might be a source of all kinds of trouble.

For Civ5 even the 460 is more than sufficient, unless you go to multiple monitor setups.

 

[DavidCAD]

Another vote against SLI. Use SLI when you are almost pushing the limits of a single affordable card - pairing 2 weak cards will give a very poor return on investment. I'm running Civ5 on an HD 5770 with an i5 2500k and 8GB running max settings at 1920x1200 - I've found that at this level performance is bottlenecked by the single core performance of the CPU much more then anything else. Depending on what other games you might want to play the 460 or 560 seem best. RAM timings won't make a real difference, and anything over 4GB is enough to run this game until we get bored and make extra-gigantic maps so just get a stable pair of 4GB sticks.

The 2600k won't give much of a performance boost over the 2500k at standard clock speeds - you've got a 3% clockspeed improvement, and even the extra 2MB cache isn't going to improve performance to more then 5% over the 2500k. The real difference between the two, other then the 50% price increase, is the hyperthreading which won't help civilization one bit. If you want to get something for your extra $100 you'll need to overclock and that will eventually mean disabling hyperthreading and adding some extra cooling if you really want to get something close to your moneys worth.

 

[bhavv]

Since I got Civ V I've played it on Crossfire HD 5770s, SLI GTX 460s, and SLI GTX 560 ti's, and its been flawless since day one.

The point with SLI is that two GTX 560 ti's cost the same as one GTX 580, and they massively outperform it. It is very much worth the money over a single high end card, and there are hardly any games nowadays that dont support multiple GPU setups.

Regarding the CPU, anything based on the I7 with hyperthreadng (I.E. 2600k) is useless for video games over an I5 2500k because the hyperthreading doesnt do anything to improve performance in games.

Similarly with ram, anything over 4 Gb doesnt impact gaming performance, and neither to clock speeds or timings. However 2 x 4 Gb 1600 Mhz ram modules are so cheap atm that there isnt any point buying slower, or 2 Gb modules anymore. Better to simply buy 8 Gb of 1600 Mhz ram now, and it will last you for a very very long time (as will an I5 2500k).

For GPUs atm, anything under either a GTX 460, or a HD 6850 is no good anymore. Dont settle for anything less than those, and ideally look for a HD 6950 or GTX 560 ti which are the current best price / performance cards you can get, and will run most games out there maxed out, or very near to maxed out settings.

Gtx 570 or even Sli.

I wouldnt get a GTX 570. It costs too much and isnt better enough for the cost over a GTX 560 ti or 6950.

 

[Inception7]

I'm not sure what you guys consider smooth gameplay but on my setup (6 core i7, 12GB RAM, GTX 580) I still get a massive frame rate drop upon hitting "next turn". I am talking 1,2 FPS. Maybe it's just bad coding and not enabling GPU usage during the computer's turn but it's aggravating. Because of this, I don't think it's out of line to suggest the OP get the very best GPU he can afford for future proofing purposes.

 

[Inception7]

some rough price/performance comparison for the nVidia cards:

              Price Performance
450           100%  100%
460-1024MB    150%  160%
560 (non-Ti)  200%  190%
560 Ti        250%  210%
570           350%  240%

starting with the 570 you begin to pay a lot more for not so much more performance.
And keep in mind that SLI never scales with 100% and might be a source of all kinds of trouble.

For Civ5 even the 460 is more than sufficient, unless you go to multiple monitor setups.

While you present some sound logic I have to disagree. Have you used a SLI configuration in the past two years? There have been major improvements to the point where scaling is great with little to no hiccups. Also, with the lower end 5 and 4 series GTX's you introduce some major frame rate problems when running at resolutions like 1080P and above. SLI is a great option in my opinion. If Civ 5 was coded worth a sh** then you would be able to take advantage of this. One more thing, having a DX11 GPU is a much better idea for future proofing.

 

[bhavv]

SLI Scaling on GTX 460s and 560 tis is legendary value for the price / performance. Before those the 4850s / 5770s were just as good in terms of cost to performance.

I've used the following dual card setups over the last few years (and selling + upgrading each gen):

Xfire 3850s > 4850s > 5770s
SLI GTX 460s > 560s.

I didnt really need the Nvidia cards tbh, the 5770s would have still cut it until the 28 nm cards are out, but I saw the SLI reviews / results and caved in and bought them.

Each setup ran every game out there at its time maxed out with loads of AA flawlessly (only stuff that wont currently run is DOF in Metro, Ubersampling in Witcher 2, and Shogun II, but those games barely even play smoothly on anything less than tri SLI GTX 580s).

I'm not sure what you guys consider smooth gameplay but on my setup (6 core i7, 12GB RAM, GTX 580)

Hmm, well I'm still using an ancient I7 920 clocked to 4.2 Ghz, 24 Gb ram (recent price drops = bought loads of ram for the fun of it), and SLI GTX 560 tis, and I've not had any problems since I got the game on release day.

As for end turn lag / loading issues, I'm not sure if HDD read speeds matter, but I run all my games on a pair of cheapo Samsung F3s in Raid 0 (beats SSDs for the price - performance again). I've never had long wait times between turns.

I just tend to upgrade my graphics cards annually, and keep my mobo / CPU as long as I can. An OCed I7 920 wont be obsolete for many more years yet, hardly anything still makes use of the amount of CPU power it has. And I'm hoping that when Ivy Bridge / LGA 2011 comes out, the I7 980 / 990 will drop in price s rather than buying a new mobo, I can simply grab one of those which will still be more than good for up to 2015 and the next die shrink.

 

[Xichael]

Wow, thanks for all the replies!

So i'll drop my RAM down to 8GB 1333MHz (Saves quite a bit) and get Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 SLI Enabled graphics cards, it's only a slight up in cost as the scale showed.

I'm guessing the 1GB difference in video memory will be made up for by the faster cards?

 

[tokala]

Wow, thanks for all the replies!
I'm guessing the 1GB difference in video memory will be made up for by the faster cards?

The 450 would not have been fast enough to make any use of 1.5GB VRAM.

More video memory does not equal a faster card. For "cheap" cards like the 450 it's usually the other way around, as slower memory is used for the version with more VRAM

Typically excessive amounts of VRAM (>768MB) are only useful for ultra-high resolutions/multi-monitor gaming and user-made texture mods.

Other than that, there will be almost no difference between cards with different amounts of VRAM, if their specs are identical otherwise.