I love that site! It's a great resource for planning a build, but also checking out other peoples' systems.
[GS] Bought a new computer I hope will be great for Gathering Storm
- Thread starter SupremacyKing2
- Start date
Aristos
Lightseeker
Yeap, and their compat checks save you so much time... I still re-check compats with the manufacturers, but the site short-lists everything for a huge gain in time... and the prices! I learned a few computer shops that are literally a bridge away from home, and with very competitive prices as compared to traditional ones like newegg...
SammyKhalifa
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,308
I finally got around to upgrading I think last year some time, an RX480 on sale whenever the new generation came out. I guess I should have gotten the one with more RAM but it's fine for my needs, runs civ with most of the settings cranked pretty high (though I don't really play really big maps so I don't know if that would make a difference). Also on principle I didn't really want to spend a ton on a video card. Big time gamers would probably say I need better but it's fine for me, don't really play many games besides civ, and most of my other software (lightroom, etc) are also mostly processor.
Before that was a Radeon 6570 which really up to the task in Civ once I got my second monitor.
I have a slight overclock, but was having some stability issues with the RAM and gave up trying to get a little more speed that I wouldn't notice in real life anyhow, haha. I think all the cores are running at 4.0 or 4.4 ghz or something like that, while unOC'd are like 4/4/3.5/3.5 I think
Aristos
Lightseeker
VRAM is THE bottleneck for higher settings in civ 6, that's for sure... so the larger the map, the more textures the card would have to load into memory for better performance --> more VRAM needs. I am thinking RX 580 right now, prices are coming down thanks to the bursting of the mining craze bubble, but I am still waiting to see if they fall even further... a gamble, I know.
Disgustipated
Deity
Wish I knew about that site before. Oh well. Live and learn. I'm okay that I made a couple mistakes like with the M2. I'm still new into SSD's in general so I have to learn about all that. I don't plan on overclocking or anything, that always seemed too advanced for me (though in reality it doesn't seem that hard).
Let's see...
MSI Z390 gaming pro LGA 1151 mother board
Intel Core I9-9900k 8 core 16 thread LGA 1151 (yeah I admit I had no idea what threads are)
Corsair 850 MW power supply- I think this will be enough. I won't be doing overclocking or anything crazy with my system
Gskill 4X8GB TridentZ DDR4 memory
Crucial MX500 500GB SSD - like I said I'm new with these. I still hear they don't last forever, and I prefer to have a magnetic drive backup. So I didn't want to go with anything big and fancy yet
Seagate 1TB 7200rpm hard drive
Asus geforce GTX 1070 GPU 8GB
edit: oh the cooler is Noctua NHD15 cpu cooler. Looks like it will fit (hopefully), I'm still old school and would prefer to use air if it's still viable. And this one is supposed to be viable with the 9900.
Let's see...
MSI Z390 gaming pro LGA 1151 mother board
Intel Core I9-9900k 8 core 16 thread LGA 1151 (yeah I admit I had no idea what threads are)
Corsair 850 MW power supply- I think this will be enough. I won't be doing overclocking or anything crazy with my system
Gskill 4X8GB TridentZ DDR4 memory
Crucial MX500 500GB SSD - like I said I'm new with these. I still hear they don't last forever, and I prefer to have a magnetic drive backup. So I didn't want to go with anything big and fancy yet
Seagate 1TB 7200rpm hard drive
Asus geforce GTX 1070 GPU 8GB
edit: oh the cooler is Noctua NHD15 cpu cooler. Looks like it will fit (hopefully), I'm still old school and would prefer to use air if it's still viable. And this one is supposed to be viable with the 9900.
Last edited:
SammyKhalifa
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,308
So should have probably spent the few extra bucks on the the one with more than 4GB? Haha, figures.
SammyKhalifa
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,308
M2 is faster, and I'll probably upgrade at some point, but I'm still not convinced that it's a difference you'll ever notice in real life unless you're doing a whole lot of writing and rewriting.
DWilson
Where am I? What turn is it?
Perhaps you all might be able to help me get the most out of my laptop, if you don't mind?
I am running:
CPU: Intel i7-7700HQ
GPU: NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5
RAM: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/2133MHz SODIMM Memory
HD_M2SSD: 250GB Samsung 860 EVO Series M.2 SATA-III 6 Gb/s SSD
MOTHERBOARD: Intel(R) HM175 Express Chipset
And on larger maps I notice fairly significant slow downs from mid-game on.
I was wondering where you would expect me to be bottlenecking?
I should note that my expectations aren't too high, given that I chose a laptop for mobility over some performance aspects.
I am running:
CPU: Intel i7-7700HQ
GPU: NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5
RAM: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/2133MHz SODIMM Memory
HD_M2SSD: 250GB Samsung 860 EVO Series M.2 SATA-III 6 Gb/s SSD
MOTHERBOARD: Intel(R) HM175 Express Chipset
And on larger maps I notice fairly significant slow downs from mid-game on.
I was wondering where you would expect me to be bottlenecking?
I should note that my expectations aren't too high, given that I chose a laptop for mobility over some performance aspects.
Aristos
Lightseeker
M2 NVMe is considerably faster, IIRC specs are 30 Gbps throughput or so, compared to SATA III 6 Gbps MAX, and HDDs have latency that SSDs have not (barely any, like comparing RAM with HDD access). So, with NVMe you will notice a big difference in loading times for everything, and if thrashing happens you will barely notice as compared to a SATA drive.
Aristos
Lightseeker
Run the benchmarks and post them. That machine should run civ 6 very well, even on larger maps. Define larger maps, and define slowdowns... do you mean longer turn times? How may civs and CS?
Even better, you could download MSI Afterburner, install, setup for OSD, run Civ 6 and watch the stats displayed on screen by Afterburner. That will show you your potential bottleneck (remember, there is always a bottleneck, the moment you solve one, another emerges, the trick is to setup a bottleneck with which you are happy...)
racha
Prince
If you can get past the beige fans *shudder*, that cooler is the mutt's nuts. My 9900k occasionally hits ~60C running Civ 6, but mostly it's around 40C. I've done no overclocking, but Cams says the processor is running at 5GHz (I assume the place that built it did some tweaking).
Disgustipated
Deity
yeah I don't care about the color too much. I think the case I ordered isn't see through anyways. I'm not one of those people who have to have a really pretty looking computer. My current computer has one side completely open since one of my case fans died (it won't overheat like this). My computer could look like dog doodoo as long as it gets the job done. And currently my computer is in a position that is not very visible.
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2011
- Messages
- 11,901
Of course having the best kit means diddley if you are running 40 apps behind the scenes, there is a lot of polling and disk activity and there is some malware lurking.... or if windows update is running.
know thine interrupts, even reseating can reduce them.
What surprised me was the disk writes which is why SSD on the right directories helps so much.
know thine interrupts, even reseating can reduce them.
What surprised me was the disk writes which is why SSD on the right directories helps so much.
thecrazyscot
Spiffy
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,460
I have an 8gb RX 580. Since getting it I pretty much only play on Large and Huge maps. With all graphic settings on max it's able to get through to mid game without a single issue, but starts to stutter a bit in the latter half. With a few tweaks to the settings it's able to keep things going smoothly through the end game (just won a science victory on a Large map with the default number of civs and had zero issues).
Ofc, I play with leader animations off since ain't nobody got time for that.
Specs for reference:
Ryzen 5 2600x
8gb Radeon RX 580
16gb ram
I haven't done any over clocking or tweaking, so I'm sure I could get better performance, but haven't seen the need to.
Last edited:
Disgustipated
Deity
Yay got my computer stuff earlier than expected. Annoying the fedex guy didn't come in my yard and left everything on the driveway. I had someone try to steal a package off my driveway once a little over a year ago. No reason to leave it there when I have a fenced in yard. Good thing the email came in right after delivery. Looks like I have everything I need, I'll try to get it done tomorrow.
Only thing I did not get was a monitor. Mine should be good for now. Though a guy at work was saying a curved monitor is easier on the eyes. Is this true? What kind of monitors are you guys using? I'm not entirely happy with my monitor, but it's only a few years old and I would like to get more use out of it.
I just realized how dusty my current computer is. The downside to having the side completely open. I try to clean it every so often, but my last house cleaning really seemed to get it bad. Those little air cans aren't strong enough, I really need a better duster.
Only thing I did not get was a monitor. Mine should be good for now. Though a guy at work was saying a curved monitor is easier on the eyes. Is this true? What kind of monitors are you guys using? I'm not entirely happy with my monitor, but it's only a few years old and I would like to get more use out of it.
I just realized how dusty my current computer is. The downside to having the side completely open. I try to clean it every so often, but my last house cleaning really seemed to get it bad. Those little air cans aren't strong enough, I really need a better duster.
cvb
Prince
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2017
- Messages
- 446
I have to ask, (Display resolution isn't civ6 specific.), just to be sure: does this 'all graphic settings on max' include also the display resolution, ie. is it ultraHD/3840x2160?
Right now a 49'' FullHD TV, was a superb experience with last civ4 playing 5 years ago. No, that is NOT too big an armlength away!!! And as we don't need at all the insane frame rates, which some firstPersonShooters (seems to) (have to have) a Monitor for, I recommend TVs - they are nearly dirt cheap lately (z.B. 43'' 219€ beim real, nix online, von wegen Reparatur usw.).
For civ6 I'm looking forward to a 55'' ultraHD TV; 58'' would be better, but those are seldom.
thecrazyscot
Spiffy
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,460
Disgustipated
Deity
Got my new computer up and running. I'm on it now. 32GB of ram I9 9900K. Sweet.
Although I did not realize new computer chassis don't have slots for optical drives.
Oh well, my little goof. What do you guys do for optical drives? External? I obviously needed one to install Windows. My chassis is the same height as my old one, but I did not think to check the other stats. It is actually shorter in length. Probably a good thing or my CPU cable probably wouldn't have fit. I struggled a bit with room, but finally managed to get everything done. It's a mid tower, but smaller than my old one. One thing is I'm not currently running with my 2nd CPU fan. I read that some people do fine without it, but I have to keep an eye on my CPU temperature. I won't actually be able to put my glass cover on if I use the 2nd fan, because the fan sits a bit high because of how high the RAM sticks up. The CPU cooling fins are massive, 2 sets of them. And I'm currently just using the one fan.
So I used the 8 pin power connector for CPU power, but did not use the 4 pin. From what I was reading that generally is not needed. Is that true? Obviously I boot fine without it, but I don't want to run into any performance issues with power.
Still need to check my sound because I'm running on board sound. My old sound card doesn't seem to fit.
And I think my motherboard has some fancy lights or whatnot, but I didn't bother with all that. This took long enough as it, I'm pretty rusty at this stuff. Lots of extra parts, but I'm sure that will be fine.
Now to download Steam and Civ6
Although I did not realize new computer chassis don't have slots for optical drives.
Oh well, my little goof. What do you guys do for optical drives? External? I obviously needed one to install Windows. My chassis is the same height as my old one, but I did not think to check the other stats. It is actually shorter in length. Probably a good thing or my CPU cable probably wouldn't have fit. I struggled a bit with room, but finally managed to get everything done. It's a mid tower, but smaller than my old one. One thing is I'm not currently running with my 2nd CPU fan. I read that some people do fine without it, but I have to keep an eye on my CPU temperature. I won't actually be able to put my glass cover on if I use the 2nd fan, because the fan sits a bit high because of how high the RAM sticks up. The CPU cooling fins are massive, 2 sets of them. And I'm currently just using the one fan.So I used the 8 pin power connector for CPU power, but did not use the 4 pin. From what I was reading that generally is not needed. Is that true? Obviously I boot fine without it, but I don't want to run into any performance issues with power.
Still need to check my sound because I'm running on board sound. My old sound card doesn't seem to fit.
And I think my motherboard has some fancy lights or whatnot, but I didn't bother with all that. This took long enough as it, I'm pretty rusty at this stuff. Lots of extra parts, but I'm sure that will be fine.
Now to download Steam and Civ6
Aristos
Lightseeker
@Disgustipated : congrats! I envy you, it's been almost five years since I built my current rig... nice feelings!
Read your MoBo manual, always has good information. Very likely you will need all the power connectors to the board, but manual will clarify. Given that it is a 9900K, even if you don't overclock, that beast is hungry. I would connect the 4 pin regardless, more power available is always better.
Read your MoBo manual, always has good information. Very likely you will need all the power connectors to the board, but manual will clarify. Given that it is a 9900K, even if you don't overclock, that beast is hungry. I would connect the 4 pin regardless, more power available is always better.
thecrazyscot
Spiffy
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,460
Nice build, enjoy!Got my new computer up and running. I'm on it now. 32GB of ram I9 9900K. Sweet.
Although I did not realize new computer chassis don't have slots for optical drives.
So I used the 8 pin power connector for CPU power, but did not use the 4 pin. From what I was reading that generally is not needed. Is that true? Obviously I boot fine without it, but I don't want to run into any performance issues with power.
Still need to check my sound because I'm running on board sound. My old sound card doesn't seem to fit.
And I think my motherboard has some fancy lights or whatnot, but I didn't bother with all that. This took long enough as it, I'm pretty rusty at this stuff. Lots of extra parts, but I'm sure that will be fine.
Now to download Steam and Civ6
No need for optical drives 99.9% of the time. Bootable USB sticks are more flexible when installing Windows.
I will need an optical drive at some point to rip some CDs we haven't added to our music library yet, and I picked up a physical copy of Rise of Legends a ways back and have been wanting to give that a try but it's not available digitally anywhere. So external drive it will be I guess. I should make a backup digital copy of it though to save wear and tear on the discs, something I did with my Civ2 disc a while ago.
