Just purchased my first desktop

[regeneration64]

So, I've finally taken the plunge and gone a bought myself my very first gaming desktop PC. I'll mainly be playing CiV on it so wanted the Community's thoughts on the setup:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
3GB AMD RADEON™ HD7950 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

Also gone for a 120GB SSD drive for Windows and will install CiV on that.

Prior to ordering this I've been playing on a dual-core (2.53GHz) i5 laptop with 4GB RAM and 512MB graphics. This manages low graphics settings on all maps but can be quite sluggish on large/huge maps.

 

[timtofly]

Have you seen any difference between the two computers?

 

[regeneration64]

Have you seen any difference between the two computers?

It's still being built as it's custom spec. It should arrive by the end of next week. I'll let the Community know how it fairs compares to my fast aging laptop. I'll probably be half way through a game too.

Playing a huge earth map at the moment and have just discovered Satellites and it's very taxing on my hardware even on low settings for everything. Framerate isn't too bad but every time you flick across the map (which is a lot when you have dozens and dozens of cities and countless units) there's a grey background covering the map that takes a few seconds to disappear. Far from game-breaking but I hope the new rig clears this up (literally).

 

[timtofly]

It probably won't clear the grey up.

Hopefully it will be faster in doing so.

I am running a i7 2670QM 2.2 GHz (8 cores) with 8 Gig RAMM, and a Nvidea GT Geforce 555M 3 GHz GPU. It will still give an occasional grey screen on huge maps in end game.

I am thinking about getting an i5 series CPU and was hoping the grey would not be that bad either. My son though very rarely plays huge maps, so it will probably do just fine.

 

[bc1]

An Nvidea GT Geforce 555M is about 5x less powerful than a 7950, so that's not much of a benchmark A 7950 allows to run Civ v at very high resolutions with 8x MSAA, but it won't necessarily help get rid of grey tiles in huge maps

 

[timtofly]

An Nvidea GT Geforce 555M is about 5x less powerful than a 7950, so that's not much of a benchmark A 7950 allows to run Civ v at very high resolutions with 8x MSAA, but it won't necessarily help get rid of grey tiles in huge maps

That is not the point, my 555M runs the game fine @ 1920x1080 120 Hz with 8xMSAA, and all settings on high.

The point is getting the grey off before the eye can notice it right? In fact an i7 with just intel HD4000 graphics plays the game fairly well.

 

[bc1]

Screen refresh rate (120hz or other) is not quite the same thing as frames per second (the rate at which the graphics card is able to pump out new frames). But even if the 7950 is hopefully able to get better FPS than a 555M, FPS don't matter much in a strategy game like civ v, so a 555M or HD4000 can be enough. However, unfortunately even powerful hardware does not prevent the grey from being noticeable in huge maps, it's a game "feature".

 

[regeneration64]

Thanks for the feadback on how CiV runs on your system, timtofly. Howcome you're considering getting an i5? I think it's fair to say that the i5 3570K is widely regarded as being the best CPU overall (primarily taking into account value for money). I just spent a little bit more on it's replacement, the 4670K, so I can't go too far wrong!

@bc1, to be fair, my current laptop (specs in OP) can handle a playable framerate on low settings with huge maps.

I'm glad it's not just me that notices this 'grey matter' which becomes increasingly annoying the longer the game goes on (especially on a huge map). It's almost like having a mini loading screen every time you move the camera to a new part of the map.

The point is getting the grey off before the eye can notice it right?

Agreed. If my new system suceeds in this respect I'll be very happy. What is this grey matter anyway?

 

[regeneration64]

Well my new desktop arrived this week and I've finally had a chance to play CiV on it.

My findings so far:

* Loading times for maps decreased dramatically (end-game huge map times reduced by around 66%)
* Grey matter is still there but it disappears quickly enough to not be an issue (on standard maps it's gone in the blink of an eye, on huge it can take around 1 second)
* Standard map runs on max settings perfectly, no lag, 60fps at all times
* Huge map (end-game, all cities/map/civs discovered, 100s of units on map) will run on max settings but there is a noticeable drop in frame rate when scrolling the screen or jumping across the map. This was tested on an old G&K game but I can't see there being any difference in BNW

Thoughts?

 

[RedFuneral]

i5 2500K, Radeon 7770, 8GB Mushkin RAM here, I can max the game out fine, dips down toward 25-30 late game on large and huge maps. I get the grey thing on huge maps and it takes a second to clear, near instant on smaller maps. Worth noting I run a 1680x1050 monitor. 1080 is like 5-10% slower.

Personally I've found BNW a lot smoother/quicker than G&K but I was running with mods before and have none in now so that may be the reason.

Your computer is more than good enough. I used to run a 5770(had an i5 750 then/4GB RAM then), then upgraded to a GTX570(i5 2500K, 8GB), then I swapped to a 6970, then downgraded to a 6850, which failed and now I've got the 7770. Game ran great maxed out on everything except the 5770 which ran fine maxed out besides the AA. Worth noting I never tried anything above standard with the 5770 and that was back in Vanilla. I was a late adopter to G&K, which I got after I got my 6850.

No problems with turn times either. I can't remember back when I had vanilla and the i5 750; but BNW was a massive improvment here(again could be the mods...) G&K I'd be seeing 1.5min turn times mid-game on large maps; haven't seen over 20 seconds with BNW(large map, haven't gotten to late game on huge yet)

 

[regeneration64]

Interesting. I'm playing on a 1920X1080 monitor so really putting the graphics card through its paces!

I've just finished a standard game and ran perfectly. Going to give a large map a go now. The huge map I played before was an old G&K save so it will be interesting to see how the new rig fare on a large map from start to finish.

I've definitely noticed that turn times are quicker, something I didn't think would have improved. It is certainly nice having a turn finish in ~20 seconds late game as opposed to ~90 seconds! I still reckon late game on a huge map will be around ~60 seconds between turns but we'll see.

Thanks!