Simple: What CPU/GPU for Extreme Quality @ 30+ fps in 1080p?

Blu · 07-19-2010, 09:12 PM

Gameplay circumstance: soloing and grouping. (I'm willing to bump it down a notch or two during raids, if absolutely necessary.)

I'm looking to build a new computer. I have examined the stickied thread, but it doesn't mention quality/fps targets, just "decent performance", and most of that hardware is antiquated now. I'm specifically looking for the CPU/GPU combos (and maybe mobo if relevant) that will make the goal of Extreme Quality at 30+ fps in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Any help would be appreciated.

Kain-UK · 07-20-2010, 06:37 AM

If you're only looking for 30+ fps... then this is what I'm running...

Intel Core i7 920 (overclocked to 4ghz)
ATI Radeon 5870
ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard
6GB DDR3-1600 RAM

I recommend you keep EQ2 on a seperate HDD to windows... and also seperate to any page files. If possible, a SSD would be the best choice for the game. I can run 30fps in extreme quality in the majority of areas. Very rare it drops below that. However, I personally like to run the game at 50+ if possible, so I use a modified very high quality instead. The thing with EQ2 is that your CPU speed and memory bandwidth matter a lot more than how many cores your CPU has and how powerful your GFX card is. The same system got the same performance with me running a 9800GX2 instead... I just had to keep shadows off.

Maybe that will help you out a bit. Basically you want a fast CPU, or a cheap CPU and overclock it.

EDIT: Oh! Should mention I'm running at 1920x1080 resolution... which is 1080p mode.

Blu · 07-20-2010, 02:27 PM

My current comp runs in Extreme Performance at about 20 fps, so even 30 fps is a step up, and Extreme Quality will be a gigantic step up. I mean, 50+ is better... if you know of a rig that will run Extreme Q at 50+, please share! SMILEY

I had priced out a setup similar to what you are describing. Here's what I'm thinking of doing now:

Intel i7 920 or 930, oc'd
- the i930 is a few bucks cheaper than the i920 on the egg right now
- Scythe Mugen 2 B cooler
Radeon 5850 (since the video card is not as important, save $100, can crossfire later for other games)
6GB DDR3-1600

I'm lazy and don't want to mess with water cooling. I'd prefer not even to bother with OCing if I can help it, but I probably will if it will improve the fps significantly.

Kain-UK · 07-20-2010, 03:52 PM

I'm being a bit brain-dead and can't even remember what cooler I have on my CPU.

However, I do know that I'm running the 4Ghz on air cooling, so you most certainly don't have to worry about water cooling! SMILEY

What I typically do, is hit Extreme Quality and then turn off shadows and flora. Turning off shadows helps a LOT, turning off flora helps a bit and I like it without as it gets in the way of nodes and shinies! Turning on Shader 3.0 doesn't make any difference at all, but I know the devs are busy working at it so it'll be faster than it currently is. Hopefully that will help out a bit too.

Good choice on the video card too. I hear a lot of people are going for the 5850 and just overclocking them to 5870 speeds. I keep meaning to look into overclocking mine, but just can't be bothered. SMILEY

S_M_I_T_E · 07-22-2010, 03:48 PM

I'm running extreme quality & all shaders/distances/etc. maxed on my machine for alot of zones in eq2 at 20fps.

When things get rough I drop to default high quality and np anywhere in game except for some raids where I drop to balanced to actually see (too many effects).

Solo -> few zones like neriak, moors, etc. drop me down to the teens.

Group -> The new SF zones it seems to depend, Conservatory and Library I'm maxing out with 6 people with spell effects etc. at 20-15fps. Other zones I give up and drop to default high quality.

I'm running a rig I built last summer: Some of the other posters already have updated / better rigs than this but any new build should do better than this.

3.8GHz AMD Quad Core OC on air with a "V8 CPU cooloer" in a full tower

8 GIG 1333MHz ram

Twin ATI 4850's

Twin 500 GB 7200 RPM HD's in RAID 0

Win 7 64 bit

Blu · 07-22-2010, 05:46 PM

I ended up going with:

i7 930 (OC to 4 Ghz or higher, depending on heat/stability)
- CM Hyper 212+ cooler
- Arctic Silver 5
ASUS P6X58D mobo (OC settings from here)
Corsair XMS3 6GB RAM DDR3 1600 triple channel kit
Sapphire Toxic Radeon 5850 1GB with factory OC
Win 7 Pro 64

I'm going to wait on an SSD and just use a WD Black 1TB SATA3 drive for now. Later, I can add a small SSD and reinstall select games/programs onto it if it seems important to me. Otherwise, SSDs just have too high of a price per GB.

The parts come in next week just in time for SC2's release.

Amanathia · 07-22-2010, 08:33 PM

Read my guide for video cards for this game here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=478142

For CPU: Core i5 or i7 quad or hex core overclocked as much as possible. Or AMD x6 overclocked as much as possible.

IceStormx · 07-23-2010, 05:57 AM

Xerq@Crushbone wrote:

Gameplay circumstance: soloing and grouping. (I'm willing to bump it down a notch or two during raids, if absolutely necessary.)
I'm looking to build a new computer. I have examined the stickied thread, but it doesn't mention quality/fps targets, just "decent performance", and most of that hardware is antiquated now. I'm specifically looking for the CPU/GPU combos (and maybe mobo if relevant) that will make the goal of Extreme Quality at 30+ fps in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Any help would be appreciated.

the second sony puts out a new patch you will be back to lagen in no time thats what i got for up graden my pc for $2500 later

Blu · 07-26-2010, 12:20 AM

xXxIceStormxXx7 wrote:

Xerq@Crushbone wrote:
Gameplay circumstance: soloing and grouping. (I'm willing to bump it down a notch or two during raids, if absolutely necessary.)
I'm looking to build a new computer. I have examined the stickied thread, but it doesn't mention quality/fps targets, just "decent performance", and most of that hardware is antiquated now. I'm specifically looking for the CPU/GPU combos (and maybe mobo if relevant) that will make the goal of Extreme Quality at 30+ fps in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Any help would be appreciated.
the second sony puts out a new patch you will be back to lagen in no time thats what i got for up graden my pc for $2500 later

Thanks... that answers my question. :p

Blu · 07-27-2010, 10:32 AM

I'll finish building the computer tonight. I ended up ordering the CPU cooler from a different site because newegg jacked the price up from the CM Hyper 212+ by 67%. So guess which part I am waiting to arrive before I can build the system (and the part which I ordered first)? The cooler.

I'll update this thread with my performance numbers when I get a chance.

Blu · 07-30-2010, 12:01 AM

In the default Extreme Quality mode, I get between 20 and 60+ fps depending on where I'm at and which way I'm looking. I did a small bit of tweaking and 2 things that I find help smooth out rougher fps spots are turning GPU shadows on and reducing the flora distance to about half. Otherwise, the settings are pretty much stock Extreme Quality settings. In raids, I go with Balanced settings and windowed mode which delivers a pretty steady 50-70 fps, and I still just about can't see the mobs for all the particle effects, lol.

I haven't tried Shader 3.0 yet. I'm going to wait until it's a little more polished before I try it again.

Thanks for the suggestions all. EQ2 looks worlds better than it did on my old machine.

Peogia · 08-02-2010, 08:04 PM

Blu · 08-02-2010, 08:20 PM

Peogia wrote:

Xerq@Crushbone wrote:
In the default Extreme Quality mode, I get between 20 and 60+ fps depending on where I'm at and which way I'm looking. I did a small bit of tweaking and 2 things that I find help smooth out rougher fps spots are turning GPU shadows on and reducing the flora distance to about half. Otherwise, the settings are pretty much stock Extreme Quality settings. In raids, I go with Balanced settings and windowed mode which delivers a pretty steady 50-70 fps, and I still just about can't see the mobs for all the particle effects, lol.
I haven't tried Shader 3.0 yet. I'm going to wait until it's a little more polished before I try it again.
Thanks for the suggestions all. EQ2 looks worlds better than it did on my old machine.
you have 7th biggest card on planet and ur geting 20 frames??? lol that just proves all my points lol
http://service.futuremark.com/hardw...utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=futuremark&__utmv=-&__utmk=118379529

It's not 20fps sustained. It's valleys of 20 fps amongst mostly 40 or 60 fps plateaus. By the way, my brief tests were in Paineel between the teleporter and the bank, which is heavily traveled.

If your point was that EQ2 uses GPU inefficiently and over-utilizes the CPU, then I think most of us are on the same page. That's why I over-clocked as much as I dared on air (4.01 Ghz). It'd probably also help me to go to a solid state drive so that loading textures wouldn't mess with the frame rate as much while players passed by. (That's an assumption on my part.)

BTW, on my machine Starcraft 2 runs everything on Ultra typically at 100+ fps in windowed fullscreen (120 in fullscreen). Although I experience 20fps dips when I have a dozen or more overlapping protoss pylons and trying to place new structures, for instance.

Peogia · 08-02-2010, 11:53 PM

Blu · 08-03-2010, 07:11 PM

I was not asking to fix lag, btw. I am satisfied that my post has been answered. I am happy with the performance of what I bought relative to the performance of what I had before. Given, that EQ2 should perform better than what it does, and that's definitely something that needs resolution, but that wasn't really the question of this thread.

BTW, I have a 1 TB WD Black SATA3 6 Gb/s and it still scores 5s or 6s in the Windows Experience benchmark (although maybe I ran it at a bad time or something). An SSD would be much better for loading textures (player armor, guild hall stuff, etc.). I'm not positive that it would help the fps dips, but I might try it anyway.

07-20-2010, 06:37 AM	#2
Kain-UK Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 441	If you're only looking for 30+ fps... then this is what I'm running... Intel Core i7 920 (overclocked to 4ghz) ATI Radeon 5870 ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard 6GB DDR3-1600 RAM I recommend you keep EQ2 on a seperate HDD to windows... and also seperate to any page files. If possible, a SSD would be the best choice for the game. I can run 30fps in extreme quality in the majority of areas. Very rare it drops below that. However, I personally like to run the game at 50+ if possible, so I use a modified very high quality instead. The thing with EQ2 is that your CPU speed and memory bandwidth matter a lot more than how many cores your CPU has and how powerful your GFX card is. The same system got the same performance with me running a 9800GX2 instead... I just had to keep shadows off. Maybe that will help you out a bit. Basically you want a fast CPU, or a cheap CPU and overclock it. EDIT: Oh! Should mention I'm running at 1920x1080 resolution... which is 1080p mode. __________________ Yaevin T'Kar: 90/250 Conjuror Elnan Tarmikos: 90/250 Shadowknight Teion Orval: 90/250 Guardian

07-20-2010, 02:27 PM	#3
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	My current comp runs in Extreme Performance at about 20 fps, so even 30 fps is a step up, and Extreme Quality will be a gigantic step up. I mean, 50+ is better... if you know of a rig that will run Extreme Q at 50+, please share! I had priced out a setup similar to what you are describing. Here's what I'm thinking of doing now: Intel i7 920 or 930, oc'd the i930 is a few bucks cheaper than the i920 on the egg right now Scythe Mugen 2 B cooler Radeon 5850 (since the video card is not as important, save $100, can crossfire later for other games) 6GB DDR3-1600 I'm lazy and don't want to mess with water cooling. I'd prefer not even to bother with OCing if I can help it, but I probably will if it will improve the fps significantly.

07-20-2010, 03:52 PM	#4
Kain-UK Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 441	I'm being a bit brain-dead and can't even remember what cooler I have on my CPU. However, I do know that I'm running the 4Ghz on air cooling, so you most certainly don't have to worry about water cooling! What I typically do, is hit Extreme Quality and then turn off shadows and flora. Turning off shadows helps a LOT, turning off flora helps a bit and I like it without as it gets in the way of nodes and shinies! Turning on Shader 3.0 doesn't make any difference at all, but I know the devs are busy working at it so it'll be faster than it currently is. Hopefully that will help out a bit too. Good choice on the video card too. I hear a lot of people are going for the 5850 and just overclocking them to 5870 speeds. I keep meaning to look into overclocking mine, but just can't be bothered. __________________ Yaevin T'Kar: 90/250 Conjuror Elnan Tarmikos: 90/250 Shadowknight Teion Orval: 90/250 Guardian

07-22-2010, 05:46 PM	#6
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	I ended up going with: i7 930 (OC to 4 Ghz or higher, depending on heat/stability) CM Hyper 212+ cooler Arctic Silver 5 ASUS P6X58D mobo (OC settings from here) Corsair XMS3 6GB RAM DDR3 1600 triple channel kit Sapphire Toxic Radeon 5850 1GB with factory OC Win 7 Pro 64 I'm going to wait on an SSD and just use a WD Black 1TB SATA3 drive for now. Later, I can add a small SSD and reinstall select games/programs onto it if it seems important to me. Otherwise, SSDs just have too high of a price per GB. The parts come in next week just in time for SC2's release.

07-23-2010, 05:57 AM	#8
IceStormx Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 180	Xerq@Crushbone wrote: Gameplay circumstance: soloing and grouping. (I'm willing to bump it down a notch or two during raids, if absolutely necessary.) I'm looking to build a new computer. I have examined the stickied thread, but it doesn't mention quality/fps targets, just "decent performance", and most of that hardware is antiquated now. I'm specifically looking for the CPU/GPU combos (and maybe mobo if relevant) that will make the goal of Extreme Quality at 30+ fps in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Any help would be appreciated. the second sony puts out a new patch you will be back to lagen in no time thats what i got for up graden my pc for $2500 later __________________

07-19-2010, 09:12 PM	#1
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	Gameplay circumstance: soloing and grouping. (I'm willing to bump it down a notch or two during raids, if absolutely necessary.) I'm looking to build a new computer. I have examined the stickied thread, but it doesn't mention quality/fps targets, just "decent performance", and most of that hardware is antiquated now. I'm specifically looking for the CPU/GPU combos (and maybe mobo if relevant) that will make the goal of Extreme Quality at 30+ fps in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Any help would be appreciated.

07-22-2010, 03:48 PM	#5
S_M_I_T_E Loremaster Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 724	I'm running extreme quality & all shaders/distances/etc. maxed on my machine for alot of zones in eq2 at 20fps. When things get rough I drop to default high quality and np anywhere in game except for some raids where I drop to balanced to actually see (too many effects). Solo -> few zones like neriak, moors, etc. drop me down to the teens. Group -> The new SF zones it seems to depend, Conservatory and Library I'm maxing out with 6 people with spell effects etc. at 20-15fps. Other zones I give up and drop to default high quality. I'm running a rig I built last summer: Some of the other posters already have updated / better rigs than this but any new build should do better than this. 3.8GHz AMD Quad Core OC on air with a "V8 CPU cooloer" in a full tower 8 GIG 1333MHz ram Twin ATI 4850's Twin 500 GB 7200 RPM HD's in RAID 0 Win 7 64 bit

07-22-2010, 08:33 PM	#7
Amanathia Loremaster Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 214	Read my guide for video cards for this game here: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=478142 For CPU: Core i5 or i7 quad or hex core overclocked as much as possible. Or AMD x6 overclocked as much as possible.

07-26-2010, 12:20 AM	#9
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	xXxIceStormxXx7 wrote: Xerq@Crushbone wrote: Gameplay circumstance: soloing and grouping. (I'm willing to bump it down a notch or two during raids, if absolutely necessary.) I'm looking to build a new computer. I have examined the stickied thread, but it doesn't mention quality/fps targets, just "decent performance", and most of that hardware is antiquated now. I'm specifically looking for the CPU/GPU combos (and maybe mobo if relevant) that will make the goal of Extreme Quality at 30+ fps in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Any help would be appreciated. the second sony puts out a new patch you will be back to lagen in no time thats what i got for up graden my pc for $2500 later Thanks... that answers my question. :p

07-27-2010, 10:32 AM	#10
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	I'll finish building the computer tonight. I ended up ordering the CPU cooler from a different site because newegg jacked the price up from the CM Hyper 212+ by 67%. So guess which part I am waiting to arrive before I can build the system (and the part which I ordered first)? The cooler. I'll update this thread with my performance numbers when I get a chance.

07-30-2010, 12:01 AM	#11
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	In the default Extreme Quality mode, I get between 20 and 60+ fps depending on where I'm at and which way I'm looking. I did a small bit of tweaking and 2 things that I find help smooth out rougher fps spots are turning GPU shadows on and reducing the flora distance to about half. Otherwise, the settings are pretty much stock Extreme Quality settings. In raids, I go with Balanced settings and windowed mode which delivers a pretty steady 50-70 fps, and I still just about can't see the mobs for all the particle effects, lol. I haven't tried Shader 3.0 yet. I'm going to wait until it's a little more polished before I try it again. Thanks for the suggestions all. EQ2 looks worlds better than it did on my old machine.

08-02-2010, 08:04 PM	#12
Peogia Loremaster Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 928	__________________ The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

08-02-2010, 08:20 PM	#13
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	Peogia wrote: Xerq@Crushbone wrote: In the default Extreme Quality mode, I get between 20 and 60+ fps depending on where I'm at and which way I'm looking. I did a small bit of tweaking and 2 things that I find help smooth out rougher fps spots are turning GPU shadows on and reducing the flora distance to about half. Otherwise, the settings are pretty much stock Extreme Quality settings. In raids, I go with Balanced settings and windowed mode which delivers a pretty steady 50-70 fps, and I still just about can't see the mobs for all the particle effects, lol. I haven't tried Shader 3.0 yet. I'm going to wait until it's a little more polished before I try it again. Thanks for the suggestions all. EQ2 looks worlds better than it did on my old machine. you have 7th biggest card on planet and ur geting 20 frames??? lol that just proves all my points lol http://service.futuremark.com/hardw...utmccn=(organic)\|utmcmd=organic\|utmctr=futuremark&__utmv=-&__utmk=118379529 It's not 20fps sustained. It's valleys of 20 fps amongst mostly 40 or 60 fps plateaus. By the way, my brief tests were in Paineel between the teleporter and the bank, which is heavily traveled. If your point was that EQ2 uses GPU inefficiently and over-utilizes the CPU, then I think most of us are on the same page. That's why I over-clocked as much as I dared on air (4.01 Ghz). It'd probably also help me to go to a solid state drive so that loading textures wouldn't mess with the frame rate as much while players passed by. (That's an assumption on my part.) BTW, on my machine Starcraft 2 runs everything on Ultra typically at 100+ fps in windowed fullscreen (120 in fullscreen). Although I experience 20fps dips when I have a dozen or more overlapping protoss pylons and trying to place new structures, for instance.

08-02-2010, 11:53 PM	#14
Peogia Loremaster Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 928	__________________ The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

08-03-2010, 07:11 PM	#15
Blu General Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 274	I was not asking to fix lag, btw. I am satisfied that my post has been answered. I am happy with the performance of what I bought relative to the performance of what I had before. Given, that EQ2 should perform better than what it does, and that's definitely something that needs resolution, but that wasn't really the question of this thread. BTW, I have a 1 TB WD Black SATA3 6 Gb/s and it still scores 5s or 6s in the Windows Experience benchmark (although maybe I ran it at a bad time or something). An SSD would be much better for loading textures (player armor, guild hall stuff, etc.). I'm not positive that it would help the fps dips, but I might try it anyway.