PC spec for race sims
Discussion
Whats a decent spec processor/ gfx card and memory requiment for a good racing sim
something along the lines of Rfactor / LFS/ GTR2 ( or anything else you can suggest)
Ideall I'd like to run to a 2-3 scren setup, so I expect its the graphics card thats going to cost the most.. must what processor to go with it
cheers
G
something along the lines of Rfactor / LFS/ GTR2 ( or anything else you can suggest)
Ideall I'd like to run to a 2-3 scren setup, so I expect its the graphics card thats going to cost the most.. must what processor to go with it
cheers
G
The triplehead2go is probably on the cards somewhere... i just need the gfx card that will drive a high enough resolution...
the triple head will go to 5040 x 1050 (3 x 1680 x 1050 now
although i'd settle for
3840 x 1024 (3 x 1280 x 1024) or 4080 x 768 (3 x 1360 x 768)
to keep the cost of the monitor down
The alternative is just to go 3*xbox and forza 3 but thats limiting it to the crap xbox wheel and the circuits on forza 3
the triple head will go to 5040 x 1050 (3 x 1680 x 1050 now
although i'd settle for
3840 x 1024 (3 x 1280 x 1024) or 4080 x 768 (3 x 1360 x 768)
to keep the cost of the monitor down
The alternative is just to go 3*xbox and forza 3 but thats limiting it to the crap xbox wheel and the circuits on forza 3
Graham said:
The triplehead2go is probably on the cards somewhere... i just need the gfx card that will drive a high enough resolution...
the triple head will go to 5040 x 1050 (3 x 1680 x 1050 now
although i'd settle for
3840 x 1024 (3 x 1280 x 1024) or 4080 x 768 (3 x 1360 x 768)
to keep the cost of the monitor down
The alternative is just to go 3*xbox and forza 3 but thats limiting it to the crap xbox wheel and the circuits on forza 3
Luckily the solution to two of your problems has just been released the triple head will go to 5040 x 1050 (3 x 1680 x 1050 now
although i'd settle for
3840 x 1024 (3 x 1280 x 1024) or 4080 x 768 (3 x 1360 x 768)
to keep the cost of the monitor down
The alternative is just to go 3*xbox and forza 3 but thats limiting it to the crap xbox wheel and the circuits on forza 3
The ATI 5870 graphics card will drive up to 3 monitors simultaneously - with a forthcoming eyefinity edition offering up to six monitors
It's also currently the fastest single GPU graphics card on the market and costs about £300.
For the remainder, decent quad core CPU and 4-8 gig of RAM and you will be laughing :P
(my "I want" list says a Phenom 2 955 or 965 black edition and 8 gig of dual-channel DDR3)
RacerMDR said:
i am very interested in this too.........
that all looks to be in a foreign language!
Any linky? Just to say
BUY THIS COMPUTER 'LINK'
BUY THIS GRAPHICS CARD 'LINK'
BUY THIS GAME 'LINK'
BUY THIS STEERING WHEEL AND PEDALS 'LINK'
think of it as helping the technically afflicted
Ask and ye shall recieve.. (recieve about a million differing options that is that all looks to be in a foreign language!
Any linky? Just to say
BUY THIS COMPUTER 'LINK'
BUY THIS GRAPHICS CARD 'LINK'
BUY THIS GAME 'LINK'
BUY THIS STEERING WHEEL AND PEDALS 'LINK'
think of it as helping the technically afflicted
)There was a good thread with some very interesting recommendations recently, will have a bit of a dig..
Aha here it is [urlhttp://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=108&t=750352&mid=15271&i=0&nmt=Del%20XPS%20625%20-%20gaming%20machine&mid=15271[/url]
But above all, for a 3 monitor setup your choices are a top of the line graphics card and a matrox triple-head or a 5870 (which is the current top end graphics card anyway...). That one's a no brainer IMHO.
Graham said:
I can help on the Wheel logitech G25 or the replacement the G27
then you want one of our seat rigs to put it all in... :-)
WOW!then you want one of our seat rigs to put it all in... :-)
ok - I have a spare room
I have some spare dollars
I need to practice some circuits aways from actually racing on them, as its cheaper and easier obviously!
If its good enough for Hamilton and all that :-)
RacerMDR said:
Graham said:
I can help on the Wheel logitech G25 or the replacement the G27
then you want one of our seat rigs to put it all in... :-)
WOW!then you want one of our seat rigs to put it all in... :-)
ok - I have a spare room
I have some spare dollars
I need to practice some circuits aways from actually racing on them, as its cheaper and easier obviously!
If its good enough for Hamilton and all that :-)
I spent the evening talking people round the circuit, as I would in a race car.. it inspired one chap to go on a track day.... he came back and said it was amazing... the lines I'd taught him to use on the game were exactly the same as the instructor on the real track !!!!
I'll admit I've fired up the lap top and connected it in and been runnin around Oulton to practice for the 17th, as i dont have the test fee or the tyres.... I also used in extensively to prepare for spa..
If you are gonna go with a three scren set up you will need the mother of all video cards even for your lower prefered resolution (3840x1024) in all but the oldest of games.
3480x1024 is nearly 4M pixels, even the highest resolution 24" monitors are only just over 2M pixels. The 5870 is an excellent choice, but if you want to be able to play the latest games over three screens at 3480x1024 or higher you might want to consider 2 of them. Other cards worth a look would be:
HD4870X2 (effectively 2 HD4870's glued together)
GTX295 (effectively 2 GTX275's glued together)
2 x HD4890's
2 x GTX 275's
2 x GTX 285's
As for CPU's, adding to what has already been said, if you are going for multiple GPU's the Corei7 9xx series look the best, with the i7 920 being very good value and easy to overclock to get out more performance.
The Core i5 is good value, but the motherboards are a bit of a mine field, avoid the cheaper models as many are not suited for Multi GPUs.
High end Phenom II's X4's (Black Editions) are also good value.
At those resolutions though the CPU will be largely irrelevant, as you rightly say the GPU will be doing all the work.
3480x1024 is nearly 4M pixels, even the highest resolution 24" monitors are only just over 2M pixels. The 5870 is an excellent choice, but if you want to be able to play the latest games over three screens at 3480x1024 or higher you might want to consider 2 of them. Other cards worth a look would be:
HD4870X2 (effectively 2 HD4870's glued together)
GTX295 (effectively 2 GTX275's glued together)
2 x HD4890's
2 x GTX 275's
2 x GTX 285's
As for CPU's, adding to what has already been said, if you are going for multiple GPU's the Corei7 9xx series look the best, with the i7 920 being very good value and easy to overclock to get out more performance.
The Core i5 is good value, but the motherboards are a bit of a mine field, avoid the cheaper models as many are not suited for Multi GPUs.
High end Phenom II's X4's (Black Editions) are also good value.
At those resolutions though the CPU will be largely irrelevant, as you rightly say the GPU will be doing all the work.
Mr_Yogi said:
If you are gonna go with a three scren set up you will need the mother of all video cards even for your lower prefered resolution (3840x1024) in all but the oldest of games.
3480x1024 is nearly 4M pixels, even the highest resolution 24" monitors are only just over 2M pixels. The 5870 is an excellent choice, but if you want to be able to play the latest games over three screens at 3480x1024 or higher you might want to consider 2 of them. Other cards worth a look would be:
HD4870X2 (effectively 2 HD4870's glued together)
GTX295 (effectively 2 GTX275's glued together)
2 x HD4890's
2 x GTX 275's
2 x GTX 285's
As for CPU's, adding to what has already been said, if you are going for multiple GPU's the Corei7 9xx series look the best, with the i7 920 being very good value and easy to overclock to get out more performance.
The Core i5 is good value, but the motherboards are a bit of a mine field, avoid the cheaper models as many are not suited for Multi GPUs.
High end Phenom II's X4's (Black Editions) are also good value.
At those resolutions though the CPU will be largely irrelevant, as you rightly say the GPU will be doing all the work.
Unfortunately the 5870 is effectively on par with the 4870x2 in a single GPU card - while using any other card would mean that an additional matrox box is required. Anything else (apart from a pair of 5870s) would be slower and require the additional expense of the (not cheap) matrox box.3480x1024 is nearly 4M pixels, even the highest resolution 24" monitors are only just over 2M pixels. The 5870 is an excellent choice, but if you want to be able to play the latest games over three screens at 3480x1024 or higher you might want to consider 2 of them. Other cards worth a look would be:
HD4870X2 (effectively 2 HD4870's glued together)
GTX295 (effectively 2 GTX275's glued together)
2 x HD4890's
2 x GTX 275's
2 x GTX 285's
As for CPU's, adding to what has already been said, if you are going for multiple GPU's the Corei7 9xx series look the best, with the i7 920 being very good value and easy to overclock to get out more performance.
The Core i5 is good value, but the motherboards are a bit of a mine field, avoid the cheaper models as many are not suited for Multi GPUs.
High end Phenom II's X4's (Black Editions) are also good value.
At those resolutions though the CPU will be largely irrelevant, as you rightly say the GPU will be doing all the work.
Sorry but for this one I dont think there is another flavour of answer than 5870 (or a couple of them).
I don't know how much the tripple head box is, but I would agree the best thing would be a couple of 5870's or even a pair of 5850's.
I was just thinking of the cost, a couple of GTX275's for £250 is a lot cheaper than 2 5870's, depending of the cost of the tripple head box.
Like you said though, the 5870's would get my recommendation, it's not like triple display gaming is gonna be cheap
I was just thinking of the cost, a couple of GTX275's for £250 is a lot cheaper than 2 5870's, depending of the cost of the tripple head box.
Like you said though, the 5870's would get my recommendation, it's not like triple display gaming is gonna be cheap
Edited by Mr_Yogi on Thursday 8th October 17:05
Mr_Yogi said:
I don't know how much the tripple head box is, but I would agree the best thing would be a couple of 5870's or even a pair of 5850's.
I was just thinking of the cost, a couple of GTX275's for £250 is a lot cheaper than 2 5870's, depending of the cost of the tripple head box.
Like you said though, the 5870's would get my recommendation, it's not like triple display gaming is gonna be cheap
A quick google gives £235 on Dabs.I was just thinking of the cost, a couple of GTX275's for £250 is a lot cheaper than 2 5870's, depending of the cost of the tripple head box.
Like you said though, the 5870's would get my recommendation, it's not like triple display gaming is gonna be cheap
Edited by Mr_Yogi on Thursday 8th October 17:05
You don't need something eye wateringly expensive to get good eye candy. I run iRacing at 1680x1050 with everything on at 80fps using a 2.16ghz core 2 duo (2 years old), 2gb ram, vista home premium, ati 4850 1gb and a logitech g25, and its perfect. Online gaming needs a strong broadband connection though!
matt3001 said:
You don't need something eye wateringly expensive to get good eye candy. I run iRacing at 1680x1050 with everything on at 80fps using a 2.16ghz core 2 duo (2 years old), 2gb ram, vista home premium, ati 4850 1gb and a logitech g25, and its perfect. Online gaming needs a strong broadband connection though!
Yeah but that's only 1.7M pixels, the triple screen setup will be nearly 4M! I agree for the CPU you don't need anything amazing, I doubt any current racing sim uses more than 2 cores.SlipStream77 said:
I'm using a Matrox Triplehead setup with 3 19inch monitors at 3840x1024.
The graphics card running it is an Nvidia 8800GTX OC and I use sims such as rFactor, GTR Evo, GTL etc. and the performance is excellent.
Just for reference, the processor is an Intel quad core 6600.
that sounds exactly like the real world info im after. which exact model was the 8800gtxThe graphics card running it is an Nvidia 8800GTX OC and I use sims such as rFactor, GTR Evo, GTL etc. and the performance is excellent.
Just for reference, the processor is an Intel quad core 6600.
ta
Graham said:
SlipStream77 said:
I'm using a Matrox Triplehead setup with 3 19inch monitors at 3840x1024.
The graphics card running it is an Nvidia 8800GTX OC and I use sims such as rFactor, GTR Evo, GTL etc. and the performance is excellent.
Just for reference, the processor is an Intel quad core 6600.
that sounds exactly like the real world info im after. which exact model was the 8800gtxThe graphics card running it is an Nvidia 8800GTX OC and I use sims such as rFactor, GTR Evo, GTL etc. and the performance is excellent.
Just for reference, the processor is an Intel quad core 6600.
ta
http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgr88768gtxoce.aspx
I play rFactor mainly and even with large fields and mods such as the Enduracers LMP at tracks like Mid Ohio it's very smooth. I'm running with all graphical settings on full and anisotropic filtering on x2.
It's worth mentioning that if you run the mod that provides HDR lighting the frame rate can be badly hit and there are one or two mods that can cause a slight slow down but nothing that makes it undrivable.
My setup can run Far Cry 2 smoothly in TH2GO mode with all details on and it looks fantastic so that would give you an idea of the performance of the card.
My advice though would be to get a faster card than the 8800GTX OC if you can because you should aim to future proof your setup, remember rFactor 2 might be out next year.
A lot of modern sims are easy to setup for multiple monitors, such as FSX, IL2, TDU and the driving sims I have already mentioned, some games however require some modification, GPL for example.
It's great for other games as well, such as Arma2, World in Conflict and X2/X3 etc.
Another sim that's worth mentioning is Aerofly professional, an RC simulator, on 3 monitors it's incredible.
Matrox provide some software to carry out the modifications automatically for many games which is very useful. Their helpline is also excellent, you get straight though every time to someone who knows what they are talking about.
You're going to enjoy wide screen gaming, the only problem I have found is when you have to use a different PC with one monitor, everything feels horribly cramped.
Here is a link you may find useful for the wide screen gaming forum...
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.ph...
HTH
Mr_Yogi said:
matt3001 said:
You don't need something eye wateringly expensive to get good eye candy. I run iRacing at 1680x1050 with everything on at 80fps using a 2.16ghz core 2 duo (2 years old), 2gb ram, vista home premium, ati 4850 1gb and a logitech g25, and its perfect. Online gaming needs a strong broadband connection though!
Yeah but that's only 1.7M pixels, the triple screen setup will be nearly 4M! I agree for the CPU you don't need anything amazing, I doubt any current racing sim uses more than 2 cores.Gassing Station | Video Games | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff