Upgrade question - CPU & graphics card

[Crockett12 0]

I've got an AMD 3500 CPU and an AGP Radeon 3850 video card. Until I upgraded to the Radeon 3850 I couldn't play the game. At least I can play it now but the FPS run from 10 to 30 at the highest. Time for an overdue overall upgrade but I have some questions.

 

I'm looking at the new Intel Core i5-750 and one of the Radeon 5000 series video cards -- either the Radeon 5750 or Radeon 5770 -- and windows 7. Has anyone found any problems with the Radeon 5750 or 5770 and OFF 3 or should I go with nVidia?

 

Does anyone have such a setup yet and what kind of frame rates are you getting?

 

This is a great game and a lot of fun but seems to be tough to get smooth frame rates with it. It will be nice once we find hardware that can max out the graphics and provide smooth frame rates -- somewhere around 60+ FPS or so!

 

Thanks,

Crockett

[Dutch_P47M 9]

what other games do you want to play on this i5/5750 rig. The i5 sounds like a overkill for OFF3.  

[Dutch_P47M 9]

 

Windows 7 sounds promising, however it doesn't support Force Feedback, which is the kiss of death in my book

 

Lastly comments from the guys who wrote it

http://www.overfland....com/sysreq.htm

 

 

 

 

Good to know this, so I will keep my old XP!!!!  

 

 

 

[almccoyjr 7]

Good to know this, so I will keep my old XP!!!!  

Absolutely! Keep XP for now. Wait until at least the driver bugs are taken care of. FFB is just one of problems, but hopefully MS will get their act together after the Vista fiasco.

 

You're on the right track with the Core I5-750 for holding its value for a long time and DDR3 pricing has gotten somewhat better. Nvidia has been the card of "choice", but the new RV800 GPU seems awfully impressive. Love to see how it compares to NV's 300 series. With ATI and NV getting ready to rumble again, ebay is looking good for a GTX 280,285 or possibly 295; but a lot depends.

 

plug_nickel (Al)

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Firstly, proven fact like it or not. OFF has always run better on an Intel Based Video Card

Um, Intel's integrated graphics chips absolutely suck compared to anything from NVIDIA and AMD. Even NVIDIA and AMD's integrated graphics chips far outclass Intel:

Intel G41 vs AMD 785G

 

When you come to discrete, plug in PCI-express graphics cards, Intel isn't even on the same planet. If you're playing OFF on an Intel video chip, I feel very sorry for you. If you really believe you can't do any better, I feel embarrassed for you. But please stop spreading misinformation.

 

Windows 7 sounds promising, however it doesn't support Force Feedback, which is the kiss of death in my book

That's more misinformation, uncleal. Force Feedback is working just fine for me in OFF with Windows 7 64-bit.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

uncleal, people rely on these forums for information so I just want to set things straight. To wit:

 

Last I checked Hot Shot, Windows 7, 64 Bit was not even available

Check again, Hot Shot. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 was released the same time as the 32-bit version. In fact, the retail package of Windows 7 includes both discs! letting you choose which version you want to install. I have them here in my hand, if you need me to take a photo and upload it just say so.

 

a fellow OFFer with the 32 Bit system, who had to have Windows 7 for the job. Couldn't run his EVO FFB any longer. Me personally, I have no reason to leave XP. But I'll be PMing that Chap he'll be pleased to hear it

That's weird, my Saitek Cyborg Evo Force worked the minute I plugged it in. Windows 7 detected the device and installed the driver automatically. I opened the game controller properties from the new searchable control panel, and FF was already enabled, the "Test Force Feedback Effects" box checked. Test I did, and it worked just fine there and in OFF. I didn't have to do anything, not even digging around on Saitek's website looking for drivers (they're on the Win7 disc!).

 

Not sure what you're friend's problem is, perhaps a hardware or driver issue with his USB or something. Hopefully he'll get it straightened out. But you didn't just say your friend was having problems, you said: "Windows 7... doesn't support Force Feedback" which is an out-and-out lie.

 

OFF has always run better on Nvidia, or so says those who wrote the game. I wasn't aware that you were hanging on my every word, I'll be more careful next time

I wasn't hanging on every word, but you were claiming as a "proven fact like it or not" that OFF ran best on INTEL graphics, the exact opposite of the truth, and I just wanted to straighten things out so someone checking out the forum doesn't buy OFF thinking their gonna be able to run it on their crappy thin client at work.

 

Please, be much more careful next time. See you in the skies.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

To sum up:

 

Don't be afraid of Win7 if you're only going for single-player (MP seems to still have some issues, so stick with Vista for now if that matters to you).

 

If you really must cling to XP for some reason, at least get the 64-bit version if you're going to use 3GB or more of RAM now or in the future (and you will!).

 

But even Vista is a huge upgrade over XP in a number of important areas, so don't let all the FUD scare you away from a much more stable, secure, and modern operating system. The improvements in the scheduler take much better advantage of multiple-core CPUs, for example. The new graphics system runs in user mode, letting you upgrade graphic drivers without rebooting and if the graphics system crashes due to bad drivers or whatever, it'll restart itself right back up without crashing the rest of the OS.

 

And the searchable start menu alone is by itself worth the price of admission. Want to launch a program but hate navigating through the endless tangled maze of programs and folders in your start menu? Just click the start button or hit the windows key and type the first few letters of whatever program you want, and hit enter. Finding and launching even rarely-used programs is natural and nearly instantaneous.

 

Crockett12, AMD seems to have the edge in terms of price/performance right now, so the Radeon 5750 or 5770 should do fine depending on your budget. But as an Nvidia fan, also interested in doing GPU computing, I'm really looking forward to their new stuff, but it'll be a few more months probably.

[almccoyjr 7]

 

That's weird, my Saitek Cyborg Evo Force worked the minute I plugged it in. Windows 7 detected the device and installed the driver automatically. I opened the game controller properties from the new searchable control panel, and FF was already enabled, the "Test Force Feedback Effects" box checked. Test I did, and it worked just fine there and in OFF. I didn't have to do anything, not even digging around on Saitek's website looking for drivers (they're on the Win7 disc!).

 

Please, be much more careful next time. See you in the skies.

That's very good to hear. One of the "major" problems was FFB support, but I believe that was due to to the beta releases.

 

I'll be switching to W7PRO after the first service patch is released. Until then, I'm still using XP64.

 

plug_nickel (Al)

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

I'll be switching to W7PRO after the first service patch is released. Until then, I'm still using XP64.

Sounds like a reasonable plan, almccoyjr. SP1 was a big step for both XP and Vista, and I've noticed a few little quirks that could use some ironing out. Nothing as crippling as Vista's slow file copy, thank goodness. Most of my complaints are the usual click++ problem with Windows upgrades--a lot of little things you're used to are now one extra mouse click away, which happens every time Microsoft rolls out a new version. I guess that'll be two clicks for you, coming from XP !

 

See a lot of XP64 fans among the OFFers, and here I was thinking I was the only one who bought it. But once I touched Vista's searchable start menu, I couldn't go back, a few extra clicks be damed.

[Von Paulus 8]

The problem related with FFB support is more on the Joystick makers side than on Win7.

In my personal case the problem is caused by M$ because they stop giving support to Sidewinder Pro FFB.

So yes I don't have FFB with Win7 but the guilty part is the joystick maker, in this case M$.

[almccoyjr 7]

 

"Nothing as crippling as Vista's slow file copy, thank goodness."

 

 

I don't know what the file transfer rate is for Vista or the W7 versions, but generally it pretty much sucked no matter what OS you're using.

 

Try out TeraCopy: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

 

I'm running XP64 with 8GB of ram and my file transfers now average 25-55mbs, depending on type of file, to my external hd.

 

It'll also pinpoint a bad or problematic sector on a cd-dvd and try to reconstruct in order to copy.

 

plug_nickel (Al)

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Try out TeraCopy: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

Thanks for the tip, almccoyjr. I've been using the commercial file manager Directory Opus rather than Windows Explorer, and it does a bit better, but it still performs poorly on large numbers of small files, such as the hundreds of thousands of <1k files I generate with some of my simulation work. I'll give TeraCopy a try.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Hey uncleal. Sorry if I was a bit harsh before.

 

Seeing as I've never gotten a definative answer, only that OFF runs " Happily " on Windows 7. How does it function on CFS3 QC, FFB or not, I consider it a major part of OFF.

Yep, Quick Combat works just fine, as do Campaigns. Haven't tried any Missions under Win7, but then again I never did under Vista anyway. AFAIK it's only Multiplayer that's currently broken, the single-player portions are okay.

 

TrackIR works great as well.

 

Too bad MS doesn't support its own hardware very well, Von Paulus. I like my Saitek Evo Force, though I wish the spring was a bit stronger--I'm sure you could find lots of other Force Feedback joystick recommendations on the forums. I know for me that extra feedback is often the difference between life and death.

[Von Paulus 8]

@almccoyjr

 

Thanks for the tip for TeraCopy. I'll try it.

 

Seeing as I've never gotten a definative answer, only that OFF runs " Happily " on Windows 7. How does it function on CFS3 QC, FFB or not, I consider it a major part of OFF.

QC is working fine here, uncleal.

Note that not everything runs happily on Win7. In my case, ARMA II, with last ATI drivers runs better in XP than in Win7, while OFF is definitely running better in Win7 than in XP. I didn't give up XP. I try to have the best of the two worlds.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

With VISTA . . . CFS3 QC is a big time NO-NO, you won't turn into a pumpkin at midnight. But your install of Phase III will be totally ruined by unexplainable error messages, sometimes even a Fatal Message.

 

The only cure is uninstall - cleanse properly - and reinstall. A lot of work for one night out, but hey . . it's your's

Well then, I'm not about to be the first to try it with Win7, especially when my OFF install is dedicated to the Krauts vs. Crumpets campaign.

 

Anyone else feel like risking a reinstall?

[Von Paulus 8]

I'll take the risk.

[Von Paulus 8]

I've tried via Workshop. Follow the steps, selected Dogfiht, location, enemy and enter Flight. Killed a Albatros D.III and landed. Click in End mission, returned to QC and then Main Menu. Exit.

I think it's working well, uncleal.

[Von Paulus 8]

I went with the pilot created for QC into campaign. Killed 3 Albatros D.V. and landed successfully.

Then I choose QC in Workshop and selected another quick dogfighting, unfortunately my pilot died without being able to complete the mission successfully; so I could'nt go and try again campaign.

But there was never a single error.

Do you want me test anything more uncleal? I'll be glad (tomorrow) to help.

[Von Paulus 8]

Sounds like we've got a winner.

Unfortunately monetary shortages make me stick with XP

 

However I've decided to buy a Florida State Lottery Ticket, you never know

 

If XP is working well in your rig why change it?!

I've only changed because, in personally I get better performance in some cases...

And due to my line of work, unfortunately I've always have to be on the edge.

[Von Paulus 8]

I understand uncleal.

I also play in the Lottery... I too want a new rig, a Logitech G940, a TFT monitor (I still have a 19" CRT).

But remember all the testings were done in 32bits.

Edited November 8, 2009 by Von Paulus