CPU Requirements

[happySpanners]

To anyone who's played PS2, how important is your cpu in this game? I know games like BF3 are a lot less picky about you processor and you're better off having a better graphics card.

I'm on a budget and I plan on building a new computer. The cheaper sandy bridge celerons would smoke whats in my computer now, but getting Planet Side 2 fully playable is my top priority.

Anyway, any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Goku]

The Core i5 Intel quad cores are getting the best performance in game at the moment. Most dual core CPUs are struggling with the game, even the sandy bridge ones are causing issues. This will hopefully get better before launch, so it maybe hard for you to properly gauge the proper CPU for yourself.

[happySpanners]

I'm definitely thinking it will be best to wait until we have more footage of the game on lower end hardware. The game will only get more optimized as well.

[Goku]

I was doing testing runs with my 2500K as a quad verse dual core (disabled cores in bios). There was only about a 10%-15% difference in FPS however the playability was on a totally different level. In the major fight I was doing around Zuravan with the dual core I was getting major FPS drops every so often and just didn't seem smooth at all. The Quad core never had FPS drops and was very smooth. With the two cores it was pegged anywhere from 90%-100% usage of both cores. The quad seemed to have 60% usage on average and spiking up to 80%. The game does make use of more than two cores, so keep this in mind.

[happySpanners]

That makes me wonder how hyper-threading would work. A core i3 would probably be a good choice on the lower end of things.

[Sunrock]

Originally Posted by happySpanners

To anyone who's played PS2, how important is your cpu in this game? I know games like BF3 are a lot less picky about you processor and you're better off having a better graphics card.

I'm on a budget and I plan on building a new computer. The cheaper sandy bridge celerons would smoke whats in my computer now, but getting Planet Side 2 fully playable is my top priority.

Anyway, any input would be greatly appreciated.

PS2 is very CPU intensive game. One of few games that can actually take full advantage of an i7

Quoted from the closed beta Tech issue forum...

Current Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 or higher / AMD Phenom II X2 or higher
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 15 GB free
Video Memory: 256 MB RAM
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8600 series or higher / AMD or ATI 4850 series or higher
Sound Card: DirectX compatible

Current Recommended System
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel i5 processor or higher / AMD Phenom II X6 or higher
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 15 GB free
Video Memory: 1,024 MB RAM
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 500 series or higher / AMD HD 6870 or higher
Sound Card: DirectX compatible

And the current Recommended System is minimum if you want to play on high settings and get over 20 FPS.

[happySpanners]

So we know PS2 will take advantage of 4 cores, but is there any difference between an i7 with hyper threading on or off? Perhaps bulldozers 8 cores might actually be useful in this game.

[Goku]

Originally Posted by happySpanners

So we know PS2 will take advantage of 4 cores, but is there any difference between an i7 with hyper threading on or off? Perhaps bulldozers 8 cores might actually be useful in this game.

I haven't seen anything that shows that TBH. Would need someone with HT to test it on and off. Judging by how my quad wasn't truly maxed I don't see BD being used that well. I saw one screen shot of a BD cpu core usage and half were even being used at all.

Early next week I'll post up some benches of a Phenom II showing 2, 4, to 6 core performance plus a updated 2500K two vs four core with my 7950 also.