Steam discounts and new hardware recommendations

[jandjfrench 3]

Hi,

 

I see that I could have spent $5 less on my investment in Flight if I had waited (I don't buy cockpitless aircraft so that isn't a factor).

I noticed the recommended hardware has changed.

 

Here's the old:

CPU: Dual Core 3.0 GHz

GPU: 1024 MB ATI Radeon HD 5670 or 1024 MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 9800 GT or equivalent

HD: 30 GB hard drive space

OS : Win7 SP1 64-bit operating system

RAM: 6.0GB

 

Here's the new:

OS:Windows 7 64-bit

Processor:Intel® Core™ i7 960 @ 3.20GHz, AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1100T 3.3 GHz

Memory:6 GB RAM

Graphics:ATI Radeon™ HD 5870, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560

DirectX®:9.0c

Hard Drive:15 GB HD space

 

On the basis of the old recommendation I just purchased a AMD Radeon 6670 which exceeded the recommended but now falls far short.

 

I've repeatedly tried to express my appreciation in various forums and directly to the development team for Flight. I now feel that I've been slapped in the face. I'll get over it but for now it's a really ugly feeling.

 

Jim F.

[OMGBBQ32 12]

How does it fall short? The graphics card must be a nVidia 9900 GT or equivalent. It's already exceeded the recommended requirements. I have a GTX 560 Ti and I can fly on Max settings with my i5 2500@3.3 GHZ OC to 3.6 GHZ.

[RamonB 449]

On the basis of the old recommendation I just purchased a AMD Radeon 6670 which exceeded the recommended but now falls far short.

 

Alex: He is talking about his AMD Raedon 6670. He feels It falls short of the new specs.

 

Jim: I have an AMD 5570 and works OK on most medium settings, your AMD 6670 might work just fine, play with the graphics settings.

 

You can download GPU-Z.0.6.0 and see your GPU use stats.

[jandjfrench 3]

Hi Ramon,

 

According to the old specs the 5570, which I had, fell a bit short of the recommended and the 6670 slightly exceeded the specs and was on sale so I thought "what the heck?' and replaced it. I haven't been able to see (or feel) much difference in the performance but I really didn't have all that long to experiment with the various settings. I had everything set to high and now I set one or two to Max. Still trying to get a feel in different situations.

I was surprised to see the 6 core processor recommended. This certainly effects my thoughts about possible upgrades. I'm now using a quad core 2.8GHz AMD cpu. I'll check GPU-Z.

 

Jim F.

[dburne 2]

I was surprised to see the 6 core processor recommended. This certainly effects my thoughts about possible upgrades. I'm now using a quad core 2.8GHz AMD cpu. I'll check GPU-Z.

 

I did some testing for a bit, observing framerates, gpu usage, temps, and core usage on my system for a couple of flights.

Now I certainly don't think you need a 6 core processor to run Flight well. Perhaps maybe down the road as they add more content , who knows.

 

I myself run an I7 920 processor, and have it overclocked to 4.0 ghz.

It is a 4 core processor, however I also run with Hyper Threading enabled - giving 8 threads.

 

In my observation, Flight obviously makes heavy use of the main core - I guess what most would call core 1. However at times, especially when scenery was dense or a lot of objects, it seemed to make pretty good use of the remaining threads - at times reaching upwards of 50% usage of these briefly- for the most part however, usage on the remaining threads seemed to remain much smaller - like in the 20% range or so.

 

I can say currently with Flight how it is content wise today, and my system running at 4 ghz with what is now a GTX 560 Ti 2gb video card - just put it in this weekend - I can run all graphics options maxed out with no performance issues. I did however reduce the scenery density from max to high, simply because I got a large boost in framerate - app 8 fps - and not a large noticeable difference in the visuals.

[Gustavo Maciel 0]

While we're at it, does anyone know if there is a way to "move" my current installation to Steam? Or if I download it again from Steam will I lose my missions progress?

[OMGBBQ32 12]

If you install from steam, you will not lose anything, not even DLC. But you must install it via steam before uninstalling the original one.

[Balanced Load 0]

Jim F. where are you seeing the new specs? I look on microsoftflight.com and still see the old specs.

 

Don B. I see you went from a 1GB 460 to a 2GB 560 ti. How many monitors and what resolution are you using? What did the extra 1GB give you?

 

I am trying to decide between a 560 ti 448 or a 560 ti 2GB. I am leaning towards the 448, but am not sure if it would come up a little short for 2 monitors at 1920x1080.

 

Kevin

[Sarlac 0]

Return the 6670 and get a 6850. I just got one for $120 and everything is silky smooth on max.

[Gibbage 199]

Video card numberings are VERY confusing right now. For ATI, you really dont want to get anything under #8##. The #7## will do in a pinch, but anything lower then that is not worth the money if you want to run ANY games. A 5850 or a 6850 will do amazing on any game, and wont brake the bank!

 

Here us a chart. You can see the 6670 is almost dead last.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/06-Crysis-2-DirectX-9-A-Entry,2946.html

 

The 6850 is getting twice the frame rate. Even my old 4870 can run Flight amazingly well!

[jandjfrench 3]

Hi,

 

The new specs are listed at Steam.

The 6850 seems to be located at the point where price starts to go up disproportionately with regards to performance gains. Anyone considering the recommended 5870 should pay special attention to the power requirements.

I was comparing here:

http://www.hwcompare.com/

The 6850 looks pretty good, especially when compared to the recommended GTX 560.

 

Jim F.

[dburne 2]

Don B. I see you went from a 1GB 460 to a 2GB 560 ti. How many monitors and what resolution are you using? What did the extra 1GB give you?

 

Hey Kevin,

 

I run two monitors - my primary is a 24" LED at 1920x1080. My secondary is a 22" LCD at 1680x1050.

 

I can't really say at least for Flight , I gained anything in regarding to the extra ram on the video card. My video ram usage while flying hangs around 750 mb, which it did with the 460, so I guess mainly I gained some extra headroom in the video ram department should that usage go up with future content...

 

In regards to performance fps wise, I certainly gained some there over the 460 card, hard to put an exact number on it, probably somewhere in the 5-10 fps area if I had to guess.

[OMGBBQ32 12]

Why don't you just get a GTX 680. That will satisfy the gamer for a few years. I'm not saying that you have to, cause I doubt anyone will buy a graphics card costing 500 bucks. That's unless you're getting more money than you can spend it.

[dburne 2]

Why don't you just get a GTX 680.

 

I myself am a little wierd when it comes to video cards. Can't really explain it.

I won't hesitate to spend 500 bucks on a cpu, or a few hundred on a good quality overclocking friendly motherboard.

Heck I have even invested several hundred in my joystick, throttle, rudder setup with the mods I did for them

 

But I just absolutely will not , purchase the flagship graphic card. I just bought a GTX 560 Ti card, no way was I going to spend the money on a nice 580 card. Sometimes I will even run a generation behind, which is why I ran the 460 card as long as I did.

 

Not really sure why that is, guess cause I know I will likely be replacing the graphics card more often than my other components.

[OMGBBQ32 12]

CPU&GPU=Performance

RAM may affect a little too.