Hello fellow total war fans, i'm having a a little problem here that really hurts me head, and it shouldn't be, but i guess i'm just too anal. Now, i recently bought the GTX 660 2GB SC card for the upcoming Rome 2, from what i researched and heard, it'll run the game just fine on high-ultra settings, which is great! However, it seems when i play older Total wars like Shogun 2 or Napoleon too, it says i can run just fine on Ultra, but looking at large troops and dead bodys my FPS goes down pretty badly. Now, i know that's the CPU(right?) and i'm looking into upgrading that way i can play without any performance hickups, but heres my problem - There is so much "Go with intel" "No AMD is better" That it seriously hurts my head.
I'm not here to ask what is better, i'm simply asking whats the best CPU to go for when it comes to running my favorite total war games. Also, i am on a budget, but i also have to buy a new Mobo for said CPU because my current motherboard only supports AM3 socket types from what i gathered, so there's that headach.
So, please fellow gamers help me out before i explode!
I am a massive fan of the Total War series. Lately, I have been playing the Third Age Total War mod for Medieval 2.
Now all my systems to date have been AMD. I purposely switched to Intel because Total War runs better on Intel (and other reasons like up-to-date motherboards). Creative Assembly have a bit of a partnership with Intel, they participate in Intel developments. New instruction sets from the developer perspective et cetera.
It really depends on your budget, it might not be worth upgrading to anything. AMD is certainly an option. Though, I think the Phenom is just fine for gaming. Everyone gets huge dips with Total War, and I game on an i7.
I think it is best to see how Rome 2 runs on your system, before you think about the need to upgrade. GPU might give more of a boost than swapping out the Phenom.
The last 2 total war games have been buggy even with high end pc's.
With the pre order of empire total war the system spec's for playing it got changed on release day and even someone with a $12k gaming rig was having issues running the game.
I actually got a cracked copy ontop of my purchased copy because of fixes made by the cracker. Shogun was better and the glitch's not so pronounced.
Most likely its not just the cpu.
Also in your system specs, always include Mobo info =)
If its an older mobo with ddr2 then its not cost effective to upgrade the ram. (You will need a new mobo)
For a budget with that cpu it does overclock reallly well. I personally would get liquid cooling and OC that cpu and upgrade your ram.
Why 6gig of ram? I am guessing its a dual channel mobo you should have a balanced amount of ram in both channels or just use one chanel and put larger sticks.
The cooling and ram can then be migrated to a new mobo.
One last thing windows 7 can make too small Virtual Ram space on your primary disk check that and increase the size if nessary.
I have owned all Total War games and DLC (didn't have the opportunity to play Mongol Invasion, but I did own it!). However, I haven't played Empire and Napoleon on this new system, nor many of the other titles. I've only used this system for Medieval 2 and Shogun 2.
Shogun 2, it's mostly a constant 60 FPS -the refresh of my 1440p. The biggest dip I suffered was during a naval battle when I looked at the steam spouting from the funnel of a large boat, dropped to around 40-45. I had all textures and filters maxed, with the most demanding processes in place.
Edit: I would have to redownload Shogun 2 to utilise the benchmark utility. I'll get back to you on that. I'll possibly download Empire, if I can be bothered with that one. Might just be easier to compare benchmarks in a few weeks with Rome 2.
Should make a note that the i5 is clocked higher, for that marginal gain.
With the 4770k, you do miss out on some instruction sets, and you would need a good heatsink to reach 4.5 under a synthetic bench. I guess it could depend on the motherboard you choose. If you go Z87, would be silly not to get an unlocked processor.
Yes, looking at the 4770K mainly as it going to be portable CAD box for rendering fabrication in AutoDesk.....but no harm in having the few games I do play on there.
Well, it does give some indication how you can change the settings. Might be worth reading into. That way you can get a true experience with some textures on ultra, without automatically being turned down.
I just read all that,and this is what got my eye '' the game just keeps on lowering my settings''.For me the game never lowered settings,the game sets it to utlra with auto detect.
It responds all dynamically. It will turn down graphics in a siege battle and the only way to realise this is my checking the log. It will list things such as "turned down AA to 0".