Building a Gaming PC for AoC - Hardware Questions

ArchivedUser

So I'm going to be building a Gaming PC this Cyber Monday and I want to be able to run AoC at max graphics as I also plan on streaming. I will be using a 2-PC setup for streaming, however, and I already have the PC that I will stream from. The new PC is going to be explicitly for AoC, and running it at Max Graphics, ideally for at least a couple years.

In doing some early research, I've read things along the lines of "Most games don't use more than 4 processors." under CPU reviews. At what point will I be spending extra on unnecessary power? My question(s) are:

How many cores in the CPU before AoC's performance is essentially "maxed"?
How much GPU RAM / processing power for 1080p to be essentially "maxed"?
How much GPU RAM / processing power for 4K to be essentially "maxed"?
How much RAM? 

My knowledge of PC hardware is fairly basic, so any advice is welcome! I'm not familiar enough with the various engines that run AoC to really understand what the hardware demands will be. Thanks in advance!

ArchivedUser

I am sure someone can answer this better than I can. I am under the impression they have not released any system requirements. Your best bet, at this point, would be to compare to titles being released in 2020 that have listed requirements.

ArchivedUser

Anything that will run Unreal 4. Basically if you can run current games at your comfort level, then you should be fine. @Belewyn has a snazzy graphic that shows what the developers are using for hardware, can't expect it to run any higher/better than what it is being developed on currently.

ArchivedUser

I was planning on streaming casually during Alpha. Keep in mind what kind of cooling system you use, a lot of loud fans can be annoying in a stream.  

ArchivedUser

ArchivedUser

Honestly, if you want to stream, I suggest waiting for 2020 Moore's Law, and the pc you'd build for AoC now would be a lot less in two years when the game releases. I'm waiting to. 1080p for now is enough for me anyway. Monitors that are higher cost way too much.

But yea, if you plan on building a PC for a specific game and future after that. Wait for release, and keep an eye out for nvidia and AMD release schedules, they are almost the same every year.

Good luck! 

ArchivedUser

A current mid to high end (not entusiast, just high end) system should be able to run AoC maxed just fine. We have no required specs yet, those are just my assumptions for 1080p. If AoC is well optimized, even 4k medium settings could be possible at a decent framerate.

To answer your questions:
How many cores in the CPU before AoC's performance is essentially "maxed"?
-  Games don't utilize more than 4. However, your PC does. Core count isn't all that matters, single core performance matters more for gaming. Since you will have a dedicated streaming/render PC, you don't need all the processing power in one PC. You could go with Ryzen, which is a decent CPU choice for streamers and content creators, but I'd recommend a intel 6th gen i5 or i7.

How much GPU RAM / processing power for 1080p to be essentially "maxed"?
- For 1080p 4GB will be fine. In most games you will need less, but some games are more demanding on GPU RAM.

How much GPU RAM / processing power for 4K to be essentially "maxed"?
- I don't play at 4K (cough, no 4K panel), but I'd say 8 to 12 GB are required.

How much RAM? 
- For gaming alone you will be fine with 8GB and considering current RAM prices this is what you might want to go for and upgrade to 16GB at a later point.

ArchivedUser

To answer Ariatras- I plan on streaming the Alpha 1+ and everything not under NDA, so the sooner I can get a monster system, the better. I'll upgrade in 2 years as the proper release comes around.

ArchivedUser

You are planning on doing a dual PC streaming setup so I'd recommend getting an Intel with high clock speeds (for the gaming PC). Like maybe the new 8700k. Then pair that with a nice cooler so you can OC it. Clock speeds combined with IPC (instructions per clock) is the king when it comes to gaming.

A Ryzen would be more ideal for a single system setup, you just can't go wrong with those 8 cores 16 threads if you plan on streaming AND gaming on it.

For RAM the sweet spot is 3200 MHz ram, try getting CL16. Any reputable brand (Corsair, G.Skill, Kingston etc) works really, just pick whatever is aesthetically pleasing for you.

For GPU sadly Nvidia is probably the only option (due to miners snapping up AMD so fast), get a 1080 or 1080Ti and you'll be fine (you can go lower, it all depends on you're targeted settings). But sure if you find a cheap nice AMD card then go for it. You're choice of monitor could also be a deciding factor, if you have a G-Sync or FreeSync monitor then pick the equivalent brand.

Pair all this with a good SSD (Samsung is recommended) and 80+ power supply and you're set. Chassi is more taste thing so pick whatever you think is nice.

Hope this helped, if you have more questions just PM me here, Discord or Twitter (more active on the latter two).

EDIT: Oh and yeah, you're budget would probably be helpful, to get a better idea of what's best for YOU.

ArchivedUser

I'll second a lot of what @FliP said. If you build anything remotely close to a monster PC then you're probably in overkill territory for AoC, just by virtue of it being an mmo.

Something to keep in mind that was also mentioned earlier is the cryptocurrency market blowing up the gpus that sit in the sweet spot between price/power - namely the 1060/1070 and equivalent cards.  I hate to recommend snagging a 1080 for a rig that'll be dedicated to AoC, but if the prices are still inflated on those earlier cards, it might be worth considering, particularly for 4k.

Also yeah - budget would help a lot. The price jump from a PC that can reasonably max games at 1080 v 4k is pretty massive.

Have you checked out logical increments? They have a build chart sorted by tiers that shows you fps you can expect running certain games.

ArchivedUser

Budget would top out around 3k usd.
Thanks for all the replies thus far!

ArchivedUser

If you're set on 4k, you can probably put together a system for ~1600-1800 which should run AoC at 4k, meaning that it could handle the witcher 3 at 4k with decent fps.

The big players would be a 1080-1080ti and i5 8600k-i7 8700k. Lesser stuff being 16gb of ram, decent mobo and heat sink, 2tb of storage, decent case/power supply etc. You'd be going without a good sized ssd at this price point most likely.

That leaves you ~200 for peripherals if you want to upgrade those too. You'll probably want some extra fans if you went with a cheap case. If you're happy with your mouse/keyboard/headset etc, you could dump this into a SSD. Or use it to ramp up from the 1080 to the 1080ti and so on.

All of that sounds pretty reasonable...but then comes the monitor. You're probably looking somewhere around 1k here. IE the price of a computer that would likely max AoC at 1080p, monitor included. There are cheaper, smaller monitors out there that will run 4k, but then you're running at a super high pixel density and you might as well be running 1440p, which you could do on a much lower budget.

ArchivedUser

If building for AoC, I'd suggest waiting till just before AoC releases. This is what I'm doing, and I'm just using my current PC till then, which is fine for current games, on 1080p (I'm still using such monitor).

And then in 2 years time, before AoC comes out, I'm gonna build new PC, so I can enjoy AoC to the fullest. 

ArchivedUser

The machine I'm running now is one I built a few years ago and have upgraded as needed.  It's currently housing...

CPU - Intel I5 quad core at 3.0 GHz
RAM - 16 GB
Graphics - GeForce GTX 1060 SC 6 GB 192 bit GDDR5

I'm hoping that will be good enough to run Ashes on decent settings.  I won't be able to go above 1920x1080 resolution unless I shell out for a new monitor.  I'm limited on space so the 24" I have now is about as big as I can go.

ArchivedUser

Thanks for the responses. The reason I'm getting the PC soon, as opposed to 2020 when AoC releases, is because I intend to stream starting with Alpha 1. My current PC will run AoC, but I need a 2nd PC to be able to stream anyway, so I might as well get a good one.

ArchivedUser

Khasiino said:

Thanks for the responses. The reason I'm getting the PC soon, as opposed to 2020 when AoC releases, is because I intend to stream starting with Alpha 1. My current PC will run AoC, but I need a 2nd PC to be able to stream anyway, so I might as well get a good one.

My opinion about "Wait until 2020!" is that Intrepid Studios uses Ryzen 7 rigs with 1080ti GPUs. From what we have seen so fat from pre-alpha footage, the game runs just fine.
True, we didn't see how large scale looks like and runs, but I bet that there hasn't been any optimizing whatsoever.

I don't think they would re-model all their 3D models to take advantage of 2020 hardware. What they have now is what we'll get. Eventually higher resolution textures for 4K, but that is usually optional and gaming at 1080p, especially competitive games, is good enough.

ArchivedUser

If you want we can chat

Edit:  I was going to say we should compare builds but I ended up crashing after staying up all night. I must have sent an uncompleted draft by accident. I sounded so creepy. 

ArchivedUser

I figure if I can render a 20gb game in UE4 in under 3 hours I figure I will be fine

ArchivedUser

Build one in 2 years with  a 2080TI

ArchivedUser

CPU- i7 7700k -In addition to this you will want to get a heat sink to replace the factory one.
GPU- Nvidea GTX 1080 8GB (performance is solid without the added cost of the Ti)
Motherboard- Honestly any standard gaming motherboard that matches the chip slot for the i7 7700k
RAM- 32bg (speed on ram does not matter that much I.e. 1600-3200 speed on the RAM doesn't show that much difference, IMO midrange at 2000-2400). You want the extra RAM for streaming.
Storage- 500GB SSD for games/OS with 2TB HDD for additional storage purposes such as video feed.
Case- FULL TOWER for maximum airflow or, you can go with liquid cooled. Either way bigger tower is more space to work in.
Power supply- 800watt
Monitor- 4k, probably dual monitor if you can 144Hz
Internal wireless card (this is a nice feature, but if you have issue for some reason, you shouldnt, you can always use a LAN).
Standard mouse and keyboard, imo go with mechanical, but the reduced sound version.
Stand up microphone that sits in front of you for streaming will greatly improve your voice over a headset mic.
A good power strip to reduce risk of pwr surges.



That should be it! 

ArchivedUser

I agree with the user who said wait until the game is realeased. Prices will be cheaper on high end tech today. The laptop i bought for this game already feels light in power. I will be getting a nice desktop when this game drops. i already have monitor. just need over kill system. 

ArchivedUser

KingOelc said:

I agree with the user who said wait until the game is realeased. Prices will be cheaper on high end tech today. The laptop i bought for this game already feels light in power. I will be getting a nice desktop when this game drops. i already have monitor. just need over kill system. 

The author of this article has stated multiple times that he wants to be able to stream game play as soon as that is an option, in other words alpha 2 and beta (wherever the NDA is lifted) and therefore would most likely be streaming sometime next year. 

ArchivedUser

NDA only applies to Alpha 0. Streaming will begin with Alpha 1.

ArchivedUser

Followup question: I have been browsing pre-built rigs to get an idea for price ranges and I noticed that even the most over-the-top, $3500+ pre-built PCs seem to have between 600w and 800w power supplies. I noticed that the dev PC listed above has a 1200w power supply. Is there an advantage / disadvantage to going overboard with your choice of power supply?

ArchivedUser

No

ArchivedUser

Khasiino said:

Followup question: I have been browsing pre-built rigs to get an idea for price ranges and I noticed that even the most over-the-top, $3500+ pre-built PCs seem to have between 600w and 800w power supplies. I noticed that the dev PC listed above has a 1200w power supply. Is there an advantage / disadvantage to going overboard with your choice of power supply?

There is no benefit to having a power supply that provides more power than your system requires. It is important, however, that you get a well-reviewed power supply. If you get a cheap one, you could hose your system.

ArchivedUser

Go for a good efficiency rating. Go for the gold. 

ArchivedUser

I work for a company that sells sells custom rigs and pre builds. It may not be the same for all, but we use lower end Power Supplies to cut costs and at the same time, promote the consumer to later upgrade it on their own. Each component in your system requires a certain amount of wattage to operate. The more watts you have, the more breathing room youll have. Since the game is estimated to come out in 2020, you have plenty of time to get a nice rig. Cyber Monday might be a good time or if you can wait. Nvidia will more than likely release the 20 series cards (2080/2080ti) less than a few months (early 2018). The staple for most gaming rigs is 16gb of ddr4 RAM. I never run into an issue with memory. The i7-8700k is also a beast right now for streaming and gaming. We've had some stable overclocks for 5.0ghz and have been working well. You would also probably want to invest in a m.2 ssd, the samsung 960 evo has been working wonders for me. Then if i had to suggest a motherboard, so far the Asus prime z370 has been alright. As for a power supply, i use a Corsair Hx1000i. The whole lot goes for around $1200- $1300 + the price of a gpu.