What PC spec is required for decent driving sims?
Discussion
Hello,
I'm looking to get a new PC for 'home office' stuff at the moment, but the thought occurs it would be quite good fun if it could run some sims. Used to be addicted to Grand Prix legends and although I've neever played it, something like GT Legends appeals. IIRC that's the one the BMW M3 promo game is based on - I tried running that on my work laptop and the frame rate was un-playable.
Just what sort of processor speed/RAM is required to run something like that?
Chris
I'm looking to get a new PC for 'home office' stuff at the moment, but the thought occurs it would be quite good fun if it could run some sims. Used to be addicted to Grand Prix legends and although I've neever played it, something like GT Legends appeals. IIRC that's the one the BMW M3 promo game is based on - I tried running that on my work laptop and the frame rate was un-playable.
Just what sort of processor speed/RAM is required to run something like that?
Chris
The critical things are memory and graphics cards. Laptops very rarely have decent graphics cards so generally have no chance of running any of the recent driving sims. My desktop PC is probably the minimum you could get away with for Driving sims although its lacking in memory and won't run the very latest stuff like DIRT and Race:2007.
Processor Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
Memory 512mb (You really need 1gb at least mine really struggles soemtimes but I've not been able to find any compatible memory.)
Graphics GeForce 7800 256mb
This runs Rfactor, GTR and GT Legends fine with most things turned on. You wouldn't want anything worse than this. Ideally you'd want 1gb memory and 3ghz or above as well as an up to date graphics card.
Processor Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
Memory 512mb (You really need 1gb at least mine really struggles soemtimes but I've not been able to find any compatible memory.)
Graphics GeForce 7800 256mb
This runs Rfactor, GTR and GT Legends fine with most things turned on. You wouldn't want anything worse than this. Ideally you'd want 1gb memory and 3ghz or above as well as an up to date graphics card.
Im not big on pc driving sims but have been running the M3 simulator on 2 laptops and it seems to work fine with all the bells and whistles on.
Both are low end core 2 duo's, T5500 I think and both have half decent graphics chips in them. One being ATI x1600 512mb the other Nvidia 8400 with shared memory. 1gb running XP & 2gb running Vista respectivly.
Hope that helps
Both are low end core 2 duo's, T5500 I think and both have half decent graphics chips in them. One being ATI x1600 512mb the other Nvidia 8400 with shared memory. 1gb running XP & 2gb running Vista respectivly.
Hope that helps
Right, I've bought one!
It has a faintly ludicrous 4066Mb of RAM, a Geforce 8600 GTS graphics card and something described by Dell as a P1-2600. I don't think that's actually a pentium one, based on the clock speed and also the fact it later describes it as dual core, but I'm still not entirely sure what chip set is on there.
.....Atleast I think I've bought it. I got to the checkout at Dell Outlet, but I haven't had any confirmation emails or anything. Suppose I'll just have to wait to see if it arrives?
As an aside, I found that online, but tried to phone up and clarify a few things as I don't know a huge ammount about modern computer technology. The bloke I got put through to was the biggest muppet ever, couldn't answer a single question I asked. Bloody call centres
It has a faintly ludicrous 4066Mb of RAM, a Geforce 8600 GTS graphics card and something described by Dell as a P1-2600. I don't think that's actually a pentium one, based on the clock speed and also the fact it later describes it as dual core, but I'm still not entirely sure what chip set is on there.
.....Atleast I think I've bought it. I got to the checkout at Dell Outlet, but I haven't had any confirmation emails or anything. Suppose I'll just have to wait to see if it arrives?
As an aside, I found that online, but tried to phone up and clarify a few things as I don't know a huge ammount about modern computer technology. The bloke I got put through to was the biggest muppet ever, couldn't answer a single question I asked. Bloody call centres
Is it running Vista then, as I thought XP had issues with 4gig of ram?!
Anyway, sounds plenty, ~2.6ghz Core2Duo will be rapido for any current games, the gfx card fine for intermediate > high res screen and good fps (say up to 1600x1200)
Spot on. I was running rFactor the other night with a grid of 20 C6 Corvettes and E92 M3's all in various colours on my 8800GTX and C2D 2.66ghz in 1600x1200 with everything on and 4xFSAA and the fps were over 40
Dave
Anyway, sounds plenty, ~2.6ghz Core2Duo will be rapido for any current games, the gfx card fine for intermediate > high res screen and good fps (say up to 1600x1200)
Spot on. I was running rFactor the other night with a grid of 20 C6 Corvettes and E92 M3's all in various colours on my 8800GTX and C2D 2.66ghz in 1600x1200 with everything on and 4xFSAA and the fps were over 40
Dave
DOH! Look's like I haven't bought that PC. I placed the order for it about this time yesterday, 10 minutes ago, I got a phone call from Barclays saying they'd blocked the transaction. Nice of them to tell me now.
It seems most people don't save up for months then splash out on loads of different things at once and they got suspicous!!
Right, back to looking at Dell Outlet.
So, first and foremost I want a mahoosive disk drive, a reasonable ammount of ram, USB2 and a half decent CD writer for sound recording. Then as a secondary thing a reasonably quick processor and graphics card for the odd spot of sly gaming.
It seems most people don't save up for months then splash out on loads of different things at once and they got suspicous!!
Right, back to looking at Dell Outlet.
So, first and foremost I want a mahoosive disk drive, a reasonable ammount of ram, USB2 and a half decent CD writer for sound recording. Then as a secondary thing a reasonably quick processor and graphics card for the odd spot of sly gaming.
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