What is he most important spec for massive strategy games, ie M2TW?

Strategy games such as RTW and M2TW are often ignored in benchmarks so I don't really know what is a good card for it. Strategy Games also pack masses of units and people on the screen, allowing for thousands of people on the screen at once. I find this thrilling. What part of your computer will improve performance when this happens, especially in the graphics card itself? I think, but I'm not sure that vertex shaders helps a lot. Any one have any ideas? For me medieval 2 total war can pack more units then rome total war for some reason. Even modern computers can get pretty laggy when you something like 10,000 units. How does supreme commander fair when the number of units get really large?

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DarthPiggie wrote :

Strategy games such as RTW and M2TW are often ignored in benchmarks so I don't really know what is a good card for it. Strategy Games also pack masses of units and people on the screen, allowing for thousands of people on the screen at once. I find this thrilling. What part of your computer will improve performance when this happens, especially in the graphics card itself? I think, but I'm not sure that vertex shaders helps a lot. Any one have any ideas? For me medieval 2 total war can pack more units then rome total war for some reason. Even modern computers can get pretty laggy when you something like 10,000 units. How does supreme commander fair when the number of units get really large?

Games like Supreme Commander, which generates large number of units, tend to stress cpu, which does the calculation for things like pathfinding and ai behavior on all those little units.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

Ahhh thanks, that makes sense, can't wait until games like that become fully multi threaded as it will really help with performance.

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Reply to DarthPiggie

DarthPiggie wrote :

Ahhh thanks, that makes sense, can't wait until games like that become fully multi threaded as it will really help with performance.

Supreme Commander is already fully threaded - will load up all 4 cores if you roll with a quad.

As a note, there is this game called Sins of a Solar Empire that was released recently. It's got lots of units on screen yet my dual with just the 2 cores can run it smoothly even in the biggest battles. Pretty sure the game is coded differently but the end result is good.

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Maximus_Delta wrote :

Supreme Commander is already fully threaded - will load up all 4 cores if you roll with a quad.

As a note, there is this game called Sins of a Solar Empire that was released recently. It's got lots of units on screen yet my dual with just the 2 cores can run it smoothly even in the biggest battles. Pretty sure the game is coded differently but the end result is good.

is that kind of like the star wars RTS that came out some time ago??

Reply to FrozenGpu

Yea it is massive. The performance is really a testament to its engine though, it runs really smooth and looks good. It is huge and fun, i played it. I went over the number of units using cheats, and yea it handled a lot of them fine. Sup Com isn't fully multi-threaded though as the difference between a dualvs quad is minimal. IN fact SupCom and Sins of A Solar....are quite similar, i like the latter more because you aren't just hurling little cubes at your enemies like in sup com. Anyway, anyone play M2TW or RTW???dont you hate the lag even with high end systems. I just love having 10000+ units, it leaves a huge graveyeard.

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Reply to DarthPiggie

Yeah not ALL aspect of SupCom are multithreaded, but it will still make use of all 4 cores if you have them. SINS is a great game as well, but SupCom is more CPU-depended because every single projectile is calculated on a true trajectory and environment pathing whereas in SINS ships can shoot through asteroids and things like that.

Both are fantastic games though ^^

Reply to jevon

MTW is more graphics dependent than anything else. But even then the requirements are pretty low. Any modern rig or any configuration will handle it no problemo.

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Reply to MikosNZ

DarthPiggie wrote :

IN fact SupCom and Sins of A Solar....are quite similar, i like the latter more because you aren't just hurling little cubes at your enemies like in sup com.

Yeah I got the demo for Sup Com and I really feel like I need a 24" monitor to really appreciate it... but I don't know, could my single 9600GT OC handle it at that res? I know two could easily do it but my board doesn't support it and I'd need to get another OEM Vista to boot...

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Reply to chris312

MikosNZ wrote :

MTW is more graphics dependent than anything else. But even then the requirements are pretty low. Any modern rig or any configuration will handle it no problemo.

Sure any modern rig can play it, but not with like 10-15 thousand units in one battle, and that was my initial query. Even Rome, an older game cant handle too many units before it bogs down.

Reply to DarthPiggie

chris312 wrote :

Yeah I got the demo for Sup Com and I really feel like I need a 24" monitor to really appreciate it... but I don't know, could my single 9600GT OC handle it at that res? I know two could easily do it but my board doesn't support it and I'd need to get another OEM Vista to boot...

You don't really need a huge monitor to apreciate it, but dont worry anyways, SupCom is CPU dependend even at 1920x1440, so the frame drop isnt too much for that game when increasing rez

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Reply to DarthPiggie

DarthPiggie wrote :

You don't really need a huge monitor to apreciate it, but dont worry anyways, SupCom is CPU dependend even at 1920x1440, so the frame drop isnt too much for that game when increasing rez

I think I'm going to have to re-install SupCom. Last played it with my Pentium D 805 and now I have my Q6600. I only played at 1280x1024 but I had dual-view with the map screen on my right monitor, man that was awesome. Going to try it again at a higher resolution I think.

Reply to Lord Gornak

I'm addicted to M2TW and RTW. My rig does ok with it. I can't get you exact nubers right now as I'm away from home, but it seemed fine with fairly large battles (not as big as you want, though). I was wishing for multithread in M2TW, but it didn't come. Hopefully in Empire TW.

Now to your question. Since M2TW is single threaded, a quad is pointless. If I were building a system today for it I'd get a E8x00 and OC it like crazy. Then I'd just get an 8800GTS/GT or 3870 (plenty for its graphics).

I thought Rome did a little better. What is your setup? Also, in M2TW check some of the settings. Things like extreme shadows give little benefit for a huge loss of performance.

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Reply to EXT64

EXT64 wrote :

I'm addicted to M2TW and RTW. My rig does ok with it. I can't get you exact nubers right now as I'm away from home, but it seemed fine with fairly large battles (not as big as you want, though). I was wishing for multithread in M2TW, but it didn't come. Hopefully in Empire TW.

Now to your question. Since M2TW is single threaded, a quad is pointless. If I were building a system today for it I'd get a E8x00 and OC it like crazy. Then I'd just get an 8800GTS/GT or 3870 (plenty for its graphics).

I thought Rome did a little better. What is your setup? Also, in M2TW check some of the settings. Things like extreme shadows give little benefit for a huge loss of performance.

Yea I played Rome for a long time, the mods kept that game quite alive for me. Yea too bad MTW wasnt multi but there arent too many games multithreaded out there anyway. Those games are cpu bound too, AI calculations and pathfinding takes its toll.

Reply to DarthPiggie

Actually, I'm about to get back into RTW because a couple of really good mods for it just came out that sound awesome. I was kind of disappointed in M2TW's mods, a lot of them seemed to die out. I wonder if the LOTR mod for RTW was ever completed?

Message edited by EXT64 on 04-15-2008 at 02:08:09 AM

------------------------------ Phenom II X4 940 BE 3.0GHz - 1.25V > GA-MA790GP-DS4H > XFX ATI 4850 1GB > 4GB OCZ Platinum 1066MHz 5-5-5-15-2T > PCP&C 610W
Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz > GA-MA770T-UD3P > Sapphire ATI 4650 512MB DDR3 > 4GB OCZ Platinum 1600MHz@1066MHz > XP/Win7 Enter 64
Reply to EXT64

What Im REALLY waiting for the mod that will bring RTW to the M2TW engine. The graphics are gonna be sick.

------------------------------ Do not fall prey to perceived obsolescence.
Reply to DarthPiggie

I someone making one?

And to my question, yes, it looks like the LOTR mods have long been done. I'm downloading Forth Age right now (though I won't get to try it out for a while).

------------------------------ Phenom II X4 940 BE 3.0GHz - 1.25V > GA-MA790GP-DS4H > XFX ATI 4850 1GB > 4GB OCZ Platinum 1066MHz 5-5-5-15-2T > PCP&C 610W
Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz > GA-MA770T-UD3P > Sapphire ATI 4650 512MB DDR3 > 4GB OCZ Platinum 1600MHz@1066MHz > XP/Win7 Enter 64
Reply to EXT64

I've never seen a modding community quite like the Total War community. Its a new mod every week. Even HL2 mods, STALKER mods, or Command and Conquer mods arent as pletiful.

------------------------------ Do not fall prey to perceived obsolescence.
Reply to DarthPiggie

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What is he most important spec for massive strategy games, ie M2TW?

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