Quote:
Originally Posted by Avimimus
Always favour ram and processor over videocard for flight sims (note: this is last paragraph is my judgment).
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As a hardware nerd (and developer) I have to add my opinion regarding this subject - no offence!
Even though flight sims really are CPU intensive, a cheap GPU can cripple any game - as all games today are very GPU dependent. A CPU of the latest generation never does that. I'm sure you do not mean a Geforce 8500 or something like that, but still...
My advice (if buying today):
* Buy a Wolfdale Core 2 CPU in the 8xxx series. Those 45nm babies overclock like maniacs. Two cores will be fine as it would surprise me a lot if SoW:BoB will gain from 2->4 cores taking the Ghz loss/$ in consideration. If it makes good use of 2 cores, I will be very happy. The midrange darling E8400 costs ~$170 today.
* Buy an Nvidia or ATI GPU of the latest generation for at least $270 - lets say a Radeon HD 4870 if starting in the low end.
* Buy 4Gb of decent Ram for about $150
Calculating the price for the stuff above gives me this prio:
GPU ($270)->CPU($170)->Ram($150)
To complete the chain, add a P45 Mb and a good PSU and the other minor stuff in that cost prio order.
It would surprise me if a rig like that does not run SoW:BoB at medium settings or more, even if it arrives in late 2009. It would loose to much market if a machine like above cannot run it decently. Reviewers would cut it down if the graphics are not in another league than other games out there. They will not make to much fuss about the huge maps as opposed to Crysis little island when writing their sour remarks about 13 fps on a good gaming PC from last year...
That is MY opinion, and there are a lot of other opinions out there
/Mazex