IL-2 COD Really Comes to Life with a decent Video Card

[UberDemon]

IL-2 COD Really Comes to Life with a decent Video Card

I was somewhat disappointed when I first started IL-2COD, because I expected it to be something like the previous generation of IL-2s up to 1946. Even with a mid-grade PC with enough memory and graphics card, you would do OK. Let's face it, IL-2 COD is magnitudes more complex than the original series (Remember the roads with only angularly perfect turns? ). I know it is blasphemy I don't custom build my PCs, but for the most part, the HPs I have owned have done the job.

Not too long ago I bought a "higher-end" HP Pavilion (Elite series HPE-500f), and it was perfect for about everything, so I expected it to be suitable for IL-2 COD. No. Not really. I also found out about not being able to update my BIOS on my own and not being able to over-clock (because HP takes those features out of their BIOS due to warranty issues)*. I started to read all the posts about performance issues, so I decreased my video options accordingly. It was pretty depressing, at its lowest settings, COD performed worse than IL-2 1946 at its highest settings in my PC.

With limited options for upgrades to my CPU (AMD 6x 2.7GHz @ 95V), and already decent RAM (8 GB DDR3), I looked into the video options. My PC came with a 300W power supply and an AMD HD 6450 PCIEx16 card with 512MB DDR3 in it. That was the bottleneck. It sounds good but in reality, as I found out, the ATI/AMD series are defined by their series number. Regardless of the 6xxx, it is the hundreds number that defines the quality... so there are major differences between a 64xx series and a 67xx series. The speed of the GPU memory makes a big difference too. (So, less memory that is really fast is much better than a greater number of memory which is slower).

I went to my local electronics shop and got a 600W power supply (because for higher end cards you need an extra power feed) and an XFX Radeon HD6770 with 1 GB DDR5 RAM (which is really fast). The power supply cost me the equivalent of about US$90 (plus VAT) and the video card cost me about US$180 (plus VAT). The sweet talking to my wife to allow me to buy something else related to IL-2, well that was a lot more expensive. In anyway, the amount is not ignorable, but it is not crazy-expensive either.

OH-MY-FRIGGIN-[deity of your preference]... that made all the difference in the world. I can play IL-2 COD (the latest Beta) in a fairly smooth manner. I took several flights on the Bf-109 and Hurricane very close to the ground. Yes there is some stuttering, which 1C really needs to work on, but it decreased a lot. To the point I took the time to write all this down.

My PC configuration is in my signature. My current graphics setting is included below:

1440x900x60 Full Screen
MD:H
BD:H
LD:H
Fr:M
VE:H
TQ:H
AA:Off
AE:Off
SSAO:Off
VSYNC:Off
DD:M
BA:M
LS:M
Grass:On
Shadows:On
Roads:On

(*) Note: By the way, in some HP PCs, there are options for over-clocking, but only via software. With SetFSB software from Mr. Abo (in Japan) one could conceptually over-clock a PC such as mine to about 2.9GHz in a stable manner.

[SQB]

I have a fairly similar set up to your new one, q8400, 4gb ram and a 68701gb DDR2.

You are right, the graphics card makes it way better, I do need a better cpu though as it freezes up and decreases framerate sometimes.

The main thing is the stuttering, it is really damn hard to fly and shoot when you are jumping around.

Still, the game is running many many many times better than on release.

[310_cibule]

Confirmed.

3 GB Dual Core CPU, 4 GB RAM and GeForce 580 GTX.

Very good performance. Av. FPS 35+, everything on Very High. 1920x1200x32

waiting for the official patch patiently (and flyable wimpy). Happily

[ATAG_Dutch]

Very similar story to mine.

Bought Dell xps8000 jan 2010, upgraded card from Nvidia GT220 to ati 5770 in August 2010, cliffs comes out - poor performance. While waiting for improvements from patches upgraded power supply from 350w to OCR700w (thanks again Venge!).

What prompted me to upgrade the card at this time was that RoF also started to have probs with ATI cards, I lost my temper and bought the card in the sig last week.

Stunning difference. I now run Cliffs of Dover on Very High settings - 8x AA, ssao and v-sync on - comfortably, only needing to lower them for video capture with Fraps, and then only slightly.

This is at 1920x1080 btw.

Edit: and also at low altitude over London, as I discovered last night.

[Insuber]

A top video card GPU + enough video memory can allow one to run with everything maxed out and limited stutters. I don't have fps issues, but still there are many other things to correct before considering CloD a finished game.

[Pudfark]

I'm glad you realized such a useful gain in performance in this sim.
I was running an 8800gt and it ran everything (I do,did) at the time and
it still would, with the exception of COD...A year ago, in anticipation of COD,
I bought/installed a GTX465..it was overkill for everything I did at that time..it cost me about $250.00 Over the last six months, since this sim has been released, I find out, that my, now mid range card, is really not acceptable/usable.....Here I have sat, for months, waiting for a game patch or several of them....knowing that, I'm going to have to spend another $550.00 for a 580GTX 3gig ram...if and when they fix this sim? To put it bluntly, I am not going to front 1C any more of my hardware money, until they front the software that I bought six months ago...

I'd bet, I'm not the only one who feels this way....

I really am pleased that you found a way to enjoy what is available in this sim.

[CrazySchmidt]

Hi UD, long time no see. How ya doing mate?

It's funny you know, I have only just last week updated my graphics card from a 9800 GTX to a GTX560 Ti and have also noticed a significant improvement in performance and was thinking I should post here similarly to what you have just noted, but then having noticed your post I thought I would just tag onto yours.

It's nice to finally feel this game running smoothly over land for the most part, still some stuttering as reported by many, but very enjoyable now. I actually spent some time just flying around checking out the sights and looking more closely at the render quality as I used to do with IL-2.

It has given me the motivation to start looking more closely at the new animation features with this release and also to start using the FMB, which is a great place to spend some time to discover a lot of the new goodies!

I think it's now reasonable to assume that the whole thing is on track to be a fine follow up addition from our beloved IL-2 and I'm certainly looking forward to all the pending updates.

It's nice to finally be having some fun with this release.

Cheers, CrazySchmidt.

[UberDemon]

Originally Posted by CrazySchmidt

Hi UD, long time no see. How ya doing mate?

It's funny you know, I have only just last week updated my graphics card from a 9800 GTX to a GTX560 Ti and have also noticed a significant improvement in performance and was thinking I should post here similarly to what you have just noted, but then having noticed your post I thought I would just tag onto yours.

It's nice to finally feel this game running smoothly over land for the most part, still some stuttering as reported by many, but very enjoyable now. I actually spent some time just flying around checking out the sights and looking more closely at the render quality as I used to do with IL-2.

It has given me the motivation to start looking more closely at the new animation features with this release and also to start using the FMB, which is a great place to spend some time to discover a lot of the new goodies!

I think it's now reasonable to assume that the whole thing is on track to be a fine follow up addition from our beloved IL-2 and I'm certainly looking forward to all the pending updates.

It's nice to finally be having some fun with this release.

Cheers, CrazySchmidt.

Well hey man! So... still coding much? Once you can see the new features of the landscape, it is night and day compared to the original IL-2... but as it has been noted... this is a complex flight SIM. These applications are magnitudes more intense, and this is a niche market compared to the mega releases which are churned out like clones.

The models are very detailed... and if anything, I think the manning of the gun stations is un-necessarily complex for my taste, but hey.

I hope to see more apps from you. Mission Mate is brilliant.

[hiro]

Yeah its beast so it needs a beast of a machine to run it.


yeah I'm going to wait . . .

I priced out a system on new egg . . .

its going to run me 1500 USD or more . . .

we got an extra server, and it can run ClOD ok . . . gotta love logitech 3D extreme

if I build now, obsolete, but once the game is solid, if I build then . . . I'll have something good


plus they have new tech coming around the corner like Intel's 3D tri gate transistor and HP's memristor processor, new solid state drives, and FeTram memory . ..

For me its better to wait . . .

[322Sqn_Dusty]

After adding a SSD for CloD, it ran better. Unfortunatly still got large- and micro stutters. I'm still waiting for better Crossfire support. Two 1 GB ati 4890 OC won't do the trick just yet. So probably it would be more interesting with one 1,5+Gb card and a 4 Gb extra RAM.