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IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Latest instalment in the acclaimed IL-2 Sturmovik series from award-winning developer Maddox Games.

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  #11  
Old 04-27-2011, 07:37 AM
Helrza Helrza is offline
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Buzzsaw, im just wondering what scenario would the reccommended settings youve posted here would be applied to? overall including london? to have all settings on full?

Atm my cruddy system is running it quite beautifully with nearly everything on full (with the exclusion of ground shading and ground detail on low, and SSAO off). Im asking this because going to upgrade solely for this game, so i want to know wat im getting is going to be overkill, or if i can slacken off on some parts
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  #12  
Old 04-27-2011, 07:39 AM
Rattlehead Rattlehead is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MadTommy View Post

Running Windows 7 (x64), trackir, fraps, teamspeak & CoD i have never maxed out my 4 GB of RAM. Suggesting 8 GB is needed is inaccurate.

Also saying FSB speed of 1333 is a minimum requirement is untrue.

Also quad core might be desirable, but it is not essential by any means. My dual core E8400 running at 3.6Ghz does just fine.. neither core gets utilised more than 60%.

You just need tons of VRAM and a well setup BIOS/PC to get smooth gameplay.
I have win 7 32-bit, which only recognizes 3,5gb of my 4gb of RAM...but I literally have no RAM left only a few minutes into the mission. Maybe that extra 500 megs is enough to tip the balance, I'm not sure.
I also think 8gb RAM is too much, but maybe 6gb is about right.

I agree about the dual cores as well...quad is optimal but a decent dual core gets the job done. Mine is a stock speed 3gig processor and it copes quite admirably with the game...never seen it loaded beyond 70%.
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  #13  
Old 04-27-2011, 07:55 AM
MadBlaster MadBlaster is offline
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I thought a 32-bit application (i.e., the launcher.exe) couldn't possibly use more than 4 gigs of ram, whether your running 32-bit or 64 bit? If your running 32-bit operating system, then it can use up to ~3 gigs and if your running 64-bit, then up to ~ 4 gigs...so the 64 bit gets you 1 gig ram more to use...but then if your running dx10...wouldn't that take up more memory and partially offset this apparent advantage? And if the launcher.exe was 64 bit, that would be a different ballgame. Then 64 bit op sys could use a shizload of ram, but 32 bit op wouldn't even be able to run the game I guess. Where am I wrong?
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  #14  
Old 04-27-2011, 07:57 AM
MadTommy MadTommy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rattlehead View Post
I have win 7 32-bit, which only recognizes 3,5gb of my 4gb of RAM...but I literally have no RAM left only a few minutes into the mission. Maybe that extra 500 megs is enough to tip the balance, I'm not sure.
I also think 8gb RAM is too much, but maybe 6gb is about right.
On my 2nd monitor i have a number of apps i run.. CPU, RAM, Network & GFX resource monitoring..

My RAM utilisation sits at just over 3.5GB, 3.7 is the highest i've seen it. 6GB might be optimal, but 4 GB is fine as a recommended amount.

That extra 500MB should make a big difference.. get Win7 64bit!
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  #15  
Old 04-27-2011, 08:02 AM
Blackdog_kt Blackdog_kt is offline
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Strange, as my only serious problem is that my Ati 4890 1Gb is not throttling the clock speeds correctly (as many other Ati owners report).

My system?

i7 920 @ 2.7 Ghz: not overclocked

only 3GB of RAM: win7 didn't exist when i built it two years ago and i didn't want to go with vista, so it was the only reasonable choice--> i decided to go with triple channel RAM so it was eitther 3 or 6 GB but since i was initially sticking to XP it didn't make sense to get 6

Ati 4890 1GB: I had a 4870 1GB initially but it was faulty and died on me, so i swapped it via warranty for the 4890 1GB.


My graphics settings:
1680x1050 (native monitor resolution)
Roads, cockpit shadows and Vsync on
SSAO off
Model detail, damage decals, effects and land shadows on high
building detail on low
everything else on medium

I used to get FPS in the upper teens to low 20s over land with noticeable stutters, until i realized the GPU wasn't throttling up as it should. It stays at the underclocked "power saving" mode of 240Mhz.

So i downloaded Ati tray tools, made a custom profile for CoD that forces the maximum reference clock speed (but still not overclocking above it) and what do you know?
Lowest FPS dip in the black death track is around 18 or so but it stays above 25 for most of the track. I can fly the London sightseeing QMB mission fine as long as i don't get too low (that is, skimming the roof tops drops below 20 FPS, 200-300 feet up and it's playable and getting better the higher you go...for example when spawning at the starting altitude everything is very smooth).

In a representative mixed terrain setting with both land and sea in view, some buildings and a good amount of AI units i get anywhere between 25 and 50 FPS and over water it's capped at 60 due to Vsync as i have a 60Hz monitor.

For example, i tried one of the QMB Luftwaffe ground attack missions as a test. Low level flying, my flight in four Bf-110C7s, three enemy Defiants scrambling from the airfield just inland of a coastal town (aka buildings on screen), the enemy vehicle column, a train loaded with fuel carriages, a whole lot of static AI units around the airfield, some well placed bombs and a whole lot of very large explosions and fireworks after hitting the train, followed by repeated strafing passes on the Defiants as they were taxing to take-off, all in all a good mid-range benchmark sortie.

The only time i got very mild and momentary stutters was when diving on something and shooting from a zoomed in view, but i had that problem with the original IL2 back in 2001 as well, if i fired rockets from a zoomed in view the magnified smoke effect gave my PC the hiccups. I don't have this as much with RAF fighters and their smokeless tracers, so i guess it's a similar thing.

Who knows, maybe if i turn down effects to medium i can get rid of this but i like them too much, i can shoot well enough from the wide FOV and keeping the wider view helps with terrain avoidance through lack of target fixation
Plus, it only happens when zooming in with the ground in sight at low altitude as the textures are initially loaded, if i make a secondary pass it's much smoother. It certainly doesn't happen in air to air combat with the sky in view or even with the ground in view if i'm a bit higher up. All in all a minor annoyance for the extra eye-candy.


My only problem was that i got reboots due to instability, since i forced the overclock through a 3rd party program with minimal testing (i tried the 850 MHz that's the default maximum clock setting in my catalyst control center, then dropped it to 750Mhz but it still rebooted). In other games the GPU clocks up automatically via the Ati driver and it's perfectly stable.

My conclusion from all this is that i'm not spending a penny on hardware until the sim is fully optimized (especially the full screen mode that's not detected by Ati cards, which results in the GPU not throttling up properly), as it seems that when my hardware is fully utilized it's perfectly capable of running the sim at settings that are far from shabby.

A lot of people don't realize that the latest DX10 generation cards like the Ati 4870/4890 or the nVidia 28x series are just as fast if not faster than a more expensive, low-tier DX11 generation card like an Ati 57xx/56xx. Since the sim currently doesn't run DX11 mode graphics, neither benefits from other DX11 features (like parallel processing), it really makes no sense to upgrade the GPU if you have one of the latest DX10 generation cards.

Much better to wait until it actually utilizes DX11 features, by which time it might be possible to grab something like an Ati 6970 2GB or equivalent nVidia GPU for $180 or so (it's around $240 currently).

I think the only upgrade i might do is get three more sticks of 1GB RAM for my second triple channel bank (for a total of 6GB) since i've been running win7 x64 for some months now, RAM is currently dirt cheap and i'm starting to get marginal with my current amount.

Long story short, i wouldn't throw more hardware at the sim until it starts fully utilizing the existing one

Last edited by Blackdog_kt; 04-27-2011 at 08:07 AM.
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  #16  
Old 04-27-2011, 08:03 AM
Vengeanze Vengeanze is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Helrza View Post
Buzzsaw, im just wondering what scenario would the reccommended settings youve posted here would be applied to? overall including london? to have all settings on full?

Atm my cruddy system is running it quite beautifully with nearly everything on full (with the exclusion of ground shading and ground detail on low, and SSAO off). Im asking this because going to upgrade solely for this game, so i want to know wat im getting is going to be overkill, or if i can slacken off on some parts
I'd say get a new g-card like Radeon HD6950 or similar. Everything else in your setup should be fine (haven't looked in detail).
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  #17  
Old 04-27-2011, 08:04 AM
jibo jibo is offline
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8gig is totally overkill but on a P67 dual channel you have no choice :/ or go 4+2
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  #18  
Old 04-27-2011, 08:07 AM
Vengeanze Vengeanze is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jibo View Post
8gig is totally overkill but on a P67 dual channel you have no choice :/ or go 4+2
No choice? Ellaborate please.
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  #19  
Old 04-27-2011, 08:13 AM
jibo jibo is offline
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P67 chipset does not support triple channel so you can't go 2/2/2 if you want more than 4gig, you need the same amount of ram on each bank to support full ddr
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  #20  
Old 04-27-2011, 08:45 AM
Helrza Helrza is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vengeanze View Post
I'd say get a new g-card like Radeon HD6950 or similar. Everything else in your setup should be fine (haven't looked in detail).
I saw another bloke in the forum state he got excellent results from that card. To be honest i was looking at that and a few others, but was really considering the gtx590 lol.. solely cause i love nvidia. But with both requiring PCIe v2 ill need to upgrade the MB too, which means a new cpu... and ram rofl. Well, a top of the range card aint needed then cheers
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