Recommended Computer Specs?

[Mekong_Lizard]

I used to play FH1 years ago and have been wanting to get into FH2 for a while now. The only problem is my computer just won't run anything well. I won't even bother posting the system specs because it is genuinely out of date.

So, if I were to build a computer, what would the minimum requirements be to play it smoothly on medium graphics? Or do I really need a $2,000 computer these days?

Thanks!

[Danger X]

Just look for the specs of Battlefield 2, and aim a bit higher.

My computer was €700,-, and it is more than fast enough.

Cheers

[azreal]

I'd have to say something like 2GB of RAM is necessary. Especially considering RAM ain't that cheap if you get it from newegg.com or something.

[Die Happy]

i would recommend:
- 2GB ram of any kind, ram is the most vital part for the game not just for loading times but also fluid gameplay, if you want to be sure for some future games get a 2x2GB DDR2 kit, they are quite cheap

- cpu with more than 2,5ghz per core (singles cores are ok but if you wanna get new stuff got for dual cores) like the intel dual core E8400 (3ghz per core). BF2 might not support dual cores but they are the future

- any gfx card of the last year will do you dont need a high end card to run the game but here it gets tricky:
while the game engine is mostly programmed for nvidia cards they  do it well but latest drivers have some bugs that prevent some shaders from working
ati on the other hand does fine with the shaders but has some quality issues on shadows (and shadows only), the look rather pixelated. however you only recognize this if you really look for it.

to sum up:

-2x2GB DDR2 ram (dont invest in overclocked ram the performance gain is rather low compared to the more costs)
- some dual core cpu with at least 2,5ghz
- some gfx card from the last year will do but i would recommend 512mb ram on the cardto be on teh save side

last but not least DONT GOT FOR VISTA, if you must have 64 bit, get windows xp 64 only go for vista if you must have directx 10 for some crazy reason. keep an eye on your power supply since newer gfx cars leech watts like mad. and a solid motherboard is a good basis for a good pc.

[Capten_C]

I'm seriously "thinking" about upgrading a little. (FH2 is my main vice) 

My plan is to go for Win XP Pro with 4G Ram. I currently have XP Home.

While I'm at it I intend to get a new PSU about 600W, only have a 400watter at the mo.

Also I may take the plunge and go for an Intel Quad Core of the cheaper end, and a new MB to go with it. But I may keep the Dual Core + MB I have if prices start getting out of hand!

My current card is a Radeon X1950 Pro bought back in 2006. I'm getting performace problems somewhere, not sure if it's the card or not.
Anyway I'm looking at investing in a nice    Graphics Card that'll last 3-5 yrs and the "Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB DDR5 CC 750MHz PCIE 2xDVI" is winking at me at the moment. Do you techies think FH2 will be ok with this one, I'm aware some cards have probs with bf2/fh2. 
What's the best mid price card out there at the moment to run FH2 ? I've allways gone for Radeon stuff in the past.

Should there be problems with FH2 and quad core? If I go down that route?

Anyway just ideas at the moment! 

[Slayer]

I have a quadcore myself, no probs other than the occasional ctd. My graph card is a Radeon 4800, works properly. I have 3 GB of RAM on Win XP Pro, I might go for an extra gig one day.

[Capten_C]

Yes if that 4800 card is ok, then perhaps it's silly to go for the 1G instead of the 512 MB, might save some un-needed expence there. What is that 1G/512 MB on the cards all about anyway? I know the higher the numbers the "better" the card, but in laymans terms what does it actually mean, make your Panzer look shinier? 

[Slayer]

Haha, no.

A graphic card is actually a small computer within your computer. So more MB means a more powerful GPU (GPU= Graphic Processing Unit, much like CPU). It calculates all video information faster, making gameplay smoother and more detailed at the same time, for instance.

If you want to try out graphic card's properties, there's this neat invention called the benchmark. You can download these little movies from everywhere around the net. They tell you how many frames the GPU can handle per second, and all other info you want to know about your card. Because you need the card when testing with benchmarks, this testing is best done at a shop, where they have several cards on display. Just ask an employee to play a benchmark, or two, or three (there are various kinds). Then make your choice.

[Capten_C]

Nice one! I just tried that test on here :-  http://freestone-group.com/video-card-stability-test.htm

My X1950 Pro was :- 306
NVIDIA GeoForce 8400 :- 41
"                "      7600 :- 193
Radeon 2600XT :- 119
Radeon H2400 :- 43

So is that good/bad? 

[Slayer]

LOL, those aren't benchmark results. I'm not sure what they are, I think they're stability test results. Which is something different.

The benchmark results for ATI cards are on this page: http://freestone-group.com/video-card-stability-test/benchmark-results.html#ATI

and NVidia is here: http://freestone-group.com/video-card-stability-test/benchmark-results.html#NVIDIA

To learn more about the values, check this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-benchmarking,205.html

I must warn you though, it can get quite technical and it's also a pretty old article, so a lot of improvements have been made in the meantime, however, the basics are still the same..

[Capten_C]

Hehe! Ok, I will quit fiddling and have a look at that info, as Clint says "Man's got to know his limitations!" 

[Kev4000]

Most cards newer or equal to the 7800 nvidia or ATI 2900HD should play FH2 pretty good, capable of high settings at resolutions up to 1680x1050. If you want to go 1920x1200 everything on high settings with 8x AA I'd recommend atleast an 8800GT 512MB. All of this is of course with equally up to date CPU and 2GB+ ram. Also a properly calibrated computer with windows XP is recommended for best performance. Vista is of course capable of running FH2, but for equal performance compared with XP another gigabyte of ram is recommended.

[NTH]

Yes if that 4800 card is ok, then perhaps it's silly to go for the 1G instead of the 512 MB, might save some un-needed expence there. What is that 1G/512 MB on the cards all about anyway? I know the higher the numbers the "better" the card, but in laymans terms what does it actually mean, make your Panzer look shinier? 

If you play other games besides FH2 you should get a 1GB videoard. There are games (GTA4 for example) that actually use the whole memory for texture loading.
If it only means a difference of 20 Euros I would defiantly go for a 1 GB card.

Now to save money, why would you go for a quad-core ? The E8400, that Die Happy recommended, is more than capable for future games to come. Only game that is said to be using multiples cores are Alan Wake and I think ET: Quake wars use them.

What is your current CPU ?

[Capten_C]

Thanks for the feedback!
I'm not sure if I will go for Quad core, I was just musing over the idea seeing as they are the new kids on the block.
I currently have a Dual core 3.4GHz, so I presume it'll be compatable with nice new Radeon 4870 vid card?

I can't seem to get the right drivers for the X1950 pro the newest ones go beserk after a while on FH2 so I'm back to the originals now, but I'm not sure if the card's packing in after 3 years of daily gaming! I get wierd spike graphics in game, big blankets of pixelated colours and every so often the game will freeze and CTD with a message from ATI Catalyst saying the drivers can't cope with 1680x1050 resoloution, and reverts back to 800x600.

TBH I'd rather get a new HDD. I invetsed in a 10,000rpm one a few years ago as I read up they improve gaming but they are expensive and I have only 70G of space and I didn't think I'd fill it up so quickly, but you soon fill em up with music and sh1t. So I may go for a bigger Gig capacity but this time with a cheaper 7,200rpm drive, or just have 1 large drive for storage and keep the 10k rpm one.

At the moment I'm definatley going to get XP Pro for the Ram difference and a new vid card and PSU, decisions decisions! 

[NTH]

Keep the 10.000 RPM for you applications, games and windows systeem. Use the 7200 RPM for Music, Movies, etc.

HDD i/o is the bottlenecks these days. Hopefully Solid State disk will get cheaper in the near future.

If you can wait till Q3 of 2009. AMD announced a price drop : http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-plans-price-cut-for-hd-4800-series-in-q3/7173.html?doc=7173.