Ideal PC Spec for Multiplayer and General Racing

[Andrew Harper]

Hi,

Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong place, just want to get a general idea from other AC users and what system setups they run.

After my stuttering debut on multi-player yesterday I'm just wondering what sort of specs people are running to get good performance out of this game.

If I explain what I am using at the moment. It's a family PC, quad core with 4GB RAM. Never intended for gaming was just bought as a special for general work on. To enable gaming I just bought a budget 3D card GTX 660. The PC doesn't belong to me so not really wanting to spend a fortune.

Raceroom I can run almost max on everything without any issues, except when I'm in multiplayer races with 18-20 cars, then it starts to suffer.

GSCE runs great, even with everything switched on and almost 30 cars. Which I admit surprised me!

If I'm on my own (or with two or three cars) AC will run with almost all the settings at high. If something crazy happens (at the start or cars spin) this obviously causes problems and it drops to 5-10 FPS

I do want to get my own setup but would like some opinions on what would be best to aim for. Obviously faster is better but I'm torn between a desktop or a gaming PC. Why? Because I would also use it for graphics work as well. If it's a desktop machine it's more or less going to just end up as a game station plugged into the TV.

Two suggestions for your feedback;
http://www.aorus.com/x7pro.aspx
This is the SLI Aorus Laptop, seems to be pretty much on par with a top gaming desktop.

Or this which is a Chillblast special
http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fusion-Pandora-Gaming-PC.html

I tend to keep my PC's for 6 or 7 years so don't mind paying the prices. Obviously the main difference between the desktop and the laptop is just the "general" speed of the components (CPU, memory speed, etc)

So the question is quad core enough power for high(ish) detail or do I need to go six cores for the game to run super smoothly?

Probably my only other option is to still get the desktop and in a years time get myself a Macpro for the design work! haha.

Thanks,

Andrew.

 

[Andy_J]

How much do you want to spend Andrew? And will you need a monitor?

 

[AJ McDaddy]

Personally, I'd go for a gaming desktop as that will give you a good future upgrade path. The specs of the laptop look great but just not sure how it would be during long and large grid multi-player sessions. AC has performance issues on the best of pcs for some reason, I'd just be nervous of advising you to use a laptop despite the specs, but ultimately it's up to you - flexibility (laptop) over more upgrade ability (desktop).

 

[Georg Siebert]

AC runs on two threads only, higher clockspeeds yield you more performance.
Reduce smoke to improve fps at race starts.
Other stats and performance characteristics in our FAQ.
I'd suggest a desktop machine (a tower) and preferable to build one yourself. I don't know what advantage the laptop has doing graphics work.

 

[Andrew Harper]

How much do you want to spend Andrew? And will you need a monitor?

Hi @Andy_J , probably looking at around £1000-£1200 max. I'm slightly lucky as I live on Guernsey so I can get the VAT removed.

Yes if I went the desktop route I would be starting from scratch so I would need a monitor. These days with almost all cards having HDMI I would probably plug the desktop into the media system downstairs for racing use. Enough space to setup the wheel and I'm lucky in that I have a 50" tv screen to view the racing on as well.

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciated.

My racing colleague has recently spent around £500 on a Chillblast setup, unfortunately I haven't managed to talk him into buying AC, because I would be curious to see how well it runs! haha.

I've also pre-ordered Project Cars (it had better be good after all the delays) and judging by the vids and screen shots you need a pretty beefed up PC to run that piece of simware.

I have considered building a system myself (I used to build PC's for friends and family) but I've lost touch slightly so would need to do some investigation into what's best.

 

[Andy_J]

Try here Andrew: http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom

I have purchased a few off these guys. Very well built and you can customise to exactly what you want. They even overclock and fully test for you.
There are plenty of Full HD 27" monitors that are ideal for not much money too.

All the best.
Andy.

 

[Titanuranus]

I have a 144Hz monitor at 1080P
i7-4790k 4.00 ghz
gtx 780ti oc
and 16gb of ram and my frames still drop to like mad to almost unplayable on max settings with 20+ cars

 

[Andrew Harper]

I have a 144Hz monitor at 1080P
i7-4790k 4.00 ghz
gtx 780ti oc
and 16gb of ram and my frames still drop to like mad to almost unplayable on max settings with 20+ cars

Thanks @Titanuranus Thats great information for me to go on. In that case a 2.5Ghz quad core laptop cpu just won't cut it with this multiplayer so that saves me time (and money!)

 

[Titanuranus]

Thanks @Titanuranus Thats great information for me to go on. In that case a 2.5Ghz quad core laptop cpu just won't cut it with this multiplayer so that saves me time (and money!)

yeah my entire computer i built from scratch costed me 1800$ CAD monitor was an extra 440

 

[Andy_J]

I have a 144Hz monitor at 1080P
i7-4790k 4.00 ghz
gtx 780ti oc
and 16gb of ram and my frames still drop to like mad to almost unplayable on max settings with 20+ cars

I gave a SCAN 3XS custom PC, i5 4670k cpu, overclocked to 4.4ghz, GTX970 card, 16gb ram and my AC runs butter smooth with 20 odd cars on track. But thats without post processing at 1080p, but all other settings up to max. It's best to state what settings you are using.

 

[Titanuranus]

i have everything on max even ppe i will have to try it without ppe im sure it will run smooth without ppe enabled

Edit: without PPE it runs smooth maybe 5 frames less then with no one the track and PPE enabled

 

[Andy_J]

Well for me, on my own on say Mugello, with all max and full Post processing I get 65-95 fps. Without PP, I get 145-190 fps.

 

[Titanuranus]

Interesting i get 77-98 fps with max and full PPE and only 98-113 fps with ppe turned off on mugello.