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How much do I need to spend to run Rift at ultra

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Dashel

Senior member
I usually put together a new rig every 3-5 years so ideally this should run at least current games at max easily, but also looking down the road a year or so. I dont mind adding a new gpu every 18 months or so, but the core should be solid.

So, what am I looking at to crush Rift or any mainstream MMO at max with a bunch of other players on screen running at 1920x1200?

Honestly I dont care so much about ultra settings, just smooth and fluid with easy and instant reactions, but since it's new, ultra would be expected.

Budget: Under 2000 would be good but I'd like to know what I need to spend to get what I want. I was thinking 1500 should do it but I dont know.

Buying in the US

I like ASUS motherboards and Intel chips, but I'm open to any brands

I already have: 25" monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers. I also have a single 460GTX so it's an option to pull that over and SLI/crossfire it.

No overclocking

Would like to build ASAP

I was looking at this thread by mnewsham and was thinking something along those lines.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2143542
 
I recently (today) removed the pair of 4850 1gb cards from my rig (in sig) and dropped in a 6950 to keep my Q6600 company. I had been running 1920x1200 with modified "high" settings (16xAF in drivers, clutter down, shadows off, etc...) to make it run smoothly. The 6950 does pretty damn good using ultra settings with 16xAF and 8xMSAA in drivers). I really have yet to begin to tweak (I did quickly overclock to the max CCC would let me 840/1325). I saw 1 or 2 slowdowns to mid-high 20 fps range; however, I only really noticed them because I was looking for them (IE: the game was plenty playable...).

In any case, my p67 board should be here for next weekend. I have a 2500k and an additional 6950 sitting here on the floor waiting for them. I hope they manage to work out the xfire scale issue... soon... (note: I'm using the 11.4 test drivers).
 
MMOs love a great cpu and SSDs.

The newer sata III SSDs are coming out driving down the prices on older models, and the older models are plenty fast and reliable for gaming. That vertex II is a great choice and I've got the 180gb version. Just be sure it's large enough for you to have 15% of the storage free. If you can wait a little longer it may come down in price.

Likewise bulldozer will be coming out soon and should lower prices on processors. The more cores the merrier for MMOs, but even a fast quad core like the i5 2500k should be more then enough for a few years to come.
 
wuliheron said:
MMOs love a great cpu and SSDs.

The newer sata III SSDs are coming out driving down the prices on older models, and the older models are plenty fast and reliable for gaming. That vertex II is a great choice and I've got the 180gb version. Just be sure it's large enough for you to have 15% of the storage free. If you can wait a little longer it may come down in price.

Likewise bulldozer will be coming out soon and should lower prices on processors. The more cores the merrier for MMOs, but even a fast quad core like the i5 2500k should be more then enough for a few years to come.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that I agree with your processor statement exactly. I definitely agree that MMOs love great CPUs; however, at this point, I don't think that there are many / any that are going to use more than 4 cores (most probably aren't fully using 2). In that case, going above a quad core really isn't giving you a ton of (if any) extra performance. Better to have a quad that is highly clocked than have an 8 core processor with 6 idle cores. I'm sure this will change as developers start to make use of more cores. As it stands right now, my q6600 isn't fully loaded when playing rift.

SSD's definitely help load times. I'll be getting one sooner rather than later.
 
Anomaly1964 said:
I heard MMOs REALLY benefit from an SSD drive...
Click to expand...

For zoning times yes. The thing is, the only MMORPG I ever played used clear zones, while most newer MMORPGs I hear they use "seamless" zoning. How seamless exactly are they? Especially Rift? Is there no perceived zoning at all or do you occasionally see your FPS drop for a few seconds at random times?
 
Wuzup101 said:
I'm not sure that I agree with your processor statement exactly. I definitely agree that MMOs love great CPUs; however, at this point, I don't think that there are many / any that are going to use more than 4 cores (most probably aren't fully using 2). In that case, going above a quad core really isn't giving you a ton of (if any) extra performance. Better to have a quad that is highly clocked than have an 8 core processor with 6 idle cores. I'm sure this will change as developers start to make use of more cores. As it stands right now, my q6600 isn't fully loaded when playing rift.

SSD's definitely help load times. I'll be getting one sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...

I agree, a quad is plenty for now. However, MMOs are among the early adopters of using more cores and 8 cores are an ideal minimum for physics and AI. It's more a question of budget and future proofing then anything else. If you can afford it I'd definitely recommend at least one of the newer processors like the i5 2500k.
 
Last edited:
Dashel said:
Thanks very much for the help!

For the SSD, this will be my first but I wanted something a bit bigger like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227590

OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Never saw that case before, is it easy to work with? Thanks again looking forward to doing this now.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: to Sandforce
:thumbsdown: to OCZ

OCZ has been having some serious QA problems with their firmware, so I'd stay away. I'd recommend the Corsair Force 120GB. You'll pay more, but you won't be stuck with crappy firmware that lowers performance.
 
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