So with empires now being officially in the steam source engine games curator listing... We are getting loads of new players. (*cheering and celebration ensues*) But the store page doesn't tell them 2 things: 1) What's the minimum spec you'll need to play empires(at a decent frame rate)? 2) How much disk space do i need? We could really do with this info to update the store page. Finding out how much disk space is easy... it's about 6.5 GB on disk... But what's the lowest spec PC you've played empires on in the past 6 months? I recently got a new laptop, but here's my old spec... The machine is about 5 years old now... Does anyone play empires on a worse pc than this? (The PC specs have been posted similarly to how system requirements appear on steam) OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M, 2.3Ghz Quad Core. Memory: 6GB DirectX: DX11 Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 & Nvidia GeForce GT 520M 1GB Resolution: 1366x768 I got above 60fps on lowest graphics settings with this hardware. It only lagged on super high player counts on certain maps. Does anyone play on lower than this?
Since this is still source engine, I'd go with the CSS min specs: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/counter-strike-source/11371
Empires needs a slightly higher spec system to run smoothly. I run every css map perfectly but some empires maps and on large player counts my fps will drop to as low as 15
lol, and i tought i have the lowest specs here Spoiler: Coresponding VulcanStorm dude, sad to must tell you, but your CPU isn't a Quadcore! know your CPU (i5-2410M) (btw, why 6GB=1x4GB+1x2GB ram and not 2x4GB ??? - i would suggest you to sell the 2GB SO-DIMM as early as possible and get a 4-8GB one! - 2GB are falling from being purchased!) my system specs atm: OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i5-2450M, 2.5Ghz Memory: 8GB DirectX: DX11 Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 & AMD Radeon HD 6630M (atm i run the onboard!) Resolution: 1366x768
im not entirely sure about the gfx card, but i think when i found empires i had a i5-750@2.67ghz, 4gb ram and a gtx-560ti at this clock speeds the cpu is a tad worse than vulcans. edit: actually no. the i5 was released 2009, i joined the forums in late 2007 (iirc) so it must have been a core2 and i think i had some ati card in that? gosh this is long ago Oo also does anyone remember omnis "how low can you go" thread?
@flasche yes, I remember the thread. But I would like a more current view of hardware. It's no good saying what ran empires years ago, because it's not the same now (although similar). And I personally hate minimum requirements that are outdated and don't reflect the current state of the game. @BlackRedDead Those were my old specs. I have a new much more powerful laptop. But I still have my old one to hand. And the CPU may not be qla physical quad core... But it's 4 logical cores. And the system diagnostics tell me it's 4cpu.
well bascially anything bought in the recent 5 years should be able to run empires at 60fps in fullhd. (your cpu was released in Q1-2011 and its a m-variant) if thered be a source engine for ARM i bet you could run it on most current phones (at least the high end ones)
Spoiler: "how low you can go" link well, be able to run 4 tasks at a time is indeed an great improvement, but you still have only the "horsepower" of 2 and not 4 cores! - system specs should reflect what you machine can handle, also HT is a common feature of i-series CPUs and doesn't need to be noted, thus your statement was just wrong and if used in minimum requirements in that form gz - ppl would buy more quadcores to play empires - at least you might have understood why hardware manufacturers support games financially but you can't say you have two graphic cards just because it supports two screens!
I thought empires wasn't really optimized for more then one core thanks to there not being multicore support til orange box. So the best bet has always been one really strong core for empires, though having a second does help if you run stuff in the background. Not like it matters considering you can't really buy new single cores, but if you have the option go for stronger cores instead of a lot of weaker ones. This advice generally works for most other games too. I should also say that no i5's have hyper threading, that's what separates them from i7s, but that only applies to desktops cpus. Mobile is weird as hell, like I know with my gen, sandy bridge, the difference between i5 and i7 mobile is a slightly bigger l3 catch and possibly a 100 mhz faster clock speed, depending on which one is in there. Though there are quad cores i7s for sandy bridge, most of them are dual cores. I've been playing off a x220t thinkpad for the past year, Specs are: i5-2520M Dual core 2.5 ghz, turbo 3.2 ghz 12 gb ram hd 3000 graphics I get around 30fps with most things set to low, assuming I wasn't playing in a hot environment. Otherwise the cpu would throttle down and it would start chugging. For some time now though I got a gtx 950 for it and it runs empires very nicely, 100 fps or something at 1080p. Probably has a lot to do with off loading a lot of the heat to an external source, so the cpu can run full throttle the entire time. Heat makes all the difference in performance for mobile stuff, if you are having some crappy performance even in cold weather you might want to check you temps and possibly reapply thermal compound to heat sinks, really helps.
Arrrgh, that hurts i think i know what you mean, but even then it is just wrong! first off, you can still buy singlecores! - though there aren't any new single core generations because multicore and hyperthreading feature many advantages in every market sector! if you mean that you can't really rely on 1 core or 1 process thats also wrong, you can shut down cores manually (HTT aswell) and also dedicate cores to single processes! ;-) Spoiler: coresponding Lazybum true, after dual core any who wanna buy a new CPU should first look at the frequency, by no doubt it shouldn't been lower than 2Ghz but 3Ghz are still enough in most cases - 4+Ghz cpu's are more future looking! (tough the tide between Intel and AMD switched several years ago with HTT and AMD failed to come up, so buying an AMD today is very stupid - sadly!, but read yourself why, there are many good articles about that matter) but anyway, RAM is extraordinary increasing - especially at gaming - developers not only use the available RAM for new features but sadly often get messy in it's usage!, especially at early access games! :-/ so after CPU one should try to increase his RAM and the speed of it! (4Ghz CPU but 1Ghz RAM? - happy birthday - better 3Ghz CPU and 2Ghz RAM! - but again at RAM the size matters first! - 8GB is enough but 12/16GB should be aimed at for the near future!) ...how you gonna think that? - HTT is implemented in every i-series CPU! (maybe one of the first gen i3 was that case you're reffering to but even they have HTT now - have just fast looked on Intel's Product page) it is the keytechnology that have seperated them from AMD and granted them the (semi)monopol on the CPU market! Lenovo is shit! - have a good P/L ratio (uhm sorry, price-performance in english) but very bad manufactoring quality - i never buy lenovo again! can't confirm the relyance of temp to performance on intel shit, my core runs stable at 60-80° (already cooled externally at longer sessions) and even with disabled CPU parking i have issues with throttling on my actual craptop! - strangely start happening only after i switched to use the Intel HD graphics, but regardless what i'm doing, games or even my browser laags xP - as i used the Radeon Mobility everything was just fine! (but atm disabled due to producing bluescreens - if i buy a new system i try to bake it and otherwise trow that shitbook away! -.-# - my asus a9rp works better and is better manufactured aswell! - despite the fact it was a midrange class to it's time!) but to be fair, i come from AMD systems, those just haven't all that shit like temp throttling and cpu parking! - while the concept sounds great, the actual experience with them is horrible! - if i do nothing on my crapbook i can sometimes hear how the CPU wastes energy to manage itself xP (tough might be still power safeing in the end, but normaly i don't have all my systems on at the same time, atm just now and then because writing with a strange lenovo keyboard that doesn't like some keys anymore is impossible! - really, i have some experience in hardware and even a friend who is still working in that branch refuses to find out the issue source, he mean that i would need to send it in and thats not worth it!)
That's the point? Why would you buy older components if you are building a new pc? Yeah you can buy single cores off ebay or whatever, and then find out that athlon 3200 xp you bought doesn't run empires thanks to not having some newer feature needed to run the game. I don't understand what you mean by that last line though, who's should switch pc?
you impatiant prick! (read my last post) AMD times are sadly over - if they can't manage to jump 4 years of technological development into the future! :-/
no, i5 desktop cpus dont have HT. and thats (desktop not i5) the cpus most gamers use (hopefully at least). and while were at throwing i's around, empires certainly runs great on a lot of i3s aswell. if you put a minimum requirement put something like: intel i series (desktop 1st gen i5, mobile 2nd gen i5 or higher) dx9 compatible gfx card 4 GB of ram (because windows wont run well on less anyway) x GB of HDD space soundcard microphone windows 7 or higher
I series is more of a recommended thing then a minimum thing. Just about any new processor will run empires just fine assuming you aren't running integrated graphics, but even then empires is still kinda playable. Really though I would say counter strike GO min specs are just about what you need to play empires. CSS is way to low, it seriously says 512 mb ram to play. empires wouldn't even boot. Of course you have problems with heat if you use integrated graphics, you cpu uses more power because it's doing both graphics and processing and so it produces more heat, laptops don't really have the ability to dissipate that much heat for extended periods. This thinkpad is great, 200$ super solid and waaaaaaaay easy to do any sort of work on. Sure other lenovo stuff might not be so nice, but the thinkpad lineup is usually always good, barring like 2 product lines on it. I thought this was a min spec to play empires thread, not a what's a decent computer thread.
Spoiler: Coresponding Flasche i5 of first gen w/o HTT (only 3! - the rest have it! - feel free to check the other gens aswell!) i personally must say that i NEVER really understand what the hell Intel want to tell with i3/5/7 - it's just confusing rather as AMD's strange numbering! - i can totaly understand that some ppl remember wrong facts like i3/5 would have no HTT and other BS! (propably the reason why they name theire products so confusing -.-#) i3 is indeed limited in some way's, that i remember, but i forgot in wich exactly!
BRD, that list only shows the first gen of i5s(Before sandy bridge), even if you take off the hyper threading on that list it only shows the first gen. There's a separate listing for each gen. If you search for all cpus without hyper threading you can find like 70 i5s that don't have hyper threading. i series is pretty simple enough, i3 dual core has hyper threading, i5 4 cores no hyper threading, i7 4 cores and hyper threading. Of course there's a few little things here and there that change too, like clock speeds, but generally that's the big difference between them.
Spoiler: Coresponding Lazybum kay, so one should still check that befor buy xP - but, the majory of i5 have HTT! ;-) (and i used the first gen lists because it was the time HTT got into series production with the i-core series!)
1.) a majoirty of those are m processors (m = mobile, aka for notebooks, i said its different there) 2.) thats all processors from before 2012 3.) thats not even close to a majority of i5 cpus 4.) can you please use quote like a normal human being and stop putting shit in spoiler tags, thank you.
Spoiler: Coresponding flasche please look at the lists, they are desktops! - you have searched all and no wonder that you get the mobility cores then! true, as i said in the beginning, but checked 7th gen aswell, same results! - 3 (desktop) i5 w/o HTT - the rest with! well, not ALL - true, already acknowledged that you still need to check it on the cores individually! ;-) could you go ahead and explain your problem with it?! i use the spoilers to shorten posts that follow after eachother or are quite long, at least the person who got quoted should know what he has written and thread reading ppl aswell, if someone do not remember it it's still there - just a click away! if everyone would just invest that few sec to put unnecessary quotes into spoilers, it would greatly improve thread readability! ;-) (more "wanted" text on 1 screen)
The thread is actually less easy to follow with spoiler tags in most cases. If the thing you quote is really long it only shows part of it unless the person expands it. It's like it was an intentional feature or something to make it easy for users to see who's talking to who. Crazy, I know.
