So the time is coming for a new computer...


Rusty_Old_F250

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My current computer has been a good unit, but it struggles to run the game on the Low graphics setting. I'd like to bump that up to High, but I don't know anything about spec'ing a computer. What's the specs I'd need to run the game on each quality setting? Processor, video card, ram, etc. 

And just to make this more interesting, I'm going to need my next computer to be a laptop. Any recommendations? oh and just to make this more interesting, I don't have a lot of money to spend; I've been setting up a small cabin and putting a new-to-me engine into one of my two old fords.

Sam

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The ability of the pc to run a game at any quality usually comes down to the combination of the processor (CPU) and the graphics device (GPU). In laptops good GPU's will only be found in more expensive models but adequate CPU's tend to be found in much cheaper models.

At the moment, TLD is a 32 bit application so any new pc will likely have enough RAM. 32 bit address space is around 4GB but the OS needs to use a chunk of this. Last time I checked, TLD was using less than 2GB. You will probably find it hard to buy a gaming pc these days with less than 8GB.

The speed of the mass storage device (eg hard drive) will also affect the overall pleasure in using the pc. Having a solid state device as the primary drive with a secondary hard drive is preferable but again this is something that will often be found only in higher end laptops.

Anyway it should be the quality of the GPU that primarily drives your purchase of a gaming laptop. Everything else should fall into line behind that. And at the moment the best gaming laptops incorporate the mobile versions of the nVidia 1060, 1070 and 1080 chips. Imho, anything with a 1060 will minimize cost, heat and battery use while still running TLD at high quality/resolution/frame rates. To give you some idea of the cost, try looking at:


Portable multimedia laptops with Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics

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On 02/19/2017 at 7:40 PM, Rusty_Old_F250 said:

My current computer has been a good unit, but it struggles to run the game on the Low graphics setting. I'd like to bump that up to High, but I don't know anything about spec'ing a computer. What's the specs I'd need to run the game on each quality setting? Processor, video card, ram, etc. 

And just to make this more interesting, I'm going to need my next computer to be a laptop. Any recommendations? oh and just to make this more interesting, I don't have a lot of money to spend; I've been setting up a small cabin and putting a new-to-me engine into one of my two old fords.

Sam

If you could specify your current computer, I'd say maybe the change of only one part of it would be enough. I saw some rigs running the game, it's not the type that requires top CPU/VGA/etc. (The weakest computer was: Pentium G4500/8GB DDR4 RAM/128GB SSD. It used the Skylake IGP, and went smooth 1920*1080, lowest settings.)

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Something I recently heard about the latest gen of intel mobile processors.  The performance gap between the latest i5 and i7 models is basically non-existent for games.  Look for the highest frequency i5 when gaming laptop shopping.  This is not as easy as it sounds though since the gaming laptop market is skewed to cater to people with more money than sense, and they will pay the extra $800 for the biggest number.  All it really gets you is maybe 4 extra fps on the majority of games on max resolutions. As mentioned before, the GPU is where you should be focusing your dollars at. 

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5 hours ago, Rusty_Old_F250 said:

Thanks guys, I'll do some digging.

Here's the specs on my current computer: AMD A6-3600 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 2.10 GHz, 6 GB of RAM, and running windows 10 with a 64bit operating system.

Sam

If you buy a Radeon r7-250 or Geforce GT730, both 1 or 2GB GDDR5 (forget DDR3!) you'll be amazed. :)

(If you have at least 400W PSU, you can opt for a Geforce GT740 as well.)

And then, you can buy a entry-level laptop (for work you need it, I don't know). So you'll have 2 machines, a laptop for work and a PC for TLD or other games. Don't expect too much from these cards, but TLD will run OK.

Here come the use cases:
#1 The new VGA card will cost you "x" amount. The new laptop will cost you "y" amount.
#2 You buy a gamer-like laptop, and you sell your current PC, the whole will cost you in the end "z" amount.
IF "x+y < z" maybe #1 is for you. If not, or the difference is marginal, you should go for #2.

Hints:
1. Today's typical screen resolution of laptops is 1366*768. At this res a better IGP of today is more than enough for TLD, namely Intel Core i3-6100H, i3-6167U, i5-6200U, i5-6260U roughly in this order (prices I mean). And here we don't talk about dedicated VGA in the laptop.
2. In case you find a suitable priced laptop saying "Core i3(whatever version)+8GB RAM+Geforce 850M-2GB GDDR5", this could be your option too. Avoid AMD mobile VGA. (Here you can find more info: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-840M.105681.0.html - right side coloumn for browsing different laptop vga specs.)
3. As for laptop, if you can afford, choose one with SSD. It'll be much faster than traditional HDD and consumes less power.
4. I play in FHD, lowest details. Higher details mean (among many goodies) that there's more grass, and I often don't recognize sticks, rabbits, even wolves! :)

Good luck!

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  • 1 month later...

I'll second @palbi. Build a gaming PC and buy a cheaper 'good enough' laptop. I feel a fool for buying expensive MacBook Pros so that I have a laptop that "can do everything" when in reality a MacBook fulfils my everyday needs and a MacBook Pro doesn't really do games that well anyway.

Recently built this gaming PC (link to pcpartpicker, which is highly recommended for fine tuning component choices) and overclocked the i5 to 4.9GHz. I'm very pleased with it. The build is around the 'Superb' level on logical increments, another useful website if you're building a gaming pc. It's overkill for TLD, but there are other games that are graphically much more demanding. If you get something with similar spec it'll be good for gaming for a while.

I've gone from noticeable lagging, frame rate dips and having to turn down graphics settings (playing on a circa 2015 MacBook Pro) to playing  TLD at 60 - 90 fps on the highest settings at 1440p resolution with the gaming PC. :) And if you go for an AMD GPU, try and get a Freesync monitor. If the fps stay between 40 - 90 you get no tearing and frame rate dips are barely noticeable at all.

 

 

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I would encourage you to go for a desktop PC, not a laptop. Laptops are notorious for power supply issues, lack of graphics capability, difficulty adding large hard drives with good speed, crappy connectors and lousy displays unless you run an external monitor. I like the large monitor such as a 30+" LCD and they are cheap and modular to replace. Laptops also tend to be over priced for what you get. Instead, maybe you want a tablet for simple email, browser and note taking with a decent home computer. Still, tablet technology still has a few years more to go before it becomes really solid. Still newish; some will disagree with my assessment. There are just too many problems with proprietary software, compatibility issues and smart phones. I give up and use VOIP at home. Yes, I am a troglodyte boomer and I like my heavy iron!

I can also recommend you go with a solid state drive for the OS and applications. This greatly speeds up many things.

I am liking Windows 10 more these days. Feel less need to use Linux however I like the option of dual  booting into Linux so we have a second SSD for that purpose.

We don't hear much about Linux and TLD. How is that working out? Any recommendations for that configuration? It's certainly nice to have many many choices for free applications and better security. And a COTS C, C++ and Java compilers.

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On 21/04/2017 at 6:22 AM, exeexe said:

@mystifeid If you have windows 32 bit you can only have 4 GB of RAM!!

32 bit (client) Windows can only use 2^32 bits of address space. This address space includes all memory in the computer including various caches, the memory on the graphics card and the RAM.

It is perfectly possible to run 32 bit Windows on a computer with 8GB of RAM but more than half will not be used.

However it is still possible to utilize more than 4GB of address space with a 32 bit operating system by using Physical Address Extensions - 32-bit Windows Server 2008 Datacenter supports 64GB.

32 bit client Windows operating systems also support PAE but the 4GB limit is locked in.

If a computer with 4GB of RAM is running 32 bit Windows 7 Home Premium for example, the video, audio and network adapters might have memory that adds up to 500MB but this device memory is mapped below the 4GB boundary and Windows will only use 3.5GB of RAM. Initially this was to remain compatible with a lot of video and audio drivers that were found on clients but not servers. These drivers were not programmed to expect physical addresses larger than 4GB.

(What is important when thinking of upgrading an old computer to a 64 bit operating system is that it contains a 64 bit CPU.)

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I'm not sure what your budget is, but I bought this ASUS gaming laptop off Amazon in November, and it's been awesome for gaming. I accidentally bought the 17" screen, but the 15.5" screen should be fine, and it's quite a bit cheaper than the 17". Hope this helps. 

 

*edit* - It runs TLD spectacularly...

 

https://www.amazon.com/GL752VW-DH74-17-Inch-Discrete-GeForce-Metallic/dp/B015ZG9964/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1493008468&sr=1-1&keywords=ASUS+ROG+GL752VW-DH74+17-Inch+Gaming+Laptop%2C+Discrete+GPU+GeForce+GTX+960M+4+GB+VRAM%2C+16GB+DDR4%2C+1+TB%2C+128+GB+SSD+(ROG+Metallic)

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/25/2017 at 1:20 AM, palbi said:

If you buy a Radeon r7-250 or Geforce GT730, both 1 or 2GB GDDR5 (forget DDR3!) you'll be amazed. :)

I went ahead and bought a Geforce GT730 and MAN! What a difference! Thank you, you saved me quite a bit of money. I would love to have a laptop, but this is what fits the budget at the moment. I now consider myself fully prepared for whatever update hits when the timer reaches zero! ;)

Sam

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On 2017. 05. 03. at 2:14 AM, Rusty_Old_F250 said:

I went ahead and bought a Geforce GT730 and MAN! What a difference! Thank you, you saved me quite a bit of money. I would love to have a laptop, but this is what fits the budget at the moment. I now consider myself fully prepared for whatever update hits when the timer reaches zero! ;)

Sam

:)

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