PC Performance

[BrosefTheSaviour]

Hey guys,
I'm building a new PC and I was wondering what you think I will get in terms of performance. I feel it necessary to mention that I have come from a laptop with an i3-4100U processor and a gt 740m GPU.
CPU: G4560 @ 3.5ghz
GPU: MSI RX480 GAMING X 8gb
RAM: Corsair vengeance 8gb 1x8gb
MOBO: Asus B250 Plus
SSD: Crucial mx300 525GB SSD
I am planning on getting another HDD in the future, I currently have a 2tb external one.

 

[Crusade]

CPU may have some issues with heavy segment loading, Starmade will happily use 4-6GB of that ram.
Graphics card should kick ass for SM.

Ram is a little overpriced, I'd do with a 4x4gb kit or 2x8gb from a cheaper manufacturer.

Seems like a decent build for Starmade, I say go for it
P.S: I'd upgrade ram before HDD if you have an external drive - 8gb won't cut it for a lot of modern games, and if you're wanting to get into youtube stuff, 8GB won't be your friend.

 

[BrosefTheSaviour]

CPU may have some issues with heavy segment loading, Starmade will happily use 4-6GB of that ram.
Graphics card should kick ass for SM.

Ram is a little overpriced, I'd do with a 4x4gb kit or 2x8gb from a cheaper manufacturer.

Seems like a decent build for Starmade, I say go for it
P.S: I'd upgrade ram before HDD if you have an external drive - 8gb won't cut it for a lot of modern games, and if you're wanting to get into youtube stuff, 8GB won't be your friend.

Ok, thanks for the advice.

 

[Qweesdy]

Hi,

If your budget is limited; I'd recommend not bothering with a graphics card (Intel's integrated graphics are fine for Starmade) and using the spare $ to get a "4 or more core" CPU (rather than the "dual core potato intended for office workers only" you've chosen). Note that Starmade uses a lot of CPU horsepower, and does make effective use of multi-core. Don't forget that (assuming it's a desktop machine) you can always buy a better GPU later if you feel like it (but I'd expect that after using a recent Intel GPU you won't bother - they've improved a lot in the last 10 years).

I'd also recommend getting more RAM; not for Starmade itself, but so that the OS can use the left over RAM to cache file data and avoid disk IO (SSD is slow compared to RAM). To be more honest; if you don't reboot the computer often (e.g. typical "turn computer on, then use it for 8+ hours" usage) I'd get 32 GiB of RAM and a cheaper but larger hard drive (instead of small/expensive SSD), so that you get the speed of RAM (for cached files) combined with the "many TiB" capacity of a hard disk (rather than worse speed because there's not enough RAM for file caching and worse capacity because of SSD).

 

[BrosefTheSaviour]

Hi,

If your budget is limited; I'd recommend not bothering with a graphics card (Intel's integrated graphics are fine for Starmade) and using the spare $ to get a "4 or more core" CPU (rather than the "dual core potato intended for office workers only" you've chosen). Note that Starmade uses a lot of CPU horsepower, and does make effective use of multi-core. Don't forget that (assuming it's a desktop machine) you can always buy a better GPU later if you feel like it (but I'd expect that after using a recent Intel GPU you won't bother - they've improved a lot in the last 10 years).

I'd also recommend getting more RAM; not for Starmade itself, but so that the OS can use the left over RAM to cache file data and avoid disk IO (SSD is slow compared to RAM). To be more honest; if you don't reboot the computer often (e.g. typical "turn computer on, then use it for 8+ hours" usage) I'd get 32 GiB of RAM and a cheaper but larger hard drive (instead of small/expensive SSD), so that you get the speed of RAM (for cached files) combined with the "many TiB" capacity of a hard disk (rather than worse speed because there's not enough RAM for file caching and worse capacity because of SSD).

I intend to game on a lot more graphics intensive games than Starmade, hoping to upgrade the CPU in the near future. I also find that while playing games, for now at least, that I do not need more than 8gb. However, this may change when I improve the settings in the PC.

 

[NeonSturm]

It would be nice to have a tool which shows you what setting currently sucks most CPU/GPU/RAM.
Not all the others or CPU usage, just he setting which drops fps most (or secondmost).

 

[MossyStone48]

I've been asked by at least a half dozen folks about PC builds and at least two play StarMade. I'll pass along to this topic what I've told all of them. Wait until March. Wait for Ryzen. Even if you don't ultimately end up with a Ryzen based CPU. The reason is simple. Once AMD's new chip hits the market Intel is going to take a nasty price drop. We already see clearance sales of Intel based hardware. This is a last ditch effort by vendors to get out from under the AMD created Sword of Damocles with a profit. Lower end motherboards seem to be first on the chopping block. That's where you need to start.

If you wait you might be able to pickup an enthusiast level AM4 motherboard inexpensively. You can use that board with previous FM2/2+ and AM3 CPUs. The socket is compatible. The heat sink bracket may not be. So be aware that you might need to get an adapter kit if you use an inexpensive FX CPU or A series APU in that build. Doing it this way you can shave a few hundred dollars off the initial build price and upgrade to a proper Ryzen CPU or APU later once they've been put through the trials of the YouTube PC builder gauntlet...or at least once the gouging prices go down. After their initial release; Finding RX series cards anywhere near MSRP was a miracle. Glad to say that's no longer the case.

Source a motherboard after Ryzen drops. CPU wise.. Get at least a Quadcore with multiple threads. Dual channel configs come highly recommended but to start a single channel of 8gb is not bad. Just make sure you match your next stick of ram to it NEAR perfectly. I personally prefer a Hybrid HDD for cost and performance balance. A refurb 1tb Seagate hybrid can go as cheaply as 80 American. You can get a Firecuda 500gb for 50. A factory OC'd 8gb RX 470 is worth the money. Especially if you catch one on sale. The 480 is no slouch but you may as well spend a bit extra on a Fury X as AMD GPUs are known for their longevity.

Right now a good build will set you back 400-600. After March I wouldn't be surprised to see that fall into the 300-500 range.

 

[NeonSturm]

I bought a little more expensive GPU with lower circuitry size because of power demands (10-20€ a year for 3 years is not few either)
But more interesting would be the supported hardware for starmade especially.

I am a bit cautious with harddrives. Sure spinning disks (hard drives) have 500GB if not 2TB, but solid state drives today is breaking less often.
I have an SSD for links to directories and changing files and a HDD for static files or logs, but it's a pain to setup for everything when you do not have a program to do it and additionally create configs for doing it again in the future.

 

[MossyStone48]

for one game i have a linked path that all the save files go to and sync with google drive. same setup is in place on my laptop. anytime i play that game the save gets synchronized no matter where i played it form last. totes worth it

 

[BrosefTheSaviour]

I've now brought the PC, G4560 and Rx480. I have 60fps with a render distance of 200k and on high.