Planetside 2 upgrade advice

[Sentrosi2121]

Here is my current system:
Q9650 running stock with Hyper 212+
8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
Gigabyte EP53C-DS3R
Gigabyte Radeon 6850
Playing on a 1680x1050 monitor

Currently in the Planetside 2 beta (not an NDA violation for me to say I'm in)

John Smedley's reply to a tweet yesterday has me concerned.

I5 2500k,8 GB Ram,nvidia gtx 560...would be ok to play on max settings?
not max but should be fine and good looking

So I went over to AT's bench to look at a comparison between the two processors. Results.

Seeing the gaming benchmarks results I came to the conclusion that the processor, while not great, is probably OK for now.

So I went back to the bench and compared my card to the system spec posted in Smed's reply. Results.

Looking down at the comparison between my 6850 and the 560 leads me to believe that, while my system is definitely showing its age, it's not ready to be put out to pasture just yet. But I would like some validation of my findings and also where to go to next; the video card or the processor. My initial feelings are to target the 570s or the 670s around Black Friday.

 

[DSF]

Well when you have the game installed you'll be able to see for yourself whether performance is acceptable for you or not.

I'd start there, personally. Your system isn't bad, so I think your plan to at least wait a few months makes sense.

 

[Vaulter]

I've been tossing around the idea of building a new computer recently, and was wondering the same thing about Ps2. Can't wait till specs start getting sorted out for it.

 

[mfenn]

Well when you have the game installed you'll be able to see for yourself whether performance is acceptable for you or not.

I'd start there, personally. Your system isn't bad, so I think your plan to at least wait a few months makes sense.

Agree. You'll probably need an upgrade, but there's no sense in running out and buying some stuff until you can do some basic testing.

You'll want to run the game at the lowest resolution and highest resolution that your monitor supports and collect framerate data for each (even better, run it at some resolutions in between so you can plot a curve). If your framerates don't change much when you vary the resolution, that means that you're CPU-limited. If the do change a lot, that means you're GPU-limited.

In your situation, there is probably a resolution below which you are CPU-limited and above which you are GPU-limited. It's really good to know what that point is (both resolution and framerate) because then we can predict what sort of performance you'd expect with a given expenditure.

 

[Sentrosi2121]

Good call Mfenn. I'll look into doing this tonight, pull some data and see where I lie.