UT3 AND PLAYER'S CURRENT GAMING RIGS

There has been a lot of questions regarding upgrading a player's current rig in order to be able to play UT3 decently.

By no means am I an expert on building/upgrading a pc to meet the playable requirements for the latest generation of games. However, many of you followed my path/posts to build the next generation gaming pc and know about the research necessary to make sure that all components work together properly. I even took an A+ certification class to learn about the innards of a pc prior to even thinking about my new rig.

For those of us that had/have the custom "white box" pcs, it is a lot easier to upgrade components and far cheaper to buy those components. Those components are off-the-shelf and available in many flavors to suit an individual taste. I will not go further with the "white box" as those players that have them generally know what they can or cannot do in regards to upgrades.

For laptops, forget upgrading for the most part due to size and portability. There, of course, can be some upgrades done, but will they be enough and cost effective.

For those with the "name" brands (Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq, etc), it is just as hard to upgrade as it is for a laptop. Most of the problems stem from proprietary hardware, un-named hardware vendors, and so on. Plus, the standard off-the-shelf components may not work in the case or on the motherboard.

Dollar-wise, each person has to sit back and analyze their situation to maximize the return on investment. In many cased, it will mean a new pc. For example, the AGP setup is limited to the 6XXX/7XXX series of video cards, which barely meet UT3's requirements. The game is really geared for the PCI-E class of video cards.

Another problem is that of the procesor. Most newer "white box" motherboards will accept a series of processors with an update of the bios. A good example is the AMD 939/Intel 775 pin motherboard configuration have several processors available for that motherboard.

Brand names will have 1 or 2 processors that may fit on the proprietary motherboard and in some cases, cannot update the bios to accept any other processors.

The best answer I can give to those individuals who own brand name computers is bite the bullet and save up the funds to buy a newer pc. If you try to sink $200.00 to $300.00 in upgrading a brand name computer, you may not be satisfied with the results.

There are numerous ways to get around the dollar problem, i.e. Walmart and other discount store. Don't snicker..........here's one that meets the UT3 needs from Walmart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5823468) and another (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5823467).

or here.......

http://search.ebay.com/gaming-pc_Whitebox-Custom-Systems_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQdfspZ2QQfasiZ1QQfbfmtZ1QQfromZR10QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQpriceZ1QQsabfmtsZ2QQsacatZ140075QQsaprchiZ500Q2e00QQsaprcloZQQsascsZ2QQsbrbinZt
Best of all is you can upgrade them.

Any thoughts......please post them and suggestions for upgrades.

In this thread on the Epic forums
http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=586697

it states the min and reccomended CPU/MEM/GPU for the game

I can attest to this as the Demo ran fine with a ATI 9800 Pro 256 on a 3Ghz, 1GB RAM, AGP system.

But note, new doesnt always mean better. Prepare to tweak whatever you get as there are plenty of issues with just about every instance of yesterdays and todays cards from both arenas. But there is also plenty of help to get you playing again, as it did for me.

I always reccomend going the custom rout rather than the pre-built "brand name" systems as you have more control of the quality and configuration of all the components. My system (which I built in Jan '04), minus speakers and monitor (but with some fancy "bling" to make it pretty) was around $2K. Today, it would be considered entry level as it's a single core AGP system.

Even so, it still runs quite fine even with this new game (Crysis is a bit punishing tho...but it tacs even the best systems) and serves me just fine. My next upgrade probably wont come till next year or so and will be PCI-E2 with a Quad Core. Hopefully with the extended bandwith of the new PCI-E2 we will soon see dual core cards ( or at lease dual GPU started by 3DFX years ago with the Voodoo line) and will eliminate the need for SLI or Crossfire arrangements.

Just keep in mind, with the speed of advancements in todays technology, what you want today, will be more affordable tomarrow.

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Pretty good advice above.

Just a couple of notes to tack on. www.anandtech.com has an article on how physics x is changing how UT3 is played and which systems will bennifit the most from a physics card addition. UT3 does support full physics acceleration and it can make a difference in the overall frame rate.

I have heard a few people complaining about the lack of graphics or a problem with blurring. The blur effect can be turned off in the ini and it substantially improves the look of the game as well as frame rate.

If you are not sure of the components in your computer there is a free program by the name of "sysoft sandra" that will analyze your computer and tell you individual components, you can then directly google the component SKU and find out what you have. it is a very easy to use program (you can tell because I use it).

I use the following system for UT3 and it does pretty good overall.

AMD 4200 X2

mainboard EVGA 580i

Ram 2x512 dominator xms
Ram 2X1024 dominator xms

Graphics
EVGA nvidia 6800
EVGA nvidia 6800

HD system: 320gb 7200rpm western digital
HD gaming: 120gb 10,000rpm
HD storage: 500gb 7200rpm western digital
I arrange my files so that I only keep games on the fast drive and only a couple at a time, it is also the page file drive.

Through tweaking I have managed to get about 45 frames average with UT3.

What would you consider to be the minimum spec's for a computer to have satisfactory play on UT3, including decent graphics? I know what the website says but your feelings?

CPU Intel 6600 core 2 duo @2.4ghz
Mobo Gigabyte 965
Video BFG Tech 7950oc
RAM 2x1024 OCZ gold 5400 dual channel

I just ordered a new box, still waiting for it to arrive for assembly (newegg). Oughta do ok tho! I'll let ya know how far I can push it...

Intel E6750
MSI P6N SLI Plat. ed.
4Gb RAM
eVGA 8800GT SC 512
2xWD Raptor X 150GB HDs (Raid)
1xWD 500Gb

Gonna run dual 8800s in SLI?

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

Gonna run dual 8800s in SLI?

Start with just the one, then when I need more power and they're less spendy we'll go SLI.

You can get BFGTech 8800GToc for 280 at Fry's, their online store is outpostdotcom I think.

cplmac wrote:

You can get BFGTech 8800GToc for 280 at Fry's, their online store is outpostdotcom I think.

It's actually frys.com now. I suppose that's a little easier to remember

Ok the latest beta drivers from nVidia seemed to do the trick for me, no more black screens.

AMD Athelon 64 3700
1 GB RAM
nVidia 7800 (pcie)

I was a bit worried about framerates since my system barely meets the requirements but it actually runs pretty good with all the default settings. Hopefully will be able to bump it up when my new rig is done though.

Continuum wrote:

Hopefully will be able to bump it up when my new rig is done though.

What's the new rig, Continuum?

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

Continuum wrote:

Hopefully will be able to bump it up when my new rig is done though.

What's the new rig, Continuum?

Heres what Ive bought so far.
AMD X2 5400
nVidia 8800GT

Have to buy the RAM, CPU Fan, and Sound Card, kind of halfway thinking I'll get vista for it just because of dx10 and I still have other computers running XP, solaris, and ubuntu.

I would recomment this for the ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145179

and this for the sound card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102005

and this for the cpu fan if your case/power supply will handle

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118004

I got that same fan in my other computer. I'm probably not going to be buying any creative products any time soon so the sound cards going to be the toughest. Was eying some of those 2GB sticks corsair makes for RAM but I doubt I need more than 4GB.