A good starting computer setup to play Coh2

Hi !

Start with a graphic adapter that worth at least 200$ or more if you can afford it, either AMD or Nvidia:

Radeon R9 280 around 230$
or
GeForce GTX 760 around 250$
or
Radeon R9 280X around 300$
Note : You can try a cheaper card (125$ to 200$) , if the rest of your rig are all top of the line. (4 ghz or more with a SSD HD)

Your game's performances will always be bottleneck by your least performing computer's component :

For the graphic card to perform at it's maximum, you need a good quad-core+ intel or AMD 3.0 mhz+ CPU as the GPU scale with the CPU power.

You also need a good motherboard of a least 130 $ with 8 gig of good speedy memory. Try Asus

A fast main bus with a speedy memory will insure that your frame rate remain constant, meaning no frame rate drop when there is a lot of action. A powerful graphic adapter pair with a so so mainboard and memory will have high frame rate, but will also have bottleneck causing data congestion dropping the frame rate to a minimum. A add-on sound card instead of the mainboard's one will also permit a highest sound setting without creating frame drop when there is a lot of simultaneous sounds.

A SDD hard drive will make the game load a lot faster.(Optional)

It will give you a very good starting rig at around 1300 to 1500 CAD, but not the best money can buy. (1000 to 1300 USD) Or less without a SSD HD.

If your graphic adapter (GPU) has only 1 gig of memory or less, a well defrag hard drive or a SSD HD will also help for a constant frame rate as your GPU will need to swap and load textures more often from the main memory.

Important : Having the latest drivers all you computer parts will also help a lot, especially if the game is new. (less the 6 months old)

Link for GPUs performance/price :http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-4.html

If that may help someone, i'will be happy.

See you on the battle field.

NORAD might be a good start for medium settings on single player.

For multiplayer you'll need something stronger.

Both of these websites are hugely helpful to anyone wanting to build a PC.

This one has a number of options for building a PC at various levels with estimated prices
http://www.logicalincrements.com/


This will tell you if all the parts you want will work together, as well as help you find the cheapest price online for each part.
http://pcpartpicker.com/

NORAD might be a good start for medium settings on single player.

For multiplayer you'll need something stronger.

Sorry. but i know a lot of people of play COH2 with me and including me that got rigs that are inferior to the one i propose, and we all play multi-player's matchs (4vs4) without any problems. Maybe not at the highest settings but we don't have lag or complain above the game performance.

Also i said a good starting rig at around 1300 to 1500 $, not the best money can buy.

Thanks.

^You could get away with much cheaper I believe. I bought a PC around March this year for about $1200~$1300 with keyboard and monitor included (Canada).
If you take out those parts (minus about $300) it comes to about a $900 PC. I could have skimped some more I believe, but I get quite good performance on the game with that at medium to high settings.

I could have cut down the price some more and sacrificed some more graphical oomph if I wanted to save more money on a PC.

Oh boy - this is a hard one due to COH2 being both GPU AND CPU intensive.


CPU wise you're constrained to a minimum of an i5 or FX-8350 (If you're AMD inclined) - and Intel prices really haven't dropped, i5-2500k's still hold their value, so you really can't get a cheap option here. Expect to pay about $300 +/- for a good CPU/MB combo.

RAM - I found 16GB to be a "sweet spot" for COH2 - 8GB was noticeably slower.

GPU - Now here you can find value. I'd recommend picking up a used 7950 (which is re-badged as a 270X) for +/- $100 on ebay, or a 7970 (re-badged as a 280X). No reason to buy the "New" card when the old one is just as good, if not better in some ways given the overclocking ability of the 7950 and 7970.

An SSD, while nice, isn't a necessary component for a "starting" computer - but for $99 you can get a Crucial Mx-100 256GB which would be more than enough for an OS and several game/programs.

Still - its really hard to get a "cheap" performance COH2 system.

So assuming $300 for the CPU/MB, $100 for the GPU, $100 RAM, $80 PSU (700W + Seasonic etc), $80 Case (depending on taste) and $100 SSD - you're looking at $760 for a very strong system.

Probably worth mentioning that Coh2 is well suited to AMD graphics architecture, therefore a general comparison of graphics cards will give people the wrong expectations. For example the GTX770 is only competitive with the 270x in this game. At the high end the gap closes though (780ti is a great card apart from the price).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU14/857

If you go for a good rig, don't go for anything below a 780.
The rest is using old architecture.

SSD is cool to have quick loading times, but don't have an impact on the game.

If you go for a good rig, don't go for anything below a 780.
The rest is using old architecture.

SSD is cool to have quick loading times, but don't have an impact on the game.

The cost of a 780 is just....yeah!

My Crossfire 7950's have more GPU power than a 780 and cost about $200 total, given that the change in architecture of GPUs has really been limited since the 7 series (AMD wise) there's little gain to be made buying a 290x/780 when an SLI/Crossfire 7970/7950 will do a much better job for half the cost.

Granted there's heat and noise and power and tech ability to be considered - but that 7 series of AMD's really knocked it out of the park, much like the 5 series did before that.

Still - if you have the $ - 780s are a great card too.

Shame COH2 can't do SLI/Crossfire....but it sure can do snow "effects".....*grumble*

SSD is cool to have quick loading times, but don't have an impact on the game.

Specially when you have to wait for your opponent to load

iirc, which i may not be because i'm exhausted, CoH2 really likes CPU bandwidth and overclocking should help a lot.

If you go for a good rig, don't go for anything below a 780.
The rest is using old architecture.

SSD is cool to have quick loading times, but don't have an impact on the game.

The 780 is using old architecture too (GK110), they share the same basis as the Titan and that came out a year and a half ago. If you really want the new architecture, then 750/750ti is the only new Maxwell. Everything will have to wait a few months till the 9xx series comes out.

You have to admit COH2 is in a pretty bad place when your "starting" PC requirements are near flagship GPU and CPUs....

You can experience COH2 at max settings with what I got over a year and a half ago:
RADEON HD 7970
i5-3570
and 8 gb of ram

Granted, I had to reduce Anti aliasing to "low" with the release of the western front armies, but thats not a big deal for me since im using an anti aliasing injector anyway.

I dont know much of computer hardware, so there might be cheaper solutions for the same performance now, but I got a (back then) modern computer for a modern game and got great results performance-wise. Exactly what I expected

You have to admit COH2 is in a pretty bad place when your "starting" PC requirements are near flagship GPU and CPUs....

I edited my first post to specify that the price was in Canadian dollars including our taxes and that the SSD HD is optional but is a nice to have. I say a target price between 750 to 950 USD could be achievable without the SSD HD.

Specially when you have to wait for your opponent to load

THIS! Last night I played two guys in a row who I swear were playing the game on a toaster.

I edited my first post to specify that the price was in Canadian dollars including our taxes and that the SSD HD is optional but is a nice to have. I say a target price between 750 to 950 USD could be achievable without the SSD HD.

Volt - I know - you'll see the system I specked you could do for around $700 USD - including an SSD.

What I am saying though is the GPUs and CPU's being brandied about - 780s, 290x....7970's etc - they were all at one time or another THE fastest performing single GPU chip cards available - same for the CPU's.

Requiring the leading GPU and CPU to play a game like COH2 - it's just incomprehensible.

This isn't Crysis etc - the graphics aren't good enough for the requirements being made of it.

As far as CPU horsepower - requiring an i7 for a GAME - that's just nuts.

I've got an i5 2500k and a 560Ti, and run CoH2 at 60FPS. And no, I don't get that kind of FPS at the highest settings, but it's not on lowest settings either, and that's for a rig that cost me €1000 3 years ago.

Saying that you need stuff like "a motherboard of at least $130" is ridiculous.

I've got an i5 2500k and a 560Ti, and run CoH2 at 60FPS. And no, I don't get that kind of FPS at the highest settings, but it's not on lowest settings either, and that's for a rig that cost me €1000 3 years ago.

Saying that you need stuff like "a motherboard of at least $130" is ridiculous.

You realize a basic mid spec MB is $130 and most of the "good" ones are nearer to $200+?

Your i5-2500k is going for $150 plus still on ebay too - so right there, $280 for your MB/CPU combo.

RADEON HD 7870
i5-3570k
8 gb of ram

All settings high except AA low.
Never had problems with CoH2 at all.

The game needs better GPU/CPU than you may think looking at the graphics, it's true, but you can play perfectly with a 2-year old PC.

Unless you are a graphic-whore or you want to play at a humongous resolution, you can get along with a medium-budget graphic card (around 150~200€) and an i5 CPU.