A good starting computer setup to play Coh2

Jump back to quoted post4 Sep 2014, 17:35 PMMettiu

If you wanna play games with good FPS dont spend too much on CPU, RAM, or MB. You should build your rig around good graphics card. You dont need i7 to run games fine. i5 or even i3 will do fine for most. You dont have to pay for 1833MHz RAM. There will be "zero" difference in game if you buy 1600Mhz (I personally prefer better timnings on RAM especially with Intel Haswell). Pick best GPU you can afford and put other stuff together if you cannot afford high end.

Jump back to quoted post4 Sep 2014, 18:01 PMPingPing

You'd be right if you were talking about any other game than COH2 - unfortunately COH2 needs a beasty CPU AND GPU - its not simply graphics dependent.

Jump back to quoted post4 Sep 2014, 19:26 PMvoltardark

So it seem that some people run CoH2 pretty well on a average computer.
Maybe the engine aren't that bad. I think that COH2 is probably one of the most all around demanding game on the market.(Being both GPU and CPU intensive at the same time.)

Jump back to quoted post4 Sep 2014, 19:07 PMand

While CoH does need a good CPU, an i3 should be sufficient if that's what the budget allows for. I am pretty sure that even for CoH, you get the best FPS/$ by mainly prioritizing the graphics card.

Jump back to quoted post3 Sep 2014, 19:36 PMPingPing

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.

Jump back to quoted post4 Sep 2014, 20:08 PMPingPing

I wish that were the case:

http://www.techspot.com/review/689-company-of-heroes-2-performance/page4.html

You could play COH2 with an i3 - but you'd still need a TITAN GPU just to get 41 fps - and thats 41 fps at Medium settings only.

A good quote from the conclusion of that article:

"You also have to question whether CoH 2 should really need more than one GTX Titan for highly playable performance at 1920x1200 on maximum quality. While the game is very detailed and certainly one of the best looking RTS titles we've ever seen, we aren't convinced its visuals warrant that kind of GPU power.

Even on medium quality, when playing at 1920x1200 the performance was much lower than we expected. The GTX 680 and HD 7950 averaged just 41fps, while the more affordable GTX 660 and HD 7790 gave 28fps.

Some players might accept an average of 30fps for this title being an RTS and all, but as a huge fan of these games, I really can't enjoy them with anything less than 60fps, which is a problem with CoH 2."

"Unfortunately, we're a little disappointed with the results overall as CoH 2 seems far too demanding for what it is. Furthermore, for a game that requires such a tremendous amount of graphical power, its lack of multi-GPU support feels like a serious blunder to us."


And remember - optimization and performance got significantly WORSE since the release of WFA.

Jump back to quoted post5 Sep 2014, 00:02 AMVaz

It's true you'll need a little more than the limit for the system, but please tell us how coh2, a 32-bit program, can address more than 4GB? If your windows is choked by other programs running along with coh2 that is something else. 4GB is all you need to MAX coh2. I haven't checked in game memory usage, but I have a feeling it's much less than 4GB. Just at the title screen it only uses 700MB on my system.

Jump back to quoted post5 Sep 2014, 00:17 AM_underscore

The techspot write-up has very limited usefulness since they don't seem to be aware of the AA options. Their 'Max' results uses 4x SS, which is essentially running higher than 4k resolution. Then they seem surprised to encounter such performance issues.

Also yes it must be the in-game benchmark since even my old 7970 runs 2560 fine. I even use v-sync to keep it capped at 60fps. I think these cards go for about $200 nowadays.

Jump back to quoted post5 Sep 2014, 00:20 AMPingPing

If your OS is 64-bit, you'll be able to take advantage of more than 3GB of RAM.

Try it for yourself - try 8GB then 16GB and see what differences work FOR YOU

Jump back to quoted post16 Sep 2014, 03:29 AMludd3emm

I need some help from you people who actually knows something about computers.