SHIII performance question to ppl with new rigs

[GlobalExplorer]

I am in the process of planning a new system that should last me for a couple of years. One of the really important things to me is loading times. Its is going to be built around C2 processor, RaptorX or a fast 7.200k drive, 2-4 GB RAM, etc.

How much would SHIII loading times benefit from such a system? There must be people around who have upgraded their system recently, the question is directed mostly to these people.

[bigboywooly]

Depends on what you have now GE

I had a older 1.8 Ghz \1 Gb ram 128 ATI9250 system

While it took around 10 mins plus to load GWX was playable though lagged a lot in port and at high TC

Currently have a dual core 3.2 Ghz Processor\2 Gb Ram with a Nvidia PCI 7200 GS

Loading times are around 3 mins and can run at 4096 TC with the same FPS as I used to at 1024
lol

[Zakalwe]

You`ll be pleased!

On my old system ( Athlon 2700+, 1 Gig RAM, 9700pro and 80 GB HD) loading into 3D from starting SH3 GWX took around 10+ minutes.

With my new system (C2d 6750, 2 GIG RAM, 500 GB SATA HD, 8800 GTS 640 MB) it`s around 2-3 minutes. Heaven. :cool: ;)

[GlobalExplorer]

I have a 2.2Ghz AthlonXP 1GB and two SP80C drives in RAID0. SHIII load should to be very much CPU bound, so it is interesting to see what happens with a really fast dual core + really fast hd.

Haven't timed my current loading times. Better than your old system but still too long.

You`ll be pleased!

On my old system ( Athlon 2700+, 1 Gig RAM, 9700pro and 80 GB HD) loading into 3D from starting SH3 GWX took around 10+ minutes.

With my new system (C2d 6750, 2 GIG RAM, 500 GB SATA HD, 8800 GTS 640 MB) it`s around 2-3 minutes. Heaven. :cool: ;)

Sounds good. Which HD? In the 500GB class the WD5000AAKS and Samsung HD501LJ (http://www.alternate.de/html/product/details.html?articleId=168101) are on my list.

[Zakalwe]

It`s the Samsung. Fast and quiet.

Z.

[melnibonian]

With my new PC (Dual Core 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, 8800GTX Graphics Card) I can load GWX (without SH3Cmdr-from running the executable until the main nenu screen) in 21 seconds :yep: Generally speaking I saw a huge difference in how smoother the game is with the new PC and how fast it loads.

[panzer 49th]

500Mb HDD thas tiny.

[Jonathan]

I am currently running a single core AMD 3500+ and 2 gigs of PC3200 ram with a 3.0/gb.s hard drive. RTakes me about 5 minutes to load up GWX 2.0....and once in the game, I do not have that many slow downs. My graphics card is a relatively old EVGA Nvidia 6600 128megs in PCIX-16.

[sik1977]

I have

Athlon64 3700+ (O/c 2.6Ghz)
2GB DDR400 Ram
ATI Radeon HD3870 (new upgrade over my nVidia 7800GTX)
200GB WD SATAII
320GB WD SATAII

Now my system is over two years old and I recently just upgraded my graphics card. But SH3 seems to be rather CPU limited as even at 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 (with Res fix) and forced 4xAA + 16xAF, it does not get my Graphics card to run at even 50% (checked and tested through Riva Tuner). So there are times in the game even now when I get low FPS (20-30) in the port which is similar to my 7800GTX which used to get maxed out at these settings. So either the newer Catalyst 7.xx family is not optimized for SH3 (now an old game) or my processor needs to catch up to the graphics card.

BTW, the loading times are not bad. I just tested, from desktop to campaign mission start with GWX 1.01 it took 3 Mins (which include some 15-secs wasted choosing options etc.).

I can confirm that the load times are mostly effected by the amount of RAM. I played this game with 512MB (on a 3GHz P4), then 1GB (A64 3700) and 2GB (A64 3700 OC) and the biggest difference I felt was after more Ram. 512 took like 10 Mins, 1 GB like 5 mins and 2Gb takes less than 3Mins. It can only get better with faster machines I suppose, although I do run a lean and optimized setup with regular O&O Defrag runs.