Advice please!

[John Cartwright]

Having at last got rid of last of last two dependant offspring due to completion of degrees and MScs with them starting to earn an honest crust, I can think about upgrading my (good grief! 10y.o.) rig. So what are you chaps using that can competently run the latest BoX sims please ?
Nothing too fancy I hope, I am but a poor pensioner remember! 

[=CfC=Father Ted]

Exciting news BD!  The bits in my PC (gets piecemeal upgraded) are a few years old now, but I don't seem to have issues running any games (although I don't try to max out any settings).  Here's whats' in the box:

Intel Core i7 3770k @3.5GHz
8.00GB DDR3
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (actually I only got this at Christmas, but it was reviewed as a good deal rather than top-end and was to replace my 760)

I could probably do with more RAM.

I got  the original from PC Specialist - you can custom-pick components to suit your needs/budget without having to actually put it all together.

Since you mention BoX, I would look at getting a decently-sized monitor.  I treated myself to a 27" (albeit only 1920x1080) 120Hz one specifically for RoF/BoX.  Unlike IL2 46, you can "zoom in" to see distant planes, so apart from just looking nicer, a bigger screen is a practical advantage.

[John Cartwright]

Thanks! Despite the hype of Bitcoin farmers gabbing all the cards there seems to be good prices for the 1050, and I'll go 16GB of RAM. Good advice about the monitor. In 'War Thunder' Ground Forces sim-mode, distant detection is vital to survive, I expect it will be the same with the BoX tanks.

[CFC_Conky]

Hi BD,

I have a four-year-old rig running an i7 4770, 16gb of ram, can’t remember the video card but it is a sub-four digit GTX and everything runs well. I understand the i5 series of cpu will also run it well, as long as it is a 3450 or better.

Have you tried the used market yet? I’m looking for a replacement desktop rig for our place in Whistler and on craigsllist I can find rigs that will run BoX well (i5 3450, 16gb ram, GTX1050), for roughly 300 quid. Hardcore gamers are always upgrading so you can sometimes pick up something decent, mind you I live in an urban area mind you, so there are more opportunities.

I completely agree with Ted that a bigger is better when it comes to monitors. I would consider a 27”monitor a must.

Pip, pip,
Conky

[Storebror]

Concerning CPU speed, at the risk of repeating myself I'd also refer to this list:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Even BoX is still capped by the CPU's single thread performance as it will max out one core, throw 25-50% on another and an occasional poop on a third.
IL-2 1946 is strictly single threaded so in both cases, the single thread CPU performance is what limits you in the long run.
Therefore, any CPU scoring less than 2500 passmark points in the single thread performance chart is essentially pointless.

If you have a capable graphics card that is.

The 1050 (or the Ti for the same effect) can run BoX well (and it's got plenty of power for 1946), but you probably won't be too happy with it in the long run on BoX.
The 2000 series cards are far beyond consideration.
The 1080Ti would have been the perfect match after the 2000 series has been released, however while we saw the card being available for 599 EUR for about two weeks here in germany about a month ago, Nvidia introduced an artificial shortage on GPU chips of that series and now the card is back at 850-900 EUR. Dammit.
That currently makes the 1070Ti/1080 (both have roughly the same performance and price) the perfect choice, even though 450 EUR are easily 100 too much compared to what you should expect if there was no artifical shortage from Nvidia.

Cheers!
Mike

[John Cartwright]

Thanks for that info Conky and Mike! (I was at Birmingham International at the same time as Mike, I didn't see him there! )
As to used rigs, I don't have the technical competence to go down that route, however Conky's suggestion has led me to look at refurbished which have warranties, and there seem to be some good deals at reasonable cost, guided by information I gathered from Mike's post I may proceed down that route.

[Storebror]

I was at Birmingham International at the same time as Mike, I didn't see him there!

I'm gonna be there again on monday high noon.

Cheers!
Mike