Need advice on optimal PC setup for high density maps

General
1

Hey everyone,

I have been struggling to play this game with my current desktop setup, which is a bit outdated. Especially noticeable on monoliths with high density mobs and with many particle effects triggering on screen.

I want to upgrade my machine, but with so many different options in the market to build a custom PC it makes tough to make a decision.

Wondering what is Last Epoch community stand for this and even the developers recommendations, mostly on the following components:

  • CPU
  • GPU
  • Memory card
  • Motherboard
  • Cooler

Would love to hear some feedback from you all so I can run this great game in full glory and without significant staggering, low FPS and performance drops.

2

Hey… Welcome to the forum…

Before I answer your question specifically, I would like to point out that LE is in beta and has many known performance related issues and instability… High density mobs and particle effects are two confirmed examples of this.

The current state of the game means that right now, existing hardware that should be capable of better performance, struggles in specific instances.

Once the game is more stable from a feature & content perspective (so that they are not optimising things that will be changed/removed), and EHG can dedicate time & resources to dealing with the performance aspects of the game, its likely that a lot of us playing on ok hardware will experience generally better performance overall.

With that in mind, I think that any system you put together specifically for gaming with current hardware (i.e. something from the last 12-24 months) will be more than adequate to play LE when it releases as version 1.0.

I would not buy a bespoke system from one of the system integrators - I would build the machine myself.

The best approach if I were upgrading my own system, would be to look at it from a budget perspective rather than wholly a performance standpoint.

Personally I dont think you could go wrong with either Intel or AMD on the CPU side but for a GPU I would go for Nvidia 30 series right now. Make sure that you pair the CPU & GPU well for the resolution you want to game at… i.e. dont get a CPU that cannot keep up with your GPU and vice versa…

Obviously cooler & memory to match the CPU and I would suggest 32gb Ram (16 is fine but you may as well futureproof a little).

Definitely get an NVME harddrive for the speed - thats a no brainer and you will never go back to a mechanical drive (or even SSD) after using one…

Keep in mind the monitor you use… if you get/have a 60hz monitor @ 1080p, it can only show 60fps and you dont need a high end GPU to keep 1080p pixels happy… If you want a 4k 120hz monitor and want to play games at that res, then you need to get a GPU to match…

Wish I had the budget to upgrade my old i5-7500/1060 setup… :frowning:

3

I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to go for a 30x0, my 2070 super (with an AMD 3800xt, 32 gig of ram & an SSD for both C: & the drive the game is stored on) is fine & I’m playing on max settings @ 1440.

4

2070S is somewhere between the 3060 and 3060 Ti performance wise with the Ti being cheaper than the 2070S (MSRP wise)… and the 30 series is newer architecture for better power usage…

so,… yes, if you have a 2070S then no, you dont need a 30 series…

but if the OP wants to game at 4k 120hz with everything on max, then I’d go a 30 series…

:wink:

5

Issue right now with building a rig is the GPU shortage due to Cryptomining rigs (specifically Ether) though this will hopefully be a null issue when it transitions to Proof of Stake. Some prices are essentially the price of a higher mid-tier prebuilt rig itself or close enough to it that it’s financially easier to just buy one. Nvidia is purposely nerfing hashrates on the 3000 series, but it’s a consideration to take into account

6

Pricing… Crypto mining… scalping… hashrates… Yip all valid points.

All depends on what you can afford and whats available when you want it… but thats pretty much how its always been…

I see lots of people buying prebuilts just to cannabalise the GPU components… If it makes sense budget wise then sure… Personally I just steer clear of prebuilts for various reasons…

I was actually looking at what 30 series GPUs cost in my neck of the woods and if you do a direct currency conversion, a 3090 costs about $2700 here… even a 3060 Ti goes for $1100 here… Plenty of stock but the price is so high that I doubt very many people local to me are even buying them… Scary as hell and exactly why I cannot afford an upgrade…

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7

I am considering a 3080 Ti with the future in mind hoping it can hold up for 3-4 years. Although I just watched some reviews on youtube stating it’s a waste of money for what that GPU actually offers. As far as I am aware 3090 has some heating issues and because I want to play safe with my investment (and because it’s more expensive) - also I’ve seen in a review that 24GB of VRAM is pointless as most triple A games hardly reach 9GB of VRAM, so I’m probably discarding 3090 for now.

8

3090 - Overkill for gaming. Yes - especially when comparing the price vs performance over the 3080 and 3080 Ti, The additional Vram is much more useful if you are a content creator (e.g. 3d animator, video rendering etc)…

3080 Ti - From what I have heard, yes, the Ti version seems to be a performance increase over the normal 3080 that doesnt match the $ price increase… Personally, assuming you are playing in this ballpark, I would go the plain 3080 route and still be ok for 3 to 4 years or more if you scale your expectations as games advance like they always do… (I am still using a 1060 from 2017 and its fine at 1080p with medium settings)

9

Even on high density monolith’s? My current GPU is a GTX 960 4GB VRAM gets me super frustrated with so much stuttering on high density maps…

10

In a high density map, I’d expect the cpu to be as much of an issue as the gpu, if not more (depending on what gpu/cpu you have).

11

Yip… Its not stellar performance but its fine… busy moments can drop into the late 20, early 30s FPS, but generally I get over 50fps… Lately I have been playing on very low/low settings to get the best performance/stability but its still perfectly playable on Medium…

Your GTX 960 is about 60% slower than a 1060 so I expect that you are likely going to struggle in similar situations especially on anything above very low settings…

Also… if you are not already using it, be sure to enable FPS limiting - it improves stability and I have found that it smooths out fps spikes in the game if you sacrifice a little on the top end… i.e. I can play at 100fps fairly ok, but I find the spikes in busy moments can be as high as 50fps… while if I cap it at 50-60fps, then the spikes are 10-20 instead…

12

Running an Intel i5-8600k CPU @ 3.60GHz. Considering to get my hands on an AMD Ryzen 5 5600x, but my motherboard doesn’t support AM4 socket so I’ll have to change it as well :grimacing:

13

Imho, nothing wrong with that CPU right now… 6c 6t and 3.6ghz has got some life left in it…

5600x is supposed to be a very good gaming cpu choice… obviously Intels new cpus are still to be released and apparently should be better but who knows… personally I am not much of a CPU make fanboi either way.,.

14

Yeah, Intel/AMD chips haven’t been compatible for a good ~20 years since they released the Athlon I believe, back in '99…

15

Everything on very low quality settings. When I use avalanche + storm totem with a lot of monsters also casting their own spells the stuttering is constant.

https://imgur.com/kXa9wnh

16

Well…

The 960 is going to be slow - its only about 20% faster than the minimum system requirements that EHG has specified for LE…

Add this to the unoptimised state of the game currently and chances are that you are unlikely to get anything resembling a decent fps even at the lowest settings on 1080p. To be honest, I doubt you would get a stable 30fps.

You are also leaving the framerate limit unlimited. This causes plenty of problems by allowing the game to overload the GPU - this includes stuttering/crashes/freezing etc. - especially on older hardware… You must enable it by selecting the checkbox… and in your case you may have to set it to something around 30-40fps - or even less to make sure your GPU has enough headroom to handle the busy moments.

17

U can go for 3080 laptop if u cant find 3000pc seriea. I have asus rog strix scar g733 2kscreen its playing 90fps on 2k ultra on average, i never got below 70fps, it all depends of your budget.

18

Thanks for the hint about the framerate limit. I’ll test it out.

Yeah I am aware that my graphics card is already outdated. When I got it it was already outdated, I guess I’ll change my mindset and invest for the future. After this discussion I think I will purchase a RTX 3080 if I can get my hands on one.

Thank you all for the excellent insights :pray: :bowing_man:

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19

Your CPU isn´t that bad so you can wait till new DDR5 platforms will be released from AMD/Intel. Ryzen 5000 are great CPUs but I don´t think that platform change will help you now. You gain some performance with RAM OC but it depends on chipset on old Intel platforms.

You should start with new GPU but it depends on current price or avaibility. AMD RX 6800 (XT) ins´t bad choice too.

Also you could optimize your PC with separate SSDs/NVMEs for system and games.

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20

To be honest I have no knowledge whatsoever about overclocking. I’ll rather leave CPU and GPU in their default settings because I would probably overheat something with my lack of understanding on the subject.

About AMD RX 6800 (XT), I have this idea that AMD GPU’s are always inferior in performance and have incompatibility with several games when compared to NVIDIA GPU’s. Is this a wrong assumption I’m going with?