What do you recommend

[DescentFreak]

Hey guys,I was think since im getting a new computer in 2 days,I thought I would ask "what type of processor,specs,etc" do you recommend to get XL to perform well,I just dont know what i want so you guys could probably tell me.

[Aus-RED-5]

It depends on how much you are looking to spend.

I built my PC and that cost me around $2000 USD.

[karx11erx]

The bigger the better. D2X-XL isn't exactly well optimized.

I am faring well with an overclocked Core i7 CPU and a GTX 570 (I am using a pretty huge screen res though - 2560x1600).

[DescentFreak]

I am thinking about $800-$1200 if you think I can get by on that

[pokeman7452]

That depends what settings you wish to play on. If you want to play with everything maxed, yeah you will need a Core i7 3.0Ghz (overclocked to 3.4Ghz or so) and a GTX 480/560Ti with about 6-8 gigs of DDR3 ram. ($1000-$1200 for a complete computer)
If you want to play with high res textures and all the effects on but not necessarily spewing out of every corner of the screen, you can probably do that with a Core i5 or Core 2 Duo/Quad at 2.8Ghz (easily overclocked to 3.2Ghz) and a GTX 260/450/550 and 4-6 gigs of high end DDR2 (DDR3 is still recommended). ($600-$800)
If you want to play other newer games (Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3, etc.) at maximum settings with solid framerates, you will need something closer to the first build, but if D2X-XL is your only real gaming interest, all that power for just a few more effects at a time is overkill IMO.

Lifehacker has a couple of decent builds in this range if you are not experienced in picking out compatible hardware components.

[karx11erx]

You won't need more than 2 GB RAM for D2X-XL (rather less), but if you are investing in a new machine, you may want to have at least 4 GB.

Actually a hexacore Phenom II might be a good deal, too. My second machine has a Phenom II 955 BE quadcore slightly oc'd with 4 GB of low latency DDR3 1600 MHz and a Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X (still a dang good gfx card) driving a 1920x1200 monitor. On high settings D2X-XL works quite nicely on that setup.

[DescentFreak]

Well in this case,i guess I will wait l little bit of time until I buy the computer

[Sirius]

I suspect the GPU is the bottleneck for D2X-XL rather than CPU... lightmap generation is a different story, but in-game it isn't coming close to maxing the i7 920 I have, and it isn't even overclocked.

[pokeman7452]

Do you have debris turned up? I figure that would be a big CPU hog.

[karx11erx]

Smoke can cost a real lot. Glare fx do on low-end gfx hardware. Per pixel lighting is heavy on the CPU.

[DescentFreak]

I was wondering,if I'm running an Intel Core i7 2600 3.4Ghz and a Radeon 6750,should that be more than enough for XL's FPS to Decrease?
My computer wouldn't boot up a few days ago so I was given a new one (since I have a warranty on it).
I don't have much on it and when I started to play XL a bit,I noticed that when I came near a robot and got into (combat)... the FPS decreased to 50 from 350,what could that be about if it is solvable?

[Hawkins]

50FPS is super... What system are you running now, and what XL-settings?

[DescentFreak]

Well if this is the answer you are looking for,this is the system I am using. http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/ ... .GCEP2.001

All of the listed Settings are the settings that are active and what they are set at,everything else is turned off.

V-sync-On

Lighting-high
Lightmap quality-high
lightmap precision-Basic
Colored light-Full

Image quality-Very high
Render quality-highest
Camera's-Full
3D powerups-Full

Particle Fx-High
Shadows-Basic
Corona's-On
Lightning-basic
Glow-Standard
Amount of Debris-Medium
Shockwaves-basic
Light Trails-basic
Thruster Flames-3D

Static Particle FX-On
Gatling smoke trails-On

Soften Smoke edges-On
Soften Sprite edges-On
Soften Spark edges-On

Missile Smoke Trails-On
(Everything set to medium,except Particle Size set to high)

Smoke from Debris-On
(Everything set to medium)

Disperse smoke-On
Rotate Smoke Particles-On
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[karx11erx]

I would set lightmap precision to standard. This only impacts lightmap calculation.

[ryguy64]

Based on your system, I would say that your video card is just struggling a bit. Your CPU should be more than adequate. You could decrease some of the settings and see what works. Or you could try decreasing your resolution.

And Hawkins is right... 50 FPS is excellent, and very playable. I've seen as low as 15, and was still able to get past that area. Anthology's first D2 area. Kills my FPS, even with no effects turned on, and no bots around.