Recommended Spec

[Illinger]

I only play vanilla, but I'm noticing a ton of lag in the later stages when I've got the full map unlocked and my population is above 100k, and my system resources are all maxed out as soon as my city loads now. Fortunately, I'm also around to budgeting for a new PC to play it on. What is the recommended spec to play on?

By this, I don't mean the numbers the devs put out, because that number is always targeted at what is required to get the game to start fresh. I mean, honest opinion from other players. Also, if anybody here has invested in CS2, would such recommendations translate well? (I plan to switch to CS2 after the bugs are worked out.)

[MarkJohnson]

This game (CS1) only needs an 8-core/8-threaded CPU. This is all the game can handle.

CS2 should need a minimum of 8-core/16-threaded CPU minimum, same as consoles.
So, I'd shop for above that, if you want to use workshop when it becomes available. The game seems to be able to handle 64-core/64-thread at max. but that is only available to work station or better currently.

[Tsubame ⭐]

- CS1
Almost any modern GPU will handle the game just fine.

CPU wise, try to get your hands in the best possible, and pay attention to frequency and single core performance - higher is better.

Top of the line CPUs will handle most or all cities just fine independently of population.

16 GB will handle CS1 vanilla just fine, and even many modded assets via page filing.

- CS2
You absolutely need a good GPU, aim for 2080 or 3060 RTX or equivalent, or higher.

As with CS1, you also want a very good CPU, but either way do expect massive simulation slowdowns at 150k+ people, even with the best CPUs in the market.

32 GB RAM recommended.

[Haystack]

Spec's ? I really couldn't say. I have an i7 with 16Gb RAM that struggles to open large city maps. While it is NOT recommended, I have an older i9 with 32Gb RAM and the game installed on a 1Tb smartcard that runs the largest cities I have just fine at around 30 - 40 fps. I also have a newer i9 Gaming Machine with 64 Gb Ram that runs everything I've thrown at it at around 60 fps.

I rarely use the Gamer and never use the i7 to play CS. And I wouldn't have CS2 on a bet.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Haystack:

Spec's ? I really couldn't say. I have an i7 with 16Gb RAM that struggles to open large city maps.

This is perfect for this game. although 16GB is a little low, but this is an ant farm game, so it doesn't need high performance, it just needs a lot of CPU power to manage the 80k worth of AI agents simultaneously. This is really the only thing that stresses the game at all.

But if the game is struggling, it may just be a limit reached, or maybe excess mods from the workshop, which is not part of the game.

While it is NOT recommended, I have an older i9 with 32Gb RAM and the game installed on a 1Tb smartcard that runs the largest cities I have just fine at around 30 - 40 fps.

Not recommended? i9 is way overkill for this game. i9s weren't even available when CS1 released.

I also have a newer i9 Gaming Machine with 64 Gb Ram that runs everything I've thrown at it at around 60 fps.

60FPS is all you really need to play any game effectively. But FPS is more of a product of your GPU's quality.

I rarely use the Gamer and never use the i7 to play CS. And I wouldn't have CS2 on a bet. [/quote]

I'm not sure what the gamer is, but CS2 should be optimized for consoles, so it should have a minimum spec of 8 p-core CPUs minimum. More for modded cities, since the game can handle 64-core CPUs.

Were suppose to get 128GB RAM soon as well. Then we can really go to town on more realistic cities, as we can have more variety of buildings, and not a bunch of cookie cutter buildings being spammed all over the place.

CS1 had a max of 48k unique buildings on a single map. Who knows what CS2 can handle? 1MB?

[Haystack]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Originally posted by Haystack:

While it is NOT recommended, I have an older i9 with 32Gb RAM and the game installed on a 1Tb smartcard that runs the largest cities I have just fine at around 30 - 40 fps.

Not recommended? i9 is way overkill for this game. i9s weren't even available when CS1 released.

I was referring to having the game installed on removable smartcard, not the i9. And I don't often use the Gaming computer because it comes with a transformer the size of a shoe box. :)

[james]

I use a cheaper AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics 3.20 GHz 8gb memory

92 FPS zoomed in
average 3.2% on 16 cores
2.7k physical 36k virtual 4k page 1k non-paged

allocated 13k
reserved 13k
unused 265 MB

NVIDA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti

Dynamic res 4800 x 2416

FPS booster enabled


This setup really slows down around 60k pop though :(

Just to provide you a measure of my experience

[e.]

Just get as much RAM as possible, if there's spare RAM, it WILL eat it upw

[Longhaul]

You can have the most expensive Nasa computer ever made, and it will not make a difference! Once you hit a certain population number the game will slow down to a crawl....

My system gets me to a population of around 350k and then the speed drops to a crawl.

i9 12900
RTX 4060
16gb ram
1tb ssd

[e.]

It's main issue is RAM usage, I only have 16gb and 8GB of that is being used up just from my OS

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Haystack:

I was referring to having the game installed on removable smartcard, not the i9.

Sorry, I thought you meant it was installed on a SD card. What is a Smart card?

And I don't often use the Gaming computer because it comes with a transformer the size of a shoe box. :)

I have the same issue, I built a ginormous PC for CS2, it powered up to 500 watts on a new city, and 700 watts on other games. LOL

It would turned my room into an oven in less than a hour. I sold it so I could built two smaller ones. An all Intel gaming PC and an intel streaming machine to record with. although I never stream, I just recording for myself.

I am not liking the Arc A770 GPU, intel needs more driver updates. I am planning on buying an nvidia card soon. The Arc is just too unplayable on many games. I game on my laptop mostly lately.

Anyone want to buy a lightly used All intel gaming rig? LOL

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by james:

I use a cheaper AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics 3.20 GHz 8gb memory

That should be fine, but 8GB RAM is bare minimum. so you will have issues as your city grows. Upgrade to 32GB if you can. The whole game fits into 32GB fine and will run in RAM on large cities.

[/quote]92 FPS zoomed in
average 3.2% on 16 cores
2.7k physical 36k virtual 4k page 1k non-paged

allocated 13k
reserved 13k
unused 265 MB

NVIDA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti

Dynamic res 4800 x 2416

FPS booster enabled

This setup really slows down around 60k pop though :(

Just to provide you a measure of my experience [/quote]

Make sure to set the game to defaults. That super high resolution can eat up a lot of RAM in some cases. Set it to 720p and see if you get some speed back

Your 3050 TI should handle basic graphics settings fine. But 8GB RAM is hurting you the most. even 16GB RAM will make a big difference for a while.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by e.:

It's main issue is RAM usage, I only have 16gb and 8GB of that is being used up just from my OS

OS should use around 3GB of RAM. The other 5GB likely are miscellaneous apps, discord, steam, startup, browsers, and other apps.

But open task manager at reboot. check the performance tab and under memory it should show you roughly what windows uses at launch. In Use (compressed) is RAM.

But this game really loves no less than 32GB for larger cities.

[Haystack]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Sorry, I thought you meant it was installed on a SD card. What is a Smart card?

Smart card - SD Card :) Not really recommended for either. Or so I've been told.

[SuperSharks]

Originally posted by Haystack:

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Sorry, I thought you meant it was installed on a SD card. What is a Smart card?

Smart card - SD Card :) Not really recommended for either. Or so I've been told.

wait is there SD Card in computer?

[SuperSharks]

Originally posted by james:

This setup really slows down around 60k pop though :(

what? i have Intel i7 gen 11th, RTX 3050TI works fine at 70 or 90 pop. it still at the max FPS i could get i.e 75