LIMITED preformance? hardware question

[Icelord]

so i was thinking of upgrading my computer because its VERY old now when i got it i was thinking 4-5 years its like 13 now well kind of since i have upgraded parts

the thing is i dont know what to spend on for the best preformace in this game i have other games and i know its gpu or cpu depending on the game but this one is very strange its only useing like 25% or so of my cpu and like 33% or so of my gpu and like 8GB of my 18 GB of ram

so is this game a 1 core game?
does it have some strange max ram usage that is limiting it?

[Elitewrecker PT]

A big part of the games processing is in a single thread so you need to go for high single thread performance.

[Schakar]

Stellaris does not make that much use of Multi-Core. But they improved it several times.

Currently running a Ryzen 3900x (12 core), 16gb DRR4 3600 and a 16GB Arc 770.
But used the Ryzen Master Tool to use the Gaming Boost mode witch overclocks 6 Cores and deactivates the other 6. Endgame is noticeble better with 6 core @5.1GHz then with 12 cores 4,5GHz OCed.

a) Stellaris is using 6,5+ GB VRAM. So any GPU with less then 8 GB VRAM will bottleneck! But realy any 8GB since 980ti will have nearly the same results. Even my old 970ti was fast enough IF it hadn't this stupid 3.5+0.5 VRAM nonsens :(.
b) 16GB RAM is more then enough and RAM speed doesn't realy matter.
c) 6 Core CPU with high clock speed >>> many cores

So just for Stellaris I would go with either Ryzen 5700x3d / 7700x(3d) or I5 13400f / 13600k. Depending on what you have now. If you can re-use the Mainboard or not. In case of the new Intel CPUs you might need to buy new DDR5 RAM which is expensive.
But don't know how much Stellaris profits from Ryzen 3D-Cache.

[Ragnarr Loðbrók]

Single Thread performance and L1-L3 cache size matters.

[Schakar]

Publicado originalmente por Ragnarr Loðbrók:

Single Thread performance and L1-L3 cache size matters.

Yes and now. The main Stellris process for sure yes.
But with 6 cores 5 are @ around 50% while 1 is @80% playing a 1000 system galaxy short before crysis starts.

Playing with 12 cores and lower clock speed splits the use further but then 11 cores are "idleing" @25% while 1 core is @90% with big studdering all the time.

So I wouldn't buy a 4 core CPU witrh extrem clock speeds for Stellaris too :). 6-8 cores (excluding the Intel +energysaving cores) with good speeds and maybe 3D-Cache from Ryzen should be fine.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Here I am using a 2GB vram card...

[Schakar]

Stellaris does run on less then 8GB VRAM. And most of the time not to bad.
Just told you what my MSI Afterburner tells me: USED VRAM = ~6.5GB.

And as soon as your PC/Game has to use normal RAM to compensate missing VRAM you will have studdering/lags. As I said my old GTX970 with 3.5+0.5 had noticeble performance lose when Stellaris started to use mor then 3.5GB VRAM.

When you start a new game Stellaris uses around 1.5GB VRAM. So any card, which has at last 2GB should be able to run Stellaris. Your PC will handle all the asset swapping from RAM to VRAM and back.
But it WILL slow down the game.

And if you plan to upgrade like Icelord ... 8GB Grafix Cards aren't that expensive. RX6600, Arc750 are both around 250,-€. Just don't buy a RTX3050. It's a TERRIBLE performing GPU!! You can still get alot of 4gb or 6gb GPUs. But you realy shouldn't buy them any more for gaming.
All I'm saying :).

PS: and before you upgrade your GPU for Stellaris ... upgrade your CPU to 6 true performance Cores with high clock speeds.

[Elitewrecker PT]

I'm gathering the parts for a top-of-the-line PC atm - 13900KF and 4090/4080

[Icelord]

like i said my computer is mostly*** 13 years old so just about anything is better

Intel I7 920 overclocked to 3.2ghz (= to I7 960 best at the time the computer was made)
Gtx 1650 super 4gb (3rd card in started with GTX 260 then Gtx 770)
18gb of ram as said before which is nice compared with the 6GB i started with
160gb ssd
1tb ssd
2x1tb storage HD
network card

Think that is about it so more or less a new phone likly can beat this thing think when i was looking at the 13900k it was around 4x the single core preformace of mine

[Schakar]

Biggest improvement might be a new CPU. But this would include a new Mainboard and RAM most likely :(

The I7 920 is a 4 core 8 threads with ~2,7GHz.

Ryzen 5 7600x oder Intel i5 13400f. Beide liegen bei 200 bis 250,-€. Dazu ein passendes Mainboard und 16GB ram. Mainboards fangen bei ca 80,- an und oben keine Grenze :). Gute sind normal zwischen 150 bis 250,-€. Wenn ich das richtig sehe, verwenden beide CPUs DDR4 RAM. Die sind recht preiswert mit um die 80,-€ für 16GB. (Beim Ryzen dringend auf 3600er RAM gehen!).
Also für grop 500,-€ solltest du ein verdammt gutes Gaming Grundgerüst bekommen.

PS: grad bissel gesucht. AMDs X3D muß wohl dramatische Performance bei Stellaris bringen. Also Ryzen 5 5800x3d oder vieleicht auf den 7800x3d warten. Der soll bald rauskommen. Sind aber beide knapp 100,-€ teurer wie die non-3d Varianten.
Wobei du natürlich erst ein mal einen Ryzen 5 7600x kaufen kannst und bei Mainboard dann drauf achtest, dass es mit einem 7800x3d umgehen kann. Dann kannst du in 1 oder 2 Jahren (oder vieleicht in einem halben) auf den 7800x3d aufrüstung :).


Die GTX 1650 ist nicht mehr die dollste. Aber für Stellaris reicht sie und ein Upgrade würde bei weitem nicht so viel bringen, wie eine neue CPU (+rest). Und selbst eine AMD 6600XT oder A770 liegen schon bei ~350 bis 400,-€.
Ich kann dir aber mit Sicherheit sagen, dass du dir eine neue GPU für Stellaris bei weitem nicht so viel bringt.

Für Stellaris !!! wohlgemerkt !!
Bei anderen Spielen kann das anders aussehen.

@Elitewrecker PT totaler Overkill für Stellaris und Preislich jenseits von Gut und Böse vom Preis. Aber wenn es dir spaß macht :).

[Elitewrecker PT]

Its not just for stellaris, I'm just tired of being 10 years behind the curve and I can spare the money now. Don't speak German so I only got the "total overkill for" part.

[Schakar]

OMG sorry ... no idear why I wrote german :(. Sorry dudes.
Or why I started in english and then switched to german. WTF?

I can re-write in english if you want @Icelord.
@ElitewreckerPT more or less "not needed for Stellaris and absurd overpriced but if you have fun with this hardware :)".

[harisenvin]

yes it just utilizes a grand total of ONE CPU thread.

for recommended CPUs: core i3 12100/F(any alder lake or raptor lake CPU really). for AMD Ryzen 5 5600/X and above.

the absolute BEST CPU i found for Stellaris is the iconic Ryzen 7 5800X3D. for some reason the game ABSOLUTELY loves the additional L3 cache it provides.

[Elitewrecker PT]

It's not a grande total of one thread.

[Pala]

Publicado originalmente por Elitewrecker PT:

Here I am using a 2GB vram card...

Same…

[Schakar]

Publicado originalmente por harisenvin:

yes it just utilizes a grand total of ONE CPU thread.

This isn't true.
It uses one core for the main process which is highest utilized. But if you have 12, 16 or even more cores it will use them ALL. The more cores (not threads!) you have, the lower is the utilization of the left overs.
You can check it with Ryzen Master Software, MSI Afterburner or similar tools.

And yes, the X3D super cache realy seams to rock for Stellaris :). And Rimworld if you play it too.