Old CPU

Hello,
I have an old computer with an AMD athlon ii 240 dual-core @ 2.8 Ghz, and i wondered while my main system was down, if i would have any hope in hell of running beamNG on it. it does have a decent GPU.
Thanks in Advance

 

I'd say... No.
The CPU is way more important for BeamNG.drive.

If you did run it, it would be at a very low framerate.

 

Its a similar vintage to the old Worfdale processor I use to run and I got HORRIFIC frame rates at 720p ultra low settings with this game in early 0.3.0 days but now...just hell no this game would probably cause your CPU to look like Chernobyl 1 second after meltdown happened...

 

i figured, thanks for the input

 

I run on an Athlon II at 3.4ghz. It does run. Just. T series is out of its league of course. You can certainly try but I wouldnt expect much.

 

The T-Series is just death for old computers just avoid it at all costs is my advise

 

I tried it, and it actually ran at about 45 fps. i was surprised!

 

I was gonna say, an Athlon II shouldn't have THAT hard a time playing one or two vehicles on Grid.

 

Athlon II is about 20-25% worse off than the best Phenom II's, and not much worse off than the FX processor (which, depending on clock speed, may actually run BeamNG.Drive WORSE than a Phenom II). If you can crank the clock speed, you'll win out in the battle with FPS. 3ghz + on an athlon II or Phenom 1 or 2 class processor has a pretty good chance of running this - you may only get 30fps or so, but it'll run. You may only get 20fps or so on <3ghz chips. You can usually drop a used phenom II x4 (or x6 if you get super lucky and have a good gaming board to power it), into those machines and they'll run Beam pretty decent for a back-up box. If you have a locked chip (not easily overclockable via multiplier) and or a basic motherboard (as in most every pre-built/store-bought machine), don't use overclocking (most won't let you) as you'll inevitably self-destruct the power-regulation components on the board (they're only basic, rated for 80-95 watts and low-temperature operation), causing motherboard (and possibly cpu!) failure and RISK OF FIRE. It's no fun carrying a burning computer out of the house choking on smoke - I've been there done that, though not for the reason/cause mentioned above. If you want to avoid all the risk, a nice 3.2-3.4ghz Phenom II x4 chip will work great with Beam for 30fps-40fps+, and you may even find one that's within the wattage (TDP) requirements of your board so you don't blow it up. Usually it's listed near the cpu socket what it's rated for (90w or 90 watt right on the board). Most are 80-95 watt limits in OEM computers.
Consider finding a pulled (used) UNLOCKED* phenom II and a cheap gigabyte am3/am3+ motherboard (they're out there) and seeing what you can get out of the machine if you're serious about running Beam on it. If you're lucky, you'll find a board that's enough like your old one, that it won't invalidate the windows license, and it will use the same ram etc. If buying a board try and get one with heatsinks near the cpu area over the VRM (Voltage regulation modules) as they provide power to the cpu (and AMD's cpus are power-hungry especially if overclocked). You can find a lot of these boards well below the 60-70$ US-dollar mark. A lot of times this is worth it money-wise compared to going Intel as that'll require a new Windows license often-times and a lot more expense on your part.

Clock for clock Intel chips are substantially better. FX chips from AMD (and APU series) may perform slightly to significantly worse in certain situations with Beam. This is due to Beam's dependence on the Floating Point Unit (FPU - math coprocessor). This is the part of the cpu that does all the math (think: vehicle physics, which Beam does gobs of 2000 times a second!). This is also the part that AMD considerably skimped on when they went to the FX and APU line of processors. Intel is seriously better here (think: double - or more).

So, if buying a new machine for Beam, make sure it's got an Intel CPU in it, the higher the GHZ the better. The more cars you want to run simulatenously, the more CORES you want that CPU to have (real cores, not THREADS, ignore hyper-threading features here). Quad Core = 4 cars, Dual Core = 2 cars, Quad Core with hyperthreading = Still 4 Cars. You *CAN* run more but you'll cut the FPS down by half quite possibly as it's sharing resources that are already taxed. I can realisticly and playably run 8 cars on my 4.4ghz i7 quad core with hyperthreading here, but it's only going to have half the FPS that four or less cars would. Going over that, the game starts to lag significantly. Obviously, a Hexacore cpu would be able to run 50% more cars IF ITS THE SAME SPEED IN GHZ PER-CORE.

On another note, if you're happy enough the way BeamNG.Drive runs on your current PC, and can hold out the remainder of the year, AMD has a new AM4 socket & Zen CPU series coming out at the end of 2016 based on new tech and fabrication specifications. This new processor should net 40%+ increase in performance per-core AND be atleast twice as good in the math department. While this is all speculative and not set in stone, what it means for everyone is that the processor marketing wars might heat up a bit and both major processor manufacturers will be lowering prices AND adding more cores/more ghz to the menu. This is good for us Beam-lovers. Until then, --Cheers!

If you or anyone else still has questions, feel free to ask, as I have a wealth of knowledge on processors and computer hardware & am willing to help fellow Beam users.

 

Overclocked GTX460 at 908MHz (appears stable) +AMD Athlon II X3 460 at 3.4ghz (motherboard gives zero headroom for overclock, infact even 3% gives BSOD). Cant hold 30fps with a D series. Map seems to make little difference if any. Resolution appears to make no difference. Settings appear to make no difference. Pausing physics appears to make no difference. No frame rate limiter.

EDIT:
Ok frame limiter has enabled itself and PostFX was on. What I now get is a highly erratic framerate that cant make its mind up whether it wants to be 15, 30 or 60fps with VSync off and refuses to use my GPU properly (utilisation sits on 40s)