rFactor 2 Hardware Recommendations and Discussion Thread

[davidan]

With rFactor 2 releasing it looks like more than a few of us may need system upgrades to support the new sim in all it's glory. Use this thread to discuss what you are buying, considering buying or asking questions to help get optimal ingame performance, and frames per second, etc.

I'll go first, anyone have any recommendations on a good video card that is producing solid 60FPS in vSync?

also, here are the system requirements for the sim
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Before purchasing, please ensure your computer meets the minimum system requirements below:

MINIMUM:
CPU: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 or 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon x2
Memory: 2 GB
Video Card: nVidia 8600 GT or ATI/AMD 3850
Video Memory: 256MB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
DirectX: 9.0c
Storage: 4 GB
Internet connection required.

RECOMMENDED (over above minimums):
CPU: 3.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon II x2 or better
Memory: 4 GB+
Video Card: nVidia 250 GTS or ATI/AMD 4870 or better
Video Memory: 512MB+
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista 64bit, Windows 7 64bit
Storage: 4 GB+
Notes:
1 – 2008 C++ Runtimes SP1 required (included with installer).
2 – rFactor 2 executable is 32bit. 64bit OS recommended above to allow more than 4GB RAM.

[davidan]

Guys, this link may be helpful for hardware as it gives some solid recommendations on baseline hardware for gaming for different price points.
Best of the Best - Maximum PC-approved hardware and components for your rig building needs | Maximum PC

[Flyer23]

Here is my current rig

Cooler Master Haf 922
Intel Core i7 950 - 1366 socket
Asus Sabertooth X58 motherboard
12 gb G-skill Ram 1600
9800 GTX+ 1gb video card-soon to be replaced by EVGA GTX570 2560 mb 320 bit
Corsair HX850 silver
Cooler Master Hyper N520 cpu cooler

I will download RF2 over the weekend and post back my results with the XFX 9800GTX + 1gb card. Right now at VIR and everything on MAX I am getting over 400 FPS.

[wheeler]

Will the 4GB patch for WIN7 64 bit work with rF2?

[Brad_W]

Will the 4GB patch for WIN7 64 bit work with rF2?

I have been wondering the same thing. I did read some posts on the ISI forums that lead me to believe that not all the cores are being used just as in rF1.

[corsa]

I have been wondering the same thing. I did read some posts on the ISI forums that lead me to believe that not all the cores are being used just as in rF1.

ISI stated on their boards somewhere that it currently uses 2 cores, and might be updated in the future to use more, so no need to use the "+fullproc" option.

I don't think a 4 GB patch would be necessary either.

[Troy Dalton]

What I can't understand, is why rF2 is such a graphics hog. Maybe it's because it is still in beta, but there is no reason that an HD 3870X2 shouldn't be able to easily run rF2 at the minimum settings. The best that I can do is around 80fps, but it looks horrible. Considering that rF2 really doesn't look all that much better than the previous version, I'm baffled by the poor performance. Again...even with everything at the minimums and a very low resolution, the game is nearly unplayable. I can run rF at 1920x1200 with everything at full or Max (No shadow blur) and get over 100fps.

I'll say this...I really like rF2...but there is no way in hell I'm investing another $300-$400 bucks for another graphics card. Not gonna happen...(he says as he begins typing n...e...w...e...g...g...

[Troy Dalton]

My Current Rig...

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad Core (2.50GHz)
Radeon HD 3870x2 (1GB)
4GB Ram
Win 7 - 64Bit

[davidan]

LOL Troy on the newegg comment

[Marcel Penzkofer]

You'll laugh but my system is even faster and it is still impossible to get more than 25 FPS with the same settings as where I do get 450 FPS with rFactor 1 (everything on maximum).

I do have some solid performance with lowest settings and get about 120 FPS then but there are still RAM-lags as the game seems not to be able to synchronize action and movement well. VSync-off helped there a bit as rF2 doesn't seem to like that too much either.

My system:

Intel Core²Duo (E0) E8600 @ 3,400 Ghz
It might be old now, but: The E0-Stepping is currently still ranking above all (except of the top end) Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor as their two single cores are pure brute force and outperforms every Core²Quad ever released under real gaing situations (even though it is a bit weak on benchmarks but who cares for them as they have nothing to do with gaming surroundings.
Corsair 4GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz
Surely should be enough...
NVidia GTX560 @ 1,5GB GDDR5
Well that's just about three times of the ISI recommended graphics power, isn't it...
Windows 7 Home Edition (64 Bit)

The sad story is, you get a decent performance if you deactivate every single effect which sperates rF2 from rF1 - but then you end up with rF1 with weird physics and a bad Controller-setup anyway.