Shopping for a new computer...questions...

[Mgellis]

So, I'm looking at getting a new computer. I'm pretty sure it will be more than enough for anything else I want to do, but I want to make sure Command will run well on it. Right now, this is the configuration I'm looking at...

Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 155U (up to 4.8 GHz, 12 MB L3 cache, 12 cores, 14 threads) + NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 Laptop GPU (4 GB)
32 GB DDR5-5600 MHz RAM (2 x 16 GB)
2 TB PCIe® NVMe™ TLC M.2 SSD (4x4 SSD)

If this is what I buy, will Command like it's new home? I understand Ultra 7 is better than i7, and both are better than i5. I guess i9 is better than Ultra 7 for some things, but not others, and of course there are also the various Ryzen chips. Any recommendations? Would 16 GB of RAM slow the game down much compared to 32 GB?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. These days there are so many options, and different games put different demands on the hardware, it's hard for a non-expert like myself to tell what I should get. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[thewood1]

The one thing to do research on with the laptop are two-fold related to thermals:

1) The cooling system. Its sometimes hard to get info on that with recently released laptops, but there are laptop/notebook laptops review sites that check that specifically.

2) CPU Thermal Design Power (TDP). Somewhat related to cooling, but no matter the cooling or the CPU's stated max speed, if the laptop maker limits the TDP, you'll never get the "off-the-shelf" CPU speed. Again, laptop review sites will usually state that. Sometimes the OEM's webpage will also show it.

The above two things are why very thin laptops with the same theoretical configurations as a very thick laptop can't get the full benchmark performance as a thicker one with more room for cooling.

People will come in and talk about RAM speed, SSD speed, etc. But if your cooling is bad and the TDP is significantly capped, they will only help a little.

[kahta]

I agree with thewood1 on thermal concerns. Back when I still bought gaming laptops, I could never figure out why they were so slow. Once I bought a cooling pad (basically a fan that sits under it) the performance improved significantly. If at all possible, I'd suggest buying a desktop.

[slimatwar]

The one thing to do research on with the laptop are two-fold related to thermals:

1) The cooling system. Its sometimes hard to get info on that with recently released laptops, but there are laptop/notebook laptops review sites that check that specifically.

2) CPU Thermal Design Power (TDP). Somewhat related to cooling, but no matter the cooling or the CPU's stated max speed, if the laptop maker limits the TDP, you'll never get the "off-the-shelf" CPU speed. Again, laptop review sites will usually state that. Sometimes the OEM's webpage will also show it.

The above two things are why very thin laptops with the same theoretical configurations as a very thick laptop can't get the full benchmark performance as a thicker one with more room for cooling.

People will come in and talk about RAM speed, SSD speed, etc. But if your cooling is bad and the TDP is significantly capped, they will only help a little.

Hmmm, Interesting note that I've never heard before.
So to summarize, I'd like to ask: if two CPU's have similar CPU speed but different TDP's, the one with the lower TDP may never really reach that speed compared to the other CPU with higher TDP?
In other words, the lower TDP means lower clock speeds for a given "off-the-shelf" CPU speed?

[turmoil]

Hmmm, Interesting note that I've never heard before.
So to summarize, I'd like to ask: if two CPU's have similar CPU speed but different TDP's, the one with the lower TDP may never really reach that speed compared to the other CPU with higher TDP?
In other words, the lower TDP means lower clock speeds for a given "off-the-shelf" CPU speed?

It used to be a little more like that, but the last few generations have made it a bit of a mess with TDP and power delivery etc. You can literally get identical model numbers that perform quite different purely based on what the laptop maker sets the CPU TDP to, which doesn't have to be the same as what Intel/AMD sets (not to mention the names of CPUs and the product stacks themselves which make little to no sense atm). It's rather frustrating because you can't just recommend "get something that has X CPU, it's a solid option." I feel for people who already don't know a lot about this stuff, but honestly I'd check out reviews for laptops from brands that you know - it's what most people are comfortable with and if you're only considering a laptop because you want some portability etc. there's more to factor in than just performance.

As to OP - the only note I have is probably stick to the 32GB of RAM, CMO alone won't care but if you do much multitasking then you can pretty easily hit 16GB and it'll give you some extra breathing room now and for the duration you have the laptop. As thewood1 points out, yeah, don't worry about RAM speed and SSD (as long as there's enough capacity) as any decent laptop will have it balanced for the rest of the hardware just fine.

[thewood1]

I would also emphasize the laptop reviews sites that do a great job on the details. The ones I use are notebookcheck, Tom's Hardware, laptop mag, and a few others. I would check cinebench and 3dMark benchmark scores, as well as gaming benchmark comparisons. Most of the above sites have scary levels of detail, but their summaries on temp, benchmarks, and actual CPU capabilities are pretty reliable.

[DWReese]

Hi all,

Quick question:

I have installed the CMO game from its original CDs that came with the game in 2019 onto my new computer.

Do I need to first install "TINY" (or any other version), or can I jump straight to installing the current update (1527) to complete the process?