Help: Building a PC purely for GP4

Hi there,

I was, and still am, a huge Amiga f1gp fan (now running a silky smooth modded version via EUAE on my Mac!), it still plays beautifully and never fails to impress me for a game that's 22 years old!!

However, much as a Mac loyalist I am, I've decided, after seeing the awe inspiring GP4 1991 mod running on your various YouTube clips, I simply have to get involved. Whoever was involved in the creation of this work are geniuses in my eyes! You've really bottled a moment in history!

Basically, I want to build a PC that will give me a really smooth, playable version of the 1991 mod. It's from an F1 era I adore (huge Senna fan!) and I'm so excited.


Q: can you help me decide a good spec PC that will render the 1991 mod well and playable? Memory, CPU, OS, graphics card, sound card, resolution vs fps etc?


I have a co-colleague ready to build it, he clearly knows his stuff, but you guys are the ones who know the game inside out.

My machine will be essentially dedicated to GP4 and that is the only programme, apart from the modding apps, I will be using it for. I use my Macs for work and so don't wish to go down the Bootcamp route unless you feel it's worth getting one of the latest iMacs for (as I will be upgrading a mac at some point in the future)

Any assistance would be massively appreciated. Can't say money is no object, but would rather spend the right amount to give me a great playable experience on the 1991 mod (having said that, does a full GP4 1993 mod exist? my favourite season ever!)

I've searched the forum a little before posting this, but many spec-related posts i saw were either a few years old or were not advising on a spec suitable for the hi-res nature of the 1991 mod itself.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Here are 3 YouTube links to show you how I'd love to be running it:

[youtu.be]

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[youtu.be]

Best - James



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 08:22PM by james7609.

First of all, what's your budget?

In terms of general GP4 notes, the game is more dependant on a good CPU than graphics card, that doesn't mean you need to skimp out on the GPU though!

I'm currently running an i7 920 @3.6ghz, 6gb ddr3 ram, and 2x gtx 280's in SLI.

Not exactly the latest tech, but enough to play the game at the highest settings, but there are a lot of settings you can adjust to get the best graphics/fps

my system:

AMD A10 5800k
DDR3 1866 Mhz RAM

works in Full HD without problems

Budget, not sure as I don't know where to start. £500+/- more if needed. Under a £1000 certainly (hey, i'm used to Mac prices) How does that sound? Like I said though, I'd rather not bother unless I can get it running super smooth. I'd pay for smoothness.

When you say full hd, what res are you talking? 1900px across? Does the game cater for 16:9 or was it 4:3 ratio?

Full HD = 1920x1080 @ 60fps

Personally, i set to play at 50fps, as 60fps looks too smooth and 50fps makes it looks faster, just a personal preference though.

I can have a little look around later to see what you can get, but £1000 is a little overkill, I think around £500-700 will be enough.

thanks Ralv.

Obviously, spending the least for that experience is best It's a very different game to buying a Mac, if you pardon the pun. and because I don't play games on my mac (besides F1GP on my Amiga emulator, as mentioned) I simply don't know where to start in terms of speccing.

Based on me solely using the system for GP4 (a bit daft, I know), would I be best with xp rather than say win 7/8? I've never used any win OS for any length of time, but I was just thinking xp might have a smaller foot print and use less system resources etc. Q: any way or advantage of booting GP4 without fully booting into windows?

Do you ever play the 1991 mod? looks lush.

What do you gather from the YouTube links I posted? achievable on a sensible budget??

James



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 08:23PM by james7609.

Kimi-The-Champ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> my system:
>
> AMD A10 5800k
> DDR3 1866 Mhz RAM
>
> works in Full HD without problems




Cheers Kimi. Very envious. Do you run the 1991 mod? Would you describe that mod as pretty advanced?