Yeah Planetside 2 is very badly optimized and it looks pretty "meh" for that kind of hardware requirement.
The default max settings are lower than the truly customizable "ultra" settings that you have to manually input, and the game can look pretty incredible after messing with such things, however frame rates will plummet, I typically go from 70-80 average with highs above 100 and minimum frame rates in the 30s-40s to an average frame rate in the 40s-50s with a high in the 60s-70s and lows in the 20s. That's default high with some tweaking (like turning off AO and fog junk) to customized "ultra" settings
To all people saying BF3, SC or Civ V - you haven't played PS2.
Planetside 2 isn't CPU intensive at all. It's just poorly threaded. It doesn't even peg a single core on my machine most of the time.
Yeah, we could even have a whole new discussion on which game is most CPU intensive from the CPUs POV - ie which games actually put the most pressure on the CPU, vs. which games need to be the most CPU intensive but are just too inefficient. While a game BF3 will measurably load up an i7, its not exactly CPU bottle-necked, whereas a game like PS2 is easily the most CPU bottle-necked game I have played in years.
No way. That game only utilizes like 40% of my CPU. They need some work done in the optimization department.
While it does utilize quad core, it doesn't peg any single core of mine with the rig in sig.
I'm probably GPU bottlenecked though.
Many games will do that, if not most. It seems like most developers just don't care and/or are incapable of producing an efficiently coded game, so that even if the CPU isn't being effectively utilized that doesn't mean the game is not CPU limited.
Mostly due to the fact that their multi-threading is rubbish, but if you want playable frame rates in large battles you better be prepared to get an i7 to 5Ghz.
Why i7, if the multithreading is rubbish? i5 at 5Ghz should be just as good
Anyway, PlanetSide 2 >>> any other game I've ever played in terms of CPU intensity
An i5 should be just as good, but its often enough not the case. As far as PS2 is concerned I don't know, although I can do some testing with my 3570K vs. my 3930K. That being said, there are some games that are very inefficient at utilizing an i5s four cores, and yet can still receive a tangible benefit from an i7s HT or even s2011 with 6 cores (Tribes Ascend is a pretty big offender in that regard, where its woefully inefficient beyond a couple threads however it will still perform faster and faster on up with higher end CPUs). Granted, I would wager in a majority of cases a high enough clocked i5 will ultimately be just as good.