Mass Effect: Andromeda

Shall I even try to play this game with:

i2500k + GTX 1800 + UltraWide 3440x1440 + 24GB RAM

? I heard that CPU is a bit old for it. Any ideas?
 
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Shall I eve try to play this game with:

i2500k + GTX 1800 + UltraWide 3440x1440 + 24GB RAM

? I heard that CPU is a bit old for it. Any ideas?

I'm assuming you meant a GTX 1080 at 3440x1440. The 24GB of RAM is fine as is the video card. The CPU is a bit lacking for it given that the Frostbite engine and this particular game is heavily multithreaded. That said, the 2500K should be able to handle it reasonably well. Obviously, you'd get better performance out of a more modern CPU with a higher core / thread count but that's a given.
 
Nexus Mods - Character Creation - Pale Skin Unlocked

uKnsQui.png
 
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Shall I even try to play this game with:

i2500k + GTX 1800 + UltraWide 3440x1440 + 24GB RAM

? I heard that CPU is a bit old for it. Any ideas?
You'd get slowdowns regardless of the resolution with that CPU. In fact the higher the resolution the less your cpu will hold back things so it doesn't really matter. Depending on that you consider playable. I don't know how the game behaves on a slow cpu, does it lag, or pause, or just runs less fps but still reasonably smoothly.
 
There are more of those things to pick up in the "Unearthed" quest than you need on Havarl. The manifestos are pretty easy to. A quick Google search will show you the locations and almost all of them are in places you would go anyway.
I said I didn't even want to finish them, I can't be bothered. I could've looked up where to find them, but I don't care about fetch quests.
 
I played the whole game averaging 50-60% CPU load, it spikes at load screens and transitioning between areas but no problems during regular gameplay. Doubt the 2500K will be an issue.
 
There are times my 4.6GHz 6700K runs around 80% + on all cores.
But peculiarly if I alt tab out and see that, when I go back into the game its the same performance with less CPU use when I check again.
Something isnt right with their code.
 
Well, as Dan and others have stated, the biggest 'slowdowns' are on your ship- the bridge, and the console below the vid deck where you do AVP, strike teams, shopping, and research.

During actual fighting where it matters, the game is smooth.
 
Well, as Dan and others have stated, the biggest 'slowdowns' are on your ship- the bridge, and the console below the vid deck where you do AVP, strike teams, shopping, and research.

During actual fighting where it matters, the game is smooth.
I didn't get any slowdowns at any of those places.
#6coresmatter.
 
I didn't get any slowdowns at any of those places.
#6coresmatter.

I'm running a Core i7 5960X and still saw slowdowns in those areas. It isn't about CPU cores in those instances. The game is slower in those places. My girlfriend doesn't experience this at 2560x1600 using a Titan X (Maxwell), but I do with dual 1080Ti's. Again, it only drops to about 55FPS but it's considerably faster everywhere else.
 
Sometimes I drop into the 30's on the Tempest, reload the game and in the same spot it jumps up to 60. Definitely some optimization issues.
I get dips on Havarl even at 720p running at half capacity.

RAM speed issue? Streaming data from disk? Maybe. If I stop moving it locks at 60.

LYScEfH.png
 
I'm running a Core i7 5960X and still saw slowdowns in those areas. It isn't about CPU cores in those instances. The game is slower in those places. My girlfriend doesn't experience this at 2560x1600 using a Titan X (Maxwell), but I do with dual 1080Ti's. Again, it only drops to about 55FPS but it's considerably faster everywhere else.
Lol, 55fps is not a slowdown. When you tell me slowdown I expect dips into the low 20s or 10s. DA:I actually had those, but I only ran it on a 3820

That's the point where it starts to bother me outside of combat. But 55fps is perfectly fine even for combat situations. In fact anything above 40 I'd consider well inside the realm of playable.

Have you tried playing without SLI? It might even run better, no microstutter and such things.
 
I haven't tried it without SLI. There seems to be some scaling, and most tests out there show a single card isn't quite sufficient to give me 60FPS all the time. I will say that at sub-60FPS, this game does not feel smooth. I'm not sure if that's SLI or something with this particular game or game engine.
 
Yeah, any stutter I see with SLI I see without it. It's the engine, for whatever reason, in those specific places.

I get 80FPS-90FPS in multiplayer maps, for example, and it's butter smooth; I get far less with SLI off.
 
Lol, 55fps is not a slowdown. When you tell me slowdown I expect dips into the low 20s or 10s. DA:I actually had those, but I only ran it on a 3820

That's the point where it starts to bother me outside of combat. But 55fps is perfectly fine even for combat situations. In fact anything above 40 I'd consider well inside the realm of playable.

Have you tried playing without SLI? It might even run better, no microstutter and such things.
When the rest of the game is running at 80 FPS it is very noticeable.
Early concept art reveals a squad that looks roughly 100 times better than the final product.

Bunch more here:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Qkbv3

ShtKd6P.jpg
Concept art is just that: a concept. But I think it just emphasizes the fact that the game was rushed out the door. If I were on the team I know I could have gotten that real time Omni Tool interface working, or die trying.
 
When the rest of the game is running at 80 FPS it is very noticeable.

Concept art is just that: a concept. But I think it just emphasizes the fact that the game was rushed out the door. If I were on the team I know I could have gotten that real time Omni Tool interface working, or die trying.

I still have to wonder about the bulk of that first year basically being tossed out the window. They were originally going for an almost No Man's Sky-ish concept and it failed miserably. That lost year may be more of a factor vs a "rush."
 
Shall I even try to play this game with:

i2500k + GTX 1800 + UltraWide 3440x1440 + 24GB RAM

? I heard that CPU is a bit old for it. Any ideas?
OC the CPU and you won't have a problem. I tested the game on a i5-2500K at 4.5Ghz and was GPU limited with a GTX 970. CPU usage was 100% in the first couple of minutes then was at 60% subsequently, As someone said, if you alt-tab and to other stuff, your CPU usage will climb up again. OCing to 5Ghz did not improve the performance.
 
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Decided to give this a go. Performing okay, but performance is inconsistent. Some areas run great, others not so well. The Tempest being the worst. I can get 60-70 in some areas, but I drop to the 30s in there. Any settings I should dial back to prevent this?
 
Decided to give this a go. Performing okay, but performance is inconsistent. Some areas run great, others not so well. The Tempest being the worst. I can get 60-70 in some areas, but I drop to the 30s in there. Any settings I should dial back to prevent this?
Shadows are the biggest performance killer in this game. HBAO+ is also a big hit to framerate.
 
Shadows are the biggest performance killer in this game. HBAO+ is also a big hit to framerate.

Will try turning HBAO+ off. And how exactly do you scan a planet? I find it amazing that both the game and the first 20 search results with this question in Google can't describe how to do it. You'd think common sense controls like mouse 1/2 and whatnot would be used, but they're probably using some obscure key on the number pad that no one would guess. Probably one of the biggest problems in the industry right now, and why games need some be sensible in size and scale. Probably the most frustrating thing about this game is just getting content. Do this (but there are no instructions known to man on how to do it), scan this, find this, then research this, then open another menu to research it, then 15 clicks to re-equip all your accessories. Need a rare mineral? Too bad, because you'll have to wait another 10-15 hours into the game to find it.

I wish whoever thought of the whole research and gathering aspect in video games dies in a fire. And everyone else who suggests implementing such a feature dies in the same fire! :p

Aside from that, the game is okay. Rough around the edges and fairly mediocre. Rushed out the door is one problem, but the main thing is the game is likely 20-30 hours longer than it needed to be.

10 hours into the game and you still can't even upgrade a piece of armor and you're already running back and fourth. Essentially, GTA: Mass Effect.

When you're playing the game and not Googling where to find X and Y or shifting through dozens of pointless upgrades and inventory menus, it is okay. Sadly, the playing part is only half of the game...
 
How do you scan a planet?

Right click. That's it.

And you'll find your way soon enough. The main questlines are clear.
 
How do you scan a planet?

Right click. That's it.

And you'll find your way soon enough. The main questlines are clear.

The planet scanning isn't nearly what it once was. The game tells you if there is anything there and you have to search it out, which takes 10 seconds. Other than that, right click it to make sure it counts it in your system exploration percentages and your done. Since they added the ability to skip the lengthy travel animations within a star system, this stuff is trivial.
 
Shadows are the biggest performance killer in this game. HBAO+ is also a big hit to framerate.

Shadows are one of the largest performance killers in any game engine. Honestly, I didn't notice a big hit on HBAO+ in this game which is surprising. However, I found that the visual impact of disabling HBAO+ was huge.
 
How do you scan a planet?

Right click. That's it.

And you'll find your way soon enough. The main questlines are clear.

Odd because that doesn't work... well, I suppose my 360 controller will be used for planet scanning activities. Because that works.

The whole menu design is terrible. Equipping, selecting, ect. is so slow and unintuitive. Took me a few minutes to figure out how to equip different colors for your uniform. Research is a pain, going back and fourth to the different terminals. Horrible, utterly terrible design all around. I don't even recall what terminals allow you to deconstruct an item. Whoever they tasked with UI design was asleep at the wheel.

Aside from the nonsense resource scavenging, 10-20 minutes of juggling between terminals, cutscenes and the like to sell off inventory just to equip a single item you want to build, the game is solid enough. Animation errors are so unnoticeable. Really, no worse, if not better than ME3. Not too many extremely notable animation errors, just some minor stuff. Very different from ME3. It is not perfect, but it is so unnoticeable in practice. The laggy, slow, horribly designed UI and resource gathering are the blaring shortcomings in the game.

When you don't have to deal with those two elements, the game can be fairly fun. It is just a shame that there are so many interesting things to craft, but getting the resources and the time spent trying to equip them make them not worthwhile.
 
Odd because that doesn't work... well, I suppose my 360 controller will be used for planet scanning activities. Because that works.

The whole menu design is terrible. Equipping, selecting, ect. is so slow and unintuitive. Took me a few minutes to figure out how to equip different colors for your uniform. Research is a pain, going back and fourth to the different terminals. Horrible, utterly terrible design all around. I don't even recall what terminals allow you to deconstruct an item. Whoever they tasked with UI design was asleep at the wheel.

Aside from the nonsense resource scavenging, 10-20 minutes of juggling between terminals, cutscenes and the like to sell off inventory just to equip a single item you want to build, the game is solid enough. Animation errors are so unnoticeable. Really, no worse, if not better than ME3. Not too many extremely notable animation errors, just some minor stuff. Very different from ME3. It is not perfect, but it is so unnoticeable in practice. The laggy, slow, horribly designed UI and resource gathering are the blaring shortcomings in the game.

When you don't have to deal with those two elements, the game can be fairly fun. It is just a shame that there are so many interesting things to craft, but getting the resources and the time spent trying to equip them make them not worthwhile.

The UI is not perfect but IMO it's on par or better than Bethesda games like skyrim..

The only thing I had a problem with ui wise that they put squad and gear selection under the same page. So often in the game I forgot to choose my squad, because I instinctively clicked on close after selecting the gear. As all previous Me3 games had separate screens for selecting the squad.

OK I also dislike the favorites / profiles thing and equpping powers as favorites. But that's more of a game design issue for me than an ui issue. I hate the whole concept not just how it's handled by the gui.

Equipping colors is a pain, but it's not like you use it all the time. I changed colors twice in one playtrough.

Research on the other hand is perfectly fine. I don't know what different terminals are you referring to. There is only one research terminal that you can access from different places so you don't always have to go back to the tempest.

As for resource gathering. You shouldn't focus on that. You just pick up loot deconstruct everything and you'll have plenty of resources. And you buy up the avaialable rare resources from the vendors. Try building things that you have the materials for, or wait until you acquire the materials. But going out into the wild looking for specific materials that's not the way to enjoy the game. I never went looking for resources just picked up what happened to be in my path.
 
....bunch of nonsense....

You seem really, really lost. I could take the time to explain every one of your complaints and how I found to address them quickly, but you seem more interested in bitching than in making your life easier, so I'll leave you to your own devices.

[I beat the game before the first patch came out- there were annoyances, and yet I was able to do clear all but two bugged quest listings. It's even better now.]
 
This game is long. Much longer than I had though. Yeah I can probably blow through the priority missions in a few hours, but there is a lot of side content. Of middling quality, but a lot. Some side missions are decent enough, but a lot are fairly low quality. Exploration doesn't seem to have much reward either. Fairly mixed on this game so far. Sometimes it seems like fun, then other times it feels like driving/walking/fast traveling back and fourth after scanning some things. I think less but higher quality side content, like ME2 side quests, would've been better.
 
Can you guys spoil the game for me but not too much?
I want to know if there are any other villains other than the Kett?
But don't tell me more about them if there are. I want to experience myself :D
 
Can you guys spoil the game for me but not too much?
I want to know if there are any other villains other than the Kett?
But don't tell me more about them if there are. I want to experience myself :D

You only have to deal with the Kett, Remnant, and Exiles. There are some various other assholes here and there but no more additional factions to speak of. The Remnant aren't an enemy exactly, but their drones do attack you when you get too close or mess with Remnant technology.
 
Thank you Dan_D,
I'm about halfway through a no-lookup playthrough, and just winging it in the choices I make (well, whatever seems to fit or be fair), and finding that it's really more enjoyable to know nothing this time. Min/Max can wait!
 
You only have to deal with the Kett, Remnant, and Exiles. There are some various other assholes here and there but no more additional factions to speak of. The Remnant aren't an enemy exactly, but their drones do attack you when you get too close or mess with Remnant technology.

That's too bad, I don't find Kett (or the Remnant) very intimidating.
 
anyone who's a fan of the Mass Effect series needs to be watching the SyFy series 'The Expanse'...it's based on the book series by James S.A. Corey...really smart sci-fi with a great story, characters and they try to be as accurate as possible with the science which is something you almost never see anymore (especially in relation to science fiction)...Season 2 just wrapped up a few weeks ago and it was excellent
 
This game is long. Much longer than I had though. Yeah I can probably blow through the priority missions in a few hours, but there is a lot of side content. Of middling quality, but a lot. Some side missions are decent enough, but a lot are fairly low quality. Exploration doesn't seem to have much reward either. Fairly mixed on this game so far. Sometimes it seems like fun, then other times it feels like driving/walking/fast traveling back and fourth after scanning some things. I think less but higher quality side content, like ME2 side quests, would've been better.
ME2 has perfect amount of content and quality was solid. It is one of those games that you want to play again and not feel burned when doing so. If I get "oh, no this shit again" feeling when I haven't even finished the game it's unlikely that I ever manage to do another playthrough. DA:I is a fine example of that.


Still waiting for them to fix this... Did they stop patching already?
 
Still waiting for them to fix this... Did they stop patching already?

when they released the first major patch on April 6th I think they mentioned something about a 2 month process...so I'm expecting another major patch in May and then June...I'm waiting until the game is in better shape before starting it up
 
they released the initial patch. Not sure what they are working on now. I know multiplayer is due for a rebalance. But I have completed my kit as far as I am willing to take it, meaning I am not willing to grind out 2500 gold games to get all the ultra rare unlocks.
 
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