I knew it would be these three bozos jumping down my throat before even checking my email.

not all i7's have 8 cores. majority are 4 core

you being CPU illiterate and posting completely false information on a forum makes us bozos? okay, that's a new one.

If you could expand the budget to $700 so you could cover tax, shipping, misc parts you might need, its doable. $600 is pushing it, and even worse if you need an OS.

There have been dozens and dozens of threads recently about budget builds. Use the forum search function.

Edit; an unlocked i5 is very good for gaming. I run my 2500k at 4.5ghz with a Gigabyte 670 at 1200mhz max clock and im almost always pulling 95+ fps.

this threads got silly...i'm out.

Games today rely more on graphics power to look pretty than the CPU. An I5, Ivy Bridge, is more than enough processing power to run it on ultra with 2000+ players on screen. I use an I5, 4670K with a GTX 770 EVGA Superclocked video card and I run everything on ultra no lag, no problem.

It's too late to deal with your ad hominem, especially after seeing how you feel the need to vituperate anyone who asks about computers you believe to be 'inferior'. We can compare our qualifications for computing knowledge elsewhere.

Not all i7's would be underutilized, and there is no reason to deny yourself additional expand-ability.

the OP is obviously on a budget, and wants the best bang for his buck. He's talking about ESO on ultra, and an i7 is simply a waste of money, no butts about it. if he wants to future proof, sure, get an i7, but that's not what he asked.

/thread

Built my PC for $1000 ~ 2 years ago and it ran ESO on ultra no problems. i5-2400, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD 6800. The game has been designed to be pretty spec friendly from what I recall.

I've got a similar question.

I'd like to run max video settings with 2560x1440 resolution and minimum 60 fps at all times. Any clues on a video card?

Thanks!

GTX Titan hehehe

You would probably have to go as high as gtx 780/ r9 290, But you would still not get constant 60 fps in cyrodiil, at least judging on beta experience.

I've had Titan, and you'd be surprised how many games failed. Not because the card is bad, but because of poor 3d game engines. Gw2, World of Tanks, Battlefield 4, etc.

Depends but for 450-700 you will get one that can do it.

Antialiasing was not functioning in the beta runs. Therefore, running on ultra during beta may not be the same as running ultra after release when those things are working properly. I have no worries about my system, but anything less than 1000, is going to be extremely iffy. CPU will play a big part in PVP and in crowded areas, so keep that in mind also.

Hopefully true full screen comes out at release, and SLI shortly thereafter. I would be very happy

If you have basic hardwares, like mouse, keyboard, monitor, i would say you will need at least 800+ to upgrade. Depending on what hardwares and where you buying it from.

It really depends on what resolution you're running at. 1080p? You can build a rig for ESO on ultra @35-55fps for right around $800-850 if you already have mouse, KB, speakers etc... Running at higher resolutions or requiring nothing less than 60fps constant will put the GPU requirements a bit higher though. Expect to head into $1000 territory.

Don't need an SSD for this game. Improves the boot time of your comp from powered down to loaded into your desktop. But, most of the loading is going to take please between you and ZOS servers. Though an SSD might lower your time in load screens by like 5 secs lol. Not worth it at the current pricing of SSD's.

Also, the cards you listed as being able to run this game on Ultra probably wouldn't at all, at a playable level(30fps + ). As stated, this game isn't fullscreen yet, or at least wasn't during any part of any beta. That means that things like AA and anisotropic filtering didn't have any affect on the game, even if turned on. I wouldn't buy a graphics card that wasn't at least a GTX 600 series or better for Nvidia, or an AMD HD 7700 series or better for AMD.

A lot of folks are forgetting the mandatory $100 for the Operating System...

For a computer to run on Ultra, not including monitor, keyboard, mouse... you are looking at around $1000-1300...

You can get by with an i5 (I have a different viewpoint between the i7/i5 debate but this will be more than fine) and 6-8 GB of RAM.

But you never skimp on your motherboard or case... ever. These need to be quality. They do not need to be the "overclocker special" and dont even need to have two connection ports for video cards... but they need to be quality mobos.

Your PSU is gonna have to be 500w minimum.

And the hard drive... well hard drives do not have much to do with playing a MMO. Just dont get a junker... pretty much anything western digital should be fine that is at least a 7200 rpm HDD.

Video card can be a 650 ti for like $130.

700-800 dollars in my opinion

According to my task manager etc ESO only uses one core.

SSD may not seem necessary but the huge amount of streaming content and cache size would make it a worthy investment.

You will have the same problem with the gtx690 or any sli settup. No engine on the market has cracked the arbitrary assignment problem so everything runs better on a single gpu. Spend your money here and on ram.

@Wilem82 I spent a year not being able to play bf4 because the 690 uses both gpus for physics processing which frostbyte 3 doesnt support. It would result in a hard reboot of my pc, disabling any sli or multi gpu function caused the game to run smoothly. I found the same thing with ESO that sli would produce worse performance then setting physics to one gpu and turningoff sli on the other.

With an i7 32 gb ram gtx690 I can run on ultra with 100 render range without a hickup and at a capped 60 fps (for recording). I also spent about $2000 at the time I built this pc.

I believe you meant a GTX X60 serIes or better. The first number of the GTX line has no bearing on its performance. (I.e. a 590 would blow a 640 out of the water)

I tested both 560ti and 6870 during beta both did 60+ fps they were both capable of ultra and perform very similar in 3d mark with a score of ~ 3300

Never cheap out on your PSU there are cheaper out there yes but they use [censored] parts and the voltage can vary ie. Go up and down. PSU is the heart of computer make sure you have a decent on for a dedicated gfx card.

Then you need to change it manually to 4, because that's what eso utilizes at best.

However, Judging by the rest of your post, I'd say that you misread your task manager.

Given that the graphics options(AA and anisotropic filtering) didn't have any bearing on the game yet, since it wasn't true fullscreen, only borderless fullscreen, any testing with those cards during beta won't represent what the game will run like when the true fullscreen is implemented.