PC Optimal computer specs...?

[WarMongerian]

Hi folks, I'm trying to ask questions for a new computer, must be complete and = or < $2,000, that can handle 7DTD, and associated video recordings/editing, and be able to play at least the 8192 x 8192 maps, with at least 2 ppl in game, while also sharing screen in a discord voice channel.

Removable/externals, that can be added later, don't have to be in the suggested system, but I do need input so I know what to look out for, once I save up enough for the new computer.

I currently have:



with



and have



and this rig is having some troubles displaying/loading explored maps, on a 8192 x 8192 world.  Any help/thoughts?

 

[Jugginator]

Honestly, 32GB of ram is the new norm. 16gb is becoming close to how 8gb is now. 12gb of vram is certainly nice, but for 7 days, 8gb will do. If you plan on multitasking (e.g. watching streams/youtube/streaming yourself or recording), I suggest getting a 12gb card.

I have a 3060 12gb and it runs the game fine in 2k and even 4k, although I would say an upgrade to like a 4060 or 4080 would be very nice for bandwidth. I would say your CPU could use an upgrade, I run a 5800x which is about 25% better on single core and multithreading, which surmounts to a lot for 7 days. The 3d ones I would go for if you wish to stay on AM4 for now

 

[Gronal]

When my PSU upgrade arrives I'll install my 9070 XT and then I'll have 16GB VRAM. But until then it's 8GB for me.

 

[zztong]

You didn't mention the CPU in your survey. The game is CPU bound on the main thread, so higher single processor benchmarks help. The CPU shown in your pictures benchmarks like this:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+5+5600X&id=3859

I tend to watch that single thread rating when I look at computer games and certain kinds of number crunching that can't be done in parallel.

In your case that's 3363 which seems adequate.

and this rig is having some troubles displaying/loading explored maps, on a 8192 x 8192 world.  Any help/thoughts?

Can you elaborate? Does it stutter when you're in a city and turn quickly? Does it stutter when you're riding a motorcycle at top speed? What's the low FPS, with or without vsync, and what are you doing at the time? How would you describe your graphic settings? Is this single player or on a shared server? If shared server, are you hosting it? 

 

[WarMongerian]

Honestly, 32GB of ram is the new norm. 16gb is becoming close to how 8gb is now. 12gb of vram is certainly nice, but for 7 days, 8gb will do. If you plan on multitasking (e.g. watching streams/youtube/streaming yourself or recording), I suggest getting a 12gb card.

I have a 3060 12gb and it runs the game fine in 2k and even 4k, although I would say an upgrade to like a 4060 or 4080 would be very nice for bandwidth. I would say your CPU could use an upgrade, I run a 5800x which is about 25% better on single core and multithreading, which surmounts to a lot for 7 days. The 3d ones I would go for if you wish to stay on AM4 for now

I am hearing that my 16 GB of system memory is now on the low end, but would getting a new system, and focusing on future upgradability, with initially 32 GB, but with future upgrade capability of 64 or 128 GB be a smart move?

Video storage, if I want to avoid posting to 'the cloud', what is the best external/removable storage option?  My current collection of videos are being moved to USB drives, but any video of 10 minute length or longer just needs deleted, as moving them is a pain, and forget about publishing them to my youTube account..

I currently 'share screen' with my friends via discord voice channel, but what does streaming require, both in computer requirements and bandwidth?

Once my friend and I finish his current game (I'm at 290th level, so by Saturday, march 15th, I should be done), I'm going to use my template document to try to make my next private game one that moves forward, and gets all the way to level 300.  I'm thinking that Dead is dead is what I want, as it would be faster than doing a complete restart, and would provide me with some valuable insight for later projects down the line.  I have been so exhausted trying to keep up with my friends play schedule, I haven't played my personal game very much.

When my PSU upgrade arrives I'll install my 9070 XT and then I'll have 16GB VRAM. But until then it's 8GB for me.

Ouch!  I feel for ya, but once you get the upgrade, you will have better then I do right now. 

 

[Riamus]

I am hearing that my 16 GB of system memory is now on the low end, but would getting a new system, and focusing on future upgradability, with initially 32 GB, but with future upgrade capability of 64 or 128 GB be a smart move?

Video storage, if I want to avoid posting to 'the cloud', what is the best external/removable storage option?  My current collection of videos are being moved to USB drives, but any video of 10 minute length or longer just needs deleted, as moving them is a pain, and forget about publishing them to my youTube account..

I currently 'share screen' with my friends via discord voice channel, but what does streaming require, both in computer requirements and bandwidth?

Once my friend and I finish his current game (I'm at 290th level, so by Saturday, march 15th, I should be done), I'm going to use my template document to try to make my next private game one that moves forward, and gets all the way to level 300.  I'm thinking that Dead is dead is what I want, as it would be faster than doing a complete restart, and would provide me with some valuable insight for later projects down the line.  I have been so exhausted trying to keep up with my friends play schedule, I haven't played my personal game very much.

There isn't anything wrong with getting a system that has 32GB installed, but can upgrade to 64GB or 128GB.  32GB will cover this game fine, as well as your editing and will run most games fine as well.  Upgrades to RAM are easy and fast. 

Although USB drives are fine for external storage, I would personally choose SATA if you have an external SATA port.  However, I haven't checked the bandwidth of the latest USB compared to the latest SATA, though I am pretty sure SATA is still much faster.  If not, then USB, but make very sure your external USB ports (at least one of them) handles the fastest USB.  Often, then are slower ports for external.

Streaming isn't too intensive and wouldn't really be much different than streaming to discord.  You basically want a little better system than what you need to play the game at the graphics settings you want to use.  Not significantly better, but a little better.  You do want decent upload bandwidth on your Internet, and Wi-Fi wouldn't be recommended while streaming, though it can work. 

I would suggest getting the fastest m.2 SSD drive you can, as well as the fastest RAM with the best timings (CL rating).  Those will really make a difference with this game.  Extra cores are generally not that important, though aren't bad.  But I would really recommend not getting an Intel CPU that has e-cores.  Those are mostly useless for anything other than email or browsing or documents, and if a game gets stuck on one, it will perform really badly.  You can control what runs on a given core, but I'd just recommend avoiding those CPUs entirely.

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

I7 13700K, 32GB RAM and soon a RX9070XT or a RX7900XT depending on the price (right now a RX6600XT), 2TB m2 SSD.  No problems with lag besides from blood moon with 64 zombies but i guess that´s more an engine limit. No issue with big maps.

For 2K i would say something like a R7 9800X3D, RX7800XT, 32GB RAM. Unless you wanna play in 4K then a cheaper CPU and more potent GPU. But with 2K i wouldn´t think about going 4K tbh.Yes i know that´s an old gen GPU, but good luck not paying waaaay too much for a current gen.

 

[WarMongerian]

Can you elaborate? 

Sure, but I may need help in how to explain things.  That being said, I mostly can play on my friends private game, but when I go into the map, some of the explored sections show up as unexplored, but if I center the map over such a spot, and then zoom in, it 'reveals' that potion, again, but when I come back the next day, the same thing will repeat.  Is this  normal?  Also, I have many times experienced "falling down" into the ground while playing with my friend, in his game.

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

Snip

Afaik the game or engine has limits to what it can show on the map. Pretty sure there was already a topic about this, but that was years ago.

The falling down is most likely due to the connection i guess.

 

[Riamus]

Sure, but I may need help in how to explain things.  That being said, I mostly can play on my friends private game, but when I go into the map, some of the explored sections show up as unexplored, but if I center the map over such a spot, and then zoom in, it 'reveals' that potion, again, but when I come back the next day, the same thing will repeat.  Is this  normal?  Also, I have many times experienced "falling down" into the ground while playing with my friend, in his game.

What you describe are related to Internet problems.  This may be your Internet or their Internet, or could be something between you.  A better computer will be very unlikely to have any effect on that.

 

[WarMongerian]

On the topic of internet, is something like AT&T's fiber optic internet worth the money, or just a waste?

 

[Riamus]

I7 13700K, 32GB RAM and soon a RX9070XT or a RX7900XT depending on the price (right now a RX6600XT), 2TB m2 SSD.  No problems with lag besides from blood moon with 64 zombies but i guess that´s more an engine limit. No issue with big maps.

For 2K i would say something like a R7 9800X3D, RX7800XT. Unless you wanna play in 4K then a cheaper CPU and more potent GPU. But with 2K wouldn´t think about going 4K tbh.Yes i know that´s an old gen GPU, but good luck not paying waaaay too much for a current gen.

Yeah, nothing wrong with an older GPU if it works well.  My computer is about 6 years old and was only a low to mid level gaming desktop at the time.  I've increased RAM and added a hard drive, but the CPU and GPU are the same.  My GPU only has 4GB RAM, but I can run most new games on ultra settings, or at least high settings if they aren't FPS games or ones that just have very high graphics requirements.  Even this game I can run graphics pretty high, and most my issues are CPU related rather than GPU in this game anyhow.  And I've never had problems with lag from zombies, no matter how many are there.  I just run into chunks loading too slowly when I drive fast with a supercharger in towns, but that is CPU.  So an older GPU is fine, if it has good specs.

On the topic of internet, is something like AT&T's fiber optic internet worth the money, or just a waste?

Check upload bandwidth.  Download bandwidth of pretty much anyone these days is fine unless you're downloading tons of stuff and need it as fast as possible.  But uploading varies greatly.  Get one with good upload bandwidth that isn't too expensive, imo.

Edit: I should clarify that I am referring to Internet in most of the US.  There are parts of the US that have poor Internet options, and some other countries also do not have great options, so you might need to be more careful in what you choose.

 

[Jugginator]

I am hearing that my 16 GB of system memory is now on the low end, but would getting a new system, and focusing on future upgradability, with initially 32 GB, but with future upgrade capability of 64 or 128 GB be a smart move?

Video storage, if I want to avoid posting to 'the cloud', what is the best external/removable storage option?  My current collection of videos are being moved to USB drives, but any video of 10 minute length or longer just needs deleted, as moving them is a pain, and forget about publishing them to my youTube account..

I currently 'share screen' with my friends via discord voice channel, but what does streaming require, both in computer requirements and bandwidth?

Once my friend and I finish his current game (I'm at 290th level, so by Saturday, march 15th, I should be done), I'm going to use my template document to try to make my next private game one that moves forward, and gets all the way to level 300.  I'm thinking that Dead is dead is what I want, as it would be faster than doing a complete restart, and would provide me with some valuable insight for later projects down the line.  I have been so exhausted trying to keep up with my friends play schedule, I haven't played my personal game very much.

Ouch!  I feel for ya, but once you get the upgrade, you will have better then I do right now. 

Shorthanded...if you upgrade ram you will likely want to buy a pair of 16gb sticks, because you also really want them to run at xmp speeds, it matters a lot. 

Video storage, an SSD will be good no doubt, but large files like that are just fine on a HDD. Currently this is my setup: 2tb boot nvme which houses my main Unity project for the game, steam 7 days, and all my appdata and whatever I want loaded fast. I have a second 1tb nvme, two sata SSDs and a 2tb hdd which houses files I never use and I directly record video (obs or whatever recording programs I use), as well as my location for File History and other backups. I also have another nvme in an enclosure I use like a usb, and an external 2tb portable ssd. I use a lot and have collected it, but an nvme as your boot drive where your 7 days saves located is really beneficial. Game is barely playable on a hdd.

Oh and as for 64gb of ram? Overkill, unless you're doing heavy production stuff. In the future sure you may need 64gb, but those will be very old by that time. Spend what you want, but getting way faster 32gb than slower 64gb will do you good. Ram speed/bandwidth matters a ton

 

[WarMongerian]

Shorthanded...if you upgrade ram you will likely want to buy a pair of 16gb sticks, because you also really want them to run at xmp speeds, it matters a lot.   An nvme as your boot drive where your 7 days saves located is really beneficial. Game is barely playable on a hdd.

nvme is the current best drive?  I currently have a <500 GB SSD, and the 2 1.x? TB external HDD, that I bought with this current computer,  never got hooked up, and I don't know where they have gotten to these days.  So, from what I am seeing, the 32 GB of ram is crucial, and the main drive being an NVME are the two most important components for what I want to be able to do?

 

[Jugginator]

nvme is the current best drive?  I currently have a <500 GB SSD, and the 2 1.x? TB external HDD, that I bought with this current computer,  never got hooked up, and I don't know where they have gotten to these days.  So, from what I am seeing, the 32 GB of ram is crucial, and the main drive being an NVME are the two most important components for what I want to be able to do?

Yeah NVME... in a TLDR layman's terms, is astronomically faster than a sata SSD, pretty much it uses those PCIE lanes for direct access to the cpu, usually you're looking at a difference between 2+gb for nvme and 500 for a sata ssd. Yeah today's age, you want your main drive to be an NVME, and 1TB is not that expensive now (you really don't need to spend a ton of money, but I prefer Western Digital, Samsung, and I'd trust Teamgroup -- stay away from Kingston and cheaper brands, don't go that cheap). 

It especially works great with 7 days. My second test rig has a sata SSD, and I can start loading a game on it, boot my main computer up, load 7 days and create a new game using the same map before the test rig is even done loading lol. It also affects stuttering, ram speed, storage speed, and cpu/ram speed matters a lot. Those are the cheapest upgrades too; you can do this and then see where you're at. If you snag an nvme enclosure  (20, 30 bucks), you can use backup software to clone your boot drive to it, swap them, and done.

 

[zztong]

Sure, but I may need help in how to explain things.  That being said, I mostly can play on my friends private game, but when I go into the map, some of the explored sections show up as unexplored, but if I center the map over such a spot, and then zoom in, it 'reveals' that potion, again, but when I come back the next day, the same thing will repeat.  Is this  normal?  Also, I have many times experienced "falling down" into the ground while playing with my friend, in his game.

So your friend is either hosting a game for the two of you on his own machine or your friend is running a server and both of you are connecting. Either way, you're connecting to a remote game so the Internet (a collection of networks) is involved. Falling _through_ the world is a symptom of an insufficient connection across all of those networks.

What you describe are related to Internet problems.  This may be your Internet or their Internet, or could be something between you.  A better computer will be very unlikely to have any effect on that.

I haven't seen the map problem, but if others see that also as a sign of network issues, then awesome.

On the topic of internet, is something like AT&T's fiber optic internet worth the money, or just a waste?

It depends. I'm curious about several things:

• What is your ISP's current data rate and type of connection?
  
  
  That is, is it cable internet, cellular internet, and who is the provider?
  

[*]Is your computer wired to your home's router or are you using WiFi?

[*]How fast is your local network's router and switches? (10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps)

[*]What's your friends current data rate and type of connection?

[*]Is your friend's computer wired to their home router or are they using WiFi?

[*]What's the "ping" time to 8.8.8.8?

• 
  
  Windows Command Prompt (aka Terminal)
  
• ping 8.8.8.8
  
• Give us the Maximum time.
  

[*]What's the "ping" time between you and them?

• 
  
  Same command but you would have to use your friend's IP address, if you know it.
  

My point here is that the speed issue could be with your friend's networking, not yours. And, it could be their ISP or any of probably 40 network devices between you and them, though that is unlikely.

As for if it is a waste, that's also going to depend on pricing, assuming we don't find a problem with your current service. In my case, the fiber providers was both faster and cheaper than cable internet, so even though my cable internet was sufficient, it made financial sense to migrate.

 

[Riamus]

I haven't seen the map problem, but if others see that also as a sign of network issues, then awesome.

That part isn't necessarily network related.  I've never seen that problem either, so it's hard to say for sure.  It's possible that's due to a corruption in the save or a mod problem.

 

[zztong]

That part isn't necessarily network related.  I've never seen that problem either, so it's hard to say for sure.  It's possible that's due to a corruption in the save or a mod problem.

I have seen a similar map issue. It happens when I copy a character from one game into another. I doubt that's what the OP is doing.

EDIT: Clarification - I see the old map from the previous game and it gets overwritten as I play.