harley on 27/2/2019 at 17:35
Hello all. I haven't been here for a long time. Still miss playing the game but the ol 1700 processor just couldn't take the graphics any longer, quite a while ago. Anyway, I want to play the game again but I started a business and the thief adventures ceased. I have kept up on downloading them, but haven't played in 5 or 6 years.
Enough rambling, on to my question.
I need a new PC and have no idea what to buy anymore. I've been out of the loop too long. Not really into store bought complete towers. Would love to build one that will work very well and I'm not afraid to spend a little money on it. I want it to handle all that gets thrown at it. It will be used for Thief ONLY. Maybe some internet for the forum and reading, Antivirus and that's all. I'm not a pc builder, but my brother in law can do it. He's done all my machines to date.
Would anybody be willing to help me list what to get? I tried searching but didn't come up with anything. I want fast, but not 2000.00 fast, if that makes sense. It will be hooked up to an older 55 inch tv in my basement so monitor is not needed. Its going to be my birthday present to myself! If anyone would be wiling to help I would certainly appreciate it. Thank you.
Fallen+Keeper on 27/2/2019 at 21:59
That PC is an overkill for what he needs.
Any processor, any videocard, any RAM available on the market today will work fine for Thief and forum reading :) Save yourself some money and take what doesn't cost much.
I would recommend an i5, 8GB RAM and a 1060. And you're set. Forever - if Thief is all you want.
SlyFoxx on 27/2/2019 at 22:26
I run an old dell i7 with 12GB ram. Smooth as glass.
harley on 27/2/2019 at 22:44
It will be used for thief and the add on packs. T2X, things like that. As I said I haven't been in the forum for a long time. I remember using darkloader back in the day and use to be up on what to do but its been way too long to remember anything about it. I remember things like dual core processors and ways to make them work. It was the hoops you had to jump through to make the game work was my main concern. I didn't want to go purchase a processor that possibly would not work no matter what. I hope I'm explaining this correctly. I see there are installers out there for thief but haven't had the time to read through all of them.
The original thief game isn't my main concern, my old pc does that fine(or did last time I played it) I just remember some of the fan missions brought it to its knees. And since I've been gone so long, I assumed some of the recent missions may be more taxing than the ones I have played. Since I don't really have a lot of PC knowledge I wanted to ask. Do you still think the "i5, 8GB RAM and a 1060" is sufficient. Thank you
Cigam on 1/3/2019 at 13:02
I have a new i5 CPU with 8 GB and that runds T1/T2 with necroage and 4x MS.
Was a bit disapointed actually as on my old PC I could get 8x MS, 16x AF & bloom. I only upgrade to an i5 just to be safe, but was sure even an i3 should be able to handle a 20 year old game even if with a few bells and whistles. If I hadn't upgraded I probably wouldn't even get the 4x MS.
Not sure how it will cope with the T2 HDMod as I am waiting for TafferPatcher to update. I have a feeling I may have to lose the MS though.
As for T3 that runs fine with all the SU m,ods enabled but without MS or bllom.
Don't play many FMs but can confirm that the above holds for T2X.
Just to be 100% clear this is with integrated graphics.
Jax64 on 1/3/2019 at 15:55
Quote Posted by Cigam
I have a new i5 CPU with 8 GB and that runs T1/T2 with NecroAge and 4x MS.
...
Just to be 100% clear this is with integrated graphics.
The integrated graphics would be the reason that multisampling is killing your performance. While Thief and Thief 2 are fairly old games at this point, multisampling does not perform well on these integrated chipsets(on some even not at all). Your performance would likely be much better even with a fairly cheap discrete graphics card.
To the thread author, the aforementioned recommendations should suffice. Thief and Thief 2 are single-threaded programs, meaning they do not employ the use of multiple CPU threads. Deadly Shadows can technically use more than one thread, but it makes a minimal difference in performance. Therefore, a processor with a fast single-core speed would be the most desirable. Any new processor would fit this requirement and I would recommend either an Intel Core i5 made in the last decade or an AMD Ryzen 5 as a cheap option. 8 GB of memory is standard at this point and would be recommended as well. For Thief, Thief 2, Deadly Shadows, and the vast majority of fan missions, most discrete graphics cards would work. Though again for an economic and powerful option, a GTX 1050 Ti or GTX 1060 would be excellent.
Quote:
Not sure how it will cope with the T2 HDMod as I am waiting for TafferPatcher to update. I have a feeling I may have to lose the MS though.
As for this, I plan to release the new Thief 2 patcher I was speaking of on the Fan Missions Forum very soon, so this will not be an issue for much longer.
harley on 1/3/2019 at 15:56
Quote Posted by Cigam
I have a new i5 CPU with 8 GB and that runds T1/T2 with necroage and 4x MS.
Was a bit disapointed actually as on my old PC I could get 8x MS, 16x AF & bloom. I only upgrade to an i5 just to be safe, but was sure even an i3 should be able to handle a 20 year old game even if with a few bells and whistles. If I hadn't upgraded I probably wouldn't even get the 4x MS.
Not sure how it will cope with the T2 HDMod as I am waiting for TafferPatcher to update. I have a feeling I may have to lose the MS though.
As for T3 that runs fine with all the SU m,ods enabled but without MS or bllom.
Don't play many FMs but can confirm that the above holds for T2X.
Just to be 100% clear this is with integrated graphics.
Thank you. I must embarrassingly admit that some of your words I dont understand. 4x MS? SU mod? blom? AF? Could you tell me what those are.
I fired up the old pc last night and played some old FM's and the machine ran fine but these were missions from 05. Its the later years that brought mine to its knees. I did play T2X with it years ago but can't remember what performance or lack of performance it had.
I have a machine upstairs in the house with a Ryzen 5 6 core 3850 mhz, 16g of ram but I'm not sure I can convince the wife to let me stick a graphics card in it and move to the basement.
Back in the day I remember(if im correct) that some of the newer pcs/ operating systems were almost "too new" to run thief(or maybe I didn't read enough on the forum) That's another concern of mine. Are these multiple core processors and newer vid cards going to work. Since the game is still alive and well, I'm assuming it can be done, I just don't want to buy something that "WONT" work. Wasn't there a time that you could only update to a specific vid card driver otherwise thief had issues running? Nvidia I believe?
Thanks for any help. I really appreciate it and sorry for not knowing the PC lingo.
Jax64 on 1/3/2019 at 16:08
Quote Posted by harley
Thank you. I must embarrassingly admit that some of your words I don't understand. 4x MS? SU mod? bloom? AF? Could you tell me what those are.
Bloom refers to postprocessing used to give lights a sort of "glow" to emulate how the eye perceives bright lights. MS refers to multisampling, which is a form of anti aliasing intended to smooth jagged edges of the game's geometry. Both of these are graphics settings that can either be enabled or disabled.
Quote:
Since the game is still alive and well, I'm assuming it can be done, I just don't want to buy something that "WONT" work. Wasn't there a time that you could only update to a specific vid card driver otherwise thief had issues running? Nvidia I believe?
This was the case before, but the NewDark patch has remedied most if not all of these issues. With this patch, you should be able to run Thief on any new version of Windows and any hardware compatible with these versions of Windows, which includes all components currently recommended in this topic.
harley on 1/3/2019 at 16:26
Quote Posted by Jax64
Bloom refers to postprocessing used to give lights a sort of "glow" to emulate how the eye perceives bright lights. MS refers to multisampling, which is a form of anti aliasing intended to smooth jagged edges of the game's geometry. Both of these are graphics settings that can either be enabled or disabled.
This was the case before, but the NewDark patch has remedied most if not all of these issues. With this patch, you should be able to run Thief on any new version of Windows and any hardware compatible with these versions of Windows, which includes all components currently recommended in this topic.
That is the news I was hoping for. I use to be up on this game several years ago, but not anymore. Thanks for the help.
