Some of you have had a full week to play Diablo III by now. And sleep at some point. You are one of the 6.3 million people that bought a copy of the game within its first week, right? If you've been hedging, thinking you need a supercomputer to play -- or you weren't sure your computer was up to the task -- this story is for you.
Well, a few weeks back, I showed you how well Diablo III worked on a variety of HP PCs with the beta build of the game. I even broke down how to get the best experience from a couple different HP PCs. Now that the game is out, I wanted to challenge the extremes a little more. I wanted to see how the game would work on an HP Ultrabook, a high-end gamer-ready ENVY 17….and some ridiculous stuff that you could only find in a lab. Yeah, I’m that guy. What you’re going to find below, in short form, is a quick breakdown of a couple different machines I tested and what in-game settings I’d recommend for each.
Mobile Fashionista (ENVY 14 Spectre)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2467M @ 1.6GHz
Video: Intel HD Integrated Graphics
Memory: 4GB
Native Resolution: 1600 by 900
Recommended Game Settings: 1280 by 720; Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to medium; Physics Quality set to low (consider toggling “Low FX” mode). Now, mind you, this is using the 2nd-Gen Intel Core processor. It fares even better with the new 3rd-Gen Intel Core-based Ultrabook options (like, say the SpectreXT or ENVY 6).
And here’s a couple other systems I recently had laying around the office (and the results I got)
True playa (Recently-announced Pavilion dv7)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3612QM @ 2.10GHz
Video: Nvidia GeForce GT 650M
Memory: 8GB
Native Resolution: 1920 by 1080
Recommended Game Settings: 1920 by 1080 resolution; Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to high; Physics Quality set to high à Translation: Set everything to “Ludicrous” speed. It looks awesome.
High-powered style (ENVY 17 – late 2011 model)
Processor: Intel Core i7-2860QM @ 2.50GHz
Video: AMD Radeon HD 7690M XT
Memory: 8GB
Native Resolution: 1920 by 1080
Recommended Game Settings: 1920 by 1080 resolution; Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to high; Physics Quality set to high. If there is any sign of funkiness (unlikely), drop the Physics Quality a notch and it’ll run fine.
A reasonable desktop (TouchSmart 520)
Processor: Intel Core i7 – 2600S @ 2.8GHz
Video: AMD Radeon HD 6550A
Memory: 8GB
Native Resolution: 1920 by 1080
Recommended Game Settings: 1440 x 900 resolution; Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to medium; Physics Quality set to low
A value-based slim desktop (Pavilion Slimline s5z)
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 840T Processor @ 2.9GHz
Video: ATI Radeon HD 5450
Memory: 6GB RAM
Resolution: 1920 by 1080
Recommended Game Settings: 1280 x 720 resolution (maybe even drop it a notch if you notice hiccups); Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to low; Physics Quality set to low
A budget-friendly portable (The Pavilion dm1)
Processor: AMD E-450 Fusion APU @ 1.65GHz
Video: ATI Radeon HD 6320
Memory: 4GB RAM
Resolution: 1366 by 768
Recommended Game Settings: 1024x768 resolution (You can try toggling Letterbox to see if you like that better); Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to medium; Physics Quality set to low
The slightly older (but still awesome) laptop (ENVY 14 Beats Edition)
Processor: Intel Core i7 Q720 @ 1.6GHz
Video: ATI Radeon HD 5650 (New machines have 6630)
Memory: 8GB RAM
Resolution: 1366 by 768
Recommended Game Settings: 1366 x 768 resolution (maybe even drop it a notch if you notice hiccups); Texture Quality set to high; Shadow Quality set to high; Physics Quality set to low.
In short, each of these machines have the chops to play Diablo III. Regardless of the resolution, Diablo III still looks pretty. It’s a testament to the art style used by the team at Blizzard.
Well…..? What kind of PC are you playing it on?
