Hi,
I am thinking about buying BlackShark but I have an old computer PIV 3.2, 1gb ram, Ati x300.

I guess if I could run BlackShark just to learn the cockpit procedures.

I would also like to know if there are benchmarks available on different hardware configurations.

Might be a bit sketchy with those specs.

Just seen this post, and my experience with BS and an ageing P4 system might be instructive.

My old and trusty P4 runs at 2.9G with 2GB Ram (ancient!), XP pro (32) and an AGP card (X8) I was playing LockOn frequently, so I upgraded the AGP card with the Sapphire HD3850. The difference was amazing and I logged frame rates of between 30 and 70 - very playable.

I, too, wanted to try BS - just for interest sake. I fired up the P4 a minute ago to check and it is playable (just). Frame rate is about 20-ish and it takes time to boot up. At times it gets "sticky" and just runs out of performance power. However, it does work and did allow me to investigate what BS was all about. Just don't expect serious mission capability!

In contrast, I built a dual-core system with an E2160 overclocked to 3G, 2G DDR2-800 Ram, XP Pro (32) and a PCIE Radeon HD2600 XT. BS boots up in a quarter of the time (in comparison to the old P4) and frame rates range from 28 to 60 - smoother and much more playable - and the rotors now rotate like a heli should! The only downside is I can't blame my poor flying on the PC any more ...

In short, the moral of the story is BS needs processing power and a high-end graphics card - but you don't have to go mad!

Similar experience to Alboots. You meed a better PC. My P4 can run it barely with everything turned way way down, the max framerate set below what I can peak at, etc. With an HD3850 Lock On is very nice, but BS clunky. Some stand-alone missions will be difficult to use at all. Mine also takes a long time to load. I still play it from time to time, I just have to be careful and patient.

Hi jt_medina,

I have a pentium 4 3.6Ghz machine with 4 Gig of RAM and my graphics card is an Nvidia 8800GTS 512.

I can run this thing on high settings for Black Shark but missions must be small and not have too much ordinance flying around at one time. If you were to get DCS Black Shark, I would get more RAM if possible. I don't know how your graphics card compares to mine so I won't comment on that.

Playing DCS Black Shark on my machine is quite fun but as mentioend, I have to make sure missions are small in terms of number of active vehicles. If missions are taking place out in the flat plains or mountain valleys, I can handle missions with larger ground vehicle content. If mission for flight is over large urban areas, vehicle content in that area must be small.

Frame rates range from about 17-28 depending on where I am flying on the map. It is playable with lower power machines, you just got to play smaller missions. I hope this helps.

Remember it's a single core application, so multi-core doesn't actually help it (much...) RAM, FSB, and video cards will help.

Oesau, multi cores actually do help significantly. Prior to the patch DCSMax was used to bring all cores into play. Now after the patch you don't need DCSMax in order to take advantage of multi-cores.

Thank you all for the answers.
I just bought a Quad Core 2 2.55, 4GB RAM DDR2, 1 Terabyte HDD and Nvidia GT220 1GB(I'll upgrade it to a nvidia 250GT soon).
All the package for just $560... not a bad price. Buy a mid range PC has become cheaper now.

I am just enjoying of ARMA 2 (very hardware demanding game) and I am amazed how deep and realistic infantry sim ARMA 2 is. I expect to get the copy of BlackShark by later next week.

Thank you all again for your help.

Dusty Rhodes, which patch are you referring to? What's the number/version of the B.S. patch? thx

Thanks Dusty for that info.