Damn I dont think Ill have a good enough video card!

(Schizma) #41

My old system running a 9800Xt got 50 fps with decent settings. I’d call the 9800 to be the bare minimum really. 6600 seems to be the way to go really.

I have a Geforce 6600GT runs good enough i say. Quake 4 and Doom 3 with all settings on high.

buy vapor genie

(ouroboro) #42

Funniest post I have read all day. :)[/quote]

So funny that you registered an account! GG Nail, keep 'em coming! :smiley:

(Sick Boy) #43

I think you better have a spy over at Intel as they are about to open up a can of whoopass on AMD.

The reason people buy high end cards is because they DO perform a lot better at high res/high image quality. At low settings, most cards perform in the same league.

For AGP I’d recommend a 6800GS or GT or ATI equivalent for price/performance. Just find yourself a good deal somewhere.

(Rhoades) #44

I think I’m going to buy a geforce 6800. Do you think that’s enough GPU power to get decent framerates? (Of course it needs all the other computer components to actually run the game)

(|M|) #45

im so tired of figuring out system setups for new games. I just wanna know how the setup (thats available on the market out of the box) that will get the game looking like the trailer at a constant 70 plus fps. :’(

(mortis) #46

I have a 6800 128MB, and I would upgrade my CPU before I’d upgrade my video card, if that answers your question.

(Isabel Lucas) #47

I think I’m going to buy a geforce 6800. Do you think that’s enough GPU power to get decent framerates? (Of course it needs all the other computer components to actually run the game)

Make sure you get the GT version as the plain 6800 is less powerful than a 6600GT.

(Isabel Lucas) #48

im so tired of figuring out system setups for new games. I just wanna know how the setup (thats available on the market out of the box) that will get the game looking like the trailer at a constant 70 plus fps. :’(

At the moment nothing with the latest games.

Even a 7800GTX can’t guarantee that in BF2 and I’d think ETQW would be no different.

Problem at the moment is no matter how powerful your graphics set up, it gets bottlenecked by your processor as GPU frames are also processed by the CPU. Thats why SLI’d ie. Dual 7800’s only show about 10-20% gain over a single card, even with an FX57 processor.

This may change with DX10 though as DX10 / shader 4.0 is attempting to move all processing onboard to the GPU. Whether or not it will work, who knows.

In the meantime, just get something sufficient to run the games you want to play now as big system changes are needed posted Vista to get the most out of it. If you absolutely must buy a spanking new cutting edge system now and aren’t bothered about it dating in January, then look at something with at least a 7800GT and a 7900GT if your budget stretches although don’t neglect the memory or CPU either as most things in a system influence overall performance.

For a good out of the box PC in the UK, I like Evesham as they use quality components and the pc’s are reliable and service is good. Alienware have a good reputation although I’ve just heard they’ve been bought by Dell - don’t like Dell, not a patch on Evesham in my experience.

Personally I think the best way is to build your own, although to use quality parts its more expensive than buying.

Al.

(Mordenkainen) #49

That generalisation is not true for all games:

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/geforce_7900_gtx/page_9.shtml
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/geforce_7900_gtx/page_10.shtml

Nearly 50% increase with FEAR and Oblivion. Even if you are CPU-bound you can always raise resolution/AA settings.

This may change with DX10 though as DX10 / shader 4.0 is attempting to move all processing onboard to the GPU. Whether or not it will work, who knows.

D3D10 will move more to the GPU but not all. It will lower the small batches overhead and allow for fast context switches but the CPU will still play a big part.

(Nail) #50

I have a feeling the game will not allow such a wide range of fps as ET does, I seem to remember the E3 machines being locked at a lower fps (30)

(ouroboro) #51

The ~60 fps cap in D3/Q4 was enough to push several renowned ophthalmologists into the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list.* 30 fps would be positively life-threatening!

*Citation could not be located due to extreme eyestrain.

(ParanoiD) #52

If you have PCIe i think its worth looking at the 7600GT as well. That seems to be a fast card and probably has teh same performance. But the advantage is that the 7600GT is a new 7 series card with new improvements.

(Nail) #53

We were running our E3 build of ET:QW at 1024c768 with 2xMSAA (MultiSampling Anti-Aliasing) locked at 30 FPS

don’t know the vids i saw looked ok at 30fps

#54

Of course, 'cause it’s a video! I’ve heard that motion blur makes 30 FPS enough for videos. But don’t know if it’s just movies or if it’s the same with game videos… Anyway, I think D3 is pretty playable at 30 FPS!

(Isabel Lucas) #55

I’ve only played the Battlefield series so don’t know if all games behave the same, but I do know that much under 70 FPS and you notice the difference in Bf2. Above about 40 FPS its still ok but definately not smooth. Below 40fps and you’re stuffed.

I’d always try to get the highest frame rate you can as you can never have too many FPS (as long as the rest of your system can take it) - you just won’t perceive most of them if you have too many but the game will be silky provided you have enough CPU cycles for the rest of it, but have too few FPS and you’ll notice it lagging like hell.

(B0rsuk) #56

If you have PCIe i think its worth looking at the 7600GT as well. That seems to be a fast card and probably has teh same performance. But the advantage is that the 7600GT is a new 7 series card with new improvements.[/quote]

I agree for most part. The reviews I read seem to make 7600GT faster - or close - to 6800ultra. But it’s the extra features that make the difference. OpenGL2.0 makes it much more futureproof (especially important for linux gamers; besides, all ID Software engines are OpenGL). I seem to recall serries 7 geforce have some feature to speedup foliage (lots of foliage in ET:QW) and make it prettier.
Geforce7600GT is the card I will most probably buy once ET:QW is out.(and linux client, btw ati linux drivers suck big time)

I think you better have a spy over at Intel as they are about to open up a can of whoopass on AMD.

Misinformed. A common mistake is to compare AMD’s previous gen AM2 processor to Intel’s next gen Conroe. You conveniently forget AMD is supposed to release a new line of AM2 processors this summer. Let’s wait and see before making judgements.

(Isabel Lucas) #57

Yep on the subject of Intel vs Amd, Intel set up all of the pc’s for the test that showed a 30% gain. It has allegedly happened in the past that (unspecified manufacturers) pc’s have been set up to favour the particular processor they were being tested with, so that in my book makes all such non-independant tests unreliable. Personally, I have no doubt there is some gain otherwise Intel wouldn’t be shouting so loudly but lets not forget:

  1. As pointed out above its AMD’s pre-production test sample vs Conroe (Tom’s hardware had one and noticed that AMD had restricted the memory frequency to below the specified maximum, thus stunting performance)

  2. I understand, the Conroe has gone down a fabrication size, which would account for greater speed. AMD still have that option.

  3. There are still a lot of tricks to come. AMD has quad core roadmapped for 2007 and 9 core road mapped for 2008!

So its too early to judge until after the production AMD’s are available then no doubt some independant back to back tests will appear.

(Mordenkainen) #58

If you are implying GF6 series card don’t support OGL 2.0 that’s not correct. OGL 2.0 is supported from the GeForce FX upwards (assuming you have a reasonably recent driver, say around one year old or so).

WRT to independent Conroe benchmarks:

(corvey) #59

ATI sucks… Get the new ATI STOMPER by Nvidia. ATI WHO?

http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/10042/

Guaranteed to make your e-penis shoot a load when you play QW:ET.

If you can afford that, then you can afford the MULTIPLE PC supercomputer you’ll need to feed that beast.

If you can’ afford that one, you can always get the GS (gay shit) version one for a mere $17,500.

(Joe999) #60

when i was at a friend i thought nvidia sucks when i first heard the noise of his gforce. sounds like big suction of a vacuum cleaner, in fact my vac isn’t that loud as his graca was :smiley: