The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Would something like the Zalman VF900 fit the card? I have one of these already with a whole mess of RAM sinks, so it's an option.

This all still depends on whether or not I go dual graphics. If I do, the P35 is getting re-used. If I don't I'd still like to buy another P35 and use it with my extra parts as a torrent/LAN box.

 

The VF900 is alright, but comparatively underpowered. The VF1000 seems pretty good.

 

haha, hundreds of people havent destoryed it, sorry you did

 

Irrelevant. Install one yourself and you'll see what I mean.

 

So maybe a 4870 and a VF1000??? I think a single 4870 would be good enough. I would really like to test the power of my StealthXstream on dual cards, but that means a new mobo and a reinstall of XP. Which, at this point, I don't really feel like doing. But some new parts are well within budget. My only bottleneck at this point is my video.

 

If you're buying a 4870, one will be enough for 1920x1200 I assure you, except for the final boss, you can pretty much max out Crysis on one.

 

Hey Estuansis. I see by a bunch of pages back that you're a big HL2 EP2 fan like me. I just discovered this thread trying to find the other thread (the 52775 started by Waymon - Ray - last year when the gecube came out) on a different computer. So I'm sneaking over here on this thread to ask you a favor. Hey guys, Sammorris, Waymon, Shaffaaf, Abuzar, Dinc, Core2kid.

IMO it would be on topic (I hope) to talk about screen shots, since the screen shot is the end product of a good graphics card, and monitor. (Makes sense to me but I don't know Loco's EXACT mission for this thread.)

Anyway, hoping I'm on topic, we're currently having a debate on the other thread about getting Ray into 2560x1600 resolution like Sam, up from his 1920x1200, because Abuzar occasionally gets HP 30" 2560x1600 oem monitors that he sells for $770, $600 under Newegg, and right now he's got an almost new one for $700, unbelievable value! Right boozer? Ray has been talking about upgrading his 20,000 3dmark machine to two 4870s, maybe even two 4870x2's, and the argument Sam and I are making, is that without max resolution - for example investing under $800 with abuzar to get twice as many pixels at 2560x1600 - what would be the point of all that massive graphics power if you're not going to see something different on the display?

So, here's a screen shot I did of EP2 at the end of Under the Radar. This is 1600x1200 resolution (shrunk to 700 pixels wide for this forum) on my x850xtpe, (which in a month will hopefully be swapped out for a 3850 agp.) I have some minor AA turned on in this picture, and I think medium textures, but definitely not everything maxed.

...

Sam is trying to get to this point but has virtually no saved game points in EP2 so he started at the beginning of Under the Radar and right now is still at the laser-guns in the swamp. I know one day Sam will get here but Sam is a popular guy and that might take a while.

So in the meantime, Estuansis, I was wondering if you had more saved games than Sam, and if you could get to this point more easily (just after Dog kills the strider - when you are supposed to be racing Dog to the missile base.) As you curve left and start to head up the hill, you get out of the car, Alyx politely says "I'll wait here" then you jump on the retaining wall on your left and capture this scene. I always create a lot of saved game points, and when I was trying to describe the place to Sam, I cranked up my gaming rig, and found a save point just before this spot, where the strider gets up from underneath a dead dropship.

There is a lot of unbelievable scenery in EP2, as you have pointed out. This is one of my favorite scenic spots. I just finished the strider battle and I am sure there are lots of picturesque scenes all around that little valley - maybe even better than this. (I was busy.) If you have time, and if you can get right here, to this spot, or maybe to a better spot somewhere else in the game, like strider valley, I'd like to see what 1920x1200 looks like with your settings. Then one day we'll have Sam's 2560x1600 shot with everything maxed to compare it to.

By the way, would you believe it, Shaff has not yet played EP2? He said "Blimey, what the hell game is that?" or some such equivalent. "Looks bloody fantastic!" So we're trying to turn him into an EP2 fan-boy like the rest of us. LOL

-Rich

 

lol

I'm not getting ANY notifications. And harv, thanks for the advertisement lo.

 

As it happens, Episode Two is the perfect casein point of why Ray doesn't need two 4870X2s.
he runs 1920x1200, and will do for some time to come and that's fine, but at 2560x1600 even two HD4870s, not the X2s, make a staggering average of 91 frames per second, absolute max detail, and with 4x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering added to boot.
Even if you did feel like using two cards just to bump the fps up even more (though quite why I'm not sure, I haven't spotted any suddenly-much-more-demanding sections in Ep2 as I have in Crysis) you wouldn't see a vast gain as the CPU ceiling for Episode two is 135fps, with a 3Ghz 45nm Quad core.

Same for Quake Wars as well, two 4870s manage 106fps out of a maximum 120, at 2560x1600 4xAA, 16xAF

Crysis is the only game I have seen tested that requires two X2s to run well, and even so, as long as you don't ue AA, two 4870s still pull a respectable average of 24fps maxed out on Very High settings at 1920x1200.

 

Hi these are the choices of graphics cards on the pc i want to get, so which would you recommend:

Club3D Radeon HD2600PRO 512MB, GDDR2, PCI-Express, 2xDVI, HDCP, HDMI, Retail [info] -131.12
EVGA GeForce 9600GT 512MB KO, 700/950Mhz ,PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI-I [info]
EVGA GeForce GTX 280 1GB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDCP, 512bit [info]
4 stocked. +284.88
HIS Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3, IceQ, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP,"Turbo" [info] -25.11
PowerColor Radeon HD 3850 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP [info] -75.12
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP, Lite-R [info] -14.62
XFX GeForce 8500GT 450M 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express 2.0, Dual DVI, HDTV Out [info] -124.12
XFX GeForce 8600GTS 730M 256MB XXX GDDR3 ,PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDCP, 730/2260Mhz [info] -109.12
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 580M 320MB XXX GDDR3 ,PCI-Express,2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP,580/1800Mhz [info] -5.12
XFX GeForce 9800GTX 720M 512MB XT GDDR3 PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDCP, 720MHz [info]
1 stocked.

Thanks again!

 

The 4850 for sure.

 

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP, Lite-R [info] -14.62

 

4850, no doubt about it

 

Ok, thanks guys.

 

I have a question.

would the 4850 made by ATI outperform or be a better card than the one made by sapphire?

I would just like to know before I buy.

for instance this by ATI
http://shop2.frys.com/product/5647371?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG


or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102747

 

ALL reference 4850/4870s are made by ATI, and are sold to the partners. this is normal for all new cards for the first month. After which the partners can buy more refernce cards, OR make their own (which a few decide to do, such as powercolour, sapphire, HIS etc) and infact sapphire has doen with its toxic card, and its 1GB DDR3 4850, and there is another card from sapphire, which had the VRMs at the front, and 1GB of DDR3, a custom cooler, and its a shorter card than the 4850 (but still is a 4850).

so really it doesnt matter which one you get, and IMO just go for the cheapest reference card, so long as you dotn plan on keeping it for more than one year. if you do then buy a card with atleast 2-3 years warranty (sapphire, ASUS, HIS)

 

@harvrdguy

Will do. I'd be glad to Expect a screenie or two soon

While we're at it, I'd also like to see some screens off of sam's monitor if he might be so inclined to get some. No pressure

 

Sorry for the double, but here are a few screenies I grabbed. Not the same exact area, but a similar environment.

1920 x 1200 8xQMSAA/16xAF Maxed settings

Sized to fit better in the forum.











Enjoy

BTW, I can take more later if you want.

 

Jeezus!! Estuansis, those screens are rocking! The detail is awesome. The effects are riveting!!

That second screen with Alyx in the stream might be close to that same place I was talking about. But I sure don't remember seeing all that static disturbance or whatever in the sky. Man I had no idea - I'm losing some of the power and drama of the environment because I don't have enough horsepower to max everything out! (Next month's 3850 should be a big help.) By the way, are you completely maxed out like Sam?

(Speaking of Sam, I just had a brilliant idea!! Sam, since estuansis, like me, also wants to see YOUR 2560x1600 fully-maxed images, why don't I give you my Under the Radar saves, so you don't have to play all the way through to get to the race with dog. That way we can get a side by side comparison of that one scenic viewing spot. Tomorrow, gaming day, I'll turn on my rig and check out my save game folder, and zip the files together and email them to you - maybe just the Under the Radar saves. Rename your save folder and use mine temporarily until you take the screen shot. I'll send you a jpg of the save thumbs, like you did for me, and show you which one to use. Then you can go back to your saves later.)

By the way, Estuansis, are you able also to get to that exact spot I was at, racing dog to the missile site, the very end of Under the Radar, so we can get a comparison with my screen shot? We have to shrink them to 700 pixels wide for the forum, but we could end up with 3 side by side screens of the same place, with different graphics cards, and different resolutions. This is going to be especially good for Ray who is talking about investing major bucks in more graphical horses, but not for maxing out his resolution, which doesn't make sense to Sam or me.

(I see that right now all my pics have disappeared, at least on my browser - oh wait, now they're back. My pics are in a file on my web site, in my public html folder. My web site will not open for some reason - ok now it's open. I checked my account and I'm paid up until 8/22. If they don't re-appear by tomorrow I'll contact Start Logic. Where do you guys post your pics that show up here on the forum pages? Maybe you guys have a better way of doing it that might work for me, instead of me linking to a folder on my web site. Well, now the pics are back, but still . . . how irritating! Lol Like Dinc said - other thread - damn technology! Just kidding!)

Hey estuansis, follow this link for a second to the other thread, and on p81 there are several pics that I put on there all in the same place, so that Shaff could see what he is missing. This will show you right where I was when I shot the view picture.

........Page 81 on the other thread with several pics of that EP2 viewing spot

I just hope the friggin web site is up still and that the pics are there :S
-Rich

 

use photobucket