The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

San Andreas is a great game. I just played it all day today XD

And yes a Phenom II should be more than enough for GTA IV. In fact, the Phenom II is enough for most high end configs. I'm using the same chip as you, only OC'd 200MHz faster

 

What kinda temps you seeing. People seem to think I have a stuck sensor in the low end. It averages 22-24C idle! Under load however it will hit 45-48C. I have the arctic freezer pro 64. Im kind of afraid to take it higher, if I have a bad sensor!

 

You might have a stuck sensor or bad readings. Both my processor and cooler are properly lapped and I'm seeing 34C idle and 51C load with a Tuniq Tower 120.(though I could have the bad sensor, IDK)

What voltage are you running at and what program are you using for temps?

I'm using Speedfan BTW with auto fan settings.

 

I have the HAF 932 CM, Ive used Everest, Speedfan, the bios, another program I forget the name LOL. Each have shown same similar readings. Thats why both russ(theonejrs) and I believe it to be stuck in the low end temps. It doesnt come to life so to speak, til the hotter temps. Core temps average around 55-60C under EXTREME load(Prime95)! While the CPU is hitting 45-48C. Since the cores are showing close to Peak tolerance, I think im pretty happy with 3.5! Though I hear of people hitting 4.0! I dont need to hit that though Im sure 3.5 will make me happy atleast for a couple years. Though i'll probably underclock it for the summer LOL! Its semiarid here(almost desert)

Oh! Sorry, the voltage is 1.4

 

Well your temps seem fine then. But I would consider Prime 95 as your true load temp. My 51*C load temp is in Prime 95

Strange though that it's only stuck in lower temps as those idle temps are extremely cool, even for winter here in Wisconsin

 

LOL, wisconney huh? I lived next door in minnesota not that long ago! Yes, it does get friggin cold their!!!
Im now living in oregon! Much more bearable temps! Also where I was raised.

 

No resume from sleep is a really common bug with motherboards as well as Win7, so I never use sleep on that basis.
Omegaman: GPUs don't overclock like CPUs, nowhere near. To get more than a 10% clock speed increase stable is very unusual.

Much like Light bulbs and perhaps PSUs, HDDs also last longer if they run 24/7 than if they spin up and down all the time.

GTA4 PC is an absolute joke, an 8600GT can run it, but at 800x600 on all minimum settings, that's about it. The xbox and PS3 versions will look and run a lot better. With most roughly-made console ports the consoles roughly compare to the Radeon X1900 or 8600GTS in terms of what they can do. For GTA4 you need An HD4850 or 9800GTX to beat the consoles. Also, Quad cores are mandatory, and by that I mean real quad cores. ANY original Phenom, and any of the Phenom II X3s will have a hard time.
On another interesting note, Team Fortress 2 seems CPU bound for Quad CF, I can hear the second card doing something, but both cards sit at relatively low usage unless there's nothing going on. The lowest FPS I usually see in Left 4 Dead is 72-75, in TF2 it drops to about 48-53.

I have HAWX, but haven't played it yet, I'm curious to try it.

 

Yeah I've noticed the same. I've had 24 hour Orthos stable OCs freeze coming out of sleep mode. On a variety of boards too. No idea...

That's mostly my point. Less stress on the hardware

I've seen original Phenoms handle it well enough. But my Q6600 is still faster in it. The Phenom II X3 is an interesting budget buy. You can squeeze a lot of performance out of them for relatively little money. GTA IV is definitely a fluke.

Try it with an Xbox 360 gamepad. It's the only way to really enjoy it. The keyboard/mouse controls are nice, actually quite palatable, but the gamepad really gives you an edge

The graphics and performance are awesome. I was even able to get it quite playable with the onboard HD3300 on my 780G board. Lowered settings perhaps, but still fluid and enjoyable. And the detail on the planes and on the ground is insane. Ace combat 6's planes looked slightly better maybe, but HAWX is prettier overall. It is in my running for best graphics and GOTY for a Sim.

 

It was very tempting to track down a flight joystick for the game, but right now, funds aren't at their best, not now I've discovered PayPal payments are withheld from sellers until positive feedback is left. Means paying for postage and not getting paid for what you sent.
On your recommendations I will definitely be trying HAWX out. I heard there was some confusion about the camera angles though?

Though much different I'm sure, I did eventually fancy giving Flight Sim X a go, if it wasn't such an nvidia-only title. The difference in performance between manufacturers for it is astonishing.

 

I guess im gonna find out. I told windows to shut the drives off, after 3min, before I went to bed, and when I woke up, all the drives had an addition of 7hrs running time!!! So obviously they didnt shut off! Unless the S.M.A.R.T. data is flawed!

Oh, dont worry. Im not buying GTA 4 until I upgrade my card. Alot of people are downloading it and complaining about how it looks. I laughed. They're probably grossly under equipped to run it! LOL. I wont be downloading it though. Game like that deserves some return!

 

I have a similar problem with my computer not completely going to sleep or shutting down. Sometimes I will leave it and comeback and the fan controller is still lit up and I can hear the fans running but it is in sleep mode. Then it wont resume and I have to do a hard reset. Hopefully they get that fixed because so far I am liking windows 7.

I tried playing gta 4 and I couldnt get it to work right or run on my computer at all. But I dont really care that much. I played a liitle on my xbox and it wasnt as good as the older versions in my opinion.

 

Shut off after 3 mins of use will only work if the drives aren't used for that period. This is impossible for the OS drive (especially if you use Windows Live messenger, as that seeks the drive once every second), and unusual for the secondary unless you never install any programs on it.

 

I have 3 drives currently installed. All three of them continued to run. I chose 3 minutes because the math was easier that way LOL LOL!

My secondary drives are simply storage. I dont install anything on them!

 

You have to have speedfan, everest and the likes closed. To monitor the temperature of a drive, it has to be spinning.

 

LOL!!! I cant believe it! Yes... I do believe it. I cant believe that didnt occur to me. OF COURSE! Thanks sam! Good grief OK ok...back on topic

Can you say *FACEPALM*

 

OK, so whats the difference HERE
Does it simply amount to better cooling? Cause for that price, a person could go with the cheaper card, and cool as good or better for cheaper! 55$ is a pretty big difference. I suppose the heat pipes might just be worth that though huh?

 

The 4870 Toxic is pre-overclocked from 750/3600 to 780/4000.

 

Ok, I can see that being kind of worth it to an avid gamer. Though to one who knows how to overclock. They may find it a better buy to buy the non toxic. But then I'm pretty green, sooo...

Is it true that some sound like a blow dryer, or vacuum cleaner? Im looking at an asus http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121288 that people seem to think is loud! Man...im really in over my head on this one. I just want a powerful card thats not loud and will play games ALMOST effortlessly.

 

Depends what the fan speed is. The Asus Dark Knight cooler is very poor though, which is why those cards are so cheap. The Matrix cooler is much better, but the stock cooler is less obtrusive than either noise-wise.

 

OK. Heres a thought. I bought one of these a while back. How much do you think it would cool the asus card, while dropping the asus fan speed?