The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

So far it's just EVGA and Sparkle that have produced 2GB solo GTX285s, but two of those in SLI will set you back a more reasonable £670, if you have the architecture to back it up. I think this summer's hardware will probably render the MARS redundant.

 

You forgot to say, "Its a FREAK of technology" LOL!

 

Received card at 10AM

Finally, Crysis on Very High (not that i can be bothered to play through the whole game again, it's just good to say my PC can run it at that ^.^) With AA it starts to lag a bit but it's not too bad; the 8800GT practically keeled over with the slightest whiff of it...

Seems like it's perfectly stable, PSU hasn't changed fan note at all or anything, card is a lot quieter (with 40% fan speed at load) than the 8800GT (whose fan rose to 100% at load), and tons cooler (highest i've seen it go so far is 51oC, which was in Mirror's Edge, surprisingly). Also turns out the card DOES step down all clocks in 2D mode, despite what the Fudzilla review said.

All in all; oh i do love it ^.^

 

Well as far as Nvidia vs ATi I'm fairly neutral. Nvidia cards offer performance advantages in a lot of games I like, but ATi has much higher image quality. My 4870s' AA, texture filtering, and video acceleration/quality are superior to Nvidia's. But my 9800GTX and 8800GTS 512MB were good deals, perform well, and still look very good all things considered. I might be slightly biased towards ATi as my current main rig uses Crossfire

It may not matter for the average framerates but it makes a huge difference for the minimums and maximums. Not to mention physics, AI, background loading, and the many other things that are CPU dependent. I guarantee you will notice the difference between a 2.2GHz i7 and a 4GHz i7 in Crysis with a single GTX280. And this isn't even taking into account multi card setups!

 

Standing up for nvidia a little here, the image quality is better for the GTX200 series than it was for the 8800/9800s. Since the GTS250 is so similar to the 9800GTX+ I'm not sure it will share those advantages.
As far as dual graphics is concerned, SLi is more popular and works for more games, often getting higher scaling. However, the few games I play most often of all actually see much more benefit from CF than SLI (left 4 Dead for instance doesn't actually support Quad SLI at all, yet in Quad CF it scales over 350%)
Agreed on the minimum frame rates, it's the main thing I look at in benchmarks now. 60fps average with a few drops to 20fps is far worse than a continuous 45fps with no dips.
I'm still glad I have a Quad crossfire system, but next time around I'll pass. Apart from not having the money, it's just too limited in scope (though not as much as I thought) and too hot and noisy for me.
Here's hoping there'll be some commonality between aftermarket X2 heatsinks and the next X2 card...

 

i think my next card might be an nvidia, as i soo wanna try out 3d

 

3D is nice, but very expensive for the rest of the setup. I was considering making my light PC an nvidia PC for just that purpose but it was prohibitively expensive.

 

Wow Sam. Your mom worked at one time in the former world trade center buildings, and you had a near miss with the London underground bombings. Some things are too close to home to be taken lightly.

Very similar to a conversation I had three months ago. I was down in TJ (Tijuana, Mexico) accompanying a relative on a dental visit (2 hours south of Orange County - a good way to practice my spanish) and I asked the Dentist's daughter who was running the reception desk "All that stuff we're hearing about gang shootouts down here - the problems with the narco-traficantes (drug dealers) - is that really as bad as they say, or just hyped up by the press?" She said, "Well my uncle was at a party recently and was caught in a gang crossfire."

I'm not sure about any more trips to TJ.

So over all, Sam, the heat and noise of the quad has put you off on that experiment? Well, aren't we all waiting for a new 5000 family with gpus small enough to put 4 on a single board - weren't they talking about that last year?

Or is everything backed up because of the weak world economy?

If you think the Mars will lose some of its glory in a few months, what do you guys think is coming this summer?

 

Well I'm still glad I did what I did, but I'm so short on funds I really need to sell part of it to carry on living as I do now. This summer I do expect a new generation, it's difficult to predict whether it'll be as big an increase as the last new generation, but it should be pretty potent. Even a 50% increase in performance over current will render the MARS almost pointless, especially if 2GB GPUs become popular.
The MARS was really just a tech showoff by Asus though, it's so expensive because there will be at least 1000 people in the world willing to pay $1600 for a graphics card.

 

Yeah, I guess - for sure there must be 1000 of those guys around. Will it run in sli?

Will there be at least one of those guys who will pay $3200 to rape crysis or warhead on 30" ??

 

Yes it will, but only dual, so you can still only run 4 GPUs. Four 2GB GTX285s though.

 

hello gentlemen! its been a while I have just finished installing L4D, can't wait to try out the single player. But before I start playing it, I have a question that some of you may be able to help with
I have the mobo in my sig, which some of you may know has the ALC889 audio chip, with a 7.1 capable optical output. I am currently using this, and I'm quite sure I have the right drivers installed. I don't have computer speakers as such - I used to have a set of Z5500s but I ditched them in favour of an actual stereo - a sony muteki htddw7000 to be exact. It's a 7.1 channel head unit with optical and hdmi input and it's supposed to be able to decode everything. But if I'm playing a game and choose '7.1 speakers' in the audio options, I lose half my sound! What I mean is, if I am staring directly at someone who is talking - everything is fine. Loud and clear out of the center speaker. But as soon as I deviate left or right, the sound sort of 'disappears' half way between the center and front speakers. Know what I mean? This head unit is quite confusing - it has a lot of options for Pro logic and dolby etc. so I don't know which setting to have it on in order to pick up the 7.1 sound from the PC correctly. The head unit has a little display on it that tells me which speakers are receiving sound, and if I leave everything on 'auto' decoding settings, when I enter a game it only shows 2 speakers running :S
Here are the spec sheets for people that understand all this stuff and might be able to tell me why the head unit isn't decoding properly...
Realtek 889
Sony speakers

cheers in advance fellas

 

Wow, Rubbix from down under, how's your DFI so far? Looks like we'll soon have you in our little L4D tank-killing group, eh? - along with Shokz and his new hot graphics card, and Kevin if he's finished with the sprinklers.

I'm the wrong guy to ask about your 7.1 question - but the way I would approach it, before I tried it on a game, is to try it on music.

Maybe you have already done this. But if not, you can find wav file tests on google where the girl says, front right, side right, rear right, etc. I just went through that recently to check out my 5.1 headphones. There is one YouTube video, for example, where the little dot goes around a circle, and in my 5.1 headphones, I can hear the little bumble bee going around from front, to side, to back, to other side, etc.

This came up recently for me on counter strike source, just before I started played Left 4 Dead a month or so ago. For some reason I went to the CSS speaker test, and the rear right and left were switched.

I asked myself how that was possible. You plug in front, and you plug in rear, so to uncross I would have to cut and splice. But the google wav files, and the YouTube video, showed that my built-in headphone speakers are fine. Nothing wrong with the wiring.

That makes me wonder if the CSS speaker test is indicative of how the game really runs, or is it just a bad test? I can't believe the latter - somebody would have told Valve by now - so if the test is fine - and my rear is actually crossed - then my steam files are messed up.

Maybe I should do Sam's recent suggestion of having steam check my css files - possibly there is some corruption. Yeah I'll do that first.

So if you haven't already tried that, working with a simple 7.1 wav file: "Center, front right, side right, back right" etc. should help you get things squared away - you can try every option possible until something works. Good luck - and how's your pet kangaroo these days? Or was that your pet Great White?

Hell Yes!

Rich

 

NVM wrong thread

 

LOL! Yes! I finished the sprinklers. It was in the third spot I checked. You know what they say...3rd times a charm LOL! Irrigation is almost perfect now. I still have to replace a few sprinkler heads, but otherwise, its running well.

I dont know that I'll be able to play this Wednesday though. Wednesday's are typically hectic for me. I try and get all that hectic stuff done on tuesdays, but it doesn't always work out. Please don't ask about it. Im rather ashamed about it. Perhaps a P.m. though, and if your lucky...

 

Most people hate mondays. Me, I hate tuesdays. I've been ill most often on a tuesday, I've only ever been beaten up on a tuesday, etc. etc...

 

Well...I think I found a good place. The stairwell, near all the supplies on top of the hospital. At least I almost got lucky once LOL! On expert no less. The Bots are not very cooperative most the time. But I just happened to get them all in the staircase, 2 on top and me and another on the bottom of the stairwell. It actually lasted a while like that. I think we may have been close to rescue! Though, I didn't play all 5 levels LOL! Just the end level. The closet/storage room next to the stairwell works well too. The tank isn't able to move real well. I suppose that does take the fun out of it LOL!

 

My new UK 'best buy'
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...DR5-GPU-1000MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-HDMI-HDCP

20 posts at Hexus and that's free delivery. £160 delivered for a graphics card that can take on the GTX285 in some games (close in Left 4 Dead, wins in World in Conflict, Crysis Warhead, HAWX and GRiD).

 

WOW!

black edition for £160!

or as sam would have said when he didnt have free delivery, £170

 

Indeed, considering the delivery cost of sites I think is vital, as if you have free delivery it makes the difference between choosing one product and something else. I tend not to consider any other 'post at xxx forum and get free shipping' offer as to my knowledge they all require substantial participation to get the offer, such as 250 posts, or 20 posts a month. The hexus requirement is only 20 posts full stop, which is dead easy to achieve.