The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

LOL As if the tank needs any help being angry!

But I think I know what you meant - chasing you instead of chasing and killing your bots, haha.

So let me ask this also: Did you light the tank?

 

The first tank, I lit him up. He was moving through a tight space(perfect time). Kills a little "tank" time LOL! The second one, I got knocked down while blasting him with a shotgun. Thankfully, one of them was also firing on him, and brought him down. I have noticed that lighting him up, REALLY angers him LOL!

 

I don't really watch DVDs, I tend to get high def of films that are available in such detail, but yes I watch films on the 3008WFP, in lack of a bigger TV. Since all upscale looks gash on a 2560x1600 screen anyway I don't choose players by upscale quality, but by quality of the program. Media player classic tends to be the most reliable, occasionally I use VLC for stuff it can't play. Nero showtime has better codecs for some files, but generally isn't worth the hassle of trying to use.
Once again Rich, you're spending hundreds upgrading an old PC to get still an old PC. if you can't afford a high end PC, just get a midrange one, it's so much better value than throwing money away on the old P4 system. 64-bit is of negligible consequence with a P4 anyway.

 

Thanks for the info sam.

Sounds to me like, other than upscaling BD content, such a display is not really intended for video playback. But is instead intended for graphics editing, large working field, and of course Gaming LOL! I've really gotta save my pennies and get me one of those badboys!!! I do a lot of graphics editing, and would no doubt benefit from a massive S-IPS LCD monitor.

 

The next time I post I should be enjoying 64-bit.



What's the idea behind my mobo's single IDE making it a right pain in the arse I can't have both Physical IDE drives (E and G are partitions of the same drive) and my DVD drive at the same time GRRRR >:-| (I've never noticed how annoying it is in the past)

I should probably explain that I don't have access to someone else's documents over the network because Jon is in fact me. My parents named me Jonathan but I don't use it as my name and for obvious reasons my user name on my parents computer remains unchanged.

 

I'm happy!

64-bit is definently better then 32-bit. The extra 800MB RAM is probaly a factor but its all just that bit more snappy. I'm blaming a bad burn for the trouble I had with it in the past - A mate burnt it for me. A mate that I shouldn't have trusted with the complex procedure of verifying the disk after burning

Apparently although not x64 native Avira is perfectly alright to use and has x64 elements.

 

So if your actual name is Jonathan, why Keith?

 

Yeah Jon, should we call you Jon now, or keep calling you Keith? And you just found out that 64 bits makes everything snappier, but Sam just told me that 64 bits is dog doo on a P4, lol.

Haha, Sam you're so right!

Upgrading an old pc to get an old pc. Well - I guess it's my practice machine for now - mentally I just have to go back in time and pretend it's 2005, lol.

...........

So the 64bit doesn't really buy me anything, I was just wondering.

But I came across some 2005 Intel stuff showing minimum 6-7% improvement on benchmarks from the 2MB L2 cache compared to the 1MB L2 cache that I have now - with a statement that real-world applications with heavy RAM calls might benefit even more. So if I can get a chip that is much faster, with twice the L2 cache, and which therefore gives me maybe 30% more cpu performance, for only $80, I think I should do that. Who knows, I might be able to get through the rain on Hells Highway that way, hahaha. (Sam was saying that the rain - which killed the game for me - must be cpu-generated.)

Does anybody like the Zerotherm all-copper cf900 cpu cooler with 130 watts of cooling on sale at newegg for $22 after rebate? Here's the picture. Right now my sunbeam is fastened to the Evercool hsf with a 95mm fan, so it should easily be able to move to the 92mm fan of the Zerotherm without much hassle beyond what I already did today.

...........

If I actually get the new cpu, I can't overclock the P4 670, which draws 115 amps, more than 5% per my mobo, which puts it right at 4.0 ghz, so I don't need the cooling power of an arctic 7 freezer pro. If I do the new cpu, I might as well get the same style cooler as the stock hsf I have now, so that I can attach the sunbeam hose to bring in fresh air from the outside.

I blame it all on estuansis for telling me to get the vf900 zalman cooler.

................

I put the vf1000 on yesterday and it is so beautiful - it makes me take one more look at the cpu bottleneck. After all the hours of mods, if another $100 maxes out the box until I gather up the $2000 for the new build (since I'm keeping the P4 anyway) then I have to look at it as the investment in a hobby, I suppose. You're right, Sam, it doesn't make sense looking at it any other way.

But today I'm so proud of myself. Again, it's all Jeff's fault. Having my sides off, the 3850 with the new cooler sitting on a shelf letting the ram sinks harden up until tomorrow, I decided to take a closer look at the sunbeam 3" hose that connects the cpu hsf to the outside filter. For the first time I figured out how to unsnap the Evercool 95mm fan from the sink.

Holy moly - the sink was caked in dust!! - Wow! - all the dust that had built up in the three years I had been running the computer before I added the sunbeam hose with the intake filter! No wonder my cpu was running a bit hot - approaching the 75 degrees that Sam says is max.

I got all the dust off, took out the Endust and squirted it really good, and then I looked at the fan shroud and how to better duct-tape my sunbeam hose. I still had one 80mm sunbeam fitting left over and a hose clamp. Prior to today I had the hose just duct-taped to the fan shroud. I unsnapped the fan shroud, clipped off the entire top of the shroud, which had a lot of plastic just blocking the air, and snapped the round shroud base back on - it gave me a 1/4" offset from the fan - otherwise with the 80mm sunbeam fitting directly against the fan, I could hear the fan blades slightly scraping.

The square corners of the 80mm hose fitting slightly overlapped the 95mm round fan lip and shroud offset. So I pulled out my solder iron, and melted the 4 corners to "glue" them to the shroud cover - using some extra plastic from the middle of the part that I had clipped off to give me additional melting material. Now the sunbeam 80mm adapter was firmly attached to the round base of the former shroud, which clipped nicely onto the 95mm fan. I duct taped the assembly to cover up the air gaps, and then properly hose clamped the sunbeam hose, which at the other end of the 6" hose is clamped to a 90mm fan adapter.

So bottom result after today's 2-hour project, is that my hsf is now free of dust, and it is also free of the entire shroud which was partially blocking the air flow.

Tomorrow when I put the 3850 back in and run the same stress tests I ran two weeks ago, in addition to the dramatically lower 3850 temps I am expecting (down from the 97-99 I was reaching with 702 gpu clock or 92-24 at 695 clock) I bet I'll also see a major reduction of cpu temps down from 72-73 on the same test. (Of course the weather is a lot cooler now than two weeks ago - my trailer hasn't hit 98 degrees for a week - at the most about 92.) I'm going to post the old picture of the tests, with the new picture for comparison.

Rich

 

Rich, $80 is so much for a CPU that gets you such a piffling performance upgrade. The E5200 in my work PC is $66, and per-core is literally double the performance of the P4, and there's two cores not one.
The rain in Hells Highway is highly unlikely to be CPU rendered, but it will likely have some stupid physics applied to it which stresses the CPU. If you're in the business of throwing money at an old PC, I'd go for a Freezer 7 Pro rather than the rather basic Zerotherm. An extra $10 and you get an excellent cooler. You may not need it but you don't need to be spending hundreds to get an outdated PC up to scratch.

 

It's a lonnnnnggggggg story that doesn't actually make any sense. Its Keith it says Keith Lee on my bank statements, my sixth-form apllication and everybody calls me it aside from my parents who have always been naffy about the whole thing "whats wrong witht the name we gave you" pahhhhh. I should probably explain there's no name change procedure in the UK you just start using your new name ocasinally various places need to see a letter I had written by a lawyer freind which simply says I was Jonathan and am now Keith.

Anyways I've discoverd what crippled x64 last time, it was the sound drivers built into 7 64-bit for some reason they don't agree with my onboard audio. They're the only drivers available for windows 7 for my mobo off the MSI site so obviously this isn't just me. But I only ever used the ones that came with the OS on 32-bit.

 

To be honest, I can understand your parents being surprised, it's not exactly common for a child to reject their name entirely at such a young age.

 

I decided I was going to do it eventually so it made sense to do it when I wasn't working. Stop making me feel so young Actually You've just reminded me of all the little stuff I've never bothered to change it on.

 

http://www.tweak.dk/nyheder2.php?id=21075

put your doubts to rest sam?

 

That it ace! Does it come with the man that pours Liquid Nitrogen or do you have to buy one separate?

 

What doubts? I never said the MARS would be a bad card, but for 40% odd over the hd4870x2 and a 320% higher price, no thanks!

 

I just did a 1,549 article on which web browser offers the best performance. It's amazing what you can achieve when your bored:

linkage (Adobe's online document thing is purty but links don't work!!!)

I'm liking Photoshop CS4 on 64-bit I opened pretty much all my screenshots and wallpapers before it came up something about not being able to open that many files at once even though I was only opening one, It was using 3GB of RAM at this stage so then I turned a screenshot from the Sims 3 into a ring and painted it red with minimal lag. I was testing it honestly I was errm seeing what it was capable of..

I don't have any gaming based stuff to report because I've still not reconnected my DVD drive to begin re-installing stuff.

Edit: AD doesn't automatically link to encrypted pages...

 

CS4 eh. I'm currently running CS3. Awesome piece of software! Probably my favorite. Next to my games of course If I continue playing with it at the rate I am, I could be considered a photoshop Pro within a year. No joke! I like the software that much. I spend a great deal of waking hours with it.

 

I got CS4 Extended instead of re-installing CS3 when I swapped to 64-bit. They've got rid of the easy finder thing which is a pain but now its easier to make stuff black and white and one colour or as in this picture several not (I can't remember the name of the effect).

The lovely welsh countryside on RBR Smashed in rally cars are common place.

 

Desaturate?

 

Hey just got done playing Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. So here's a review.

Gameplay: 8/10

This is a sweet departure for an FPS. CoJ:BiB is a western style game like the classic Clint Eastwood movies. It takes place during and after the civil war. You play as two brothers and may freely choose which one to play in each chapter; whichever fits your fighting style. There are lots of sweet shootouts in saloons and deserted frontier town streets. The gunplay is very tight and intuitive. You can pick your own loadout and each gun has its own strengths and weaknesses. There is a somewhat awkward but very serviceable cover system that take a little practice to use. But once you learn it, it feels quite intuitive. And occasionaly you get to make use of the quick-draw mechanic as well. The gun duels can be tense. It does get a bit repetitive though and none of the weapons are especially exciting. Old western repeater rifles and six-shooter pistols. Fun to use, but lever action gets old fast. There are gatling gun rail sequences but they feel forced. The story is rather good though, if kinda hokey at times. Some interesting characters.

Graphics: 6.5/10

The game is generally pretty sharp with a nice visual style overall. The character models are fantastic but could use some much better lip-syncing and facial animations. There are a lot of little details like visual clutter(items on shelves, rocks, etc) and foliage strewn about, but this stuff has a terrible pop-in about 20-30 feet away from you. Not a problem at all in towns but really makes the otherwise gorgeous open plains and deserts feel fake. This is the main reason the game scores so low in graphics. This is inexcusable in the year 2009. Not when oblivion did a way better job of managing pop-in in '05. There are also a few crap textures here and there but overall the texture work is pretty nice. You can quite literally see the black heads in the characters' skin, lol. AFAIK it supports AA but is also pretty much perfectly crisp and jaggie free without it. Also there is a heat wave effect which seems buggy against some outlines and stuff, like pixellated.

Basically what looks good about it looks really awesome. But what looks bad about it looks like crap.

Sound: 8.5/10

Sound is also another nice part of this game. Good distance and occlusion sound effects with great 3D positional on my headset. Sound helps a lot in the hectic firefights when your being attacked from all sides by pistol wielding Mexicans

Nothing truly spectacular but well up to the established standard of good sound quality.

Performance: 10/10

Plays at a pretty constant 60-70FPS on my 9800GTX with all settings maxed. 1680 x 1050 8xQMSAA, 16xAF. Enough said.

I assume Crossfire works due to the FPS on my Crossfire rig but I never bothered to check it with one card.

Overall: 7.5/10

I really like this game and had a lot of fun playing it. But I doubt I'll ever play through again. It took me 7 hours to beat on hard difficulty and was a fun play but overall was pretty forgettable. The eye-twitching pop-up was really a killer. It had a dramatic effect on my experience. I think if this issue and a few others had been taken care of it might have been worth another look later on.