The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

I agree that the story isn't as good Rich, but the campaign is nonetheless above average.

 

Yeah, maybe you're right. I shouldn't be so critical. I really miss Viktor lol.

 

I personally enjoyed all the action and military hardware being thrown around. I also enjoyed seeing characters from the old game and telling the end of their stories through the next generation. The selection of weapons was great as well. I liked the futuristic weapons.

MW2 was pretty short, but it was awesome, and MW1 and 3 were pretty decent length. Also awesome. I really liked the campaign. America! lol

All of the Call of Duties had excellent graphics. Only World at War and Black ops 1 were really inconsistent.

I think I will have something to say about FarCry 3 when it comes out. Gotta have it

From what I've seen it's excessively pretty. Performance looks promising for me when I make my upgrades.

 

Sorry for the double, but just got FarCry 3. Performance is as expected somewhat weak mostly due to my stock CPU and 1GB of video memory. Still all I do is use Very High instead of Ultra and average 30-70. Very variable framerates depending on where you look, but smooth and playable for the most part. Expect much better things once I have new hardware

 

Buck and that CIA dude have some of the best missions, the rest of the game was pretty much a WTF! dats tripin or a yawn fest.

 

I think it's consistently interesting and fun. Beautiful graphics, lots of great guns, a decent story. Is a bit performance intensive but I would imagine my upcoming upgrades are going do trick for that

 

So, again, what are your planned upgrades? You were going to be trading some graphics hardware as I recall to get at least 2 gigs vram, correct?

HOLY MOLY - FAR CRY 3 IS OUT?????

Lol, dxr is as critical as I am. New Year's Resolution for myself - don't be critical, be grateful.

I'm gonna go get it immediately if not sooner!

Uh oh, I'll have to wait in line:



Jeff - it sounds like the new hardware is just around the corner. Any thought about waiting for AMD 8000 family - should be coming up pretty quick, I would think.

Rich

 

Did i ever tell you the definition of insanity?

the Definition of insanity is doing the same side missions over and over again expecting shit to change. that. is. crazy. but the first time some one told me that i thought they were bullshiting me so "Boom" i just continued doing side missions. then i started to see it every where i looked, every where i looked, all these F#$king Game Companies every where i looked doing the exact same F#$king side missions over and over and over and over again thinking this time people wont notice Nonono, please this time people wont notice.

Im sorry, I Don't Like the shit you've been selling me.

 

Yeah I agree it's a bit of a grind but compared to the previous game is such a huge jump in every way, it doesn't really matter. It's certainly an above average shooter. One of the best I've played in years. You have to consider the developers who made it. For them, this is a huge leap.

I'm not using Ultra settings yet but it's a very close contender with Crysis for graphics. I believe all the important ones are maxed. Having similar environments makes the comparison easier. I'll still give Crysis the nod in art direction and overall visual fidelity, but FarCry 3 is far better optimised and also much more consistent in visual quality. Water was kind of a disappointment in FarCry 3. Very pretty but not spectacular. Crysis 1 and Source Engine hold the title of best water in my book.

https://forums.playfire.com/_proxy/?url=http://i41.tinypic.com/2vim8mp.jpg&hmac=822ba4055d14ab73e216ae14d385488a

http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/...nder-xp-dx9-crysis-2007-10-29-18-26-18-25.jpg

You'd have to see these two in motion, which I'm sure most of you have. Very atmospheric and realistic.

 

Both links 404. Clipboard size issue?

 

Hmm seems to be. Cbf'd to fix it right now. You get the point.

 

yeah it could be worse, you could be fetching diamonds in briefcases. i still think FC1 was the best farcry ever, the AI was smart, the guns had recoil and vehicles were a privilege.

 

Well, DXR and I both like to bitch - but there's that New Year's Resolution to think about - stop f*@kkking complaining. Uhhh .... something like that. LOL

Far Cry 3 kicks some major butt.

I have it on ultra - it looks quite nice, quite nice indeed. Very colorful for sure. I dropped from 8x AA where I was barely 30 and perceptibly lagging - to 4x AA, and now I'm at 45fps, that's with overclocked cards at 975, running 75 degrees the hottest, 65 the other. Very smooth - I can't perceive any lag at all.

The water cannot compare to Crysis - or Steam - but still, it is pretty. It doesn't splash when you walk in it, nor are there any waves. BUT .... it is damn pretty otherwise, and if you look into the little ponds here and there, for example up at that scientist's house, there are little skeeter bugs flying along the surface of the pond, and little things hitting it making circular waves - VERY realistic.

THERE IS EVERY MANNER OF BEAST IN THIS GAME - JUST ABOUT EVERYWHERE YOU GO!!! That adds quite a bit of atmosphere as you hoof it through the jungles. I would rather get away from the damn dogs than waste ammo - same goes for the tigers. Not to mention boars, or those very interesting birds that roar like a lion - they are so easy to kill, but one DID kill me while I was trying to skin his buddy.

Side missions - I turned on the machine tonight after an all-nighter 24 hour non-stop gaming with a 2 hour break in the middle, just to try some side missions.

I am playing it at hardest difficulty to not finish so fast, but that means I get to try some things 10 times in a row, lol. Like running from the boats finishing up with a helicopter shooting at me. Good thing I had 5 health syringes ready - in fact I had a few more green leaves in my pouch and could have made more - of the 9 total. But as I say, good thing I had the 5 because I just barely finished that last part of that episode, and when you're re-starting, I am not sure you can hit pause and build more syringes - but maybe you can. I didn't try that. Maybe it would have worked.

I have a question - in the hut trying to protect the guy who is one his computer - there were some mines - proximity mines. Are they on one of my keyboard keys?? - I had no idea what to do about them or how to choose them. Tonight I'll look and see if there is a key for mines. Must be. What about molotovs - I have 6 frag grenades - maybe the side missions will unlock mines and molotovs. So anyway, tonight I want to try them, you know, the side missions that DXR loves so much, lol.

Jeff, you have never steered me wrong, and this game is great!!

Here's what I like: ANIMALS - did I say there are friggin animals every goddamn way you turn, and you better watch out because one of the little bi*ches is going to bite you. There are tigers - pretty much everywhere. That is awesome. There are some SCARY big black bears. I'm sure with my LMG I am okay, but ... jus saying - tigers and bears. Then there are those pesky Komodo Dragons that slither around and bite you when you aren't paying attention. And there are rats, and dogs, and dingos, and very nice goats, and buffalos, and deer - all manner of creatures except I haven't seen one snake since that poisonous one at the first tower. The animals are very realistic - and scary.

I will BET my last dollar, that you really like that FAST Movement mode, Jeff, where you can fly back to a settled village without having to travel there - it's just - "okay, imagine me trudging along for an hour - now fast forward to the village." Every time I make the trip I think of you, how you hated all the repetitive Far Cry 2 travelling. LOL That "fly back to a village" got me out of one real hot spot, where I was surrounded by about 10 pirates, a huge rock, and a cliff behind me. I hit the map - which nicely stops the action - and disappeared in a puff of smoke, lol. Yeah, I could have killed them all - MAYBE - but ammo is expensive!

Regarding the Far Cry 2 travelling, I still say, if you had used the boats, Jeff, you wouldn't have minded it as much.

Graphics - very pretty indeed.

But, now that I am thinking about Far Cry 2, yeah - that river was especially beautiful, and I have not been struck as much with anything here. Except for one sunset. I walked outside that big mansion house, and the whole light was glowing - very very nice. Another interesting little touch - the night club scenes when our hero, I forgot his name, eats the little red pill. Trippy.

DXR - it's not as good as Far Cry - in total - except for having modern graphics - because it's not Crytek. Far Cry was a standout in every way. But ... it does some things better - like the animals are GREAT!!!

But Crytek Far Cry, as I say, was a standout. Like for example, the dialog of the mercenaries: "Did you ever think about the morality - you know - the morality of what we are doing here?" They try to throw some conversation in this game, but they only have about 30 things the guys say, over and over again, lol. "Boy it hurts like hell when I piss." "Shut up and use the rubber." I guess that means the guy I am about to knife just picked up the clap. Or "Damn bugs." "I hate it here. Let's just give this place back to the rebels." It's just a little touch, but somebody should have expanded that 5 minutes' worth, to about an hour's worth of pirate banter.

But - again - I don't want to be too picky. Overall, it's a great game - I'm having fun - and some parts are REALLY challenging. When that helicopter exploded, I was really excited, "Oh, there is a god - I don't have to play this one escape scene another dozen times."

My fault for the hardness level. And the game tells you right in the beginning that you can drop difficulty down at any time - but I wasn't quite to that point yet - I did it in about 10 tries, and I was still good for maybe 20 more.

The sinking boat and the attacking helicopter in Far Cry was no picnic either. That was probably 10 tries also.

Have fun guys. I've got to end this and try some side missions, and see what DXR is bi*ching about, lol.

Rich

 

I have been playing a lot of Far Cry 3. The game is even better than the very high marks the critics gave it.

Graphically, I was wrong when I said that I had not yet seen the incredible water of Far Cry 2. The Far Cry 3 water is gorgeous - stunning reflections - the way the light shimmers. The overall map and the graphics leave me speechless.

If you play the side missions, you will learn how to drive a quad 4 runner, and you will learn how to drive a wave runner. I didn't think much of the quad earlier. But when the wind whistles as you drive along, it's quite a thrill. Those two skills will create hours of fantastic enjoyment as you barrel down the road in the 4 runner as I have been doing, or along the waterways in the wave runner - the shimmering water and reflections are sublime. Beyond my powers of description.

Performance-wise, I boosted the clock of my crossfire 7950s to 1050, up from rock solid stable 975, to achieve a little extra fluidity closer to 50 fps at 2560x1600, which helps in fast vehicle travel. I am at ultra everything settings, except 4x AA, not 8x which slowed me way down - I don't really notice any jaggies.

Clockrate-wise on the gpu, I had tried 1000 before and had it crash Sleeping Dogs in 10 minutes after seeming to be stable in Furmark and Heaven, but at the time I had forgotten to increase the vddc for stability. My rock solid vddc is 1087 millivolts. So I tried two higher clock settings, 1015 clock and 1050 clock, with two higher vddc settings - one at a modest 1115, and the highest at 1131 up from 1087 millivolts. Nothing too drastic.

If I don't have too much other stuff running (like my graphics program and my wordpad game notes so I can capture map locations of where the quad vehicles are parked) the 1050 clock, vddc 1131 is working fine.

No issues - 10 hours of stable gameplay at a time.

I have over a hundred steam screenshots - I'll do some major posting later. But here is one:



Oh, and I have become Robin Hood. I am using the bow everywhere. The way you have to hold down the left mouse to pull the bow string back gives an amazing amount of realism to the bow. I have been getting some great head-shots at bad guys peeking over cover from 20 yards. I feel like putting on green and taking up residence in Sherwood Forest. I am the man.

The tribe members like to say "Who is the man? I am." They are beginning to grow on me and I carry the repair tool in order to get their jeeps running, which earns me 50 bucks each time. My earlier complaint about them not talking much has disappeared - these guys hanging around while I shot my arrows were giving me all kinds of props how I have turned into an amazing hunter, cleaned out most of the pirates, etc. The more you do, the more they talk. It all makes sense now, lol.

Since explosive arrows are so powerful I don't feel such a need for the hugely powerful grenade launcher any more, so like I say, in its place I carry the repair tool. It is also handy on the wave runner as you do a lot of crashing running over rocks just under the surface. The first thing is that the engine cover comes loose - a one-second repair fixes that.

The explosive arrows really work well - only two needed to kill any heavy. One explosive arrow will kill any charging tiger or leopard or bear, although I prefer the challenge of killing leopards or tigers with regular arrows. It seems to take 3. The first gets them mad, the second quickly while they do the challenge, and the third while they are charging. It is wayyy scary - I have been killed several times. Several other times they clawed me and gave me one last chance for an arrow at them as the screen turned all gray and I bordered on death.

I could take an animal repellent syringe, but that is way too easy.

For weapons, I discovered the expensive special signature weapons and ended up buying the ripper and the shredder, since my $10,000 wallet fills up quick. Next I'll buy the silent pistol. The arrows are truly silent. The silenced shredder smg less so. But it is a good man shredder close in, however it burns through ammo.

But the $4,000 ripper LMG - they call it a MKG whatever that means, is so much more powerful than the regular LMG, I can't believe it. It has a fire rate of 15 rounds per second, versus 7.5 of the LMG, and the rounds don't bounce, and seem more powerful per round, but maybe it's just the not-bouncing. Two three-round bursts will kill a buffalo, versus 5 bursts from the LMG if they don't charge over the hill - a very hard kill with the LMG, very easy with the MKG. It rips through people the same way as I have seen.

I did a full game save, (hidden folder in the program application data) then practiced with about $2,000 worth of ammo killing buffalo from the roof of the Mosquito Bay safe house. Then I rolled the game back - I didn't have that much cash to throw away, lol. By the way, they keep some areas filled with pirates. The Erh Co warehouse #29 is close to Mosquito Bay. It's good for bow and arrow practice on pirates, plus lots of leopards and also tigers. They fill it with pirates, because that is where one of the Trial of the Rickyat is held - killing as many in a lumber yard as you can. I love those trials - they teach you all the weapons.

There is not too much that I don't love about this game!!

Here is how good I am at bow and arrows:

The target is 30 yards away:



Now look at all the bullseyes! LOL



Here's a holiday gift to all of you guys.

If you like the Nutcracker Suite - it's great holiday music. I downloaded a 450MB flac version from a classic recording off of vinyl records years ago - it's perfect quality. Copyright expired years ago. I converted it to 30 MB of mp3 at high bit rate - exceptional quality.

I have been playing it in my iTunes from my laptop hooked to my big screen TV which has decent speakers, and I boost the low frequencies on the equilizer, although it actually sounds best in my office with the big subwoofer of my altec lansing PC speakers - the lower end violas, cellos, bassoons, tympani, etc. beautifully fill in the sound. Tchaikovsky was remarkable - one foot in Serbian composition - the other in traditional western classical composition.

That reminds me - I'll turn it on right now, lol. Wow, always even better than I had remembered!

The following username and password access only that one folder on my web site.

username is afterdawn
password is afterdawn-1

I find that ONLY Internet Explorer will do ftp file transfer - chrome lets you see the files, but won't transfer them.

EDIT: I forgot to tell you where the ftp site is: in your Internet Explorer url, type ftp.harvardguy.com. Then you can probably cancel the first two requests for username and password, until you get to a page that says Internet Explorer can't load the page. On the command bar, hit the link called Page, and at the bottom choose: Open the ftp site in Windows Explorer - THEN fill in the username and password. When the window opens, right-drag and COPY to your desktop or to a folder. (If you accidentally move it out, then please copy it back in.) That's all - easy!

Happy holidays,
Rich

 

I've asked this before, but I want to be certain, even though I believe the answer was yes.

If I install steam on my laptop, and transfer some games to it, are the respective game producers gonna be upset about that? I'm not distributing them. I simply want to test my laptop, and play games on new years away from home Quite possibly on a projector

Can I do this legally?

 

Yes no problem with steam - you can have your games on several computers at the same time.

By the way, I see you got your laptop working - oh yeah, I remember now - you fixed the display. Good job. I maintain 3 laptops for people, and it is wayyy convenient to be able to carry the thing around, with a thumb drive in the inner pocket for moving files back and forth with other desktops.

Here is a 15" bag that I recommend highly from ebags.



They used to be available in more colors. They used to carry this one in blue.



From the picture of the black one - and the person carrying it - it seems to be the identical bag, and it is a super good bag - very convenient with lots of pockets and water bottle bag too. Here is the carrying picture with a green bag, which is the one that I own.



Here's the bag shut:



And here's the bag open:



Anyway, have fun with your laptop dude.

Rich

 

There are no restrictions on using the same steam account on multiple computers, and that applies to any game you have on steam. The simple reason is, logging into steam on one PC will log you out from the other, so you can't ever be playing more than one game at the same time.

 

Ahh. Yes of course, I understand that Games for windows live should be theoretically the same. Thanks guys! Should be a fun new years eve!

 

see edit above on laptop bags - have fun Kev

 

I have one. It can hold a great deal more than the laptop itself. Cords, thumb drives(naturally), multiple portable hard drives, and an Xbox 360 controller Not quite as impressive as yours... But hey. I'm happy

I would have thought a Sata II black drive could transfer to USB 3.0 quicker. 30Gb and 30+ minutes :S The so called compression is going slow. My processor isn't even working that hard.