The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

I'm a bit of a recluse, and don't get out much lol
No, I have not tried VR. Never even tried virtual boy. I've been waiting for the technology to evolve though!

 

A little update to the chart:

GTX 1080: 1295
GTX 1070: 1051
GTX Titan X: 1019
GTX 980 Ti: 1000
GTX 980: 784
GTX 970: 659
GTX 960: 470
GTX 950: 427

R9 Fury X: 957
R9 Fury: 884
R9 Nano: 847
R9 390X: 821
R9 390: 771
RX 480: 735
R9 290X: 720
R9 290: 652
R9 280X: 571
R9 380X: 520
HD 7970: 503
HD 7950: 421

 

Been reading some more detailed press about the RX480, and I have to say I'm not impressed on AMD's efforts here. Some reviews have been quite favourable but I've found enough output from sites I consider reputable to believe stories that the TDP of the card is a bit of a falsehood - the 150W TDP is actually closer to 170W - a bit of a parallel with nvidia's TDP measurements of times past. What makes this particularly important is that the card only comes with a single 6-pin connector, so should only be drawing 150W full stop, and rather than drawing the over-current via the PCIe 6-pin which is arguably unlikely to fase modern PSUs, it's drawing it via the motherboard, leading to 100W+ slot loading, which is pretty likely to do some damage to older or less high-end boards that won't have PCIe voltage regulation designed to deal with that sort of load. Tut tut.
There's also the small matter that the RX480 brings about higher than usual idle power consumption at the desktop, and brings the clock speed way up almost tripling that already high power level if you have more than one monitor connected - exact behaviour that AMD cards of old (and going back a bit further, nvidia cards too) used to exhibit. Long and short, if I plug two monitors into a top of the line GTX1080, it draw 8 watts. If I plug them into a midrange 'efficient' RX480, it draws 40. An extra 32 watts isn't going to single-handedly destroy the planet, but for a card where lower power consumption was its single biggest selling point - this plus the fact it uses the same amount of power under full gaming load as said GTX1080 is a bit laughable.

The RX480's MSRP is still pretty solid for its performance point, but as of now in the UK, the GTX970 price drops have been bigger than the US, and the RX480s are carrying a big markup not seen in the US - resulting in me being able to buy a GTX970 for less than 80% of the cost of an RX480 - a pretty much comparable card that uses similar power, sometimes less, especially so when at the desktop. Considering how long the 970 has been with us, AMD's new latest and greatest is utterly overshadowed by both its competition, and the R9 Nano which, inevitable cooling issues aside, is a far superior product in terms of efficiency as well as performance. At a little under £340 pre-tax, it's not terribly priced either, given its compact footprint. Again though, the GTX980Ti is now identically priced, and may be less efficient, but that's a good 20% extra performance at the same price point, which is difficult to say no to.

I was fairly optimistic about the RX480 at first, it's in the area of the market where most of the big sales happen, it's not a typically oversized power-hungry, noisy behemoth that AMD are becoming famous for, and it's of course DX12 capable, but in all honesty, if I didn't know better, I'd say people are simply being sold a die-shrunk R9 380X - ergo, a die-shrunk R9 290X, with no other improvements to offer. Potential PCIe slot toasting aside, this one still isn't going on my recommended list. AMD's R&D still have a lot of work to do.

 

Nice. Good analysis Sam. Why did they end up pulling that extra 20 watts via the motherboard? Was it a way to "hide" the extra draw?

Sounds like nvidia has the price/performance lead for 970 and up especially in your area.

How is that GTX 1080 working out for you? Is it able to run your 4k monitor reasonably well?

 

It's not so much to 'hide' it - it's more that 75W is the maximum PCIe spec dictates for a 6-pin connector to use. Presumably they were more worried about tripping multi-rail power supplies that way then doing any harm to motherboards. It's very curious, I can't think of any precedent for doing things that way.

The 1080 is great. I'm still not exactly free from driver issues, but now I'm running an SST monitor with no more screen tile desync issues and have the performance to run current A-tier titles at very nearly max details at full resolution, life is much better For a single, fairly quiet graphics card that doesn't dump huge amounts of heat into the room, the level of performance from it is admirable indeed. Even in old titles like Left 4 Dead 2, it pushes more than double the frame rate my HD4870X2 Quad-CF combo could achieve given the change in resolution, and that was a 600W setup, this is only 180.

 

Okay, so they wanted to keep the connector in spec - but at a possible cost of overloading the pci-e slot. But I guess they analyzed all the options and went for "least chance of problems."

I agree - quite curious!

Wow! And does your busy schedule give you time to play any of those A-tier titles? I certainly can empathize when you say "doesn't dump huge amounts of heat into the room." So you are drawing only 180 watts on your 1080 card, versus the 600 watts you were drawing with your ground-breaking quad gpu system back in the day?


That is way better - but please clarify - one thing you said left me slightly confused:

I didn't quite follow you when you say "given the change in resolution" in talking about Left 4 Dead 2. First of all, is that title even available in 2160p? I doubt it, so if not, then aren't you running it in the 1600p resolution that we were running it in before?

I thought you were saying that you can get twice the frame rate that your quad gpu gave you - at 1600p.

But then you said "given the change in resolution." So, are you saying that you can get twice the frame rate at 2160p, compared to what you used to get at 1600p?

​

Anyway, so I see that you're playing Left 4 Dead 2 again - and again I ask - are you playing it at 2160p? If so, how does it look?

I believe you mentioned once, that it doesn't matter if you actually have the 2160 textures - the fact that you have it spread out on so many more pixels, means that for a given square inches of screen, the 1600p texture pack is going to show many more pixels of that section of fence, or whatever - translating into a much finer definition for the whole image.

Am I remembering that correctly - and is that what is happening?

If you were to post a full-size screen shot, and here on my 1600x1200 4:3 screen I would have to scroll sideways and vertically to see all of it (I might pull it up on the 30" dell to minimize the scrolling) that would still be quite exciting to see the level of detail that you are getting in each frame.


ALAN WAKE - HOLD ONTO YOUR SEAT!

One last item - I started playing Alan Wake. (The below is not a screenshot - just a google image.)




I have seen the windows 7 wallpaper themes, and I have wondered for the last 5 years what it was all about - you see the guy carrying a gun, and you can tell it's a 3rd person shooter.

I got curious a week ago when the wallpaper again changed to Alan Wake.

I have over a 1000 wallpapers from all the windows vista and w7 themes which cycle every 3 minutes on the i7 in the sunroom.

I have started using standby mode to avoid the slow 2 minute bootup of that machine - and I have to hand it to my brother for telling me to use standby - I now use it on my gaming machine, and on my everyday workstation - what a timesaver!

So, as I mentioned, I jumped on the sunroom computer the other day rather than coming out to the trailer where I am typing right now (on the $100 compaq core 2 duo - no more single core old school pentium for me!) and there was the Alan Wake wallpaper.


So I finally decided to look it up, and the reviews were uniformly positive. They say it is a console port to pc that was done correctly. I went to steam and bought the season pass for $29.

The game plays very well on my 1600p - I am using vertical sync to drop to 60 from about 80 - to reduce shearing and some other glitches - but sometimes they are doing that on purpose because when the ghosts come they glitch out the screen to warn you.

Jeeeezzzzz! I love the graphics! It's running DirectX 11 I believe. The water effects in particular are very beautiful.


I have never really played a horror story before. I take that back - I would think that the Left For Deads qualify as horror stories. Maybe Bioshock also now that I think about it.


Back to Left 4 Dead - I think the devs were very much influenced by that game. There are many Left 4 Dead parallels, like a rock concert with fireworks, on a band-stand, while the "taken" attack in waves. My agent buddy - I'm a writer - is busy working the music and fireworks effects, while I try to keep us both alive! That was fantastic!

The action can be quite challenging, and there is never enough ammo - so finding other ways to kill the attackers is always on your mind. You can kill a bunch of them at once with a flare gun or a flashbang - but I got in some tight spots when I had used up all my flashbangs earlier in the game, so now I try to keep one or two on hand at all times. Middle mouse drops the flashbang, or middle mouse lights a hand-held flare.

It's nice to have some flares - they are very handy when you get surrounded - the flare causes them all to back up and stop chopping at you, while you try to blast them, or while you try to make a break and get away.

Making a run for it, is a major strategy option - otherwise you will be out of ammo very soon and then the game says "no ammo" and you are pretty-well screwed!

But they have a fatigue system built in like Arma3. You can full-sprint only for about 25 yards before you start getting winded - and the pursuers are faster than you are. I am constantly yelling at my character to keep running! If I have a flare left, and they gain, I can light that - but I would rather save that, and just turn around from time to time and flashlight them - which usually but not always backs them up. There is one big lumberjack with a body movement, who leans back and then charges full at you. I'm beginning to recognize the move - but it's pretty fast - I don't know if I have time to switch weapons. Maybe I have time for middle mouse light a flare. I suppose if you could nail him with a shotgun or flare gun mid-charge that might work - it's pretty much been 100% fatal respawn time for me. LOL

So many times, after multiple re-spawns, it occurs to me that this is one of those "high-tail it" times. I might start by using one of my dooms-day weapons like flare gun, sprint until I get winded, turn to hold them off and shoot for a bit until I catch my breath, sprint some more, and try to make it to safety at the next lightpole 100 yards up the way. Instead of a safe-house every mile like Left 4 Dead, there is a lightpole checkpoint about every 200 yards.

It essentially is a shooter - other than when you're using a high-powered flashlight, with refill lithium batteries, to try to destroy a wheat harvester that has become a poltergeist, and is noisily attempting to grind you in with the rest of the chaff.

Other times, or sometimes at the very same time, you are also handling those damn axe-wielding "taken" lumberjacks coming at you, throwing knives, machetes, and in one case, wielding a chain saw. Think of Left 4 Dead 2, except now it's the zombie who has the chain saw.

I am enjoying it immensely!!! Kevin - this is the game for you!!

Rich

 

Might check it out. Gotta get my mind off of things. I'll spare you the details, but life is quite grim at the moment.

 

Kevin, PM me with your street address ....

(maybe your email address too - I have Sam's and Jeff"s and Abuzar's and Shafaaf's)

..... so I can send you the book that is very helpful called The Power of Now - about $10 on amazon - I'll have it drop-shipped to you. I have sent it out about 15 times. It's not any type of religious text - more fundamental - our relationship with thought.

Anxiety, depression, "grim", gloom - all the opposites of fun exciting and joyful, come from our thoughts. We can be a slave to our thoughts, which is the reality of 99% of humankind, or we can learn to turn off our thoughts, or at least, not jump to attention at every depressing thought that wants us to identify with it.

It's a way to begin to see the world without those gray gloomy sunglasses that come from identification with thinking. "I think therefore I am." WRONG.

You might not relate to it the first time - but don't toss it out - put it up on the bookcase for some other time. Eventually, as happened to me, the second or third time you pick it up, even as with me several years later, the message will start making sense, and then you will begin to gain a control that you didn't even realize that you are missing right now.

So PM me.

 

Kevin,

Got your pm - sent you an email.

"heck of a week" yeah

Very bad, very sad news. Then unexpected good news.

Kind of hard to take the downs and the ups. That would rock anybody's boat.

I guess, just try to go with the flow, regarding the good news, while you (very slowly - might take years) recover from the bad news. Tolle might help with all of that.

========================================
​

I played the Alan Wake sequel, Alan Wake's American Nightmare. (none of these are screenshots - just google images)




I don't think it is directx11 anymore - maybe it is - but it has a completely different look than the first game. The map is a desert in Arizona, in either day-time, or dusk.


ORIGINAL GAME

Actually the Arizona map was a refreshing change from that friggin scary and dark Northwestern forest - particularly in the last sequence when I had to reach a lighthouse. I'm talking about the original game now. I had used up my last flare to get to the lamppost checkpoint area, where I was safe, but I still had 100 or 200 yards to go to reach the lighthouse itself. I'm walking up a mountain path with steep cliffs on one side which discourage making a run for it if you can't clearly see where you are going.

BUT IT WAS PITCH BLACK DARK!!!! Not true of the whole rest of the game other than this last section.

So you watched where the spinning lighthouse beam illuminated the ground, and that's where you ran to. You stood there with your flashlight virtually lighting up NOTHING - while the slow lighthouse beam suddenly burned alive 5 enemies that you didn't even notice were closing in on you. As you advanced up the path, every 20 yards there was a sign floating, that said "CLEAR." That meant that by shining the light on it, you could cause it to explode, and expose a lot of rock that was blocking the lighthouse beam. After respawning 3 more times I finally reached the lighthouse - but only because I went into Options and turned the brightness way up past optimum to as bright as it would go - and still I could hardly see anything!!! I don't like playing in pitch black darkness! No sir!​

So, as I was saying, the Arizona map was so very different, I got the feeling that the devs were a completely different team this time - certainly the art director had to be a different person. In addition to the DLC game, it has an arcade mode, allowing you to battle the enemies on about 10 different maps. I played the first map and I did get killed, but on second try I did survive for the full 10 minutes. That was enough for me.




The main thing about this sequel, which is kind of nice - is much better weapons, and a lot more ammo.

Finally there is enough ammunition, and like I said, the weapons are better. If you make sure you know where the emergency red box is, you can refill all of your existing weapons completely. You don't refill flares, or flashbangs, but you do refill your flashlight batteries, and hand-held weapon, and two-handed weapon.

And the weapons are cooler. You get a nail-gun right away, if you take it from the garage.




(I forget what other game I played a few years ago, that also had a great nail-gun. Was it the Nazi game?) Anyway, the nailgun holds 100 nails, 25 per clip, and it shoots like a submachine gun. Oh, and you can also unlock an uzi with 150 rounds. I went back to the nail gun, thinking that it did more damage - but I might have been wrong about that.

Then for the two-handed weapons, they give you a shotgun. And you can upgrade later to a carbine rifle - single-shot with good killing power - and then finally to a hunting rifle with scope (non-functional) which is usually a one-shot kill. Way better than the hunting rifle in the first game. Or you can upgrade to an M-16 assault rifle - 100 rounds of full-auto goodness, with good killing power. You can exchange the nail-gun for a sawed-off shotgun for close range, but I didn't like the two-shot action - although it shoots really fast - and I went back to the nailgun.

So if you carry the uzi and the assault rifle, that's 250 auto rounds - and the red box refills itself after a couple of minutes. So just make sure you know where the red boxes are. You play on basically 3 maps, so you can learn where your ammo is. The last map is a drive-in movie theater. There are 3 locations for the red boxes that refill your ammo. Two of those locations have the lamp-posts which are also checkpoints. So as you either fight the bad guys, or try to go around them, and destroy one of the 6 oil platforms you have to destroy - you can work back to the light and establish a checkpoint to lock in your progress.

And in this sequel, although they do have a fatigue system built in, you don't get winded as fast. You can run a good 50-70 yards at high-speed before you start slowing down. I liked that better. It allowed me to lure the never-ending supply of bad guys that was spawning to block my ability to destroy the oil platforms, over to the right, and then break left and go over and around the building - destroy one more platform, and then try to shoot and maneuver back to the light-pole checkpoint to lock in my progress.

That made me laugh when I figured that strategy out!

The evil guy - your evil twin - is really bad, I mean REALLY BAD. If you turn on some tvs, he appears on them, laughing about how he is going to kill somebody, and then you watch him do it.




But you don't have to turn on the tvs, which is good.



He also appears on the full screen of the movie theater. Definitely the darker side of the game.




Anyway, it's a $10 dlc, which came as part of the $29 package. I think if you time it right, you can get a steam special on the whole thing for less than that. Maybe steam lets you put it on a wishlist, and maybe they'll email you when they have a special. I don't use the wishlist so I don't know about that.

So I guess I'm done with Alan Wake, and now I know what the windows wallpaper means. It wasn't nearly as good as any of the Assassin's Creed games - but it WAS as good as the more recent Call of Duty games, like the last one with all of the robots. (I really liked COD4, of course, and also COD5, the Treyarch World at War, plus also Black Ops 1 by Treyarch I think. After that the COD franchise dimmed a bit, in my opinion, as they got more futuristic with the last two titles. But I don't play multi-player, so I am only judging from the single-player campaigns.)

Rich

 

The card come with x3 display port x1 hdmi port and x1 dvi port and you can run multi display at x1 gpu

 

I would go for a 750w or above which will give you plenty of head room for future upgrades 400w not really advisable.

 

Wow, ddp, somehow you figured me and the Finnians would have an easier time tracking you down when we invade, through those boating posts. So wham!!! Very mysteriously they're all gone - all of page 488 has disappeared. Did world-famous Commodore Perry have something to do with that?!

 

Wow, I just tried it - I can't get it to go to page 488. All that stuff is missing for me. I use chrome, in xp. I checked on another computer, windows 7 and it's the same. On this page, there are several posts missing. After John179 recommended 750 watts in post 9732 above, I posted that of course you were mentioning 400 as a minimum.

Then somewhere in there I asked you if you had any pictures. You posted about 7 links, to that boating forum where you post your boats. That post of yours on this page is missing. Then we exchanged posts, where I had two large posts with multiple pictures - by this time we were on page 488. My bookmark is for page 488 - but there no longer is a page 488.

Your post above, "oh you poor little boy" was in response to my post of something like "Finally - I have literally waited 3 years." Where are those posts? Where is your post with all the links?

Did the server just get rid of about a dozen posts? I AM LOOKING - NOTHING HERE FROM AUGUST 20.



Rich

 

jeeeeezzzz looooeeeezzz

Okay, you got me good with that one. "On this site."

Hmmm. You're pretty clever. (I don't know if we're ready to invade yet.)

I guess I could search around - I might find it eventually.

On the other hand, would it be too much to ask for a link?

 

Thanks for the hint.

Hmmmmm I tried searching for safety valve, but that didn't work. Then I searched for "boat" and that produced too many pages - it probably would have been there - the search function is pretty fast. Then I searched for squier, and it found the forum! The forum is a general forum, called safety valve.

Here's the link to ddp's ship models. http://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/model-ships.762922/#post-5109735
Rich