The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

who knows

you starting to look mighty arractive....

 

Hey, speak for yourself. I'm marrying a hot Pakistani doctor chick.

 

but you left a detail out.... shes your first cousin on your dads side.


anyways we are way off topic.


back to gfx cards.

4870X2 watercooled, worth it?

 

I dont think it's worth water cooling GFX cards. You can only OC them so much.

 

Nah, the 4870X2 stock cooler isn't that loud, and it does an adequate job.

 

but then there will be no sound, AND its run very cool, and will allow more OCs vs air.

but if sam says they are okay, and his PC has to eb pin drop silent then i might just forget the water block. ill just get a CPU/NB/MOFSETs blocks.

 

They are far from silent, especially in a demanding game with 100% scaling, like COD4 when playing a Zombie Mod... hehe. With CF running, at times the card can get excessively noisy, but overall due to the pitch of the noise it doesn't drive you mad, and it's ability to fall back to dead silence within 15 seconds of closing a game is very welcome too. It's idle noise that really ticks me off, and for that the 4870X2 really is up to silencing standards.

 

lol you guys get off topic quite easily.

@Spam, lol, i would kill my brother if i have one.

@Sam, do you play games using speakers or headphones? If speakers then the sound of your card makes at load will bother you a little, but if you're using headphone instead then it shouldn't...just like me. You'll die if you're next to my computer. lol

 

Dude, we get off topic REALLY fast.

Just check out the old Video card thread.

 

Yeah, Lost Coast was the first use of it in a mainstream 3D engine, but Far Cry saw the first use in a full game. Believe it or not, CoD2 uses some kind of HDR. Don't believe me? Look at the sun. It's using something.... maybe advanced bloom?

Duly noted. Go against everything I stand for by standing still... That just doesn't seem right...

LOL! It just seemed natural. Trying to stay and fight was slaughter.

Are you saying I can take down the chopper before I enter the carrier? How??? Do tell...

EDIT:

I got all the way to the cave part right after Doyle picks you up at the pier before I got stuck this time. On medium difficulty. After you start fighting rocket Trigens(not there yet), the game gets extremely hard. Stealth is the name of the game here. Stay in cover at all times and stay moving and you're pretty safe.

I'm currently using the M16/M4/Colt as sort of a hybrid sniper/assault rifle. It's got the penetration I need to take out a guy quickly and easily at close range, and it has the accuracy I need to have killed almost every guy on the carrier before I entered.

Oh yeah. Like you said, I've found that taking out the chopper quickly is key. I played through it again(I've gotten better) on an even higher difficulty(medium vs easy) and was able to shoot the gunner out of the UH-60. After I took it out, it was no problem to clear the guys near me and shoot out the bridges so the rest couldn't rush me. Then I just sit in cover and wait for them to pop out until they're gone.

And I'm using the silenced MP5 in semi auto for quick and quiet kills. It makes it easy to take a loan guy out in the thick jungle. Usually the groups are spaced far enough apart that they don't see eachother through the foliage. I just pop a guy in the head and find the next line of sight through the brush. No open spaces here. Learn to aim through foliage.

Also, the 8800GTS doesn't seem to be able to do HDR+AA while the HD4870 can. I get the HDR but AA won't work when forced in the CP and I get visual glitching(ground is transparent) if I try to use the in-game AA. Go figure... TWIMTBP my arse. Any tips to get it working?

Anyways, like I said. Excellent game, I love it. It's just too friggen hard! Even after having a much easier time on this run-through(after maybe a year of collecting dust), I still have to retry most segments at least a few times. At least the checkpoints are set up decently

Score

Graphics: 9/10(easily looks better than Doom 3, IMO)
Gameplay: 8/10(I love a good stealth game)
Overall: 7/10(only for the stupid difficulty)


Other thoughts... The lighting and shadowing in Far Cry is much better than that of Crysis, IMO. Especially with the game's excellent HDR enabled. The lighting in Crysis is more detailed and advanced, but the shadows can get pretty nasty and glitchy sometimes. Far Cry, on the other hand, has excellent lighting effects which Crysis didn't do quite as well, such as the foliage shadows on your gun. Don't tell me that isn't pretty

 

Estuansis: the 8800GTX was never able to pull that off, I know that much. Presumably the GTS is the same.
GTR: Both, typically speakers though, I just turn them down at night.

 

8800GTS is a failure...so expensive and not as good.

I prefer headphones, i don't know why but i can't get used to speakers anymore.

Holy Sh!t, yesterday HAF 932 was R1500ish and today it's R1800ish! gosh!

therefore back to case "study" I found this comment on one of the forums. and after reading the cons, i don't know if i should get this case. Ii might get a HD4870 X2 and that card is long


"I've had a P182 for quite some time now and while I hated it at first (I bought it when it first came out for top $, expected a lot more for the price), I've worked around a lot of things and are only left with a few gripes.

pros:
- it's quiet...as a mouse. With the front/rear/top fans on low, they're barely audible through the double layer panels. Set your cpu fan to lower rpm's and you're laughing.
- build quality: this case is the BMW of cases. Sexy as hell.
- cable routing: while I found it hard at first, if you give it a good sit-down and plan out your routing, you'll have a clean, clutter free case.
- air flow: keeps my highly overclocked system cool as...well, really cool.
- front panel: 2 x usb, 1 x firewire, speaker/headphone/mic, and it's lockable.
- dust filters: i don't know about other people, but we're renovating our place at the moment and it's dusty as Dubai. Those filters really do make a difference.

cons:
- cramped: with todays long video cards, you're not left much room (if at all) to use the top hdd compartment. You also can't use all the available fan locations if you have a long video card or long power supply.
- 1 intake, 2 exhaust: equals vaccuum in your case...unless you can somehow use both locations that Antec specify for intake fans, or mod your case to install a 2nd intake fan in front of the bottom hdd bay.
- weight: not a big issue as most people buying the P182 won't be moving it far, but this is a HEAVY case.
- front fan controller: unless you just stick it through one of the holes next to the 5.25" bay like I did, you have to remove the case side to adjust the speed of the front fan."

 

Those cons apply to almost all cases.

 

really? oh ok. nah the problem has been solved, i've ordered HAF 932 today, from another shop. which is R100 cheaper >..< not much but still it's cheaper!!!

 

It's a good case. You will be happy.

 

damn, get some picks up. by firday/sat/monday i should be abel to get pics of my Lianli PC-A70B up

 

PC-A70B? damn, how many case do you people have?

Oh and i found out that my GPU's fan is making all the noise. It's probably 30+dBA cause when i stop the fan, my pc was so quiet!

have you guys heard of Netop? Is there a way to hide myself from being spied on digitally? Like freeze an image on the screen of the NetOp teacher.

 

LOL!!! I've owned both. The 8800GTS was WAY WAY WAY cheaper than the 8800GTX and performs exactly the same. And I play at 1920 x 1200...

Lol. At last count, I have 4 different cases counting the one I used for my parents' machine.

Thermaltake Armor full tower(my quad)
RaidMax Smilodon mid tower(my dual, excellent case)
Sunbeam Silent Storm mid tower(currently in storage for future builds)
Cooler Master Centurion 5 mid tower(my parents'... and the windowed version )

 

Damn, I've only owned two at a time.

Smilodon
CM690

 

Sorry, wrong thread.