The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Oh mannnnn - your little brother killed that cool looking case already - well I guess that's what little brothers are for - to break things. Shaff, how are you gonna keep him away from Buckingham Palace that you have serious money invested in?

Boozer are you gonna post pictures of your cousins so we can pick out the one you should marry?

Sam, so mega upload is the place? Ok, shaff turned me on to photobucket - best tip all year. So I'll try the mega upload - you figure just zip them all up in winzip? I'll get to work on it.

Estuansis, nice job by the way getting through the firing range merc camp with no loss of life. How'd you do it - lots of bushes? - did you try the rock trick?

Then you grabbed the jeep and you had to contend with the jeep way down the road - did you blow them up with a missile?

EDIT: I wrote the following because I didn't know you had gone back to the carrier. But the quote just above sounds like the carrier. So you went back and played the top of the carrier? - you must have because you mention shooting out the bridges. The only thing is, if you shoot out the bridges - how do you get over to the boat? Oh, the way you used to do it, by jumping in the water and then just shooting the chains? Anyway - so you are digging the top of the carrier? Yeah I got so I loved that part. Anyway, my saved game point will be coming - in realistic - P90 and colt on quick change key, and lots of grenades, as per the following:

Anyway, back to the aircraft carrier part which you skipped: the helicopter doesn't raise its ugly head until you get ready to go up the ladder to the top deck - you do some kind of thing in the cabin with the girl's passport or something, then you talk to Doyle on the radio. At that moment I think you can hear the helicopter. Instead of going up the ladder and triggering the save-game, my method is to leave the cabin, go back out and run around to the front. You don't really have time to take the stairs, because now the helicopter is on your butt, so you jump down to the bottom deck. You lose a little life - not too much. You sprint to the forward mounted machine gun, trying not to fall in the hole to the water, and the helicopter dies really easy if you can get there in time. Then you take all the stairs back up to that special cabin, use the extra life and armor that is up there, and then as you go up the ladder, the Save-Game point is initiated.

Then as I mentioned before, crouch around and take out the raised-platform machine gunner before he sees you. Then it's a wild ride with grenades, p90, and colt, until the mercs retreat. At that point you can try the mounted machine gun yourself, but in getting up to the raised platform, I usually found myself too exposed, until most of the guys were already dead.

With that save game point as you're ascending the ladder - you can try that part again and again. It's really hot action!! Anyway, if I can figure out how to zip everything to that mega upload site that sam mentioned, you guys will have all the saved games at realistic, and we can go back and play the most exciting segments, without all the drudgery of the parts that took hours. By the way, the forum leader that I was talking about a lot - he didn't really like the upper deck of the carrier that much - it was a little too hot for him. He beat the level on stealth and knife-only by knifing the guy manning the machine gun - I don't know how he sneaked up there and I don't know if he did it on realistic - but I think that's what he said though. But I prefer the p90/colt/grenade battle. It is hair-raising - you against about 12 mercs on realistic setting - no room for any but the tiniest error. You come around a box and see a merc looking eye to eye, you better be the first one firing - preferably spraying his upper chest or head with the p90 - a millisecond delay and you get to start the save game point again.

I never really stood still against the missile firing gorillas - they were kind of scary and I am not sure I really ever got comfortable with them. But the forum leader guy turned the sound off and did some testing, and at one point he was up on some ledge and he had to keep from getting killed - he said it wasn't too hard to move a little from side to side to dodge the missiles. His quote was "Those guys ain't so tough." But for the fun of it, try the standing still - or maybe slowing strafing to your right - the missile will always fly past you on your left - not too hard to dodge. Oh, I just remembered, another way to kill those gorillas is to get in a cave or something, where they can't really enter - or behind a door that they can't enter, and they will keep shooting the missiles at you anyway, but the spray on the door frame will kill them fairly quickly. And if you can shoot them in any part of their body that you can see - for example the hand - they will die from that after losing the required points.

Silenced mp5? Wait, are you talking about the silenced machine gun that you get inside the mountain in the Fort segment, in the merc area near the elevator to the top? Yeah, you said Cave. That's the gun that uses the same bullets as a p90. If you carry both, you will see that your bullet count goes down for both guns, so no point carrying the p90 if you have that silenced thing. I always considered it a type of p90 - I didn't think they even had a mp5 in the game.

Well, if you're at the cave part - you are having a little trouble then with the guys at the fort. That IS pretty hairy for sure. One thing you can do is backtrack and kill the guys down the trail if you haven't done that already. Then you can go back up the trail to the part with the old cannon, and snipe the guys as they come out of the fort - you can kill maybe 5 of them like that. Then the top of the fort action is pretty good - that's where when you take over the mounted machine gun you get to deal with all the helicopters. A tip - there is a little cave below where the mounted machine gun is - just below the steps that lead down around to the part where you can hop the little fence and be where that old big cannon is. That's the best place to use the guided missile and take out the mortar lobbing boats. Anyway, inside the little cave is full 100% armor.

I'm glad you're enjoying the game more this time around. Wait 'til I figure out how to upload all those save game points. You talk about hairy action - way later in the game - as the nuke is being enabled - you have to hold off four waves of mercs coming in several directions, switching back and forth between SAW and rocket launcher. Very hairy! I played that one part over and over and over again for hours - ANY MISTAKE IS DEADLY! A lot of the guys who visited the forum couldn't handle that part - but I have it down. The save game point is just before that where the girl is sitting on the nuke trying to activate it, so you can try it again and again until you get it right - about three minutes of very intense action!

Hey GTR's review - CON being vacuum in the case.
I thought of that in regard to the Tempest, and also in regard to my current modified ventilated case. As far as I can tell, the two intake fans at the front are the only way air comes into the case. The two 140s on top are exhaust, a side fan is an exhaust, and a back fan is also an exhaust, and then of course the psu fan will be the 7th fan - exhaust. So we have two intake and 5 exhaust. So as to whether there will be negative pressure inside the case - probably true.

I have something similar right now with only one intake fan in front, a 120mm in the kama bay which replaces 3 of the 5.25 dvd slots - and then side exhaust, back exhaust, psu exhaust, and blitztorm turbine exhaust, plus video card exhaust. I ran the rig and didn't power up the front intake fan to see the effect. Of course all the exhaust fans pulled air through the case. But when I powered up the front intake fan, more air moved through the case - it helped push while the others pulled. But I have to agree with the point of the CON - it DOES seem to me that the ventilation is not balanced - not on my case, and not on the tempest.

Not on the HAF either - one intake, 3 exhaust. What do you say about that, Sam?
-Rich

 

Rocks only work occasionally for me. I dove under water and swam over to the camp. Then I crawled 20 yards through the grass into the bushes. Then I popped both snipers(one tower in the camp, one on the hill) and waited in the thick brush to knife the mercs coming to investigate. Nice and quiet. No alarm, no firefight, no loss of life for me

I just sprayed the driver with my own MG as I went past then turned around and finished the passenger. Same with the other few that you see.

I shot out the gunner right when I got up the ladder. The chopper just flew away. It's the first time I've actually bothered to clear the deck.

Yes, that's the one. It says MP5 when you pick it up... and looks like one... So, yes I'm sure it's an MP5. It's generally weak but works great for silent headshots, so is very valuable to me. Also, the P90 is okay for spraying the little monkey Trigens, but the Colt is so much better in every way. More accuracy and penetration.

Only minor trouble. I took out all the guys on the trail before I even got to the fort. I used the Colt to knock down the guy on the wall and I used the Jungle Falcon to clear it all out. Then I used the minigun to take down the Osprey and the rockets to kill the mortar boats. I got killed by the mortars a couple times before i had it timed right.

I admittedly hadn't picked it up in a long time so my skills have improved quite a bit. It's still a crazy hard game but it's a bit more bearable now that I can successfully navigate a level without dying instantly. lol

 

lol, i didn't know that? Oh i guess online review isn't that correct. I was going to buy GTS but don't have enough money so i bought 8600GTS instead, and i love this card!

wow, i only have one, and this one is a crappy one.

@Rich another long post about games, and if you didn't highlight one of the sentence in read i thought you're talking about the game that has fans and Tempest???

lol anyways, i wonder if Far Cry 2 would be as hard as the first?

 

Assuming you mean an 8800GTS G92 512MB and not a G80 640MB. The 640MB was quite a bit slower than an 8800GTX, but the 512 is the exact same plus or minus ~10%. The 8800GTS 512MB ran cooler, was much cheaper, and sucked less power for the same performance. I bought the 8800GTX full price at ~$600 and it stayed the same price for almost 2 years. I got my 8800GTS for $209 about 7 months ago and it has served me as well as the GTX.

 

lol, i am talking about the 8800GTS G80 640MB, that card was not that good. Oh man, i think i caught the wrong end of the conversation.
Anyways G92 GTS is a good one

 

Man, you really sold yourself short getting an 8600. The new 8800GTS at least is cleanly double as fast as my old X1900XT, if not more than double, yet the 8600GTS is actually quite a bit slower than it, it might not even match an X1800XT. Even the HD3850 was leaps and bounds ahead of the 8600GTS, and so was the old G80 8800GTS, 320MB version included.

With regard to vacuum in the case, I was under the impression that the side fan in the Tempest was intake, which leaves a small vacuum effect, but not much. If anything, the pressure difference helps suck the air through dust filters.

 

And now, a chart! lol

Supreme Commander
8500GT: 9 @ 1280x1024 4x
HD2400XT: 9 @ 1280x1024 4x
HD2600 Pro: 13 @ 1280x1024 4x
HD2600XT: 18 @ 1280x1024 4x
8600GT: 22 @ 1280x1024 4x
8600GTS: 25 @ 1280x1024 4x
HD2900XT: 20 @ 2560x1600 4x
8800GTS 640MB: 21 @ 2560x1600 4x
8800GTX: 26 @ 2560x1600 4x
8800 Ultra: 30 @ 2560x1600 4x




Oblivion
HD2400XT: 17 @ 1024x7868 4x16
8500GT: 21 @ 1024x768 4x16
HD2400XT CF: 29 @ 1024x768 4x16
HD2600 Pro: 29 @ 1024x768 4x16
8500GT SLI: 34 @ 1024x768 4x16
HD2600XT: 44 @ 1024x768 4x16
8600GT: 45 @ 1024x768 4x16
8600GT SLI: 53 @ 1024x768 4x16
8600GTS: 55 @ 1024x768 4x16
HD2600XT CF: 74 @ 1024x768 4x16
8600GTS SLI: 83 @ 1024x768 4x16

HD3850: 45 @ 1920x1200 0x16
8800GS: 52 @ 1920x1200 0x16
HD3870: 55 @ 1920x1200 0x16
9600GT: 57 @ 1920x1200 0x16
8800GT: 64 @ 1920x1200 0x16
8800TS 1GB: 71 @ 1920x1200 0x16
9600GT SLI: 87 @ 1920x1200 0x16

HD2900XT: 24 @ 2560x1600 4x16
8800GTS 640MB: 24 @ 2560x1600 4x16
8800GTX: 32 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD2900XT CF: 37 @ 2560x1600 4x16
8800 Ultra: 41 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD2900XT 1GB CF: 43 @ 2560x1600 4x16
8800GTS 640MB SLI: 44 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD4850: 52 @ 2560x1600 4x16
8800GTX SLI: 56 @ 2560x1600 4x16
9800GTX: 65 @ 2560x1600 4x16
8800 Ultra SLI: 68 @ 2560x1600 4x16
GTX260: 70 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD3870X2: 74 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD4870: 75 @ 2560x1600 4x16
GTX280 OC: 79 @ 2560x1600 4x16, 68 @ 2560x1600 8x16
9800GX2: 90 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD4850CF: 94 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD4870CF: 99 @ 2560x1600 4x16
HD4870X2: 103 @ 2560x1600 4x16, 94 @ 2560x1600 8x16
GTX280 OC SLI: 102 @ 2560x1600 4x16, 95 @ 2560x1600 8x16
HD4870X4: 106 @ 2560x1600 8x16

 

What happens when you run out of video memory?
This:

 

The 4870X2 has 2GB on board right?

 

Yes, but it isn't shared. Each GPU has 1GB to itself.

 

Ahhh, so can they use two GB? I know in SLI if both cards are 512MB for example you only have 512MB of usable ram not 1GB.

 

2GB definitely works, as if you CF a 512MB 4870 and a 1GB 4870X2 or 4870 together, GRiD will still lag into single figures. Use two 1GB or 2GB cards and the problem disappears.

 

they have 1GB 4870X2?

Anyway I found a good deal on a 2GBversion. 450 dollars. might buy it.

 

No, but there's a 1GB HD4870.

450 bucks is a steal for an X2, I paid about that much by today's exchange rate which was a mindblowing deal.

 

*tears* that really hurts...LOL
after looking at the chart 8600GTS is not bad at all, and the time when i bought a 8600GTS the new 8800GTS G92 is not out yet! After i bought the 8600GTS and about 6 months later 8800GT came out, so that means my 8600GTS is old tech!

You know what guys, i've orderd the case yesterday, and today they say it's out of stock and there is a VERY high chance the price will increase so they are going to refund...F***ers!

I just lost my hope! Now the case cost a fortune! I might as well get a P182...oh boy just my luck!

 

LOL, looks like you've got it all worked out man

Since this is the pc gaming thread, I'll ask here

Is there anyway to increase the resolution of games past what they offer in options.
For example, when I play most wanted I can't get it higher than 1024x768, when I actually want it to run at my native resolution of 1280x800, same for HL2 (I think)
Any ideas??

PS - Do any of you use controllers/gamepads??
Which ones??

 

hey Ray92 glad to see you here.

about the native res, i see that you game on a 15" laptop, therefore the game only recognize your 15" and not your native res for the laptop. That is what i think, because i never gamed on laptops before.

I've mentioned about the controller in "Our" thread

 

LOL, yeah I just read it

I was reading this thread for some time and decided to join, more people so more opinions/feedback

You are probably right about it being due to screen size, but most other games do allow me to crank it up to the max res, wonder why these don't??

Also, which controllers guys??? (apart from you GTR35 )

 

i knew it, but maybe it's the games problem? But i think there is a way to do it.

 

That's what I want to be able to do, and that's what I'm trying to find out