The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Well that was all very sinister. In any case, you can afford Lian Li cases Abuzar, if you're building thousand dollar PCs, but there's no reason to afford them as the people who buy your machines aren't usually going to be interested.

For the record, it takes a grand total of about 30 seconds to either remove or put back a dust filter in an NZXT case.

Agreed on how things change. My build went from being a 3500+ and X1800XT to a 4200+ and X1900XT purely on the basis of how long I spent dithering... lol

Estuansis: I'll touch it...

 

Hey estuansis - yeah everybody - mostly shaff - talked me out of doing anything with the p4.

I am SURE your AMD was a lot hotter than my p4 - probably 64 bit, right?

After extensive research into mobos, cpus, case sizes, etc. - we have decided that I will be the nehalem guinea pig, so says Shaff.

So that sounds good to me - I will just stick with what I have for a while longer. I read that Nehalem is going to come out on the extreme systems first, they think, and then hit the midrange. They have the systems working now - but we'll see when the deluxe $200 mobos come out. By then we'll also see what affordable cpus are out that will fit the new socket, and what the memory specs will be.

And you're right, Abuzar, no use planning too far ahead - when the deals come out - jump on them. Sounds right to me, and you can help me with that since you know the general idea I'm trying to capture.

Sam - so no problem on filter changeout on NZXT? - I'm going to make sure the tempest front intake fans also have easy to change filters - I watched the video and I think so. On the side inlet, the reviewer was surprised it didn't have a filter. He DID mention however a mesh - and maybe they are using a type of filter that is more rugged - a metal mesh. I would want to make sure it still had the filtering ability of the normal filters. If it is not really a filter, then I think my $3 plastic filter assembly would probably work on the see-through door, the filter cover is not bad looking, kind of spider-web design, pure black.
-Rich

 

No, actually. It was only a Sempron, not a Sempron 64. 32-bit only ;P And it probably ran much cooler too(if that's what you meant). Pentium 4s are famous for running hot.

My whole point is that you don't necessarily need to spend a buttload and make a super system. You could spend $600 and get a mid-range Core 2 Duo with a decent cooler, a mid-range motherboard, and an HD4870. Then you can OC the Core 2 Duo and get exactly the same performance(give or take) as you would with a higher end one. It would certainly be a capable enough system to tackle Crysis at 1680 res or 1600 res.

Also, you play at 1600 x 1200. Are you still using a CRT or is it an LCD? I highly recommend you put a widescreen in your plans. They're just so much better in every way(besides certain IQ aspects). That and they more accurately emulate a true human FOV(field of view) in games. Widescreen adds a lot to the experience.

 

NZXT's side panel filters have always been metal mesh, not a real cloth filter. They still work brilliantly, even given that.

Those are some VERY pleasing FC2 benches Shaff, thanks for posting.

 

Sam - wow - what a great comment. I am right this second in the middle of researching fan filters. There are a lot of metal mesh filters out there, steel, anodized aluminum - I'm trying to get a handle on what material filters better - I think foam because with metal mesh the air resistance is slightly less than with foam.

But the main point is: what particulate filtration do you need in a normal home, to keep out typical airborne dust. Using google I've been trying to study this for the last little while. I think the metal mesh screens look better, but I won't be happy if they don't really keep the dust out, know what I mean, jelly bean??

I came here quickly to the forum to post this one quote from an anandtech article which also talks about filtration, but mentions some advantages to aluminum cases which we had not yet discussed.

-Rich

 

Dust still inevitably gets through, but when you see how rapidly the meshes fill up, you'll realise they're working well..

 

Estuansis, no when I said Hot I meant faster. I know Nothing is hotter temp-wise than a P4. I was thinking it was a 64 bit amd. You're right about $600 vs $900, but I DO want to upgrade to a 1920x1200 widescreen from my 1600x1200 right now. That will be the question once the nehalem is working - hey guys what 24" should I buy? Don't answer now - because monitor-wise I'm 6 mos to a year away hehe. Also I'll be looking to follow you and Sam in terms of graphic power with dual 4870s.

Sam - well you're right. If the mesh gets dirty fast - it must be working. I suspect that the plastic foam catches slightly more dust - I did see one test that showed just slightly more air resistance, about 5% more, with foam than mesh, so sounds like they are both maybe really close to each other in effectiveness. I guess the mesh 1. looks better 2. is more durable. I'm not unhappy with the look of the foam that I have right now, but I read a couple of reviews about using mesh on clear side-cover inlet fans - they have a flatter profile and a better look, so that is likely what I would do for example on the Tempest. You know, interesting, one reviewer on the Tempest talked about that very issue - he said the side inlet had a mesh, but no filter. But is the mesh the actual very tight metal filter type of mesh? And if not, why not?
-Rich

 

- duhh sorry about the double post - I was gonna hit the edit button and then the phone rang and I forgot

Man shaff, that was just about the system we were going to throw together, the ddr3 deluxe board, with ddr3 at 1066, before we started looking at ddr2 at same speed (1/2 the price and overall probably faster anyway because of shorter latencies), FSB at 1333, we were looking at 1600, 2 gigs main memory, we decided on 4, and 8400 at 3.0, we were gonna go 8500 at 3.1.

Holy sweet geezuss - the 4870, esp the 1 gig version - kicks huge amounts of ass at 2560x1600. Sam is pleased LOL

estuansis too - hey dude not a peep out of you (about your cards - at least not on THIS thread) since the second 4870 arrived - is it up and running???

 

He is too busy using it to comment on it haha.

 

Yeah, undoubtedly!! He's out there in the bushes watching the Korean patrols again - on ULTRA HIGH - and he's in a "ZONE"!! lol

 

So you never answered me. Are you that big shot on the homepage of harvardguy.com?

 

OMG lol you caught me! Yes I love it. Everything has taken a HUGE boost. For my FPS just look at Sam's 4870X2 results. The performance is darn near identical. Very nice

Crysis is a dream as well. Full hacked very high settings at 1920 x 1200. No benchmarks yet. Just pure, unadulterated gaming

I'll be in with some bench scores in due time.

LOL GOD college rules. Only 4 hours of class a day and the work is actually pretty easy. This leaves me all sorts of free time as my seasonal work is over until March

*sigh* no more big spending before I go back to work... Oh well.

EDIT:

Oh yeah, I checked out HarvardGuy.com

Is that you? He certainly has the same name, Rich

 

Actually a Pentium D is even hotter than a Pentium 4... lol
Nice on the crossfire results Estuansis... I suppose you'll have to go ahead and run 3dmark06 and beat my score...

 

Whoops, missed the Far Cry 2 benches. Yeah those look really promising. Depending on how big a difference the very high settings make(big like Crysis, or no notable differences like Far Cry 1), I might just use high and try it with my 8800GTS.

Considering that benchmark was Dx10 all very high and 4xAA, I have no doubts that Dx9 high or very high will be playable on a wide range of hardware. I also want my friend with a 3GHz 5000+ BE and a 9600GT to try it. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance we can pull from it.

Same with the X1800XT. They said it could be played decently on a fast Dx9 card. I can see medium settings at 1280 res if those benchmarks are true.

Oh yeah, 3Dmark 06 scores 17,800. What was your score again Sam?

 

18,859 with my CPU at 3.42Ghz.

 

Both scores sound about right to me. The 4870X2 is supposed to be a bit faster anyway, isn't it?

Either way 17,800 doesn't seem too out of spec for me. It's about what the review sites are getting with similar speed quads. I'm pretty satisfied with it

The FPS boost is bigger than 3dmark shows too. A lot of my games are scaling really well. Call of Duty 4 and Oblivion nearly doubled in speed. Oblivion kinda needed the help too. It always got bad drops in big cities with lots of characters on screen, but not so much anymore

 

COD4 scales at 100%.

 

Hahahaha

We knew you were in a ZONE! Gaming Nirvana!! LOL

Regarding which is faster, Sam keeps saying that 4870x2 is faster and maybe he's right. LOL

Yeah, he is - I went back to the techreport links sam sent us to - slight advantage - like 0.7 fps.

 

I don't remember banging on about it, there's a bit of a difference, but usually only when you run out of memory on the standard 4870s does it pull into the lead, like in GRiD or Crysis.