Originally posted by FredBun:

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Finally some action, I starting to worry about you guys, this was always a hot thread and I always read every page of it, I don't know why it died out, if maybe Russ's passing had anything to do with it don't let it happen, he would be the first to scream don't you dare slow down, or maybe there are other reasons or both, anyway glad to see guys are speaking again.

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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Still have my 790X-UD4P floating around somewhere. Still works fine ;)

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Originally posted by sam:

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Also, upscaled 720p is no match for real 1080p, both in terms of demand and image quality - with a good source, I think you'd see the difference quite clearly between the two, but you also might need a better CPU.

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Originally posted by Sam:

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For video playback alone, I'd say go with an AMD APU system. Inbuilt integrated graphics is best in the business

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Originally posted by sam:

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Good to see, with the exception of the late Russ, that people are still around.

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Originally posted by Stevo:

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As to the laptops I guess I was slightly wrong it wasn't an A8 but was still a quad core A6. I paid $350 for this last Christmas:

Acer Blue 17.3" Aspire A6-3400M Laptop PC with AMD A6-3400M Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium (AMD A6-3400M APU with Radeon ? HD 6520G - Core Speed 1400​​(MHz))

It worked flawlessly in full-screen 1080P using HDMI with sound through the HDMI cable to the TV/HiFi system.

I also did the same thing with my i5 Acer that is two or three years old now with the 46" Sony 1080P down in Fort Myers at the Condo same situation. I did need to buy a 1W 10dbi dual antenna USB WiFi adapter (b/g/n) and snag someones connection near by.

This is my Acer i5 laptop which was $500 a couple of years ago:

Acer Dark Gray 17.3" AS7750-6423 Laptop PC with Intel Core i5-2430M Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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Rich, I am very excited about ArmA 3. One of the issues that kept me from playing the otherwise fantastic ArmA 2 was the dismal user interface.

.... I have an easier time piloting a huge freighter into dock with true Newtonian physics in space than I do operating ArmA 2's aircraft or vehicles. This coming from a flight simmer who is used to difficult controls .....

I am hoping ArmA 3 addresses a lot of my issues.

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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Just started playing The Walking Dead game series. Very interesting and unique. Really more of an interactive choose-your-own-adventure than a game. I am enthralled. Not sure how long it is, but I'm at a couple hours into the first episode and I have all 5.

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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Basically, they're going to be the hardware equivalent of a mid-range AMD gaming laptop. 8 Jaguar cores, essentially a slightly spruced up Bobcat, or "Piledriver on a diet" at 1.6GHz. My Phenom II certainly isn't shaking in its boots. It's a painfully low clock on a cut-down mobile architecture. Fundamentally solid CPUs or not, they are NOT that fast at all.

The GPUs are slightly more competent, being a 7790 and a 7850 equivalent for the Xbox and PS4 respectively. My very dated 6850s easily stomp all over either of those cards when Crossfired though. A step in the right direction, however, giving them properly modern GPUs. The consoles will decimate the previous generation hardware-wise, but you can bet your ass that the GPUs will take plenty of shortcuts as well. They will not be as powerful as their desktop counterparts.

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Originally posted by ZoSoIV:

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any thoughts on this monitor guys?

ASUS VS278Q-P Black 27"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236302

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Originally posted by estuansis regarding Metro: Last Light:

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3) DAMN do I love to tweak :)

So I stand to perform very well with this game. Remember that my settings will be configured and tweaked much differently from theirs. I can almost guarantee you I'll be able to run it admirably at near-maxed. Metro 1 also showed dismal numbers like this, but the addition of proper Crossfire scaling, some tweaks to fix flaws in the configuration(FOV, messed up V-Sync, etc) and some good old-fashioned elbow grease have me running it absolutely maxed out at an average of 60. No kidding. This engine is much like CryEngine in that it can be tweaked significantly to gain performance for absolutely zero loss in visuals. Like Crysis, it will never run properly until said tweaks are discovered and applied. Game developers almost always make serious errors in configuring their own games. Moving CPU Physics to another core, disabling texture streaming to reduce stuttering drastically, etc.

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Originally posted by Omega to zolsolv:

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Looks good to me. A gamer could appreciate that model. Certainly an agreeable price for a 27" LED screen. Looks like a very good response time. Rather odd that it doesn't have DVI. But perhaps they're moving away from that Technology eh? Most modern cards/integrated come with HDMI and or Display port.

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