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The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread
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Senior Member
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11. April 2009 @ 13:40 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Krj: I have loads of things in the background when playing games. It's never usually a problem, but for GTA4, I don't even think closing every non-essential system process would be enough
I agree that most of the time it is not a problem. But I have used more than 4gb while playing a few different games. The real reason I want to upgrade is that if I get another set of memory I can run both 4gb sets at ddr2 1000. Right now I am only running at ddr2 800.
GAMING COMPUTER - Intel q9550 @ 3.4ghz | EVGA GTX 260 core 216 | Gigabyte ds3l | 6gb Gskill DDR2 800 ram | Silverstone 700 watt psu | WD 640gb hdd | Seagate 300gb hdd | LG dvd burner | Samsung dvd burner | Antec p182 case | logitech 2.1 speakers | logitech g11 keyboard | Samsung 25.5in 1900x1200 monitor | 19in 1440x900 secondary monitor | Windows 7 64bit | SERVER - Gigabyte 785g motherboard | AMD Phenom 9650 | 6gb ram | three 1.5tb hdd | Seagate 1tb hdd | WD 750gb hdd | two 300gb hdd | Maxtor 200gb hdd | Ark rackmount case | CentOS 5.5
Steam name = "krj15489" alias = Jordan-k
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 13:43 |
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WHOA MAMMA!!! I just minimized GTA IV and noticed im using 80% of my ram(4GB)! Good thing im going for 8 soon. But whats a better idea? 2 sticks of 4gb, or 4 sticks of 2gb? Keeping OC'ing in mind.
Loving this game by the way. It hasnt dropped below 45frames, and averages closer to 55 at 1680 Res! I think im in love LOL!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. April 2009 @ 13:44
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Senior Member
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11. April 2009 @ 13:45 |
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2x4gb sets are still really expensive. I would just get another 2x2gb set.
GAMING COMPUTER - Intel q9550 @ 3.4ghz | EVGA GTX 260 core 216 | Gigabyte ds3l | 6gb Gskill DDR2 800 ram | Silverstone 700 watt psu | WD 640gb hdd | Seagate 300gb hdd | LG dvd burner | Samsung dvd burner | Antec p182 case | logitech 2.1 speakers | logitech g11 keyboard | Samsung 25.5in 1900x1200 monitor | 19in 1440x900 secondary monitor | Windows 7 64bit | SERVER - Gigabyte 785g motherboard | AMD Phenom 9650 | 6gb ram | three 1.5tb hdd | Seagate 1tb hdd | WD 750gb hdd | two 300gb hdd | Maxtor 200gb hdd | Ark rackmount case | CentOS 5.5
Steam name = "krj15489" alias = Jordan-k
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 13:49 |
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I have to go for the full set of 4 X 2gb. Cause im currently running 6400, and the processor/board really do want the 1066. Though I must admit, for OC'ing and how smooth its running, I hardly need to. But I love experimenting Sooo...:D
Ive been looking at some Mushkin :D Probably next week.
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 13:53 |
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My X1900XT is not just going strong, it's running right now, in my fileserver. It's played Left 4 Dead at 1680x1050 res...
4x2GB sets might really harm your CPU's stability running an AMD, it's hard to say what effect it will have. It certainly impacts overclocking for Intels.
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 13:59 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
My X1900XT is not just going strong, it's running right now, in my fileserver. It's played Left 4 Dead at 1680x1050 res...
4x2GB sets might really harm your CPU's stability running an AMD, it's hard to say what effect it will have. It certainly impacts overclocking for Intels.
Thats EXACTLY why I was asking. What would you do in my situation? Wish I had more money. Then I could just buy 16 GB(4 X 4GB) see how it runs both ways. :D
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 14:00 |
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The only 4GB sticks I've seen so far are dire OCZ PC6400 ones. I'd wait until some proper memory turns up, or bite the bullet with 8GB. Without trying it, it's hard to say what effect it'll have.
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 14:03 |
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Darn it. Mushkin doesnt have 4gb modules. At least the egg doesnt carry them :(
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 14:04 |
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2x4GB is only available in PC6400, and only produced by Kingston and OCZ, two manufacturers I would rather not use anyway. Kingston aren't too bad, but OCZ are a terrible memory manufacturer. They never were before, but times change.
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 14:08 |
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Guess at current, its a trade off. Do you want speed or capacity LOL! Definitely not into MORE 800 modules when I wanna play with 1066! I guess im gonna end up getting 4 X 2gb, and crossing my fingers, that it doesnt hinder the OC. And if it does, no big deal. The CPU is pretty fast even underclocked. It smokes the 5200 athlon without breaking a sweat! LOL!
Didnt realize they were so expensive!!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134864
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. April 2009 @ 14:08
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 14:09 |
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Yeah the OCZs were a lot cheaper than that in the UK (about $160) but that was only a trial batch, they have yet to produce any more.
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AfterDawn Addict
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11. April 2009 @ 15:26 |
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Originally posted by Estuansis:
I use FRAPS to see my frames per second. And as far as in-game temps, try running one of your more intensive games in windowed mode(if it supports it). Crysis and the like work pretty well for this. I use Speedfan for temps on all of my hardware and it works well.
Man, very big thanks! This little utility is one of the best things ive installed yet. Thank you MUCH!!! It has some other abilities that im enjoying A LOT!!! Now im gonna entice my brother to buy the PS3(He's a Playstation fanboy). He likes GTA as well. Figure I'll send him some screenies :D
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Member
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12. April 2009 @ 08:27 |
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Lol gonna play that game with my sis who thinks Assassins Creed on PS3 is the best game ever (its not obv.) but gonna send her backwards when she sees graphs on comp by comparison :-).
Originally posted by Estuansis:
The reflections on cars are being rendered as completely black. Again during the 24 hours of Le Mans.
My HD4850 does that when I'm flicking about between windows it only occurs on Le Mans and flicking doesn't affect any other races in any other way (probably doesn't mean anything but there you go).
Originally posted by Estuansis:
PhysX is over rated and almost completely useless in most games
I'm gonna give it a bash anyway the cards only setting me back £25 ($36) also I want to try that unreal tournament thing and generally outdo my mate at something.
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 12. April 2009 @ 08:30
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AfterDawn Addict
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12. April 2009 @ 23:49 |
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GTA IV has me laughing harder than I thought possible! The way Nico died recently had me just ROLLING!!! Now ive been finding new ways to die LOL! Fraps is awesome for saving the more funny ones. VERY happy guy here! The 260, the Phenom II, the Raptor, etc. are working above and beyond what I expected!!! HIGH, HIGH, HIGH, VERY HIGH settings and averaging 45-50 Fps @ 1920 Res! Though there may be other settings im overlooking. It looks SUPER sharp! Very minimal stutters. Im gonna be happy for quite some time!
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AfterDawn Addict
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13. April 2009 @ 00:57 |
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Quote:
My X1900XT is not just going strong, it's running right now, in my fileserver. It's played Left 4 Dead at 1680x1050 res...
And rightly it should be. The X1900XT is a powerful, fully featured card. I wouldn't be surprised to see it play a lot of new games with decent settings. If I were still using my 17" monitor, I might have gotten one and would still probably be using it somewhere. My X1800XT was the same way. I was playing Episode 2, Far Cry 2 and Oblivion quite happily with it. Far Cry 2 at medium/high-ish settings of course :P
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Man, very big thanks! This little utility is one of the best things ive installed yet. Thank you MUCH!!! It has some other abilities that im enjoying A LOT!!!
It's one of my favorite programs. I keep it on 24/7 because I'm an FPS whore :P
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My HD4850 does that when I'm flicking about between windows it only occurs on Le Mans and flicking doesn't affect any other races in any other way (probably doesn't mean anything but there you go).
Then it must be a problem directly with the game. That makes me feel better, I thought I had a dying card! lol
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I'm gonna give it a bash anyway the cards only setting me back £25 ($36) also I want to try that unreal tournament thing and generally outdo my mate at something.
Well if you can get it to work, more power to you. Personally though, I think it's a waste of time and money.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. April 2009 @ 01:00
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AfterDawn Addict
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13. April 2009 @ 03:08 |
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Ho ho!!! went from 40 to 60% on the fan speed and decreased the temp almost 10C at idle! VERY nice. It is audibly more noticeable, but its within reason. And when im gaming, I dont see why I cant tell it more speed too. I generally like my movies and games loud LOL! my current GPU temps are:
31C memory
32C ambient
38C GPU
It may have effected other temps as well. It is a big card after all LOL! :D Im running 182.50 Nvidia driver, and 2.24 Rivatuner of course :) Oddly, my clock speeds are not showing accurately. I read that somewhere else recently too. Ehhh...im not into OC'ing this badboy yet. Its performing too well to need to. I just bumped up a few more GTA settings too. See how it effects it.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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13. April 2009 @ 03:19 |
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Originally posted by sam several days ago:
I am, and the last time I did I got about 10fps with heavy lag, but the game was trying to use nearly 6GB of RAM and I only have 4. I'm going to try and streamline some of the processes I have open, but it may just be that GTA4 uses 3GB of RAM just for itself. If that's the case, it's going to run a lot better on 6GB i7 systems than Core 2s. I'm not really interested in going 8GB even with DDR2 as cheap as it is because that will harm overclocking severely.
Ah hah! Yes, now that you mention it, the test beds that were running the gta4 at 2560x1600 were all 6 gig i7 setups - very interesting!!
Over the last couple days and forum pages, you've mentioned 8 gigs again. Are ya gonna do it Sam, and if so will you ever get your overclock back up near 3.9?
Hey Sam, and Jeff, and the rest of you GTA fanatics, especially Omega (Kevin) who's in love now with his 260 hot rod gta4 machine, I recently thought I heard that the San Andreas game was also ported to the PC (I think.) If GTA4 actually ends up running halfway decent, (if the i7 ever gets built - still no pay check yet) would San Andreas also be worth picking up?
Estuansis, I know what you meant a few days ago about neglecting a gaming machine. When I had two that were pretty comparable, I found myself at one time playing most of my Condition Zero on the slightly slower one - JUST BECAUSE I COULD - without being able to tell the difference with that game - and also because I thought the slower rig missed me :D
(Jeff, you've got to start dating again - we BOTH do - or you'll continue to dream about graphics cards - and - have more sleepness nights ranting about the high-quality of Dell products (amen) - and - the next thing you know you'll be living in a very comfortable place with lots of padding EVERYWHERE!!) Hahahaha!
Rich
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13. April 2009 @ 03:27 |
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I still like GTA SA quite a bit :) It was worth the money I paid. I must admit though, I haven't played it since I got my new card. This sucker and GTA IV are like soul mates! LOL! But then, ALL of my hardware is pretty high end. I heard that the CPU runs most of it. Give me a few minutes. I have an idea.
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13. April 2009 @ 03:42 |
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Heres a screeny of well...im sure you recognize it LOL! The SECOND high peak, is when I enter a police vehicle, and begin a high speed chase ending with some rocket mayhem LOL! Quite the fancy suicide might I add LOL! I shot a rocket directly in front of my feet. It launched me back a ways LOL! Most settings are HIGH, while a few are Very high.
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AfterDawn Addict
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13. April 2009 @ 05:29 |
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Quote:
Hey Sam, and Jeff, and the rest of you GTA fanatics, especially Omega (Kevin) who's in love now with his 260 hot rod gta4 machine, I recently thought I heard that the San Andreas game was also ported to the PC (I think.) If GTA4 actually ends up running halfway decent, (if the i7 ever gets built - still no pay check yet) would San Andreas also be worth picking up?
GTA SA is also a direct console port but it's a port of the Xbox version, so it is much more forgiving with PC hardware. If you can play any recent games well at all, San Andreas will run just fine maxed. Your system is actually pretty capable of running it as-is. Stop acting like you can't handle any games. Lots of the new releases are quite forgiving on older hardware. Crysis/Warhead, Dirt and GTA4 are the only really bad ones as of yet.
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Ho ho!!! went from 40 to 60% on the fan speed and decreased the temp almost 10C at idle! VERY nice.
I found the same thing occurred with my HD4870s. Turning up the fan speed to 30% constant brought my temps from mid 50s idle and mid 80s load to mid 40s idle and mid 60s load. More audible than stock but not bad seeing I consider my systems pretty low-noise. Luckily, I was able to do this with Crossfire too. I really needed it then!
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Estuansis, I know what you meant a few days ago about neglecting a gaming machine. When I had two that were pretty comparable, I found myself at one time playing most of my Condition Zero on the slightly slower one - JUST BECAUSE I COULD - without being able to tell the difference with that game - and also because I thought the slower rig missed me :D
Mine is folding again as well as torrenting so it doesn't feel like such a waste anymore XD I love both of my machines equally and have invested much time and money into both of them.
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(Jeff, you've got to start dating again - we BOTH do - or you'll continue to dream about graphics cards - and - have more sleepness nights ranting about the high-quality of Dell products (amen) - and - the next thing you know you'll be living in a very comfortable place with lots of padding EVERYWHERE!!) Hahahaha!
LOL as of now my computers are my girlfriends. I'm such a player XD
But seriously, I do have friends with "benefits". It's just that last time I dated my heart was ripped out and stomped into mush on pavement with high heels XDDD I do plan to date again. But for now, I have college, work, and many many games to occupy my time. My lifestyle is that of a PC gamer ATM and nothing else XD
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Heres a screeny of well...im sure you recognize it LOL! The SECOND high peak, is when I enter a police vehicle, and begin a high speed chase ending with some rocket mayhem LOL! Quite the fancy suicide might I add LOL! I shot a rocket directly in front of my feet. It launched me back a ways LOL! Most settings are HIGH, while a few are Very high.
Very nice. It looks like it's taking thorough advantage of your quad core. Isn't the 940 Black Edition kick ass?! I know I love mine :)
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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AfterDawn Addict
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13. April 2009 @ 05:38 |
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Yah, I like the Phenom a lot. Its a multi tasking freak! :D
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AfterDawn Addict
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13. April 2009 @ 06:28 |
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omegaman: Either Gamespot or IGN produced a video called 'RIP NikoBellic' or something along those lines shortly after the game was released on the consoles, and showed them killing the main character in all sorts of humourous ways, I think you'll like it.
Your CPU usage graph looks similar to mine did when running the benchmark. Not that the benchmark is any useful indication, it runs much better than the game does.
Estuansis: His GPU is up to the task, but you forget about the single core P4. They're a lot slower than I ever remember them being at running even old games. When I dug out my old Athlon XP 3000+ system I was surprised to see I was CPU limited to 25-35fps at any detail setting.
Funny you mention the fan speed, the HD4890 runs the fan about 600rpm faster than the HD4870, and has an extra heatpipe, and as a result runs about 22-23ºC cooler than the HD4870. By contrast, the HD4870X2 runs the fan 1200rpm faster than the HD4870 and runs 5ºC hotter... :P
Ironic you guys are turning your fan speeds up for lower idle temps. IMO Idle temps are never going to kill a GPU off, so I actually lower them further than default and suffer higher speeds. When PowerPlay is bugged 30% is as low as I can go without reaching 95ºC and the fan briefly rising to 100% and then dropping back. When Powerplay is working I can go down to 26% and get around 77ºC on the hottest GPU.
Originally posted by Estuansis:
LOL as of now my computers are my girlfriends. I'm such a player XD
I was beginning to think I Was the only one... haha
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AfterDawn Addict
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13. April 2009 @ 12:50 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Ironic you guys are turning your fan speeds up for lower idle temps. IMO Idle temps are never going to kill a GPU off, so I actually lower them further than default and suffer higher speeds.
No no. Just seeing how much the fan increase would effect it. It effected it during gameplay quite a bit too. Where I saw it hit 72C before, its now only hitting 60+/- My settings are higher as well.
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13. April 2009 @ 13:54 |
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Yeah I'm always wary about temps. Sure the chips can take those temps but if I can keep them much cooler without much sacrifice, works for me. The 4890 is sweet but not much of an upgrade incentive. I have Crossfired HD4870s. What more do I need? lol
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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harvrdguy
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13. April 2009 @ 16:30 |
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You have no further needs. Two 4870s zappin along - your beautiful Dell with vibrant colors, better than that cr*p at Best Buy! - no chick stomping on your heart with 5" stiletto heels! Life is good. That's just how I feel. (Now let's all start chasing babes and get totally messed up again, LOL!)
So I take it by Kevin's comments - he stopped playing SA now that he has GTA4 - that there is something wayyy more immersive and interesting about the newer game. But since everybody likes SA, I guess I'll pick it up - there it is - $7.85 with free shipping on ebay :)
Sam's pretty much right, Jeff - the p4 just barely gets me by on the games I'm playing through again on the big Dell. I just finished Brothers in Arms Road to Hill 30, the first one, frames in the high 30's with everything maxed at 2560x1600, then I switched to the second one, Earned in Blood, and saw my frames drop to around 28-32 - and not much is going on right now at the beginning of the game. (So on Wednesday I'll go back and look at a few of the settings, maybe turn "projected" shadows into "blobs", etc.)
But if you think I could actually get GTA SA to run on my p4 right now, I could give it a try. There - I just pressed the BUY button! Ain't the internet grand!! :D
Rich
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