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The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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20. November 2009 @ 13:09 |
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It's amazing, leaps and bounds ahead of the original.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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20. November 2009 @ 13:29 |
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Yah...I just saw a screeny that looked pretty good. There's a high probability that i'll end up buying it today :D
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 03:48 |
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And I did just buy it. I've been playing it for over an hour now, and am enjoying it. Wish I could play some more, but my friggin wrist is in pretty bad shape lately. From the keyboard to my job, this week has been detrimental to both of my wrists. Kind of funny, i'm a righty, and yet my left is in pain. Its because my job requires a great deal of lefty action...LOL! Once again, the only way to FULLY experience the game is via online play. I guess im simply a loner :P
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 04:19 |
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 07:05 |
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Now THAT is TWIMTBP :P
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 |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 07:11 |
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35fps minimum, with only 10 of a possible 180mhz core overclock? Certainly is!
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 07:55 |
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Haha I'm so addicted to Dragon Age. Sometimes I just need a good, long RPG. I'm already 22 hours in and just getting started :D
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
7 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 14:38 |
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Ever notice how comfort and convenience cost a lot of money LOL! This just makes me sick! I bought my wireless keyboard and mouse in 2005 for 39.99. I can barely use my friggin keyboard today. I have it turned so my right wrist is getting the torment instead LOL! At least a 4 day weekend is coming up...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109127
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21. November 2009 @ 14:43 |
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I'm still using the £5 Tesco keyboard I bought well when I got my own PC for the first time lol :)
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY! |
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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21. November 2009 @ 18:23 |
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To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. November 2009 @ 18:25
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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22. November 2009 @ 04:55 |
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I think I've reached my decision for which PC gets the SSD, it's going to be the gaming PC. Running games off the same HDD as the OS is fine for Windows XP, but the fact that Win7 practically uses the HDD as a CPU means that only games that pre-load every byte of data will run smoothly on it. Games that load sequentially like Crysis, and now Call of Duty 6, will pause for up to a second or more when they try and squeeze some data through the minefield of all the useless data traffic from Windows.
One of the things that Windows 7 doesn't cure from Vista is that it will sit at an empty desktop with no programs running and start working the hard disk flat out. Of course this was much more noticeable with a Raptor than with a Caviar Black (noise), but has a much worse impact on the system.
Since COD6 uses the same post-processing system as the previous two COD games, it needs to be played with crossfire disabled in order to go past those sections with a playable frame rate. All very well if only one of your GPUs is fast enough to run the game slowly anyway.
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24. November 2009 @ 04:00 |
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With everybody staring at the door waiting for the first of the new 5870's to show up, which ones are you most looking forward to: The implementations by XFX, PowerColor, Sapphire, HIS, Diamond or ???...and why?
Dick
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 24. November 2009 @ 04:03
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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24. November 2009 @ 04:03 |
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I have my GTX 260. I'm set for at least a year :P Perhaps at that time, I'll buy the best there is :D
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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24. November 2009 @ 05:19 |
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To be honest, among the best of the bunch is usually Sapphire's Vapor-X offering. Since that's already out, what's left to wait for?
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24. November 2009 @ 15:46 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
To be honest, among the best of the bunch is usually Sapphire's Vapor-X offering. Since that's already out, what's left to wait for?
Availability. I'm just curious if one were to get in line which would be the best line to get in. Thanks, Sam.
Dick
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25. November 2009 @ 09:18 |
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Disabling the Superfetch service allegedly stops the random HDD use but I can't say I've tried it.
I've let a few random questions build up :)
Can I get a better drive to go alongside my nearly full Samsung SpinPoint 320GB then another of the same for about £33? (I'm not bothered about RAID because of backing up.)
Is there any advantage to running one drive off one SATA controller and one off the other (My mobo has 2)?
Is a Phenom II X4 955BE worth the pennies when I'm stuck with the 4850 till at least February?
I didn't actually have that many questions did I?
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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25. November 2009 @ 10:18 |
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1. No, but for £3 more you could get one of these:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500-GB-We...6MB-Cache-89-ms
2. Not really, unless there are any known bugs with your board's ICH (as far as I know there aren't)
3. No, not because the HD4850 will bottleneck it, but because it isn't that good value for the CPU it is. If your board will fit an Athlon II X4 620 then that may be a good investment, unless you intend to overclock. If you do, then to be honest, an X4 940 is your best bet, though for a powerful quad core games system, you should really be looking at getting an i5.
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AfterDawn Addict
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25. November 2009 @ 10:55 |
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MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|. |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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25. November 2009 @ 11:00 |
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£2 more than the WD, and it's not really earning you anything. Plus, it's a Samsung. I dunno, if it were me I'd still take the WD.
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AfterDawn Addict
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25. November 2009 @ 11:06 |
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nothign wrong with a samsung and, its pretty fast. just check out reviews.
MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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25. November 2009 @ 11:45 |
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Originally posted by sam:
There is no official driver for the HD5970 yet, only a beta, and the beta driver does not allow Crysis to be opened at 2560x1600 with 4 GPUs (Let's not forget, nvidia never allowed Crysis to run at that resolution with two GTX295s either), let alone play well.
Ok, so we'll wait for the drivers, to see if there is any imminent crysis-raping in our 30" dell future.
More from sam:Quote:
Since the waiting lists for HD5870s from the board partners now numbers in the tens of thousands the HD5970s aren't exactly going to be in great supply until the post-laser-calibration batch of silicon works its way out in the form of retailable products, probably late january-ish.
Are you up on what's going on, or are you up on what's going on? Where do you get those production and back-order numbers. I'm impressed.
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Had a few goes at Left 4 Dead 2 and I love it. Some spectacular work there guys. Very impressed.
We got on last week with Miles - the valve guy. He said "let's play realistic mode." He grabbed an axe and we were in the burning building - first campaign - dead center. Turns out that was a mistake. He "hated" the mall section - when we finished he said "what a nightmare!" Hahahaha.
He had play-tested with the valve guys the realism mode, on normal, but on parish, and another campaign whose name I forget. And he had loved it. But he did not like The Mall. We were trying to play at normal setting, then we beat a tank - and he got suspicious and pressed tab to see the difficulty - the game had glitched and we were on advanced. I said - "Well, then, that was a 7500 health tank we just had to battle with." He said "No wonder the damn thing was so hard to kill!" Later we got another 5000 health tank (back on normal setting) before the glass breaking crescendo run. We were out of ammo - but I had magnum - and mostly Miles and his buddies killed it in the hallway with axes and melee weapons. I was amazed any of us were alive - but nobody even went down. He said the melee weapons do major damage to a tank. Now THAT I did not know!
Before we finished that chapter - maybe the second or third time through as we got to the crescendo, he voted to drop to Easy. He just wanted to get rid of the damn chapter, lol.
Later last week he emailed me a link to a steam forum talking about Dead Center, and in particular, the Mall chapter - lots of great players have found that VERY HARD! One team, that beat the campaign on expert, realism, rushed that one chapter - with two guys making it to the safe house - the last one in at 1 health - in 3 to 4 minutes - after 10 failed repeats and over an hour trying it the regular way. So if all else fails - RUSH THE CHAPTER!!! hahaha.
(My brain isn't quite working yet - I got up early at 6:00 am to post - it's gaming day wednesday - and it's 48 degrees F in my trailer/office. Brrrrr! Wait - it was 48, now it's all the way up to 55 with the heat from my posting cpu - gaming cpu comes on in a short while.)
Originally posted by shaff:
no DUAL GPU cards supported ATM. only single, and only 2 single cards. if you are mixing, nvidia at top slot please.
I knew lucid was too good to be true.
Originally posted by sam:
At the current rate of progress it's actually looking like I will be buying a GTX295, and just abandoning being able to use AA at 2560x1600, since that actually seems the most powerful solution to play games at the moment, nvidia GPUs being mandatory to play half of today's titles...
And Rush Limbaugh has officially joined the Communist Party!
Originally posted by sam:
There's about £4000 worth of equipment set up in here, and quite frankly, apart from the monitor, I would actually be better off if the rest of it added up to less than £800. I've spent so much on technology I can scarcely afford to eat, and what have I got to show for it?
You're out there on the bleeding edge - you're a scientist! I can certainly understand your frustration. Hmmmmm.
Kevin has joined the Left 4 Dead 2 movement:
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And I did just buy it. I've been playing it for over an hour now, and am enjoying it.
And I know all you guys are playing it at better settings than myself - I'm 1440x900 with lots of stuff turned down or off, lol. But the good news is that I might start making real estate money - so I'm paying close attention to what Sam, the scientist, comes up with for gpu solutions.
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This is for you Rich:
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=890&pageid=18
I don't know about raping Crysis, but this comes quite close...
Thanks for the link, sam. I used paperport to web capture the page - I'll read the whole thing later this week after gaming day today. I see some decent frame rates at enthusiast setting. But that's not the Very High setting, right - the one that really makes Crysis shine? As I recall you guys talking about it - there is Ultra high, that Jeff can get with some tweaks - and there is Very High, which is almost the same as Ultra High, and is stunning. Then, under that, are settings that are not so great - like Enthusiast, am I right?
Originally posted by sam:
I think I've reached my decision for which PC gets the SSD, it's going to be the gaming PC. Running games off the same HDD as the OS is fine for Windows XP, but the fact that Win7 practically uses the HDD as a CPU means that only games that pre-load every byte of data will run smoothly on it.
THAT is very interesting! Windows 7 is starting to sound not too great to me. SSDs are now what - about $400 for the 150 gig version?
Hey Keith has some possible help: Quote:
Disabling the Superfetch service allegedly stops the random HDD use but I can't say I've tried it.
Well, brrr, it's still freezing in here - about 58 degrees now. I could turn on the heater - but the gaming cpu will definitely warm things up - I'm going to start with Far Cry.
I'm going through the thing again on authentic. You know me, a glutton for punishment. It took me about 10 hours spread over two days to beat just one particularly bad section and all I kept thinking was: "I don't remember this being the hell that it is now!"
You trigger some destruction, then you take a phone call from the girl, you agree to wait in a ventilation shaft, then you have to get out of a control room with 6 heavily armored enemies outside, and another 6 coming in from a helicopter. I believe the problem was that I had tossed away the shotgun and the p90 (I had the silenced m5 instead - uses the same ammo - and I was playing the game with more stealth than I had ever used before - but it was a bad mistake to toss the p90.)
And the sniper was useless - two body shots wouldn't take those soldiers down - and they were moving around too fast for head shots. So on the second day, after my stiff fingers had relaxed (sound familiar Kevin?) and I was over yesterday's fatigue, I developed a pattern that seemed promising - it still took 4 hours and about 25 more attempts to jell for me.
Before triggering the explosion, drop the sniper rifle and drop the dead guard's pistol, leaving colt, m5, and rocket launcher. Shoot all 6 rocket launcher rounds out the door, before anybody tosses in a grenade, killing all first platoon of enemies. Rush outside, running over dead weapons, which will pick up a p90. Go prone on left behind a pillar - turn on cry vision - and try to pick off one as they first drop from the helicopter - which might cause them to head toward me from that one side (if they come from both sides I'm dead.) Then using strictly p90 on head shots - staying right where I am - try to take them out as they advance toward me. The P90, 50 very fast discharging rounds, is the go to weapon in that game. On my last successful attempt, I didn't make the mistake of assuming everybody was dead, as twice before when one guy was still silently waiting for me. I threw rocks. And more rocks. I threw so many rocks they could have built the Taj Mahal. Finally I figured out that I was safely alone, and I shot the lock off the ventilation shaft.
What a bi*ch! I went back and played it again later - I might do it again today also. But so far they have come from both sides on the 3 or 4 times I tried it - and no way can you beat it if that occurs. It's random every time - like the valve Director.
But what a great Crytek game for me - 2560x1600, everthing maxed, fireflies flickering around that I never saw before, colorful parrots, gorgeous plants, and very nice fire and smoke effects. Now I only need 15 times this 3850 horsepower, to see what the next Crytek game, 3 years newer (crysis) has in store for me!
- Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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25. November 2009 @ 11:56 |
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Originally posted by shaffaaf:
nothign wrong with a samsung
I disagree, having witnessed the third batch of F1s go pop at the last fragsoc. RAID arrays can't save all four drives failing at once...
Originally posted by Rich:
Ok, so we'll wait for the drivers, to see if there is any imminent crysis-raping in our 30" dell future.
There almost certainly will be, based on how Warhead performs.
Originally posted by Rich:
Are you up on what's going on, or are you up on what's going on? Where do you get those production and back-order numb
Hear-say, and a quote from Bit-tech's review (on the back order numbers). The laser-calibration fault is well publicised, as it is responsible for the lack of early HD4770s, HD5800s and the GTX300 series.
The melee weapons in L4D2 do loads of damage, you can one-hit things like Smokers with them on Normal, and Smokers aren't that easily killed compared to the other specials.
So far I've played Dark Carnival, Swamp Fever and Dead Center, with a bit of Hard Rain. Yet to play The Parish.
Nono, Enthusiast IS the cream of the crop for Crysis.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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25. November 2009 @ 20:51 |
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Originally posted by sam:
Nono, Enthusiast IS the cream of the crop for Crysis.
Ohhhh, so that article you linked me to - that's the top quality graphics at 2560x1600 - fantastic!!!!!!
Then there's hope! That really is great news!!
Just finished about 8 hours of Far Cry. I'm leaving off where you are back on the islands - no weird monkeys to deal with - and you have to take down all the communication towers. I picked up the explosives - and that's probably enough Far Cry for a few weeks. Do you guys remember the sinking ship and having to battle the helicopter before you drown?
Hahaha. That's a fun one. The rocket launchers will do the trick if you're lucky.
But there is also another fun way to scare off that helicopter, that doesn't keep you on the boat.
I picked up a tip a few years ago from a Far Cry forum, that if you take a running jump off the back of the ship while triggering the explosive timer - and swim mostly near the surface - you actually CAN make it to that little island behind you without the blast killing you.
The advantage is that the little island is connected to the shore, and you can park a jeep there, slightly uphill on a little mound. That way you can use the jeep rocket launcher to do enough damage to the helicopter until it flies away.
Each way is fun.
Changing the subject, it sounds to me, Sam, that with the effort you?re putting in to get it to work, you have come around to liking Dragon rising as much as Keith and Jeff, am I right?
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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26. November 2009 @ 06:03 |
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I'll be honest, I've not really played Dragon Rising since I last posted about it. I'll wait and see if there are some patches for it, and better crossfire support. ATi are upholding their usual tradition of not bothering with any crossfire profiles with the november driver release, but instead waiting until December's. We'll see how things go after that.
On the interesting side, the low fps until Alt-Tab or change Resolution bug affected Left 4 Dead 2 and the Demo as well, which I might have told you, and believe it or not that one affects all dual graphics users, not just Crossfire, but SLi as well.
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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26. November 2009 @ 07:51 |
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Quote:
I'll be honest, I've not really played Dragon Rising since I last posted about it. I'll wait and see if there are some patches for it, and better crossfire support. ATi are upholding their usual tradition of not bothering with any crossfire profiles with the november driver release, but instead waiting until December's. We'll see how things go after that.
So sorry to hear about your bad luck with the game. Crossfire has been working for me and so far it has been relatively bug free. I hold the game in high regard as far as realism and tactics go. Even the friendly AI has been competent enough to avoid total frustration. I hope you can have a better go at it after things improve. There will more than likely be a few patches seeing the history of it's predecessors.
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On the interesting side, the low fps until Alt-Tab or change Resolution bug affected Left 4 Dead 2 and the Demo as well, which I might have told you, and believe it or not that one affects all dual graphics users, not just Crossfire, but SLi as well.
Ahh yes so it remains in the full version? I had a similar issue with Modern Warfare 2. Except alt-tabbing caused it. I'd bring the game back up and my FPS would be halved. I just stare at the floor for a few seconds until my FPS slowly crawls back up and then the game plays normally. It might be another issue with dual graphics but I think it has something to do with video memory loading. It needs time to regain it's pre-rendered frame buffer or something along those lines. It may be similar with L4D2. Alt-tabbing out then back in may cause it to reload a certain amount. The loading code for resume might work vs the code for the first load not loading the game correctly.
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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