|
|
|
The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread
|
|
|
ddp
Moderator
|
24. December 2010 @ 23:43 |
Link to this message
|
|
same to you harvrdguy & everybody else.
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
25. December 2010 @ 13:50 |
Link to this message
|
|
Indeed, merry christmas everyone.
|
|
harvrdguy
Senior Member
|
26. December 2010 @ 17:30 |
Link to this message
|
I hope everybody had a nice Christmas, and a nice Hannakuh earlier this month, as well as a nice Ramadan earlier this Fall, and .....(??)
Happy New Year coming up.
(The party I went to lasted until 4:30 in the morning, and then it was back to LA for a much shorter birthday party at 5pm the next day - just enough time to sleep and make the 1 hour drive! Things will be back to normal tomorrow, starting with a two-mile jog in the morning.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There is no way I'm going to dump $230 into my current platform after this news from Sam:
Quote:
The actual system upgrade need not be that much actually. Of course, at $740 the pair of HD6970s is a lot, but an i5 760, a P55A-UD4P and 16GB of RAM need only cost $620, and that's all you need for gaming, save the cooler.
Wow! Well, when you put it like that, I think I see your point.
As nice as this P5E is, and as much as I am enjoying the 14000-point 3dmark6 performance, from the 6000 points I had with the p4, sticking to this platform limits me to a max of 8gb DDR2 Ram. DDR2 used to be cheap - I might be wrong but now it's hard to find and therefore pricey, lol.
Increasing my memory from the 4 gigs I have now, to the max of 8 gigs supported by the board, would cost me $230. Or, taking your suggested system above, I could invest just an additional $390, for a total of $620, and upgrade into an i5 with twice as much memory - a full 16 gigs.
Now that makes sense!
Rich
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
26. December 2010 @ 17:35 |
Link to this message
|
|
DDR2 was cheap for a while, whilst they were clearing the stock after DDR3 production was ramping up. Now almost nobody buys it any more as it's not used in new builds, it's produced in much smaller quantities, and thus is more valuable.
The massive investment in moving to DDR3 means that DDR3 memory is absurdly cheap now, with 4GB sticks already costing less than 2GB sticks of DDR2 cost in their prime a year ago.
|
AfterDawn Addict
|
27. December 2010 @ 01:29 |
Link to this message
|
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
|
27. December 2010 @ 16:12 |
Link to this message
|
Yeah I heard about this a few days ago. Interesting idea, though for 10% performance I'm not sure how viable it is. Dual BIOS switcher is really handy though, a true enthusiast feature that.
|
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
|
1. January 2011 @ 18:05 |
Link to this message
|
My brother finally got a PS3 for Christmas. He was playing call of duty Black ops last night. He also has GTA IV. The video quality looks nothing like My computer screen. My screen looks lifelike by comparison. His shows lots of jaggies. He says it looks wayy better than the PS2. I definitely agree, but in my opinion, it looks dire compared to my PC version. Can't seem to find performance settings in the game either. Does the PS3 version simply not compare to PC? The PS3 says that it's signal is indeed 1080p, so I'm uncertain what the heck is going on LOL! I think I'm spoiled to PC's...
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
Senior Member
4 product reviews
|
1. January 2011 @ 18:23 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by omegaman7:
My brother finally got a PS3 for Christmas. He was playing call of duty Black ops last night. He also has GTA IV. The video quality looks nothing like My computer screen. My screen looks lifelike by comparison. His shows lots of jaggies. He says it looks wayy better than the PS2. I definitely agree, but in my opinion, it looks dire compared to my PC version. Can't seem to find performance settings in the game either. Does the PS3 version simply not compare to PC? The PS3 says that it's signal is indeed 1080p, so I'm uncertain what the heck is going on LOL! I think I'm spoiled to PC's...
you also have to remember the PS3 is running on a modified 7900GTX GPU, turn everything graphics related to low on your pc version and you'll more than likely end up with what the consoles can do.
PC's have retained graphics dominance since the 80's and they always will.
Also LCD TV's have very big pixels and there refresh timer doesn't operate on the same principle's as a lcd Computer Monitor. try hooking up the PS3 to a Computer monitor you'll notice jaggies tend to blur out more, and the blur effect while looking up and down really fast tend to disappear.
Powered By
 This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 1. January 2011 @ 18:30
|
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
|
1. January 2011 @ 18:32 |
Link to this message
|
Oh heck yah! PC's design the damn consoles. ;) I just thought that the PS3 was generally equal at 1080p. Obviously Sam and Jeffs, setup could smoke it though ;)
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
1. January 2011 @ 18:40 |
Link to this message
|
why would you need performance settings on a console? Everyone's running the same hardware!
remember that the ps3 is 4 years old, the 360 more than 5.
what were baseline gaming pcs like back then? 7600gts, x1800gtos at best.
|
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
|
1. January 2011 @ 18:48 |
Link to this message
|
|
True true. The cell processor is yesterdays news LOL! Now bulldozer... :D
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
|
1. January 2011 @ 18:48 |
Link to this message
|
|
play it at 1024x600 wirh the low settings that they have and a 7900GTX. It prbably won't play at all. And if it does play it'll run at a horrendous frame rate. Consoles do soo much with what they have.
we had black ops connected up the other day. One on my pc, the other on the 360. WORLDS of difference.
but if you don't have it comapred, you are content.
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
7 product reviews
|
1. January 2011 @ 19:35 |
Link to this message
|
|
I guess I'm spoiled and picky ;)
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
|
ddp
Moderator
|
1. January 2011 @ 19:40 |
Link to this message
|
|
yep!!!!
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
2. January 2011 @ 06:47 |
Link to this message
|
|
Agreed, until I became a PC gamer, I didn't care much about graphics. Can you imagine that? lmao
|
Senior Member
4 product reviews
|
2. January 2011 @ 07:27 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by sammorris:
Agreed, until I became a PC gamer, I didn't care much about graphics. Can you imagine that? lmao
i still don't, it can be pretty all day but if it aint got no soul, its just that. pretty. i prefer innovative which like the leap year seems to happen once every 4 years.
Powered By
|
AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
|
2. January 2011 @ 15:19 |
Link to this message
|
Just borrowed a PS3 myself to play with my new HDTV. I gotta say Metal Gear Solid 4 is both the most awesome and most disappointing game ever. In several scenes, the graphics are amazing, and in others, very flat and bland. Textures are a mixed bag. The characters and geometry generally look fantastic only to be marred by the mediocre foliage. Overall enjoying the game thoroughly though. Totally worth the wait to get my own TV to play it. I just thought it would look sharper than it does :(
Killzone 2 I would have to say is more graphically impressive overall. The geometry isn't generally as smooth but everything is beautifully detailed and the textures are kickass throughout. Would love to see it on PC. Would be an easy port too I'd think, FPS and all. Some of the setpieces and destruction scenes are amazing. The game is actually good and so are the graphics. Of course not near as sharp as the top of the PC gaming pile and the controls are soggy but for a console I was impressed. For the record, I've seen FPS controls done better on consoles. Halo and Call of Duty come to mind. Would have been easy to make the controls more responsive like CoD without affecting anything else. Even playing with the sensitivity settings doesn't work, only makes you less accurate.
So yeah that's my console gaming for the week. Up next, Ninja Gaiden Sigma XD Basically a PS3/360 remake of Ninja Gaiden/NG Black on the original Xbox. And so hard it makes pros cry.
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 2. January 2011 @ 15:23
|
|
harvrdguy
Senior Member
|
10. January 2011 @ 02:27 |
Link to this message
|
Hmmmm. I pay close attention to anything Jeff is playing, in case another epic Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising game review is forthcoming.
By the way, I haven't gone back to that game yet - I'm still at the chapter where you start out sniping the guy standing at the top of the hill, from way down below where our boats have landed at the beach. I was very impressed that you had to shoot the rifle well above the Chinese soldier's head, to allow for the drop of the bullet. THAT is authentic gameplay that you don't see often - one of the nice touches in the game!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Originally posted by sam from two weeks ago:
The massive investment in moving to DDR3 means that DDR3 memory is absurdly cheap now, with 4GB sticks already costing less than 2GB sticks of DDR2 cost in their prime a year ago.
Wow!
While it doesn't make any sense, in that case, to dump more into this P5E platform, it DOES make sense, I think, to pick up one single 6970 graphics card at $370, to tide me over, until I can build the new system.
That should allow me to get into the BF:BC2 world with Jeff and Shaff and whomever else is playing it. And with the new Vietnam maps, I should be set for the next 6-8 months.
By then my new rig would incorporate pci-e 3.0 with twice the effective bandwidth as today's 2.0 standard (8 instead of 5, but the 5 was really 4 after 20% overhead, as I understand it.)
And if I am talking mid 2011, I might even go high end with something like the ROG Rampage Extreme $380-ish motherboard.
There were a lot of negative Newegg reviews on the $180 gigabyte board in the suggested $620 build. My thinking is that, by the time I build my funds up, I might just set aside twice as much and invest in a high-end board like the Rampage Extreme x58, since, given my past history of huge time gaps between upgrades, lol, I'll probably own it for at least the following 3 years on into 2014.
Regarding Shaff's link on flashing the 6950 bios to achieve 6970 results - amazing. However, the $70 savings, from $370 to $300, probably makes it something I'm not going to try. If it doesn't work, you're stuck at 6950 performance, which while not shabby, is going to noticeably affect how well BC2 runs for me at full 2560x1600.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'm back into COD4 Multiplayer!!!
Shaff has probably long-abandoned this game after achieving mastery, putting him near the top of the Xfire roster. From some of your screens, Shaff, I think you were mostly an RPG guy. I have definitely had some great scores with the RPG (light machine gun) but in general the extra firing noise bothers me a bit.
I like the M60 - the one that makes that low-pitched Poof sound every time it fires - almost like it is silenced - but . . . . .
the iron sights of that light machine gun are THE ABSOLUTE WORST. The above picture does not show you actually sighting in through those sights - when you do - all the extra metal around the hole eliminates half the screen! Hahaha.
But if I can force myself to play long-range on the other side of the map, and get by on the M60 until I achieve my marksman certificate, then I would get the red dot sight.
Here's what the red dot sight looks like, actually sighted in and ready to shoot:
What a difference!
- - - - - - - - -
I was heavy into COD4 MP until the beginning of 2009, when I picked up the 30" Dell. I then started trying to play it at higher than 1400x900 resolutions, and the performance of course dropped on my p4. And then I discovered Left 4 Dead and got hooked on that. But I was already a COD4 5-star General, and I had unlocked virtually all of the perks. My mistake was in not saving my rankings profile - I wiped my hard drive before I realized my big mistake.
But because I loved the look of World at War so much, due to digital vibrance, and all you guys said COD4 looked as good if not better, I went back to the single player version, and now also multiplayer. You guys were right - damn fine looking game - especially with digital vibrance at medium setting!
So within the past 30 days I have started all over again. I have advanced from buck private, finally up to Major. And I just unlocked the G3 - single shot assault rifle
which I pack with magnum rounds (Perk 2: stopping power) making it a one-shot kill!
And best of all, using it for several hours, I finally made marksman, and opened up the red dot sights, which is a helluva lot better than the little round iron sights that come with it. That's important, because for some reason most of the servers have eliminated cross-hairs, so you have no choice - iron sights, or red dot when you finally achieve marksman.
Just prior to the G3, I was forcing myself to "like" the M16, which delivers a very deadly 3-round burst.
I never really liked it two years ago. I usually prefer a gun that keeps spraying. But more lately I have grown to appreciate guns that fire a 3-round burst - they are more powerful, and more accurate - because of the burst mode.
For example, some guys hate the SCAR, the desert assault rifle in L4D2,
which fires a 3-round burst, and then another, and then another, as long as you squeeze the trigger. You can go through a lot of rounds if you aren't careful, but I have grown to appreciate it as the most accurate and the most deadly automatic weapon in the game.
Take the concert finale - the last chapter in the Dark Carnival campaign, where you have to get through two tanks, and then jump on the helicopter which dramatically flies in to carry everybody out of the stadium. It's a lot of fun with boxes of fireworks that kill zombies like gasoline, and heavy metal rock music from pre-recorded tapes of past Midnight Riders bikers concerts!
"Every lady's crazy when her daddy's not around" belts out the Coach on the stadium mic while the rest of the team is getting set up!
I usually volunteer to be the one who takes out the specials. Sometimes I'll choose the hunting rifle, and zoom in, but if not, the SCAR is incredibly accurate, full standing up, and even moving, due to using a repeating 3-round burst firing mode. So unlike the M16 or AK, I don't have to crouch for extra accuracy, I can track the specials from a hundred yards away, and every round that hits a charger is more powerful than from an M16 or AK.
Similarly, I remember that years ago, I used to hate that French counter-terrorist assault rifle, the Famas with the 3-round burst.
But when I started back in Condition Zero, the offline version of Counter Strike, a few months ago, with the added appreciation of burst rifles from L4D2, I realized that you can usually kill a terrorist with one burst, from far across the map.
Anyway, back to the M16, which is one of the first rifles you get on COD4 MP, this is basically the same gun you get on BF2 in Assault class. The burst aspect makes it more deadly than most other weapons, except of course for the sniper rifle.
So on COD4 I finally opened up the red dot sight for the M16, and those 3 rounds fire very quickly - it is almost as powerful as any of the light machine guns, except for not being able to penetrate concrete as effectively.
But back to the G3 - I am pretty happy with that coupled with the red dot sight. I had it before - a couple years ago - and liked it for a while, but at that time I totally converted over to being a p90 guy once I made General. My style two years ago was more - "spray like crazy" - and I miss my P90. Occasionally I pick one up - but most of the guys don't have the Perk 2 set at magnum rounds (stopping power) and the gun is not really very powerful with ordinary munitions.
I used to love to strafe sideways and spray a p90 at anybody within 30 yards who dared to come around a corner at me. People say the P90 is weak - but like I say, when you use your Perk 2 to select magnum rounds - it knocks people over! But I won't unlock the P90 until I make General later this Spring or Summer.
So for now - the G3 is my new weapon of choice. It's very different working with a one-shot kill, versus a sprayer. But lovely it is! Just before I turned off the gaming the other night, I had a half hour of blissful G3 action on the Crossfire map and on the Downpour map, action which reminded me of my best COD4 days in 2008.
If you guys remember COD4 single player, when the tank that was stuck in the mud, the "Warthog," gets out and goes into the town - well, Crossfire is that town. Both of the M60 light machine gun pictures, above, with the iron sights and then with the red dot sights, are at the beginning of that town. When you get to the end of the first street, it turns right and heads down a hill, looking like this:
None of the pictures do justice to the map. Let me just say that at full at full 2560x1600 4xAA, with digital vibrance on medium, this is a very beautiful map with textures much prettier than anything I had remembered - and again - it really helps that I discovered digital vibrance. (Wow I am so glad I figured out how to go to Ati Catalyst digital display, avivo color, and jack up saturation and adjust display color temperature, to match Nvidia digital vibrance! A sincere thanks, green guys, for waking me up to the possibility of adjusting my games for richer, brighter colors!)
As I said before, since all of you guys said COD4 was just as good-looking as World at War, I have started playing the single player again, and also the multi-player - but this time I am backing up my ranking files on an external hard drive, in case I ever have to wipe this drive again.
Anyway, the other night, all the enemies were holding out on the right side of this street above, as you look down the hill. It was almost impossible to advance on the right side, down below the first store right there on the corner, the one with the black and white diagonal tile flooring.
So I finally just got annoyed, and said to myself "to hell with this!" and I advanced out into the middle of the street and started walking sideways down the hill, with my red dot sights pointed to the right. Obviously nobody was manning any of the sniper positions at the very bottom of the map. So I stood out in the street all alone, just strafing back and forth in the middle of the street, picking off targets - Boom, ... he's dead - boom, another guy dead, boom, that's one more - 5 key turn on our radar - don't really need it - there they all are. Hahahahaha. I told myself - "This is completely ridiculous that I can last more than a few seconds out here in the middle of the damn street." It was very funny. (I used to do sh*t like that two years ago! It reminded me of the good old days with the P90.)
I was constantly moving back and forth - shaff probably would have added some jumping motion - but the steady strafing was enough to keep most of the guys from drawing much of a bead on me, inasmuch as they were also pre-occupied with guys attacking them from more conventional positions within the buildings.
I worked up and down the street like that, picking them out in the alleys, in the buildings, everywhere - bang bang bang, kill kill kill - whoops death - then bang bang bang, kill kill kill, lol.
The game ended too quickly. We were victorious. The map switched to Downpour.
Magically, the killing bliss continued. I was "in the zone."
Usually I move from defensive position to defensive position, but this time I just "floated" around the map picking off targets. The secret was constantly changing positions, without "running" which disables your weapon for a half second. Walking this way on HIGH ALERT, like Dirty Harry, I picked out a light brown camouflage suit - Boom - there's one - Boom - there's another! I was able to spot most of the targets a couple tenths of a second before they spotted me.
(Sure, occasionally, the guys who were "dug-in," crouched and mostly hidden and covering a particular path, would nail me a micro-second before I saw them, but the kills were coming about two to one over the deaths, and that was fun, lol.)
The peak state ended when the fatigue of 12-hours-straight of game play all of a sudden ratcheted my reflexes down to the dirt. But it was a good half hour run while it lasted - reminded me of the "good old days" of COD4. Luckily I had enough sense to quit and go to bed!
- - - - - - - - Thanks Shaff! - SEARCH AND DESTROY!!
I owe a note of thanks to Shaff.
One of the things that ended up pulling me back into COD4 mp, is the type of game-play that Shaff had told me about two years ago, "Search and Destroy" which I tried for the first time about 30 days ago. (Usually I play Team Deathmatch, where you spawn very quickly after being killed.) The Search and Destroy maps are like the Counter Strike bomb maps. Whoever has the bomb plants it, and it takes about 20 seconds to go off. But the other team can defuse it before it blows. When you get killed, you don't respawn until the new round. Each round lasts about three minutes.
Even with the limited weapons I was able to choose from as a private, the MP5, or the M16 with iron sights, I found that I very much enjoyed the Search and Destroy gameplay. I enjoyed it most on a server where each team was no larger than about 6-8 players. At that size, but not much larger, everybody seems to play with a certain degree of caution and cunning. Most everybody camps - with some minor changing of position as time starts running out and you have to plant the bomb or lose the round. I found that these games were VERY exciting, and filled with suspense!
Later, when I decided that I needed to get back on a Team Deathmatch server with quick re-spawn, and also instant replay, called Death Cam, so I could better re-learn the maps from two years ago, and avoid exposing myself so much to enemy fire (Death cam - which you can turn off by hitting the use key, replays the 10 seconds surrounding how you just got killed from the killer's viewpoint) I found a good server. It didn't have cross-hairs, but now that I have the red dot sights, it isn't too bad. I put it into my Favorite servers folder.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
CONSOLES VERSUS PC (no contest, natch)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Omega: I guess I'm spoiled and picky ;)
DDP: yep!!!!
Check it out! As his first official act of the New Year, DDP breaks moderator radio silence for a micro-instant to let Kevin know how much he concurs!
Hahahahahaha!
Originally posted by Sam:
Agreed, until I became a PC gamer, I didn't care much about graphics. Can you imagine that? lmao
WTF!!!! NO I CANNOT IMAGINE THAT! (sorry for shouting)
Originally posted by DXR:
i still don't, it can be pretty all day but if it aint got no soul, its just that. pretty. i prefer innovative which like the leap year seems to happen once every 4 years.
Hmmmmm. DXR, with all due respect, I beg to differ. (Or, are you out of your friggin mind????!!!!!!)
Since I have discovered digital vibrance, and its CCC counter-part known as avivo color, if it aint pretty - you aint gonna get me to even consider playin it - once a leap year - or once a decade!
Actually, I confess, it's purely hypothetical, I don't know any game like that since I only play a very limited selection of games, all of which are very pretty.
By the way, I just finished Medal of Honor, single player, and I have to say, it was okay, but I see why it scored under 80 on the Eurogamer rankings. It had a few maps that were awesome, but like the boss over there at EA said, and I paraphrase: "We were a little disappointed - these days you have to have something REALLY special" and by "these days", he is obviously referring to the COD franchise. He went on to promise that the next MOH would be better - sounds good. (The very first MOH with the assault on Normandy was epic - and MOH Pacific Assault remains one of my favorites, but MOH Airborne was weak - I started to replay it at full 30" resolution but lost interest. They let the franchise deteriorate, and this attempt to revive it didn't quite pass muster.)
I finished MW2 also, single player, and it was SOOOO astonishing that I am speechless. Oh, I think I already mentioned playing that in a prior post - playing through the city of - where - Arcadia? Somewhere up there near Glendale just north-east of LA - not to mention fighting it out with the Ruskies in Washington DC. Just totally awesome. (Hey you guys - is the multiplayer of MW2 worth getting, compared to COD4? I mean, before I bust my butt to make General, should I just drop that and jump on MW2?)
All in all, for multiplayer, despite enjoying COD4 again, and discovering very fun Search and Destroy gameplay, I am pretty sold on the original Left 4 Dead as being the best multiplayer game of all time. At the present moment I have returned to it - I like it better than L4D2 for some reason - the mood is more somber - the music is more serious - the gameplay (expert only) is more intense in some way. (Plus you rarely find anybody playing L4D2 in expert.) I will say, however, that, all in all, Left 4 Dead 2 has more interesting maps.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Originally posted by Estuansis:
Just borrowed a PS3 myself to play with my new HDTV.
I must have missed something, Jeff - what did you pick up?
Happy New Year!
Rich
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
10. January 2011 @ 06:12 |
Link to this message
|
Since we know a GTX480 only loses 4% of its performance running at 8x versus 16x, and you're unlikely to be using any more than two HD6970s, PCIe 3 really won't give you any advantages for games performance at all.
Don't go for something like an Asus ROG board. They're a lower specification than almost any other board out there despite being the most expensive, and are just as unreliable as the rest of Asus' product lineup. If you buy a Gigabyte board you'll probably have it for the three years before your upgrade. If you buy an Asus ROG board, you'll probably have to RMA at least once, possibly twice or more, before the three years is up. You don't gain any performance or extra features by owning one either.
|
|
Red_Maw
Senior Member
|
10. January 2011 @ 12:52 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by harvrdguy:
Hmmmm. I pay close attention to anything Jeff is playing, in case another epic Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising game review is forthcoming.
By the way, I haven't gone back to that game yet - I'm still at the chapter where you start out sniping the guy standing at the top of the hill, from way down below where our boats have landed at the beach. I was very impressed that you had to shoot the rifle well above the Chinese soldier's head, to allow for the drop of the bullet. THAT is authentic gameplay that you don't see often - one of the nice touches in the game!
Rich
That is by far my favorite OP:DR mission. When you get to the main mission objective try to snipe one of the guards at/near the complex; that was probably the most fun I had the game lol.
|
|
harvrdguy
Senior Member
|
11. January 2011 @ 00:45 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by Red_Maw:
That is by far my favorite OP:DR mission. When you get to the main mission objective try to snipe one of the guards at/near the complex; that was probably the most fun I had the game lol.
Wow, Red, since the game has been pretty amazing so far, if I have just started your favorite mission - then I'll have to start right in on OF:DR next gaming weekend!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sam, I duly note your advice regarding motherboards. And you are probably completely right about the whole thing - but the reviews scared me! And I think back to the frustration you had trying to run the dual 4870x2 boards, when a couple of the ROG guys I found on newegg seemed to not be having any problem.
All I noticed is that, when I went from the $180 board, to the $380 board, the Newegg reviews changed noticeably - the tone seemed to shift from what I perceived as "lots of problems" to much more favorable "lots of satisfaction."
Yes there were high-end board reviews where the ROG board immediately failed and had to be RMA'd back, or even arrived DOA - but overall, as I say, the reviews had a far different tone, almost like you get what you pay for. Maybe it isn't true - but all the negativism scared me.
When I finally do get my money together for the new build - I'll have to go through all of them again and get my sense of things at that time. I'm also going to pay attention to the kind of customer service experience those users had. Gigabyte had lots of mftr replies starting out with "We regret the problems you are having with ...." I saw that again and again. Yes, I appreciated that the manufacturer was concerned and involved - BUT STILL...
I would rather overpay a bit, if by doing so I can reduce some frustration. It goes without saying that I have neither your savvy nor your patience. LOL - scaredycat rich
(Regarding the issue of pci-e 3.0 - I'm sure it will be out in force by this summer anyway, available on most of the boards I'm certain. My thoughts are, as graphics cards continue to get more and more powerful and denser on the 32nm die that we should see in a year or so, especially with dual gpu cards, why take a chance on any kind of possible pci-e bandwidth bottleneck if I can pick up pci-e 3.0 mobo for maybe a $50 premium over pci-e 2.0 at that point in time?)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I AM NOW A BF:BC2 MULTIPLAYER!!!!!!!! WAIT UP JEFF!!!!!!!
I took the plunge!!!!
I happened to look up the price of BF:BC2 on ebay. I don't know why. It was cheap. Then I was shocked that they only wanted twenty bucks for it on steam. So I took the plunge - I bought BF:BC2 and the fifteen dollar Vietnam maps.
I already had the computer table turned around, set up for real estate business use, so I couldn't play more than just shoot the gun a little, standing up next to the tower, just to make sure the game was starting and my cd codes were working. But amazingly, the game default set me out at full 2560x1600 - on what they call Advanced settings.
I was amazed they were giving me full resolution - although I could see jaggies, so probably not much AA going on. Also they weren't giving me much field of view - small hills popped up out of nowhere as I got closer. (This is where a 6970 and 64 bit O/S are going to help a lot!) I went down a hill and across a stream on one of the Vietnam maps - I didn't have Riva tuner statistics server activated, so I had no on-screen display, but my frames seemed at least in the 30s - fairly smooth.
Again, the jaggies and limited field of view wouldn't be acceptable to any of you guys with more powerful rigs, but ...... the 2560x1600 graphics were gorgeous!!
Rich
|
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
|
11. January 2011 @ 01:30 |
Link to this message
|
|
You're still not receiving your Pm's are you sam? Or at least not the email about such ;)
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
11. January 2011 @ 06:12 |
Link to this message
|
Rule 1 of newegg reviews, all newegg reviewers are idiots. I wouldn't pay much attention to the general attitude of people there.
Trust me, paying twice as much for an Asus board will cause you more problems, not less.
Omega: yeah I did, didn't have a chance to reply to it. To be honest, I'm not really sure what they're worth. The only helpful response I can give is 'not much!' - peruse ebay and see what they're going for.
|
AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
|
11. January 2011 @ 12:38 |
Link to this message
|
|
Thanks, I'm currently watching the exact models sell. you're right, they're not going for much. Looks like I'll be lucky to get 100$ of my 130$ back. Not bad though :p
Ebay is a useful tool, but the prices are erratic. Across the entire web! LOL! Some people think they can get a lot of money for stuff...
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
11. January 2011 @ 13:50 |
Link to this message
|
|
and they're right, some of the time. Plenty of suckers out there :D
|
|
