The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Huh. I guess I have this nack for assuming that when it's graphics related, it MUST be ran buy the GPU LOL! Which is definitely not the case of course. GTA IV for instance has the ability to to use 80% of my Phenom II. I tried running a measly Nestopia emulator (Original nintendo emulator) on a 200Mhz Cpu before. It didn't work! it was like a 96 or 97 computer that I had for a short time. 80Mb of Ram(64+16Onboard), I'm not sure about it's Graphics potential. And only a 10Gb HDD. Now there's an ancient computer LOL!

 

The GPU does have a role to play in emulation, it runs the graphics filters back-end. If you don't apply any graphics filters (I don't think any emulators do by default) then it's all CPU-related. Up the display output to 2560x1600 and add AA, then the graphics card gets involved.
Also consider as emulators progress, they become less demanding. Original Gamecube emulators would have required the equivalent of 20 4Ghz i7s, modern ones would work with the equivalent of three. Sadly, since multi-threading is not yet supported by any gamecube emulator, emulating Gamecube and Wii games is still beyond the scope of today's PCs.

 

Need some better coding for the Gamecube emulators darn it! And coding PS3...LOL! PS3 has barely left the drawing board. Be a while before we see even a smidge of that touching Pc's...

 

Had to turn the resolution down though...running youtube videos was causing a stutter. Running at 1280 x 720 works pretty well though. My brother is pretty happy. Now if I can just get Netflix streaming on it. The processor doesnt support sse, so I may have to upgrade if I can't find a workaround. It's silverlight that requires the SSE instruction.

Thankfully, the board does support Athlon XP which supports SSE instruction

 

Yeah, I'll be honest, the only console you can really emulate with your own copy of the game (i.e. a disc not a ROM from a cartridge) is the original Playstation. PS2 emulators are a bit dodgy, and GC/Wii/360/PS3 emulators don't exist, either in a viable form, or at all.

 

ps2 ones are fine for me.

ps1 and n64 are perfect though

 

Abuzar - no way is Left 4 Dead 2 going to run on your laptop. But it will run fine on your xbox 360 - so get it for that, not the PC. Am I right, Sam? Then look for me in the evenings - from 9-12 or so - your time, midnight to 3:00 am, lol.

LOL

Parish Bridge Rush again!
When I found myself lobby leader last night, I suggested that, for some quick excitement and new team bonding, we practice Advanced Parish bridge rush again.

One good player, krotalwarrior, had never completed it, but he did see a teammate do it. He said - "He was the only one of us who made it. I saw his strategy - he stayed all the way to the far left." (I had been running to the right and up and over the set of tanker trucks.) That player, krotalwarrior, was also an excellent tactician - he asked me to follow him closely and provide side and rear support, taking responsibility for the area from 45 degrees to 90 degrees to his right. That idea of his was friggin brilliant. He remarked several times, "It's working great - we're speeding along."

He also knew that I could get swamped - krotalwarrior told me not to hesitate to let him know if I were being overly delayed. Once or twice he turned around to check on me. Usually, however, with his shotgun clearing the front, I was able to break through the side stuff with rifle and regular melee during reload. Just a couple times on each run did I need to actually turn to spray or bat the half dozen groupies on my butt. (Machete would have been better.)

That strategy began jelling for us, and we improved as we kept trying it, and eliminated most of the mistakes. Once I went back to leading on the right but I instantly regretted it - truly, left is better. But we did begin to follow my suggestiong that we take a slight 10 foot zig to the right to double back and climb the first set of tankers - despite my jumping challenges, I noticed that you definitely encounter far fewer zombies by going overhead.

Then krotalwarrior started talking about going for the achievement that Sam mentioned.

He said he was grabbing his stop watch. The opening of the bridge takes about 25 seconds, so, greatly doubting that the 3 minute achievement time included that wait, he triggered the watch after the ramp dropped.

By then it was just krotalwarrior and me. On that final timed Advanced run, we had to wait to get revived by the bots. I forget how we got knocked down - I am quite uncoordinated about jumping from the front of the first tanker to the back of the second, so I might have missed the jump again, lol. Anyway, spending some time healing on the top of the first hill, we boarded the helicopter at about 4:20, and krotalwarrior said something to the effect, "That was a crappy run - I think we can do this."

Back at the lobby, he went to look at the achievement description, because I had been wondering out loud, whether in order to get the achievement, one would have to be concluding it as part of a full campaign. He came back and said "No, it just says 'complete the crossing in under 3 minutes' - plus there is nothing about the hardness level of game play - it's like the 'pistols-only' achievement of Left 4 Dead - you can get it on Easy."

So I said "Well, in that case ...." I edited game settings: Easy, Parish Chapter 5.

We stayed with krotalwarrior's strategy of staying completely on the left, forgetting about the first set of tankers, not even going up to the second level at all (at that part where you go up the hill for a short breather before the ammo van - and maybe to get to the ambulance - you can actually stay down and go left around that incline - which I did not know.)

We easily ran around the tank, and then climbed the final tanker to the angled piece of bridge. Somehow I was in front by then, and I tossed my pipe before the drop. As I ran, I stabbed myself with the adrenaline to boost my speed, and as the screen took on a sort of weird brownish faded-out appearance, and music and other sounds turned flat and pinched and tinny under the increased blood pressure from racing heart, I yelled out "I just took my shot - where are you?" He said, "I'm right behind you, and now taking my shot too." He jumped a wall and beat me to the ship.

Then krotalwarrior yelled out "I'm here - my watch shows 2:37 - and now you're on - it's 2:42." (Camera panned to overhead of the helicopter blades revving up.)

What!!! Sure enough, there it was in all its glory - the BRIDGE OVER TREBLED SLAUGHTER achievement ... Hahahaha. We laughed like maniacs.

My guess is that the way I had been doing it, climbing the hill for a very short breather, camping in the ammo van for about 10 seconds while healing, plus the slightly extra shooting and fighting time, has been pushing even my best Advanced time slightly above the 3:00 mark. I'm not saying this last run was a complete cakewalk, but Easy was certainly easier - duhh!

And Sam's bit about luck was probably also true. We had good mic communication between the two of us, and a smoker pull would have been quickly dealt with, but I can't say that we really had to battle too many specials on that last run, lol.

(So, feeling full of ourselves, and no longer worrying about the time deadline, we then tried Expert a couple times, and got the holy cr*p beaten out of us - we never even made it to the ammo van. LOL)

Rich

 

I think L4D2 will run on a mobility X1600, just not very well. I wasn't aware PC and xbox version owners could actually play together...

 

I'm 100% sure that a mobility X1600 will play L4D 2. And not absolutely terrible either. Remember Source Engine is stupidly well optimised. I don't think there's cross-platform multi though.

 

Come to a decision on my next motherboard, pretty sure it's going to be the P55A-UD5. Lotes socket, so hopefully no burning up with an OC, USB3 and S-ATA 3 support, 10 S-ATAs, 12 USBs, 2 eSATAs, three full size slots at 16/4/1, 8/8/1 or 8/4/4. A load of cool things, bucketloads of needless LEDs and Shaff's favourite, onboard power/reset and CMOS clear buttons.
I'm figuring I will be using either a single 4870X2 or single HD5970 for a while. Two HD5970s are a bit out of my price range, and the Lucid platform really isn't impressing me as a method for absolute performance right now. I've decided rather than combining ATI and nvidia GPUs in the same system, I'll be building a fourth PC system with nvidia graphics instead. See my specs page in my sig for more details.

 

Anyone know how to specify the ip address of a server in Borderlands? For some reason I have a hard time connecting to games and when I host games my friends can't see it and vice versa. Even when we use hamachi no on can see others hosts (same thing applies to Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising except you can join by ip so it works).

 

Very common problem with Borderlands I hear. Are you patched?

 

Yup, running version 1.01. Also I've tried putting the ip in the shortcut, but that didn't change anything.

 

AFAIK Borderlands' multiplayer issues were patched server-side. Before they released a patch I finally had the multi working just fine after weeks of issues. Any problems connecting might have to do with forwarding a few ports on your router.

 

Wow, I just assumed that pc left 4 dead would play on the same servers as xbox left 4 dead - I'm dumb. Good thing I was wrong about boozer's computer since you guys are saying it will run Left 4 Dead 2 just fine. Great! Abuzar, my user name is berkeley - find me when you get the game installed!! Hahaha.

Hmmm. Also noticed that you plan to build an nvidia rig as well - interesting!

FIND ME ON MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, AND FRIDAYS
Hey, speaking of Left 4 Dead, I'm still trying to figure out a multiple-times-per-week Left 4 Dead 2 schedule that will let me jog each morning to get back into shape (remember Zombieland's rules to survive the apocalypse - #1 cardio!) and make my business phone calls. The once-per-week all day Wednesday has not been working very well, and the 2-hour evenings always turn into at least 4 hours.

So now, after this morning's jog, I think I'm gonna try Mon, Wed, and Fri at 10:00am-2:00pm (12 hours a week - it might work) which will have me starting at 6:00pm London time, 1:00pm Florida time, and 12:00noon Montana time - so if you guys are on, you might see me a few times a week so be sure to join in. I'm staying away from Expert for the time being - Advanced is rather challenging at times on the sequel.

Speaking of challenging, the 5 hardest parts of the game seem to be two parts of Dark Carnival - the roller coaster run in Chapter 2, and the run to the safe house from the gate in chapter 3, two parts of Parish, the second chapter run to turn off the alarm, and the last chapter bridge run, and finally the Mall chapter in Dead Center - the whole chapter is brutal and it also has a turn-off-the-alarm run at the end.

Here's something funny that happened last night on the Concert finish of Dark Carnival:

WILD CARNIVAL FINISH - JUMP OVER THE TANK!!
On Advanced, we all made it out finally on Plantation, the finale of Swamp Fever, taking our stand on top of the hedge next to the back fence which was close to the ammo pile, and lighting both of the last tanks. We also implemented a "buddy system." This is a good idea for all tank battles in any finale, but especially for dual tanks - you split the team up into two mini-teams of buddies, and you have to stay with your buddy while running from the tank.

So then the same team did concert finale for the fun of it, and we kept the tank battle buddy system in place.

For the Concert, I volunteered myself to be the "special" killer again, because last week I thought that was the main hole in our corner strategy - getting spitted on up in that left corner way too often. Last week I had said "I have an idea - if we get one more spitter, then it's my fault, because that's all I'm going to do, look for spitters, while you guys handle everything else." It soon evolved into trying also to handle the other specials as well. So last night, after each kill, I started announcing "Spitter down!" and then "Smoker down!" and then "Jockey down." Kind of like "Black Hawk Down!" Hahaha.

I was having a great time yelling that out after each kill. It had a nice dramatic effect! (I think I'll do that from now on, unless somebody tells me to shut up, lol.)

Of course, on the screen it says "berkeley killed hunter" - but you really don't have time to read that during all the chaos. But they can sure hear me yell out "Hunter down!" Additionally, it's kind of a boost for team morale, I think, while also telling them - if they happened to have noticed the distant smoker coming toward us from clear over on the other side of the stadium - that they don't have to worry about it - I have it handled. That way they can concentrate on killing zombies, and protecting me! Haha.

NEXT TIME - HUNTING RIFLE
So when I explained my strategy last night, somebody asked if I wanted to go get the 30-round military hunting rifle from on top of the highest tower. I said no, that I was going to do it unscoped with AK - but I think I might try that rifle next time - you probably don't have to crouch which could be an advantage by slightly increasing the line of sight - and the scope might help sometimes - my main concern is the single shot mode which might result in me missing those guys as they jump and scramble around on their way toward us, whereas I can track them with any of the auto-fire weapons.

SCAR, AK, COLT
I also tried SCAR one time last night, and it is accurate without crouching - I quite like that gun except for long reload - I think the reload is even longer than hunting rifle. The funny thing about SCAR is that each time I grab it, I have to quickly unlearn my AK or M16 habit of firing in bursts for improved accuracy. When I switch to SCAR, it takes me a minute to get used to the fact that SCAR is doing the 3-round bursts for me - so all I have to do is just hold down the trigger. Anubis, my steam friend with a deep south accent that you could cut with a knife, hates SCAR, lol.

Anyway, for the specials, M16 (aka A/R, aka Colt) is probably fine also, but if AK is around, I seem to be choosing that over M16 - I can tell by the way it quickly brings down a charger that each round is more powerful than M16. (But hunting rifle brings down charger the fastest - about 4 shots like magnum.) Whereas for a running crescendo event like roller coaster, M16 is probably the better weapon - less recoil and tighter cursor for better accuracy - actually for that SCAR is the best - burst mode minimizes recoil I believe - I am still trying to figure out if SCAR gives full accuracy standing up, or if you gain anything by crouching.

WHICH GUN SOUNDS NICER?
It probably also depends on my mood and what sound I want to hear while I'm shooting - if I have my headphone volume turned up, Colt is really loud - and it certainly does sound powerful.

I could turn down the volume, but then you can miss the clues of zombie footsteps and squeals as they attack, or the distinctive noise of each special. On Counter Strike I always used to prefer to right-click silence the Colt - the unsilenced loudness would irritate me after a while - whereas with the silencer, somewhat like the silenced Uzi of this new game, the Colt was efficiently deadly in its sneaky un-jarring softness. (I have read some guys wondering what the point is to the silenced uzi - but again, some people like that throaty, spitting noise it makes - count me among them!)

Compared to the loud Colt, the AK is much quieter with that weird mechanical clicking noise, kind of like the unsilenced Uzi, but with slower and perceptibly much more powerful clicks.

It's nice that you have a variety when you want a change from the weapon you usually choose.

SO HERE'S THE BIZARRE THING THAT HAPPENED!
So, anyway, back to concert finale, we started getting better after a couple of tries. One guy began positioning himself on the left a row or two below me, to handle all the zombies climbing straight up that had been messing me up and clawing me while I was targeting a distant spitter. I quickly realized that was an excellent idea - I won't put myself at the lowest left position any more - I'll make sure somebody shields me from below.

So our killing machine was working smoothly, and we had finished off the second tank, and finally all of them, except for me, were on board the helicopter. It was hovering over on the left - as you face down to the stage - where we had been defending - and I had just taken my adrenaline and was fighting my way back there on top of the bleachers, after first heading to the right - the helicopter had faked me out and I thought it was landing on the right. (For those of you who think it always lands on the entrance side - think again.) So there I am, just about to run straight down and jump on, when I see, standing there, with his back to me, trying to board the helicopter, none other than our friend, tank #3.

I stood there dumbfounded, and yelled, "How am I supposed to get on with that thing standing right there?" Haha. I was 20 feet behind him at the top of the bleachers not knowing what the hell to do - I think the guys also were perplexed - I noticed very little shooting - most likely the tank had just shown up at that instant. It looked like he was climbing on, he seemed to make a couple of attempts, then suddenly he turned and started chasing me.

I thought to myself as I sped off, "Okay, that's an improvement, anything is better than trying to jump over the damn thing!" I raced back to the right for about 2-3 seconds, then cut diagonally straight down to the airship. On my way down somebody yelled "Go around him!" I thought, "Yeah! No kidding! Are you sure about that?" I leapt on.

I don't know how I made it - the tank is good about anticipating your path and cutting you off - so I really don't know how I got on except maybe he decided to show off for a bit, or pull some concrete, or maybe the game slightly ratchets down the level of aggression on the third tank to give you a chance to escape. So I found myself crouched, facing the dark wall of the helicopter, seeming to still be alive and yelling "Take off bitch" while the helicopter still didn't take off for a couple of seconds ??? - maybe the pilot thought the tank was teammate #5. But finally the screen said "The Survivors Escaped."

LOL

What the hell - that was excitingly different!! One guy typed, "Good thing he wasn't burning, right?"

Yeah, good thing! Damn tank standing right in front of the helicopter as you are trying to jump on. And how did he get over there so fast? I used to think the last tank always spawned way over on the other side, but I guess not. He must have jumped out of the windows next to the stage, and while the idiot helicopter was faking me out, the tank climbed up the bleachers, just after the other players got on, and just as I was ready to come down and jump.

Very interesting! The game is highly addictive! Hahahaha

Rich

 

Agreed on the rollercoaster being hard in Dark Carnival, very rarely does that get passed in versus mode. It is also what caused us to give up on expert difficulty, after goodness knows how many attempts.
I like that you quote Zombieland, fewer people than I expected have quoted that film - I loved it
In my opinion, the gun that sounds the best, plus the gun that I like using the most, has to be the Sniper, not the Hunting Rifle, but the full-on Sniper Rifle.

 

HD5800 series in the UK

Scan:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...25MHz-DisplayPort-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDMI-plus-Dirt2
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...DR5-GPU-765MHz-1440-Cores-DP-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDMI
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/N2GB...5MHz-(1GHz-OC)-3200-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-Mini-DP
OcUK
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-215-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502
Tekheads
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/product/S...l-DVI-PCI-E-Graphics-Card---Retail_20401.html
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/product/P...l-DVI-PCI-E-Graphics-Card---Retail_22171.html


UK stock of the HD5850 is now sufficient to be almost guaranteed one in the normal time period. The HD5970 is around periodically if you look hard enough. The HD5870 is actually the rarest in stock, and has the most considerable pre-order queues.
In the US, the stock of the HD5850 and HD5870 is good enough to buy them right away, and has been for a while now, but the HD5970 is still very rare over there.

 

So you guys wanna see something weird and traumatizing?

http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/show_image.cfm/24485

Sam already had a lookie you guys should too. One in a lifetime chance to see the face behind the words XD

 

I made a topic for this in another sub thread but it received no attention

This seems like a better place for it anyways!

I am looking for a new graphics card in the $200 range

I would like it to be Nvidia and have native HDMI (even if it doesn't it's fine) and be able to playback 1080p content flawlessly.

Current specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66
8600 GTS 256 MB RAM
2 GB RAM
Corsair 520 watt PSU
Windows XP professional edition

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102848

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161306

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434&cm_re=evga-_-14-130-434-_-Product

I was looking at maybe one of those. Any ideas?

 

My GTX 260 does well with everything I throw at it. But I don't run the resolution beyond 1920 x 1200. If I were to go 2560 x 1600, then Grand Theft Auto IV(My reason for buying Nvidia at the time) wouldn't run quite as good. Or so I've heard. I don't know if Ati's hardware(or software) runs better now. Sam will be able to shine more light on this Looks like Ati's prices are good though. Perhaps their performance is comparable too. I would be biased to recommend the GTX 260 since I own one XD