The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Just got a call from my brother. He disconnected the audio from the HTPC, and got audio running through his TV. Apparently the Geforce 210(maybe others) allow audio to pass through the video card. Not really processed, but simply passed through the Video card, to allow the HDMI connection to house the audio. Wish I had known that. Because we ran audio through the standard typical onboard audio(which is primary), it overrode the video cards capabilities. So I had no way of knowing. I simply assumed that because its a lowly video card, the HDMI was simply for video.
Lesson learned

 

Yeah, that's why you want to be able to steal a police car. They have one parked a block away from the safe house (past the russian clothing store) for that reason - but I prefer the location I told you about. Then you just go park somewhere safe - enter the police computer - and pick the criminal you want to eliminate - then just follow the directions. Lots of fun! hahaha

And when you have eliminated all top 10 most-wanted, you can always go to "breaking crimes" where you will also run into police at the same time - hairy!

Man, this is turning into the HAF forum - Sam, Kevin, and now you, Jeff. Maybe my Spedo is going to have to get sold - it's still brand new in the box, lol!

Wow, another awesome game review of Bad Company 2 by Jeff:

"I actually scored a kill through some bushes last night. I couldn't see him, but I could hear him perfectly "

Cool! My 5.1 Medusa headsets are gonna be workin overtime!

Jeff - better than BF2? Is your whole clan gonna move over to the new game? Do they have a copter for you to pilot?

I guess that answers my question - also I took note of your "you don't die so fast" observation!

Shaff is a convert too:

That's high praise - and I can understand that COD4/2 is still holding out well since I recall you were the reigning xfire cod4/1 king with insane k2d ratios

Oh oh, Sam has found a problem:

I HATE MICROSTUTTER!!!

Ok, Sam, what's the solution for microstutter! (And while we're at it - what's really the cause?) You can get microstutter by having processes running in the background that take a bit of cycles here and there, right? You can get microstutter by random disk accesses here and there, right? HOW CAN MICROSTUTTER BE ELIMINATED??

Jeff has some ideas:

Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion - wtf???? Jeff, you're way up on graphics effects - what the hell is this new thing?

Wow - wiki has an awesome article, with a couple of photos:

Rich

 

Omega: As we said before, it's lowly, because it's an HTPC card, it will have HDMI Audio. It's been in every graphics card produced for years...
Jeff: I wouldn't really say 260-290% is bad, it's not exemplary but it's still very reasonable. I might give the fullproc command a try later.
Rich: Microstutter is typically graphics, as is often macrostutter. It's simply stutter that's caused by background processes and so on, as it's inconsistent. They essentially cause frames to not be displayed, in the case of microstutter and macrostutter, it basically just means the frame rate it looks like you're getting is much lower than the frame rate you're actually getting. In the case of normal stutter, frames aren't rendered at all, and this shows up in fps graphs. Typically, systems without software problems and with enough memory/CPU power should never encounter normal stutter in game.
Microstutter is a problem that plagues the HD3000 series cards, and also any multi-graphics setup. Some games it affects, others it doesn't. Unfortunately, if a game has it as an issue, I have yet to see a single example where newer drivers / game patches have fixed it, so if it's there, it's there to stay. Sometimes if it's caused by dual graphics it can be fixed by using just one GPU, but of course, most games will not run properly at 2560x1600 without multiple graphics cards.

 

superb article jeff. very informative!

 

Hmmm...must have went over my head...

 

Yeah it takes all of 5 seconds to apply. It's supposed to be just for people like you. Not seeing full use on either the processor or the cards. Theoretically, if you can raise the processor usage, it should help your cards scale better.

Wrong thread I think ;P Unless commenting on my review. Thanks either way

 

Silent Hunter 5
Minimal: Radeon HD3850/HD4830/HD5670 or above, Geforce 8800GS/9600GSO G92/GT240 or above
Reduced: Radeon HD4850/HD5770 or above, Geforce GTS250 or above
Moderate: Radeon HD5850 or above, Geforce GTX285 or above
Good: Radeon HD5830 Crossfire or above, Geforce GTX295 or above
Optimal: Radeon HD5870 Crossfire or above, Geforce GTX285 Triple-SLI or above
Extreme: N/A

 

haha jeff it was for the article on the AMD thread but its hella more appropriate here.

whats your BC2 ingame name, so i can add you to my freinds lists.

got it all up and running now. time for BC2

 

Why don't you just say "Bad Company 2". Increase those typing skills

 

Ha I post in the main 3 threads anyway so wherever it was I'm sure it applies to the subject matter.

Actually only had it going on LAN with 3 other friends so far. Won't have my full copy till my 20th b-day on the 21st ;P

Once I get my own copy online I'll be sure to join you for many a frag

 

Probably one people have been waiting to see:

Assassins Creed II
Minimal: Radeon X1900 series/HD2900 series/HD3690/HD4600 series/HD5570 or above, Geforce 7900 series/8600GTS/9500GT/GT220 or above
Reduced: Radeon HD2900XT/HD3850/HD4670/HD5570 or above, Geforce 8800 series/9600GSO G92/GT240 or above
Moderate: Radeon HD4750/HD4830/HD5750 or above, Geforce 8800GTS G92/9800GTX or above
Good: Radeon HD4870/HD5830 or above, Geforce GTX260-216 or above
Optimal: Radeon HD5850 or above, Geforce GTX295/GTX470 (est) or above
Extreme: Radeon HD5870 Crossfire or above, Geforce GTX285 Triple-SLI/GTX480 SLI (est) or above

 

Is BC2 like Left 4 Dead? In that people cooperate as a team, to accomplish a goal Cause I'm more interested in one man army kind of games

 

BC2 is ALL about team work. It's basically a highly evolved version of Battlefield 2. The teams are much smaller, but the maps are more involved and require tighter teams to really be good at them.

 

Thanks estuansis. Is there a Genre you would call that kind of game? In that multiple players work together.

 

I thinkk you would call it a Team-Based Online Military Shooter.

 

Hmmm, I guess most game sellers don't really sort them that way. I guess they expect people to know what they're buying LOL!

 

Ran GPUZ during a Left 4 Dead 2 VS. Game last night.
GPU usage was 360-395% throughout (mostly 385-395), GPU1 temperature (which will be the hottest) 84-88ºC, Shader core and DISPIO 85-91ºC and MEMIO 99-103ºC. GPU fan speeds were auto, but card 1 ran up to 5180rpm, and was typically between 4850 and 5150.

 

Played a little bit of AvP this morning, experimented with the settings to find the highest setting that remains perfectly fluid - you're gonna love this, 1280x800, all minimum. Frame rate is 85-310. Anything that cuts the frame rate below 80 causes juddering slightly due to microstutter. Oh, and all four 4870s are working almost flat out.

 

AVP was the biggest disappointment of the year. I was so looking forward to it. Graphics and performance aside, the game sucks.

Just made another attempt to play Deadspace today. Yeah then I exited right away. That game is just too damn scary and I play FEAR religiously... probably the rocking sound effects. Every little noise absolutely unnerves me...

 

Dead Space is indeed scary, and I never got round to finishing it. Need to pick that up again