Buying a graphics card...
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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by wil5on on Sun Apr 9th at 10:20pm 2006


Unfortunately, crisp dynamic shadows and high-quality models and shiny water dont make it as fun as battlefield 1942. If they removed the whole RTS element from it (squads/commanders etc.), and fixed their stupid patch programs so I could patch it, it would be a whole lot better.


"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Toast King on Mon Apr 10th at 3:06pm 2006


Pfffft, Battlefield 1942 is SOO boring Im proberly gonna delete it, after playing BF2 is way more enjoyable + nicer graphics + more playable and fast. Nicer weopons, and BF1942's command interface does not exist. BF2 has proper command and sqauds. With top-down displays. And the game is more detailed with props. While the command interface makes it more controllable of your team, I do agree it is damb confusing at times.


Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by rs6 on Tue Apr 11th at 1:38am 2006


whats your in game name?

mine is JoeMah
stats----> Here

As you can see, I am also addicted to BF2.




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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Toast King on Tue Apr 11th at 5:50pm 2006


Mine is also Toast King <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">
I brought another 512 ram today, so I now have a gig.



Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by rival on Tue Apr 11th at 6:41pm 2006


sorry a bit off topic but i customized my own pc

$7335.00
CASE : Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ01 Workstation Aluminum Case 420 WATT (BLACK COLOR)
CPU : (939-pin) AMD Athlon?64 FX 60 Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio
MEMORY : 2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Kingston Hyper-X High Performance Memory w/ Heat Spreader)
VIDEO CARD : NEW! NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
VIDEO CARD 2 : NEW! NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
LCD Monitor : ViewSonic VP2330WB 23" Wide Screen Color TFT Active Matrix WUXGA LCD Display Monitor
HARD DRIVE : 1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
Hard Drive 2 : 1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
Optical Drive : COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2 : COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND : New! Creative Labs X-FI Elite Pro 24-BIT PCI Sound Card
way too expensive but oh do i wish!




Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
&quot;I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!&quot;



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Crono on Tue Apr 11th at 7:45pm 2006


I would strongly suggest you get a cheaper CPU. The speed will be utterly wasted if you're running windows. Even for a dream machine, a faster non-FX chip would do wonders, or even an X2, if you really want dual core (which is not utilized at all, you should know)

That aught to knock off a good $2k off the pseudo pricetag.



Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Dark_Kilauea on Tue Apr 11th at 9:23pm 2006


Grab two or three monitors image

And go with 4 GB of memory if you want to go that extreme.



Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by rival on Tue Apr 11th at 10:34pm 2006


? quoting Dark_Kilauea
Grab two or three monitors

And go with 4 GB of memory if you want to go that extreme.

There wasnt an option for 4GB RAM! :P




Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
&quot;I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!&quot;



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Crono on Wed Apr 12th at 4:37am 2006


That's because you want duel channel. Which wont really effect anything nearly as much as having 4GB of physical ram. Fitting more into memory at a time will always be faster than a quick swap ... since you know ... chances are the program already resides in physical memory ... in other words under 10 cycles is faster than 20,000 (HDD access approximation). :P

It's also quite humorous that you think having two 512MB video cards will work with only a 420W power supply. Sadly, it uses A LOT more. (With only one card, it'd fly, but with two you need at least 550W ... says the manufacturers)

And the motherboard you're listing is just ridiculous. You could build a machine close to your specs for FAR less money ... example (this is built with the benefit of the doubt. Meaning, the general specs are the same, you'd have the same if not more performance Although, those SLI cards is an easy $1000 on their own:

(Note, I like MSI, they're usually a little cheaper, yet provide a tremendous amount of quality for their products. They usually design things with efficient circuitry) All prices are USD, from either newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com

MOTHERBOARD: MSI K8N SLI-F ATX ($99.95)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700 ($219.00) [1MB L2 cache]
MEMORY: 2 x A-DATA V-Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) (2 x $132.99) [Total of 4GB]
VIDEO: 2 x MSI GeForce 7900 GTX PCI-E 512MB (2 x $559.99) [Disregard the fact that you can only buy 1 per order ... and that they're ludicrously expensive]
HDD: 2 x Maxtor MaxLine Pro 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s (2 x $320.00) [You can settle for one terrabyte, I think :P
DVD: Pioneer 16X DVD%uFFFDR DVR-111D Black ($37.99)
CASE: SILVERSTONE SST-TJ01 Black ($89.50)
POWER: Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550W ($118) [Efficiency Ranges from 76 - 85%]

TOTAL: $2,590.40

Of course, I didn't include a monitor, but you could grab a nice plasma HD TV to do the job since the video card(s) output up to 1080i. And why, not, let's go crazy! Let's get you a 50" Plasma TV ... and an 8 Speaker surround sound system.

So ...

MONITOR: SAMSUNG PPM50M5H Black 50" Wide Screen Plasma Monitor ($2,999.99)
RECEIVER: Yamaha 770W 7.1-Ch. XM Satellite Radio-Ready Digital Home Theater Receiver ($499.99)
SPEAKERS: 3 x Athena Technologies Audition Series 2 5-1/2" 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers (Pair) (3 x $149.90)
CENTER SPEAKER: Bose Center-Channel Speaker ($199.99)
SUB: Athena Technologies Audition Series 12" 800-Watt Powered Sub-woofer ($399.99)

Grand Total: $7,140.06

With that $194.94 left over you can go buy yourself a table to put all that crap on.

I hope I introduced a new standard for "dream machine" in some of your guy's eyes.

Playing games on that thing would be incredibly amazing.



Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Toast King on Wed Apr 12th at 1:20pm 2006


You must be mad to go for 4 gigs of ram. Your PC will NEVER use proberly even 2 gigs of ram (Which to me is also insane).

That GFX card is great, go for it <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">
You dont need a terrabyte hardrive.

Btw, my new ram is nice.



Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by rival on Wed Apr 12th at 1:31pm 2006


crono. i chose a 600w power supply but i never came up. that 420 was just the case included one

considering the distance from my head to the monitor a 50inch monitor would be ridiculous. and im happy with 2 TB of hard drive space!

i dont want a AMD 64 3700, i want my FX-60!!!!

also crono that oc you out lined is amazing for that price, might just get a job and save up... never realised you could get a pc like that for that price. (still ludicrisouly expensive but not impossibly...)




Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
&quot;I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!&quot;



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Crono on Wed Apr 12th at 5:56pm 2006


My point is hardware wise: you're not going to use that CPU. Especially if it's running on Windows.

You wouldn't be using the video much either ... nor the ram. However, the ram would be used, just not efficiently. You can set it however you want it. Windows will recognize 4GB (It should, anyway) all other current operating systems do. It's SUPPOSE to use virtual memory based on how much physical memory is available. But, I think it goes off of "frequency of use" instead. Which can work ... but it's time scale is wrong.

Anyway, seriously, don't buy an FX-60 chip. It's a waste of money. You wont use it.

I should also point out that ... that machine is ludicrously expensive, you should never spend more than MAYBE $800 on a computer. MAYBE.

You think It'll recognize 2TB of hdd space? Honestly? I think you'd be a little disappointed. I know, XP doesn't recognize more than ... what? 150GB without SP1.

I'd say, to make it more affordable, only get 1 500 GB HDD, 1 Video Card (especially because there's going to be SLI upgrade cards some time in the future, here ... such as physics) The ram also doesn't have to be that high. But that would still help more than any of these other things. (That would knock that whole thing down to $1577.42, I'd personally suggest getting an even cheaper CPU. I chose that one because A: it was expensive and B: it has a 1MB L2 cache.) I probably should have pointed out the warranties. The ram has lifetime, almost all the other parts have 3-5 years.

And I don't know about you, but I think having peripheral vision on your screen would be awesome. (a 50" wide-screen would encompass that) At least for a FPS or something like that. For everyday use it'd probably kill your eyes.

I guess, I got my point across though. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">



Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Toast King on Mon Apr 17th at 4:20pm 2006


BF2 is going great, ive set it to the absolute max settings, with anti aliasing, and it normaly hangs around 45-55 fps.


Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Bewbies on Mon Apr 17th at 5:03pm 2006


Also been looking to upgrade, but I would have to upgrade EVERYTHING! It bites. However, this is what I've got my eye on.. an intel mobo with ATI crossfire support. yes baby. oh yes.

2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102657

considering the combined price of the two cards VS performance, you get way more bang for your buck than one of those $400 cards.. plus, with ati crossfire, both cards don't need to be identical.. so you can upgrade 1 at a time! woo. looking forward to my tax return..




the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by rs6 on Tue Apr 18th at 12:10am 2006


? quote:
BF2 is going great, ive set it to the absolute max settings, with anti aliasing, and it normaly hangs around 45-55 fps.


Have you tried the ULTRA high settings yet?




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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Toast King on Tue Apr 18th at 1:23pm 2006


@ Bewbies: You have 2 cards? I never knew that was possible.

Message submitted 41 minutes after original post:

Hehe, I set it to ULTRAHIGH (Wicked!). Makes quite a diffrence, and the FPS hang at 35, which I think is fine.



Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by poisonic on Tue Apr 18th at 2:23pm 2006


I got a 6600 to in one of my rigs........ the 6600 is a good gfx card <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif"> but remember to buy a GT version and DDR3 <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Bewbies on Tue Apr 18th at 3:03pm 2006


yesh, you can use two video cards either by using nvidia'a SLI system, or ati's CROSSFIRE system. ..and i'm just pointing out what i may procure in the near future. i don't quite have it yet.


the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by Toast King on Tue Apr 18th at 3:04pm 2006


The EN version apparently is better than the GT, due to PCI-E and faster clock/memory. And yeah, im damb impressed so far - for being quite cheap.


Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!



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Re: Buying a graphics card...
Posted by rs6 on Tue Apr 18th at 9:48pm 2006


You can also get four video cards:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/slizone_quadsli_sg.html

Its two GPU's per card with two cards in total sli'ed together. Insane power, insanely expensive.





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