F.E.A.R,*Oblivion and BF 2142 @ max settings

[Thingi]

Well to start with I've been out of PC land for a few years now due to being seduced by macs :-)

I love my mac mini with a merom 2.16Ghz but lets face it, it ain't a gaming machine but it's perfect for all my other computing needs.*

So the question is when is a single graphics card gonna allow to me to this? Yes I know there's the limtation of current CPU's but at least Core2Duo's are headed in the right direction as long as future game code is multi-threaded.

I keep looking at what's available and the introduction of the Radeon X1950 pro's and NV 7950's look like last gasp overclocked freaks before the DX10 revolution.*

What I mean by the above statement is that do you really think ATI and Nvidia would allow such high overclocks by their partners if G80 and R600 were not going to be massively faster than the even overclocked current gen even when running DX9 games?*

The question is how much faster are G80 and R600 gonna be? Will G80 be another dustbuster...... I suspect it will. Is R600 going to be a new 9700 - It's certainly possible.*

I don't want to splurge on a card/s that can't give me high frame rates and max graphics setting whilst running a res higher than 1080p - maybe I'll be forced into Crossfire/SLI - I just can't except anything less, if I could I'd plump for a 360.

thingi * * * * **

[Neural Net]

Well from the specs that have been released on the 8800GTX, I'm pretty sure that it will easily beat two 7950GTXs in SLI. And on top of that run all the dx10 goodies when more games move from dx9. All we can do at the moment is speculate, but I myself would wait if I had the money - I may have the funds to purchase a 8800 GT, in which case I will definitely be buying it. :beer:

[jivetrky]

yep, I think the new 8800GTX will be the only single card option that could run oblivion at max settings (at a higher resolution anyway)

my overclocked SLI 7900GTX's couldn't run oblivion @ 1680x1050 with all maxed settings. I had to turn off the grass or the outdoor frame rates would consistantly drop below 30fps (With a 3Ghz opteron 165 btw)

But i couldn't say for sure if the 8800GTX will play it at maxed ....I'd imagine it probably will with what I've heard. Guess we'll have to wait for some benches.


As for FEAR, it'll definitely play that maxed at 1920x1200. And as for BF2142, a pair of 7900GTX's played BF2 at 1920x1200 maxed pretty well, so I'm sure the 8800 would beat that by a lil bit.

With that said, PLEASE don't buy BF2142, boycott EA for this stupid adware they have bundled with the game. Static In game ads are fine, but not ones that actually collect your usage habits and report them to EA's partners!

[Thingi]

Well the kind of res I'm looking at running is 2560x1600 with maxed settings, looks like I'm going to have to SLI/Crossfire :-(

I want a Dell 3007WPF, but I'm not a happy camper......

I've just checked out teh price on Dell's us v's uk website and the price difference....... over twice as much in the UK - that SUCKS.


Good job I have a friend working in Portand who can bring me one back at Christmas (and no sales tax where he lives eiher :-)

thingi

[jivetrky]

If you want to play Those games at 2560x1600 with maxed settings, you are going to have to get TWO 8800's

Quad SLI would be your current best option for getting the best frames at that res....but I'd wait if i were you.


And BTW, you CAN play games at less than native resolution. I had a Dell 2405FPW with 1920x1200, and since my SLI 7900GTX's couldn't play all games at the native resolutions (with fairly high vid settings anyway), I played at downscaled resolutions like 1680x1050 (Same ratio)


Yeah, right now the prices on Dells LCD's are pretty darned good!

[Thingi]

If you want to play Those games at 2560x1600 with maxed settings, you are going to have to get TWO 8800's

and there's the rub, I really don't want a dual or quad SLI setup cos' I can't help thinking that 6 months after purchase the real deal card will turn up.

The performance gains from crossfire/sli just don't seem enough for me. If they averaged 80/85% perf increase over a single card I'd be happy with a dual purchase.

Both SLI and crossfire really do seem like a good way to burn cash for 6 months of bragging rights instead of real benefit yet nearly all tech websites seem to love liking ati's and nv's asses dual asses.

Don't get me wrong I'd love a nice dual card setup but although I'm not skint I'd much rather spend on a decent holiday each year now - sigh I must be getting old :-(

Looks like I'm going to have to wait for kentsfield and son of G80 / R600. I'm not in a major rush because Vista is going to suck until it hits SP1 anyway from all the beta's and and two rc's I've played with.

Your dead right about the dell lcd prices though - that's one purchase I ain't ging to put off! I won't be able to run it's native res on me mini though 1920x1200 is all the gma950 will do (will have to check out switchresX to see if I can push it further).



thingi

[MadMan007]

And BTW, you CAN play games at less than native resolution. I had a Dell 2405FPW with 1920x1200, and since my SLI 7900GTX's couldn't play all games at the native resolutions (with fairly high vid settings anyway), I played at downscaled resolutions like 1680x1050 (Same ratio)


I think you've said this before but I just wanted to ask...did you run it 1:1 with the lower resolution so you didn't use your full screen size, or did you scale it to full screen and find the image quality to remain ok?

[Neural Net]

Well yep, from what I've heard as well, the quad sli setups are dodgy and tend to often produce less performance than a single card due to rudimentary driver support. If anything two 8800GTXs would almost certainly blitz any game out at the moment at that res, however it would be a very expensive investment.

[jivetrky]

I think you've said this before but I just wanted to ask...did you run it 1:1 with the lower resolution so you didn't use your full screen size, or did you scale it to full screen and find the image quality to remain ok?


No I scaled it to full screen. It sort of depended on the game I played as to whether it looked good in 1440x900 (I thought Oblivion looked good enough for the performance increase [obviously it wasn't perfect]....but pretty well any game looked fine to me in 1680x1050

[jivetrky]

Well yep, from what I've heard as well, the quad sli setups are dodgy and tend to often produce less performance than a single card due to rudimentary driver support. If anything two 8800GTXs would almost certainly blitz any game out at the moment at that res, however it would be a very expensive investment.



Yeah, I'd never go for Quad SLI...at least not current offerings. That's why, while it would be real cool to have that 30" screen for non 3D, I think for Games it's just not a real logical purchase. The 2407 seems like th best fit to me.

[Neural Net]

Yeah, I'd never go for Quad SLI...at least not current offerings. That's why, while it would be real cool to have that 30" screen for non 3D, I think for Games it's just not a real logical purchase. The 2407 seems like th best fit to me.

Absolutely, 30" and the amount of pixels on those screens is too much for current graphics cards, besides, you rarely get the best quality panels with those LCDs. Smaller ones have superior response rates and contrast ratios etc. The sweet spot for me will be 1900x1200 as I intend to start watching HD DVDs when I can. :)