Gaming and Hardware

[Locke De Avrim]

I was reading the Thread regading GTA:SA being slow and was wondering about the general system out there in the SA gaming comunity, hardware spec's & general games settings. I think this would be an intresing topic to cover. Get a general idea of the gamers rig's out there. So I'll start off with my setup.

Case : Antec Super Lan boy
CPU : AMD Athlon XP (Barton) 2500+(1.8Ghz) oc to 2.4Ghz
Mem : 1 Gig of KinMax DDR 400 (Dual Channel).
Mobo : Abit NF7-M
GFX : Sapphire Radeon 9800XT 256MB AGP.
Sound : Creative Audigy 2.
ThermalTake Bigwater installed.
Will post a pic as soon as my bro's digi cam is avalible

Most game's I play are set at 1280x1024 (My TFT's Native Res) with NoAA/4AF.

And even more intresing, how much is the PCIExpress + AMD64 has been adopted in the SA market ???

Sorry if this has been covered previously, but I could not find the thread

 

[mZbZ]

Case: Silver Stone "Glacier"
CPU: AMD Sempron 2800+ (2.00Ghz)
Mem: 1 GB (2x512) of Cosiar DDR 400
Mobo: Some c**p Mastronic
GFX: XFX 6600gt 128mb DDR3 AGP8x
Sound: Intergrated c**p

Im currently upgrading my system, im selling my gfx card to get a pci-e one. Im also gettting an Asus A8N SLI-D mobo and an AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3000+

I can play every game ive got on highest of high with a 1280x1024 res exept doom 3 (can't handle 16x aa)

 

[Angellus]

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.40Ghz)
Mem: 1 GB (2x512) of Kingston DDR 400
Mobo: MSI Nforce 4 SLI Platinum
GFX: Leadtek Geforce 6800GT PCI-E Running @ 450 Core/ 1300 Memory (Stock 350/1100)
Sound: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
HD: 2 x Seagate 160GB (1xIDE, 1XSATA) (Want to buy 2 300GB Seagates, constantly on th edge of running out of space)
Monitor: LG Flatron F900B 19" CRT Monitor.

I run most games at 1600x1200 4AA/16AF. Sometimes I run at 1280x1024/960 because at 16x12 the text is a bit small.

The GFX card is great and running much faster than the 6800Ultra.

 

[mZbZ]

OMG.. nice setup that things a monster

and how the hell can you fill up 320 gigs of space.

i don't know how you afford that c**p

 

[EchoDown]

I have sum stock run of the milll crap....with a ton of xp tweakz
and about 800 ram or whatever and a fx 5500
lol i do have intel app accelerator lol

 

[Angellus]

OMG.. nice setup that things a monster

It's OK. If MR. Bean is still around you should see what he has. Lets just say whatever it is it is in the TOP10 in the country. Unless he slowed down a bit.

Mr. Bean always has some uber rig.

 

[mZbZ]

It's OK
It's OK!!!!!!

 

[Angellus]

OMG.. nice setup that things a monster

and how the hell can you fill up 320 gigs of space.

i don't know how you afford that c**p

OK fine it is a monster. Mr. Beans is the ULTIMATE MOTHER if mine is a Monster.

On how I afford it, ask Slimothy

 

[rburley]

AMD ATHLON XP 2800+ (barton)
Gigabyte GA 7VT600-L motherboard
1 GB 400 RAM
120GB seagate baracuda IDE Hdd/80 GB Maxtor diamondmax
Sapphire 9600xt 256mb

I am very happy with this machine considering its about 2 years old,still plays most games on high gfx settings!
it is time for a upgrade though...

 

[Angellus]

The 9600XT was a great card for its time. Was very good alround and din't have problems with DX9 like my 5900Ultra had.

 

[rburley]

the whole geforce 5xxx range of cards had DX9 compatability problems, I think ATi made there name with the 9xxx range, they were all very good. I cant wait for the r520

 

[Luke7777]

Antec sx1040b Performance II
Antec 400W PSU
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Athlon64 3200+
2x512MB DDR400 Dual Channnel
2x Asus 6600GT PCI-e SLI
160 GB WD SATA
80 GB WD SATA
Viewsonic VX912 19" LCD
and my old, but trusted Saitek R440 racing wheel

 

[rburley]

2x Asus 6600GT PCI-e SLI

how does that compare to say a 6800 or x800?

 

[Angellus]

how does that compare to say a 6800 or x800?

2x6600GT's are very good, teh are about the same as 1 6800GT but become a little slower at higher resolutions. If you can afford it rather go for one 6800GT if you want to run higher res. Don't get me wrong the 6600GT's are great and just as fast at lower res. Sometimes faster. When the load gets really high the 6800GT pulls ahead though.

If you must buy ATI then go for the X800XL best price performance ratio.

 

[Locke De Avrim]

From what I have read, the ATI Cards are currently the best single card solution on the market, but of course 2 cards will always beat one
But then again I'm dying to see what these crossfire cards will do.

Personally I won't upgrade untill next year july (or X-mas) as I had a GF4-GTi in my PC for a long time, and unless you realy have the money to waste, buying a card every generation is not worth it (al least not a +- R3000 minimum )

OMG
I found my new case
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=339

Now that will do nicely for a AMD64 Rig with SLI/Crossfire.
Oh boy, I can hear my wallet huming again.

 

[Luke7777]

how does that compare to say a 6800 or x800?

Numbers ? 3DMark05 using the applicable nVidia SLI profile at 1024x768:

3DMark Score			6191 3DMarks		Game Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon	24.1 FPS		Game Tests
GT2 - Firefly Forest		19.1 FPS		Game Tests
GT3 - Canyon Flight		33.0 FPS		Game Tests
CPU Score			3872 CPUMarks		CPU Tests
CPU Test 1			1.8 FPS			CPU Tests
CPU Test 2			3.7 FPS			CPU Tests
Fill Rate - Single-Texturing	3706.3 MTexels/s	Feature Tests
Fill Rate - Multi-Texturing	7873.8 MTexels/s	Feature Tests
Pixel Shader			185.1 FPS		Feature Tests
Vertex Shader - Simple		73.8 MVertices/s	Feature Tests
Vertex Shader - Complex		49.5 MVertices/s	Feature Tests
8 Triangles			2.6 MTriangles/s	Batch Size Tests
32 Triangles			11.6 MTriangles/s	Batch Size Tests
128 Triangles			38.6 MTriangles/s	Batch Size Tests
512 Triangles			94.2 MTriangles/s	Batch Size Tests
2048 Triangles			140.8 MTriangles/s	Batch Size Tests
32768 Triangles			167.3 MTriangles/s	Batch Size Tests

btw, I'm not about to embark on a "show me the 3Dmark website link to that score" exercise. Make of the numbers what you will Still need to do it with the LCD @ 1280x1024 sometime

 

[Angellus]

Just remember guys just because you can afford something doesn't mean you should buy it. Always do proper research and buy what gives best bang for the buck. I chose the Leadtek 6800GT because the overclock extremely well. I am running well beyond 6800Ultra speeds. The 6800Ultra was not worth the extra cash. I could also have chosen a FX57 but the performance was not enough to justify the jump in price. The 4000+ and FX57 are very close in most benchmarks.

 

[Angellus]

6600GT SLI vs 6800GT/Ultra

Here are the links to the Doom III and Half Life 2 results.

DoomIII
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/leadtek-sli_5.html
Half Life 2
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/leadtek-sli_10.html

As you can see the 6600GT falls back a bit once the going gets tough. AA and AF takes it back a bit at High res. With no AA or AF it sits between or around the 6800GT/Ultra

I personally don't like ATI but the X800XL is a good card. Would rather buy the 6800GT though. ATI is expensive too.

The Full test of the 6600GT SLI
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/leadtek-sli.html

The Link to my cards OC test.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/leadtek-px6800gt.html

 

[UtterNutter]

PC#1
----
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton @ 2.08 GHz)
Mem: 1 GB (2x512 MB) of DDR 400
Mobo: ASUS A7V600
GFX: Saphire ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB
Sound: Sound Blaster Live Gamer 5.1
HDD: 40 GB (7200rpm, 2MB)
160 GB (7200rpm, 8MB)
250 GB (7200rpm, 8MB)
250 GB (7200rpm, 8MB)
(that's 700 GB )
Monitor: BenQ 19" CRT
Optical: Plextor CD-RW
Case: Thermaltake Xaser III (blue)

I run all games in 1024x768x32, no AA and no FSAA and everything runs 100% (i.e. >30 FPS) except Act Of War on the latter, big stages.

I am very happy, but am very tempted to upgrade to Athlon 64 and and something like a the new XFX 7800. There's no such thing as "too fast".

PC#2
----
CPU: Intel P4 3.06 GHz HT
Mem: 1 GB (2x512 MB)
Mobo: Intel PHsomething
GFX: nVidia FX5600 256 MB
Sound: on board
HDD: 40 GB (7200rpm, 2MB)
40 GB (5400rpm, 2MB)
Monitor: Samsung 19" CRT
Optical: LG DVD+RW
Case: Thermaltake Xaser III (blue with window)

Runs everything, but some games (like Act Of War and DOOM3) need to be run in 800x600x32 for full frame rate.

 

[UtterNutter]

Case : Antec Super Lan boy
CPU : AMD Athlon XP (Barton) 2500+(1.8Ghz) oc to 2.4Ghz
Mem : 1 Gig of KinMax DDR 400 (Dual Channel).
Mobo : Abit NF7-M
GFX : Sapphire Radeon 9800XT 256MB AGP.
Sound : Creative Audigy 2.
ThermalTake Bigwater installed.

I was wondering how you managed to OC so much, then I saw the Big Water. I've been seriously looking at getting one, but have been wanting to here from people that actually have one in use. What are your thoughts on it. Obviously cooling is very good. How much noice does it make, and how heavy is it? (as in can you still move case around or would you recommend against that).