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Game Forum / Action Games / Half Life / October 2007What kind of Video Card for Orange Box
I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize I couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC upgrades and decided on an EVGA 8600GTS video card. Anyone have something in that range? It's my first PCI-Express video card. Does anyone here bother with SLI?  Signature"Out here on the perimeter there are no stars" Steve --Inglo-- > I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize I > couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC upgrades and > decided on an EVGA 8600GTS video card. Anyone have something in that > range? > It's my first PCI-Express video card. Does anyone here bother with SLI? My first pci-e card was a 7900GT and I still have it. Plays everything great so far though I'm expecting it to give up the ghost on Crysis at native rez (1680x1050). Ref HL2:Ep2 I've done no experiments but I think my dual core E6600 has really helped me out. Everything is silky smooth Oh.. and SLI? Nah. If I want more speed I'd spend less on one good card than buy two mid-range. A lot of the research i did a year ago seemed to bear this out - don't know if that has changed >> I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me >> realize I couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > card than buy two mid-range. A lot of the research i did a year ago > seemed to bear this out - don't know if that has changed I did a little reading on SLI with the 8600 GTS, the reviews I've read say that the SLI option is worthwhile but not as a starting point. You're better off buying a 8800 GT than to start with two 8600 GTS's. I'd like to give it a try eventually but not to begin with; I didn't want to make this build a super gaming machine anyway. The benchmarks I've looked at have the 8600 GTS SLI about the same as an 8800 GT. If, in 7 or 8 months, I can pick up a second 8600 GTS for around $100, I'll give SLI a shot. Signature"Out here on the perimeter there are no stars" Steve --Inglo-- >>> I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me >>> realize I couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >> card than buy two mid-range. A lot of the research i did a year ago >> seemed to bear this out - don't know if that has changed > I did a little reading on SLI with the 8600 GTS, the reviews I've read > say that the SLI option is worthwhile but not as a starting point. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > in 7 or 8 months, I can pick up a second 8600 GTS for around $100, I'll > give SLI a shot. Fairy nuff. I'm waiting for the next gen of video cards to see if there is a massive difference justifying a largish outlay or whether to use the inevitable price drops of current high end cards to buy one of those. I'm usually at least one-gen behind due to cost/performance. Only thing that makes me wonder this time about my usual trick of buying last gen high end is that the 8xxx series is largely unproven in DX10 games due to the lack of said games. As Vista is going to become a necessity rather than an option at some point in the next year or so I'd rather save like hell and buy a new gen if the upcoming DX10 games show the 8xxxx cards to be sheep in wolves clothing... I use a 6600GT and the games (EP2, TF2 and Portal) all work fine. In HL2 I turned AA down to 2x, put shadow detail on medium, turned water reflections on Reflect World, and turned HDR off. (1400 X 900 resolution, BTW) After that, game runs nice and smooth. Haven't checked framerate, but so far no issues. > I use a 6600GT and the games (EP2, TF2 and Portal) all work fine. In > HL2 I turned AA down to 2x, put shadow detail on medium, turned water > reflections on Reflect World, and turned HDR off. (1400 X 900 > resolution, BTW) After that, game runs nice and smooth. Haven't > checked framerate, but so far no issues. Actual framerates don't matter a damn. If you're happy with it then that's all that matters. Let those who claim to be able to spot a difference of 5 fps argue amongst themselves. As long as its smooth for me its perfect > I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me > realize I couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC > upgrades and decided on an EVGA 8600GTS video card. Anyone have > something in that range? It's my first PCI-Express video card. ATI 1950 XT 256Mb - max settings - no lag > Does anyone here bother with SLI? McG is - but nobody else I think - Peter SignatureHi! I'm a .signature *virus*! Copy me into your ~/.signature to help me spread! > I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize I > couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC upgrades and > decided on an EVGA 8600GTS video card. Anyone have something in that > range? > It's my first PCI-Express video card. Does anyone here bother with SLI? No SLI though motherboard is capable. I went almost all hog and got the BFG8800GTS 640mb. Paired with the Intel C2D E6600 and 2 GB DDR2-800 I crank everything to the top and let it fly. I really only shut off shadows as they don't work right. See upside down shadows of players on the roof and such. SignatureJethro[AGHL] aka Phat_Jethro Reply Email: jethro86 (at) gmail (dot) com > I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize > I couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC upgrades > and decided on an EVGA 8600GTS video card. Anyone have something in > that range? > It's my first PCI-Express video card. Does anyone here bother with SLI? Here's what I just bought: ASUS M2N-E SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard EVGA 256-P2-N761-AR GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card Western Digital Caviar RE WD3200YS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA5200CSBOX Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS ATX12V / EPS12V 600W Power Supply LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-05 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-5400c4 It was an odd experience because I kept telling myself that I plan on doing most of my gaming from now on on the 360. The 8600GTS seemed like a good deal, $165 plus QuakeWars. The above all goes to upgrade a system that's had the same processor in it since 2002. Holy moly! Signature"Out here on the perimeter there are no stars" Steve --Inglo-- >I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize I >couldn't abandon my desktop. I just bought a bunch of PC upgrades and >decided on an EVGA 8600GTS video card. Anyone have something in that range? >It's my first PCI-Express video card. Does anyone here bother with SLI? Use to do sli w/ dual7900GT's, don't need it now with the following: Evga 680i M/B BFG 8800GTX 746MB OC E6600 (2.4Ghz) o/c to 3.3 Ghz Dual boot XP & Vista X-Fi Extream Music sound card I play all games @ 1600x1200 20.1" Samsung204b monitor PC Power&Cooling 850w PS Three WD HD's @350GBs each Two Lite-On cd/dvd r-rw drives Saitek X-52 Flight Controllers Plus some other stuff. Legion > >> I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize I [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Legion > Are you running Vista 64-bit? I decided to buy that to go with my other upgrades. I checked all my peripherals and they all seem to have 64 bit drivers. If you have it, any problems with that OS (specifically 64 bit, I'm already running 32 bit Vista on my laptop, so I know about it's general deficiencies? I'm pretty stoked to be putting together my first whole new system in years. I don't think I've ever made such wholesale changes, my system was always slowly evolving, this is a radical mutation. Signature"Out here on the perimeter there are no stars" Steve --Inglo-- > I'm pretty stoked to be putting together my first whole new system in > years. I don't think I've ever made such wholesale changes, my system > was always slowly evolving, this is a radical mutation. More likely it's from outer space :) - Peter SignatureHi! I'm a .signature *virus*! Copy me into your ~/.signature to help me spread! >Are you running Vista 64-bit? I decided to buy that to go with my other >upgrades. I checked all my peripherals and they all seem to have 64 bit >drivers. If you have it, any problems with that OS (specifically 64 >bit, I'm already running 32 bit Vista on my laptop, so I know about it's >general deficiencies? I have Vista X64 on a spare partition, not using it much (other than for Halo 2). Once past the default annoyance of access control, I get 2 main issues - application and driver setups frequently hang; and the NVidia drivers/control panel are still poo-ey (for example, I can only get refresh rate override by using 3rd party apps...) (Oh, and no OpenGL, which I prefer for CS.) > >> Are you running Vista 64-bit? I decided to buy that to go with my other [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > (Oh, and no OpenGL, which I prefer for CS.) > Huh, why no openGL? You mean you can't play any id games on 64 bit Vista? Signature"Out here on the perimeter there are no stars" Steve --Inglo-- >Huh, why no openGL? You mean you can't play any id games on 64 bit Vista? It apparently is supported on Vista - but not working in the last NVidia driver I installed. >> >>> I'm happy playing HL2 on my XBox 360 but pcgamer guilt made me realize I [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] >years. I don't think I've ever made such wholesale changes, my system >was always slowly evolving, this is a radical mutation. Nope, no 64 bit...it's not ready for prime time. <snip> > I'm pretty stoked to be putting together my first whole new system in > years. I don't think I've ever made such wholesale changes, my system > was always slowly evolving, this is a radical mutation. I did the same this spring. I had been upgrading my old AMD box several times with CPU's, motherboards etc.. The only thing I had left over from my original was the floppy disk drive after I did my case. :-) Since AMD switched cpu sockets about 3 times since I last updated I had the big upgrade to do and eventually went to the Intel Core2Duo system. Did the whole shot.. Asus P5N32E-SLI Plus Intel C2D E6600 2 GB OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 2 x 320WD HDD Kept my 'old' Case and PSU DVD-RW though... and still gotmy original floppy disk drive. :-) SignatureJethro[AGHL] aka Phat_Jethro Reply Email: jethro86 (at) gmail (dot) com On 10/25/2007 10:31 AM Jethro brightened our day with: > <snip> >> I'm pretty stoked to be putting together my first whole new system in [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Kept my 'old' Case and PSU DVD-RW though... and still gotmy original > floppy disk drive. :-) I've got it up and running now. Played a bit of the UT3 demo and I'm downloading the Crysis demo to see what will happen. Did your Asus board come with a little adapter thing for the case connections? That was effin' brilliant. SignatureSteve Pehrson Oakland, CA > On 10/25/2007 10:31 AM Jethro brightened our day with: >> <snip> [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > Did your Asus board come with a little adapter thing for the case > connections? That was effin' brilliant. FWIW, the crysis demo works pretty well on medium settings. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing. Signature"be more constructive with your feedback, please." Steve --Inglo-- > On 10/25/2007 10:31 AM Jethro brightened our day with: >> <snip> [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Did your Asus board come with a little adapter thing for the case > connections? That was effin' brilliant. Yes the little dongle that you plug everything into instead of trying to get each little wire on some other pins directly on the motherboard. I thought it was awesome edition. I don't like my SATA connector setups though. They don't into the motherboard but rather into a bank of SATA ports standing up from the mother board. So instead of plugging directly into the notherboard perpendicular, the cables end up parallel to the main board. SignatureJethro[AGHL] aka Phat_Jethro Reply Email: jethro86 (at) gmail (dot) com |
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