PC Gamer is worth shit, too. They gave Doom 3 94%.

Yeah it should be around 95%

Doom 3 is a great shooter, nice weapons, great atmosphere if you take time to read the pdas and listen to the recordings, why more detail in the enviroment than Hl2

My PC is as follows:

Intel Xeon dual core 2.66Ghz processors x2
4 GB RAM
1.25 terabytes o' hard drive space
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB VRAM
1680x1050 resolution (I don' t want to change the resolution under any circumstances)

I never intended this machine for gaming. Anyway, is it powerful enough to run BIOSHOCK? Just curious.

Sorry joe but no the bottleneck here is your graphic card which is 7300 GT , it' s far from being able to run a game like Bioshake which is based on UE3... may be it can run it on the lower settings but that will dramaticaly affect the atmosphere.

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

My PC is as follows:

Intel Xeon dual core 2.66Ghz processors x2
4 GB RAM
1.25 terabytes o' hard drive space
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB VRAM
1680x1050 resolution (I don' t want to change the resolution under any circumstances)

I never intended this machine for gaming. Anyway, is it powerful enough to run BIOSHOCK? Just curious.

Upgrade the graphics card to something modest like an 8600GTS or an 8800GTS 320MB (best price/performance) and you' ll have quite a modest beast that will rip through your native resolution. I' d personally recommend the 8800GTS as it' s only marginally more expensive than the 8600GTS but is several times better.

Upgrade the graphics card to something modest like an 8600GTS or an 8800GTS 320MB (best price/performance) and you' ll have quite a modest beast that will rip through your native resolution. I' d personally recommend the 8800GTS as it' s only marginally more expensive than the 8600GTS but is several times better.

agreed

what do you use that pc for Joe? Video editing? is it that demanding?


Anyway, why is everyone so hyped for this game? its so average to me.

Intel Xeon dual core 2.66Ghz processors x2
4 GB RAM
1.25 terabytes o' hard drive space
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB VRAM
1680x1050 resolution (I don' t want to change the resolution under any circumstances)

what do you use that pc for Joe? Video editing? is it that demanding?

Communicating with God I think, but I can' t be sure.

GOLD

Is the Unreal 3 engine limited to Direct X 10 or not?

Just curious as I had this talk with a friend today, about the subject.



Also, I was unimpressed by Doom III. Sorry.

I use my computer to check e-mail. Sometimes I' ll get maybe 3 e-mails in one day, so I need the extra power.

How much is a 8800GTS? Who makes it? Is it PCIE? I need PCIE.

why dont you play it on your 360?

Did anybody other than me pre-order the limited edition from gamestop.com (or the brick and mortar gamestop)?

I like extra crap.

Yup.

Pre-ordered the super-duper edition.

I know it' s almost certainly a waste of 10 bucks, but sometimes it' s just cool for the packaging alone. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory anybody?

ORIGINAL: Eddie_the_Hated

... but sometimes it' s just cool for the packaging alone. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory anybody?

I got you beat on that one: Perfect Dark: Zero anyone?

Pretty bad game. Slick CE box art.

Oh, oh! I can play this game 2!

ahum...

Halo 2... anybody?

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

I use my computer to check e-mail. Sometimes I' ll get maybe 3 e-mails in one day, so I need the extra power.

How much is a 8800GTS? Who makes it? Is it PCIE? I need PCIE.

I' ve seen the 8800GTS 320MB for around $280. The 8600GTS is about $150 although I' m hesitant to recommend it as your native resolution is quite high and will probably rape the card. Because your resolution is quite high, going for any mid range cards is just wasting money.

Do you use XP or Vista? If XP and you' re not going to get Vista anytime soon, don' t worry about the newest DX10 cards. Currently DX10 is nothing more than a marketing gimmick and you won' t see games taking full advantage of it for at least another year. So for a cheaper alternative you can go for the high end previous model of cards.

So my final recommendation is:

8800GTS 320MB - around $280. More expensive but will last you longer. Supports DX10 if you have Vista

or

7950GT 256MB - around $190. Cheaper/older but still a screamer. Doesn' t support DX10 but is moot point at the moment.

Both are Nvidia cards but you' ll find many different manufacturer brands. (EVGA/BFG/MSI/any other stupid acronym). Both are PCIE.

Overall you should ask yourself how much you will play games on your PC. If it' s only the occasional one, get the cheaper. However, if you want to start playing more PC games, perhaps go for the more expensive because in the long run it' ll last much longer. And don' t take my prices as concrete. I just searched these on Newegg.com and came up with some quick numbers. Shop around and you may find better/worse.

Newegg is pretty good. I do like the dual link DVI x2 slots. That means I could hook up two 30-inch monitors each with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 side by side.

I don' t plan on playing games too much, if ever. The computer is actually a Mac with the Intel Xeon processors, and I have XP sp2 installed on a partition and it runs in its native environment at the computer' s native speed. The Mac probably wouldn' t ever take much advantage of the card unless I got the two 30-inch monitors. But the PC side could. Are there any freeware PC games I can download to test my current card just to see what it can do? I tried a freeware version of Quake IV, but it bitched about something. It was probably an expansion patch or something retarded. I agree that my video card is the weakest link in my system, but I just want to see it run.

Also, how loud are these cards? They look like they have a huge fan. I can barely even tell that my computer is on just by the sound (it' s extremely quiet to the point of near-silence). Are these cards loud?

You can try some demo' s. They' re usually enough to give you an indication of performance. Perhaps try the Lost Planet demo to give an indication of current game performance.

How loud are the cards? Not sure really, depends on the manufacturer. If you have your eye on a particular card, look for a review of it. They usually have info about sound levels.

The 8800 series cards are extremely quiet for high end. I reccomend EVGA for their step up program. They give you a 90 day window to trade your card for another one (you pay the difference). I bought a 8800gtx not too long ago from EVGA and if the 8900 series doesn' t get released before my 90 days are up I might step up to a 8800 ULTRA. http://www.evga.com/stepup/default.asp?switch=2

Games to test your new graphic card:

http://www.gamershell.com/demo_download_archive.aspx


http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_demos.aspx


http://www.fraps.com/

Fraps is a little program that will give you your FPS in real time for games when you have it running.