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OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
It seems that as technology improves, games improve. What once only required very basic system specs and requirements now requires virtually a new computer with each new game.
Gone are the requirements for a store bought computer, replaced by the need for such high cost video cards and processors as Geforce 7900 SLI's and P5 4.4 ghz CPU's. Remember the day when a game only needed: Minimum: Pentium II 300-600 MHz (depends on video card), 64 MB RAM, Windows 95b/98/2000/ME/NT(SP4), 12 MB video card, DirectX-compatible sound card, 4x CD-ROM drive and 531 hard-disk space. And this was considered TOP of the line in 2000. I can remember when video cards were only 4 megs and cost $400.00. What a world we live in now when your forced with each new game to upgrade your system to meet the minimum requirments in order to play the game without problems. I often wonder if I could build my own dual Geforce 7900 GTX SLI system for less than the quoted $3,000.00 prices of such PC builders as Alien, Dell, Gateway, and so on. What CPU, what mother board, what HD, what memorie, what what what would I have to buy that would work well with a system using dual Geforce 7900 SLI video cards? Would I have to have a monster power supply, oh yes, and what about cooling? God only knows that heat kills a PC faster than 5 year old with an screw driver and an evil disposition. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Well, an AMD system board with two PCIx16 slots can be had for 100$, the processor will cost you another 150$-400$, memory will be about 150$ if you go for 2GB, I didn't see any GeForce 7900, but the 7800s will cost you 450$ each. So, taking the lower end prices, you're already at 1300$ without power, case, monitors, hard disks, optical drives, cooling, input devices, sound card, speakers, operating system, etc. Since you got dual video cards, you're going to want dual monitors, so that will be 400$-600$ for LCD, and 200$-400$ for CRT. That bumps the total up to 1700$. Getting a nice sound card and speaker system will run you around 200$, so total is 1900$. The Alienware/Dell and Gateway systems would probably cheap out on HDDs, you're going to want a smaller but really fast drive for OS and swapfile, and a larger drive for programs, data storage, etc. So that will be around 300$, and we're up to 2200$. Case, 100$; Power supply, 100$ for a nice one: 2400$. Optical drives are pretty cheap now, can probably get two for 50$. Gaming keyboard and mouse combos vary, upper-range would be about 75$. Total 2525$. Fans and memory coolers, we'll say about 25$. Windows XP x64 Professional is probably around 200$ retail. So, final price, nice round number of 2750$. Plus tax. Plus shipping. Plus the time to actually assemble everything, install everything, etc...
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Dell approved me for 1500.00 ROFLMAO - at 29.99% Any one care to check the tempreture in hell for me?
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
It's bad that games are advancing in CPU requirements, since CPUs have barely changed in the last 3 years. With a couple of exceptions, games didn't really improve over that time, except graphically... but modern graphics aren't very CPU-dependant - or at least, they don't need to be. Nobody should have to upgrade their CPU to play a game like Doom 3 that is inferior to the ancient Halflife 1 in every way other than graphics (Doom 3 holds the record for "most shades of black in a game"). I can't figure out what the CPU even does in Doom 3 that it didn't do in Halflife (improved Quake 2-engine), since loading areas, loading graphics, and displaying graphics are all CPU-independant DMA or GPU operations. If anything, more hardware acceleration (for geometry and sound) should make it use less CPU time.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Quite hot Atrocities.
You'd have to have multiple wives in order keep up with paing arms & legs at 30% interest. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
I have a quite satisfactory system that I bought in August for ~$1700 CDN. So about $1450 American. Since then I've sunk another ~$400 into it (upgraded video card, extra Gig RAM, new PSU). So put the total at $1800 American. Ouch. And this isn't a top of the line system, but it is a system that will handle whatever I throw at it...for the time being...then more upgrades :S
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Atrocities, if you want a good, cheap computer, I suggest you go here:
www.newegg.com ...and assemble it yourself. You could easily get a computer for far less than what Dell wants. Here's a sample shopping cart (and BTW, I'm not suggesting anyone buy these brands! Samsung HDDs are good, AMD CPUs are good, Corsair is good, but the rest are just "average"). I assume you have an optical drive, monitor, speakers, case, operating system, and etc. that you don't really want to waste money on replacing. Internal Hard Drives Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price Update SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2504C 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM Model #: SP2504C Item #: N82E16822152025 Remove item from Cart Remove Save Save Move To Wish List $89.99 -$5.00 Instant $84.99 AMD-compatible Motherboards Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price Update ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Model #: A8N5X Item #: N82E16813131569 ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. what's this? Remove item from Cart Remove Save Save Move To Wish List $80.99 $80.99 Video Cards Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price Update SAPPHIRE 100154SR Radeon X1800XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail Model #: 100154SR Item #: N82E16814102008 Remove item from Cart Remove Save Save Move To Wish List $308.00 $308.00 Power Supplies Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price Update Thermaltake Silent Purepower W0014RU ATX 480W Power Supply - Retail Model #: W0014RU Item #: N82E16817153007 Remove item from Cart Remove Save Save Move To Wish List $59.00 $59.00 Memory - System Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price Update CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail Model #: VS1GBKIT400 Item #: N82E16820145440 Remove item from Cart Remove Save Save Move To Wish List $66.00 $66.00 Processors Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price Update AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4200BVBOX - Retail Model #: ADA4200BVBOX Item #: N82E16819103547 ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. what's this? Remove item from Cart Remove Save Save Move To Wish List $355.00 $355.00 Subtotal: $953.98 |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Well I've had the same system for 2-3 years. Upgraded it to play SWG, since then I have played COH, Doom3, and Star Wars battlefront 2. The other day I installed Dungeons and Dragons online (only extra was installing a DVD drive), sure it's not at full settings or high definition graphics but I was pleased to find it was pretty good performance.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
I had the same system for..hmm, 4 years? Until I upgraded recently. It ran pretty much every game I wanted to play until Red Orchestra: Ostfront and Oblivion came out. (even FEAR was playable- on low settings, natch).
I spent $800 on a new system, and lo and behold I can run everything current at high. Except Oblivion, I haven't had a chance to test that yet. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
It's generally a bad idea to spend more than about that $800 on a (custom built) system (assuming you don't do something silly like waste $400 on a new monitor when you already have one from your old PC)... There is no real need to buy the latest and greatest CPUs and video cards when their performance gain over their half-priced breatheren is practically negligible. All of that more expensive will depreciate in value tremendously by the time the $800 machine starts to feel dated. But by that time, you will be able to get away with just updating a part or two to get the performance back up anyways.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
According to most game reviewers and hard ware testers, the top of the line ATI and Nvidia cards are vastly superior in quality and performance over their half priced brethin. The SLI and the ATI version cards can run such games as F.E.A.R. and Half Life 2 without a problem on the highest quality settings available. While the mid range cost cards tend to have problems.
Having a dual SLI system with a top of the line CPU/HD/MEM only provides the gamer with a better gaming experience. Lets face it, Microsoft wants to force people into upgrading to VISTA through their decision to not make DirectX 10 backwards compatable. Game developers are going to be forced to step up to DirectX 10. When Vista comes out, games designed using older versions of DirectX will be obsolete. Games developed after Vista, to utilize DirectX 10, will be using more and more of the features and capabilities of the higher end video cards. Right now the only reason I can see to upgrade to a new system is to enjoy the wonders of the newer high end games, in anticipation of what is too come. I bought my GeForce 5700 Ultra only three years ago and already it is dramatically obsolete. Eveything is switching to PCI Express, that alone means I need to upgrade my computer as my MB is not PCI Express Compatable, much lime many of you. My computer is only three years old. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Hell most of the games released in the last year are already maxing out my video cards capabilities, and that was something that I did not expect to see so soon. Hell my $450.00 GeForce 3 card was ficken leap frogged and is now vitually worthless. Might as well be an old Mytrix Mastique for all the good it does in gaming. So ya, buing a new "high End" video card is something that I am very wary of, yet I know that eventually, especially after the release of VISTA, I will be forced into updating both my PC and my video cards to meet the new standards for the new games. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif MS is evil. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Don't buy SLI or Crossfire, they're both rip-offs. Or rips-off. They only increase the framerate sometimes, in some games... in most games (meaning, not the 10 that every website use for benchmarks) they reduce the framerate. Even when there is an increase, it's almost never more than 20% at any resolution my monitor can handle... and for people who use LCDs for gaming (sometimes even by choice), you can't tell a difference in framrate above 50fps anyway (on a modern monitor - older ones are more like 30 fps). CRTs are a different story, but I've never seen one that can handle 16x12 at 100 Hz, so framerates ate those resolutions are immaterial to me. In short, I wouldn't spend my money on a dual setup, even if I had unlimited money - more noise, heat, and problems for no advantage.
nVidia does a better job for a dual setup, BTW, but I wish sites would stop reviewing that junk when 0.1% of gamers will ever buy it. Your money will always be better spent on a higher-tier card than a second card of the same tier, or if you are at the top, saved for the next generation, which will be faster than duals of the current generation. nVidia and ATI both need to spend their money on useful research, too, rather than this stupid ego-boosting game of "Who can win the NASCAR races with a car totally unlike anything consumers will buy". |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
I bought my current computer in February 2003, which is more than 3 years ago. Back then i spend about 1200 €, about 1400 (?) US $. Up until now, i added 512 MB ram (now 1024), exchanged graphics once (GF 4800 TI -> GF 6600) and bought a second harddrive (120 > 120 + 160). Additionally, i bought a dvd-burning-capable drive.
So, to sum it up, i spent about 50 + 300 + 90 + 40, a total of 1400 + 480 $ to get a top system. As of now, i can play every game, with decent solution (1024x768 / 1280*1024, both with 32 mb texture depth). - Empire at War - F.E.A.R. - HL 2 - Need for Speed: Most Wanted - AoE 3 - DoW So, i basicly cant agree with Atrocities. I spend about 1850 $ in 3 years, and got myself countless hours of enjoying games, not mentioning being able to watch countless movies and tv series, and, to make it better, surf the internet and do certain work online. For me, since im spending a LOT of time in front the computer, this is a good investment, and definitly worth the trouble. One thing im missing is a proper soundcard. I think i will get an Audigy ZS 2 soon. current setup: CPU Typ AMD Athlon XP, 2075 MHz (12.5 x 166) 2600+ RAM 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM) Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128 MB) HD Maxtor 120 + Maxtor 160 Drive 3x virtual, 1x physical LG 8120 Sound, Modem built on Board Running XP pro with SP 2. |
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
This is why I love coming here. You guys always know more than I and that usually results in me saving money. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I can upgrade the video card in this HP POS so long as it is an AGP card. Man I can remember when AGP first came into play and it was the Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Now its worthless again... WTF? Everything is going to PCI - Express. This has to be some kind of gimic to force people into buying new MB and Video Cards.... Kinda of like changing gas powered cars to nitrogen or something... Must buy a whole new car or replace the motor you have in order to run the new, and only, fuel available. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
There are still going to be AGP cards available for at least a few years...
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
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Now ethanol...that's a fuel we should be using more. Cheap, easy, renewable, environmentally friendly. Whoops, a little off topic there. Oh well. You can still find AGP cards, even at the top-of-the-line. But who'd wanna pay that much for top-of-the-line stuff anyways? |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Ethanol would require a huge amount of land to be added for cultivation for any sort of wide-scale use (possibly as much as it takes to make food for 7 people, if this site is reputable), which is not particularly good for the environment either (though obviously in a different way). Ah, tradeoffs. Hmm... a quick search for "ethanol production" found a number of issues with using it as a fuel.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
FlexFuel cars are already being sold in South America in great numbers. They have an established distribution infrustructure for ethanol fuel and have been selling it for years now.
The myth that we would need huge amounts of land to cultivate bio-fuel is a myth started by the oil companies in order to discourge research into that area. The truth is, you can make ethanol from many crops not just corn. Alcohol fuel is the best alternative and is what I believe they are using in Brazil at the moment. Remember, the oil companies don't want alternative fuels on the market and have virtually bottomless pockets to keep the anti alternative fuel PR machine going. "Its bad for the environment." - false "Its bad for your motor." - False - look to flex fuel engines built by most manufactures now. "It will cost more to produce." False, look to brazil and see that it is about a 1/3 the cost of gas. "It will hurt the economy." Untrue, just flat out a lie. Don't buy into the PR machine funded by the oil companies. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
AGP vs PCI Express. Which is better and why? Is there really a noticable differance?
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
I wonder if my HP POS is PCI Express? I have never looked to be honest with you. What is the major differance between PCI and PCI Express slot? An additional smaller slot or something
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
***Moved to the appropriate venue.***
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
as a computer shop owner for 5 years (1995-2000) and still mildly follow the market
you are correct theyt do make changes every 5 years or so to force a repurchase example basic motherboard slots isa vs mca (the pc xt era) isa was 16 bit mca was vastly better at 32and nearly as fast at data transfer as a pci howwever the isa added two options to compete eisa (extended ) which worked very well and was backward compatible and vesa an extended slot design that cost more and only 3 slots per machine instead of all eight (thats right EIGHT SLOTS !!!!!) vesa was replaced by pci losing its backward compatible slot design the first instance of a completly non backward compatible design replacing and winning in popularity (note the user base attitude change from tech heads who understood what they were buying and the implications of compatibility and later addons or replacement of a board vs today's userbase that says fix my computer toaster please )then next step was shrinking the motherboard and the case thus forcing fewer slots (cost reduction) now standard at 1 to 3 plus an agp if not a builtin card then as a addon agp the accerlerated graphics port came in to promise faster graphics vs pci slots and now pci express is attempting to replace the agp with an extension of the pci slot standard the computer industry has to change standards to force business users to change machinery every few years otherwise business the mainstay of the industry would still be running there programs on 80386 computers which can handle most business applications (properly programmed with good tight code) and only purchase faster machines for programs that required the massive bloated power needed for windows and its overblown interface (yes i run wxp pro i havent really become happy with linux like tomany old programs i have) |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
The problem I have with a couple of my older games (that I still enjoy playing) is that my system is too FAST. I only play a couple of "modern" games released in the last year or two. A friend of mine had a similiar problem and wound up rebuilding an old P133, and it looks like I'm going to wind up doing the same with my old P200.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
MS has an app called Virtual Server, and it will let you run guest OS’s from within your host OS. VS is a free download, so if you have a decent system with some ram to spare, you can set up 9x to run right on your desktop. You just load it up and it runs on top of your host OS. You can actually use both at the same time.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
I run a dual-head setup with a Matrox Millenium G550. It's been able to handle everything up till this year. I wanted to play the demo of GalCivII but there are no drivers for this thing past DirectX 9.0. (GalCiv needs 9.0c support) The specs on the card (128bit/32) are up to the challenge except for that little crucial tid-bit. Same thing with the new Tomb Raider Demo.
Is there a good card that supports dual-head setups and will run these new games? I can't seem to find one. Well, not an affordable one at any rate... TT |
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Or you could get Vmware to do the same thing, also free now.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Computers are overrated.
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TT |
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
The post was [Re: Thermodyne].
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Hence my confusion, thank you.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
It’s just one of Fyron’s anti Microsoft comments. Its almost automatic now.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
You seem to be a bit touchy today... you're definitely reading more into that than is there.
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Don't make us lock this thread! We will do it.... don't make us!
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
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http://www.clarkinsurance.com/Matrox5.95.5.0.zip I am not sure what version of DirectX games I've played but I know I play at least 1 (my 6 year old plays LEGO StarWars and I know that uses DirectX and I think it may even be 'c') |
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Interesting thread,..
All I can say is the industry has gotten to the point where they are catering to the 'Bleeding Edge' (aka the top 5% of PC owners who have the latest best rigs and aparently spend the most money in the industry) This is a whole lot of bull.. the industry is gonna die faster than 5 ton rhino in quicksand if it continues to 'ignore' the mass majority of 'normal' PC users. I consider myself normal,.. why? because I can't afford to buy a new PC every year. heck I barely manage to get a new rig every 5 years. I'm still running my AMD 1.4ghz with a Gforce FX 5200. When will I next upgrade? hmmm,.. I expect another year or 2 before I can afford to make any upgrades. Real Life (tm) tends to eat up all my money, leaving little or none left for 'luxury' items. I tend to raid the bargain bins now,.. those games run ok on my system and hey they cost less. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif it's a win win situation. Nuf said,. Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
Thus, we have Dell, makers of cheap commodity computers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
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Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
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Oh, and ethanol? Please. Takes too much energy to produce, gas is better. Bio-diesel man. Bio-diesel. Burrito-scented exhaust anyone? |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
<sniff,sniff> "Mmmm... french-fries..."
BTW Siv, that discussion's been moved to the OT:Ethanol thread |
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Oh, and hey, I downloaded that file thanks. Is it the whole "P-desk" install? If so I'll have to uninstall what I have first. Thx, TT |
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And yup, got that CD with the last batch of 10 G550 cards I bought. I put the same driver on my personal G550 (which originally came with the 5.23 drivers) with no probs at all. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
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Hey, how do you think the game console market survives? Or the auto industry? Or the _____ industry? Oh sure, personally I agree with you. I drive a 6 year old truck not because I can't afford a newer one but why? The one I have works fine for me. I still have the same Atari I bought several years ago (don't want to admit actually how long ago) and it still works. Do I or my kids play it? Not a chance. They want to play the Xbox with Halo. Hey, I wanna' clue you in if you don't already know that Halo is quite a bit more fun than Pong. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif The thing we have to keep in mind about statements like that is that there is a *lot* of disposable income out there and the game publishers target market has control over a big portion of that. A lot of teenagers have a lot of influence over their parents money. Right or wrong, that's just the way it is. So as log as there are teens and game publishers, this industry won't die. And besides they won't make much of guys like me - I haven't bought a PC game for myself since I bought Gold 4 years or so ago. |
Re: OT: Climbing System Requirements and Specs
[teenager] Aw, snap... [/teenager]
2.4ghz P4, 1.5gb RAM, latest video drivers, latest DirectX (april'06)... Now the game won't even start. |
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But that's a little OT so I'll shut up now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif |
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As to the G550 driver issue, would you like me to post the full CD image? Again, I run that version and have no problems. Have you tried removing all of it (game, DirectX, and driver) and install them in this order: Video Drivers DirectX Game That's how I normally will do it if I have problems with any of those things. I install all support software first. That help any? |
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