Just got a 260 - nice upgrade!

[Hambone]

I thought about waiting for the 216 core - but got a really good deal on a GTX-260 896MB (BFG OC version w/ Lifetime warrenty).

I was on an original NOV 2006 8800GTS 640MB (G80 core old'un). I haven't got to try a game yet - but ran PC Mark Vantage ... SWEET!

(Vantage on High / 1680x1650)

[MikeC]

Nice. Is your monitor's native resolution 1680x1050? If so, crank up the AA to 16xQ and use supersampling transparency AA. Both of those features combined provide outstanding image quality!

[Hambone]

1680x1050.

I picked up The Witcher Enhanced a week ago and Max Settings w/ 4x FSAA was dipping down into the low teens during combat. It really annoyed me (so close). I kind of wanted a boost for Fallout3 as well. I should be happy for a good while now.

That was the longest I ever went without upgrading video cards.

---------------
edit: Just out of curiousity, why did my CPU score tripple on that? I could guess - but don't really get it.

-Abit IP35-Pro
-8GB Patriot DDR-1000
-Vista 64 Home Premium
-Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz
-PC Power & Cooling 750W Silencer (from 2 years ago - not the newer quad)

[MikeC]

Originally Posted by Hambone

1680x1050.

I picked up The Witcher Enhanced a week ago and Max Settings w/ 4x FSAA was dipping down into the low teens during combat. It really annoyed me (so close). I kind of wanted a boost for Fallout3 as well. I should be happy for a good while now.

That was the longest I ever went without upgrading video cards.

The Witcher with AA can be brutal on performance. Was the 4x AA available in-game or did you force it via the driver control panel?

[Hambone]

I've been using the in-game x4 fsaa.

I just tried The Witcher for a bit with this card and lookind at onscreen FRAPS numbers while in combat with three ghouls:

x4 in-game: hovered in the 90-130fps range with a couple of fast dips down to 76fps
16xQ: Mainly stayed in the 90-111fps range but there were a couple of split second dips down to a low of 39fps and one "hover" period in the ~55fps range that lasted a cuple of seconds.

I guess with the lowest dip down to 39fps, I should leave 16xQ on. Wow that looked good! Even x4 in-game had a much better visual appearance than on the 8800GTS. Most cool. I'm a very happy camper today.

[ATOJAR]

Yip, awesome upgrade for me also, i went for a 8800GT 512MB@ 700MHz clock core, cant remember the shader speed & 2000MHz memory ... bought this card and overclocked it to 702MHz clock core, 1404MHz shader clock & 1125MHz memory .... the coolers on these things are great, even overclocked my card hasn't passes 85c while playing furmark or crysis warhead @1600x1200 res with 4x AA, DX10 and most in-game setting set to enthusiast, runs great.

[mojoman0]

I went from a 6800gt to a GTX 260 superclocked . Although my cpue at 2.65 GHz is still holding me back

[MikeC]

Originally Posted by Hambone

I've been using the in-game x4 fsaa.

I just tried The Witcher for a bit with this card and lookind at onscreen FRAPS numbers while in combat with three ghouls:

x4 in-game: hovered in the 90-130fps range with a couple of fast dips down to 76fps
16xQ: Mainly stayed in the 90-111fps range but there were a couple of split second dips down to a low of 39fps and one "hover" period in the ~55fps range that lasted a cuple of seconds.

I guess with the lowest dip down to 39fps, I should leave 16xQ on. Wow that looked good! Even x4 in-game had a much better visual appearance than on the 8800GTS. Most cool. I'm a very happy camper today.

That's an excellent report on gameplay!

What other titles are you currently playing?

[MikeC]

Originally Posted by mojoman0

I went from a 6800gt to a GTX 260 superclocked . Although my cpue at 2.65 GHz is still holding me back

Wow, that's one hell of an upgrade! The 6800 Series launched in 2004!

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/evga_g...gt/index.shtml

What's the fastest CPU your can use? I see in your sig you have an AMD64 X2 4200 running on MSI's K8N Neo4 Platinum mobo.

[Single Player]

i want to upgrade my 8800GTX, but i'll wait for the Farcry 2 first. Then if it runs well... i'm not going to upgrade my system ever. Because gaming time will be over for me/

[mojoman0]

Originally Posted by MikeC

Wow, that's one hell of an upgrade! The 6800 Series launched in 2004!

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/evga_g...gt/index.shtml

What's the fastest CPU your can use? I see in your sig you have an AMD64 X2 4200 running on MSI's K8N Neo4 Platinum mobo.

The FX 60 is the fastest for s939 but theyre pretty expensive. I was gonna get a q6600 or so but the price hasnt dropped in the last year so it would hardly be worth it. Maybe next summer nehalem will be at a reasonable price.

[Hambone]

Got a couple of little problems. I've been out of PC Gaming for at least a year now so my head is all fuzzy. I have no reason why, but I just dropped down to 8xQ in the drivers for now. So @ 8xQ and 1680x1050:

COD4: Played it fully on the PS3 but never on the PC, even though I paid for it long ago. I just put the disk in and gave it a test drive (max settings). I had BAD tearing. So I turned on Vysnc and it seemed to stick at 60fps solid, but (don't know how to described it) looked a little odd when turning fast, although the tearing went away of course.

CRYSIS: Paid for it the day it came out and tried it for 5 minutes. I laughed (then cried) and threw it in the closet. I just blew off the dust and tried playing on High settings. It seemed to run really nice but FRAPS was showing a range of 15fps to 22fps. So, I need to make some changes - just don't know what to do or try right now. I didn't notice any tearing in game (played for 15 minutes) but I wasn't doing any fast turns either. The intro video's had really bad single line tearing for some reason though (left Vysnc off the whole time).

---
Now that the 260 candy store is open for business.

CRYSIS: Need to play it now (sweet - I can play it!)
COD4: Need to play it through
The Witcher Enhanced: Need to play it through
Mass Effect: Played it 4 times on the 360. Gonna buy it sometime in the near future to do a PC pass-through
Farcry2: Going to Pre-Order this week
Fallout3: Thinking about changing my pre-order from 360 to PC. Although there won't be an editor on launch and I don't know if the PC will get any of the massive DLC the 360 is suppose to get. Not sure if I should go PC or not? Probably will
Dead Space: I can see myself buying the PC version now
Oblivion: Only put about 2 hours into it. When it came out I still had a 6800GT and I wasn't happy about the way it ran. It would be nice to play it now that it would actually look really good and play smooth.


Not sure what else right now ... That's enough games to keep me busy for a few months at least. (Married and full time job.. blah blah. A few games last me a long time).