selling x1800xt512mb video cards

[bmd]

Fair enough, I didn't take into account overclocking (factory or otherwise).

I might buy Oblivion at some point - just for the eye candy.

What resolution are you running at btw? I've got a feeling that I'll need two cards to keep up a decent fps if I'm runnning at 1680 x 1050 you see.

1440x900.

Bob, what can I tell ya, it runs. No stutter, no slowdown. It was the first game I tried the card with and I just turned everything up to max, started it and it was fine.

I'll install it again tonight, maybe there are some advanced settings I never found but I'm usually quite good at going through them before I start a game. I'll set it all and take a screen shot of the settings and you'll just have to trust that if I say it works with them, then it works with them.

If there's some software that can log the settings and performance I'll stick that on as well and post up the results if you like.

 

[Rikbikboo]

Snip We use Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as the ultimate torture test. The only settings we don't maximize are HDR and soft shadows. We disable HDR due to the fact that Nvidia cannot render HDR with antialiasing (ATI cannot either without the "chuck patch") and we disable soft shadows because they don't appear correctly as shadows from the back of a character's head can cast a shadow that can be seen on their face. This can make the women appear to have beards.

In our outdoor scene there are long lines of sight, day is changing into night, and there is foliage swaying in the breeze. This has a severe impact on performance. This is where raw horsepower can muscle its way through this test. That is exactly what the GeForce 7950GX2 can do and chew through. While none of the cards are "playable" (meaning that they average 30 frames per second or more) at anything higher that 1024x768, it demonstrates how well the future of games with many moving objects and techniques could be.

Clearly the Nvidia GeForce 7950GX2 is the winner but for the greater price than the Radeon X1950XTX, the cost is not justified. When we switch to the indoors, the ATI cards beat the Nvidia cards and even the Radeon X1900XT 256 gives the GeForce 7950GX2 some blows. snip

i expect you woulndt be getting great frame rates with a single 7800gtx judging by these tables.

 

[stevepinker]

So let me get this right these cards can run oblivion but not travel backwards and forwards in time

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Tom's doing another stunning review there, something notably wrong if the X1900XTX is beating the X1950XTX. Why the hell can't they set the clock speeds at stock settings for a change?

 

[Rikbikboo]

also bob you will be amazed to know that i had an issue trying to install the latest catalyst drivers (6.9) for my card. i kept getting an error.

when i emailed ati support they told me that the 6.9 do not support the new x1950xtx range "wtf"

6.10 will apparently.

i trolled some other forums for this info too and it seems that many others with the new cards are running into the same problem.. no support for x1950 xt from the ctalyst 6.9's amazinging stupid really.

 

[bmd]

Actually, now you mention it I couldn't run HDR as well. So yeah, all settings weren't max but if I understand that review then Nvidia cards can't do HDR + AA so neither would they be with two 7950's. I did wonder about the beards but I didn't want to be rude to the women.

While none of the cards are "playable" (meaning that they average 30 frames per second or more) at anything higher that 1024x768...

Bollocks.

 

[Pingu]

I have dual 7900gtxs in sli mode.


not relevant to this thread whatsoever but just wanted to say

they pwn

 

[TeeJay]

My new 6600gt only cost me about £70 and it plays everything I want to fine. Most of the games I am playing now aren't that demanding - for example right now I am playing Diablo 2, before that it was Judge Dredd, Psychonauts and Warcraft 3, and next in line Thief 3 and Grim Fandango. It even copes fine with HL2, and although I am getting some kind of funny 'effects' on Oblivion with this new card I'm sure I just need to tweak things a bit and it will be fine.

Personally I don't really get that much out of the hyper-eye-candy graphics of some of the newest games - I am far more interested in good gameplay, humour, interesting stories, characters and level design than having annoying HDR effects.

Of course if someone gave me a top of the range PCU and Grahics card for free I wouldn't say no, but IMO it is less essential these days than at some points in the past to have a top of the range graphics card or CPU to be able to play some of the best games and gameplay out there. I kind of get the same feeling about the physics cards - that the manufacturers try to create a need (and hype) for their next gen products that doesn't really exist in gaming terms, and that game developers have actually be hamstrung to some extent by eye candy - they now have to spend vast number of man hours filling levels with photo-realistic detail where in the past they would have been designing kick-arse level layouts and play testing games to make them brilliant fun (in the past the textures and details were limited so all the effort when into the gameplay, which ultimately is the bit that really counts).

I'd argue that this is the reason why so many of the top-rated PC games are still from the period 1997-2002 and in many respects haven't actually been improved on. Also many gamers say that they'd like to see remakes/sequels to some of these games - just taking all the good things about them and re-skin them with eye-candy.

This is why I just can't get that excited about £400 graphics cards at the moment - at least not in the same way as I would have done a few years ago. On the other hand a £400 plus high-res widescreen (or two) TFT is now more of a 'wishlist' item than it was before...

 

[bmd]

Psychonauts is one of the best games I've ever played, the last part of the meat circus level was an utter bastard.

I just started playing Grim Fandango last night but the sound stopped straight after the intro. Have you had it working with XP, TeeJay?

 

[TeeJay]

Not yet - it is next in my pile of "games to be played" (I am currently about 30% of the way through Diablo 2).

Are you using ScummVM ?

Could try asking here: http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=225

 

[bmd]

Not yet - it is next in my pile of "games to be played" (I am currently about 30% of the way through Diablo 2).

Are you using ScummVM ?

Could try asking here: http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=225

I'm not and I'm slapping my forehead cos I've used it before. I'll have a go with that, cheers.

I'm looking forward to Hellgate London, by the same people who made Diablo, it looks awesome. Apparently there's a Diablo mmorpg on the way too.

 

[TonkaToy]

Actually, now you mention it I couldn't run HDR as well. So yeah, all settings weren't max but if I understand that review then Nvidia cards can't do HDR + AA so neither would they be with two 7950's. I did wonder about the beards but I didn't want to be rude to the women.



Bollocks.

That article was written a while back. Perhaps the software drivers weren't pushing the hardware to it's limits in those days.