Mike said:
Far Cry is a good reason...
My xp3200/9800pro struggles with high settings with Far Cry if I use AA/AF.
I have 512mb ram nd tried 1G, which worked better. I have to use
performance mip map and textures with the drivers to keep the framerate good
at 1024/2xAA/4xAF/high quality settings in game.
People post how well it runs with lower spec machines but I've seen 2 other
machines of similar spec and one with a 9600pro and they have similar
performance, it isn't a bug with my system. I consider less than 30fps bad
and I look at the low points (except the occasional very intense situation)
to see how things run. A lot of people look at their frame rates inside and
say they're fine but what matters is when the action intensifies as that is
when you need a decent framerate...
SO, Far Cry is one reason to get this card. It's the only gane I've played
that could slow my system down, even with AA/AF. I just went from the 3.10
to the 4.5 drivers when I saw far cry struggling, btw, and I'm not sure how
much it helped because I did some driver tweaking at the same time (lowered
quality settings). Also, I disabled AV and other processes not required
before launching the game. And I'm just into the training, just got the
game and I'm trying to find the sweet spot for settings before I get into
it. Before far cry it was easy, all hq and 2x or 4xAA/8xAF depending on the
game...
Cheers,
Mike
Far Cry defies conventional wisdom in a way not previously reported
in any post I've read:
The absolute is that a game needs
40 fps to run smoothly. This is true in any game except FC.
But with FC, I get a noticeable 'mouse lag' effect starting at
about 75 fps, and getting progressively worse as fps decrease.
At 35 fps, the problem is so bad, manuvering through the map makes
me motion sick. At 1280x768, the game plays crisp, super responsive.
At 1920x1200, it's like trying a push an object with a string,
the direct coupling isn't there.
I'm only a short distance into the first map, and I'm trying to find
the best tradeoff between mouse lag, and graphics. I don't like the
mouse lag, but I don't like the 'ugly' graphics of 1280x768,
especially with anio and aa turned off.
I've decided to stop playing FC for now and wait for the
x800xt to come out, since all the reviews show it handles
FC much better than the x800 pro.
Unlike the hordes of people who currently have a 9800 pro,
I really really need a new card, I've got a wimpy nvidia 5600u
So, the question isn't
upgrade or not, rather, what to upgrade to? Obviously,
the nvidia 6800u is a possibility, but it is no better in FC
than the x800pro, and they both get smeared by the x800xt.
To make matters worse, this x800pro seems to cause my HDTV tuner card
to crash, something that started to happen exactly when I changed out
my nvidia card for the x800pro. This suggests that no ATI card will
work for HDTV, which implies I have no choice, I have to go
with nvidia. I'm experimenting with factors such as drivers to see
if I can get the x800to work with my HDTV card cause I'm strongly leaning
towards the x800xt solution. If it turns out that my HDTV card simply
won't with the ATI, but does with the 6800u, then I have only bad
choices.
BTW, have you seen screen shots of graphics generated by ATI's
3DC tech? 3DC could turn out to be a 'make or break' deal for
me, especially since half-life 2 is reported to use it.
Jeff B
