What's your video card and CPU?

[Kindred]

ASUS P5P800 soket 775

LGA775 P4 3GHhz HT

DDR400 3Gig Corsair

AGP8x Nvidia BFG 6800GT/OC 256DDR3

 

I’m due for a new PC myself.

 

[graywo1fg]

AMD Duel core 4200+ 2.2ghtz, 2 gigs of DDR RAM, Nvidia 7800GT. 3 SATA 200GB hard drives. :D

[leafer]

If you already have a PCI-E card, perhaps you can bare with it 'til the new cards arrive or get some not too expensive card (Nvidia 7900GT or Ati X1800XT or similar sound about right). But if you have money to burn get either one Nvidia 7950GX2 or two Ati X1950XT in Crossfire (then also choose a mainboard which has the i975x chipset and supports Crossfire, like e.g. Asus P5W DH Deluxe).

 

As far as the LCD is concerned, you might be in for a long wait.. ;) What LCD do you have now? What will you use your computer for? Personally, I wouldn't go beneath a good 20/21" (1600*1200) or 23/24" (if you want widescreen; 1920*1200), preferebly S-IPS LCD monitor.

 

Just curious, why Ati over Nvidia because from what I've been reading, Gforce is faster. Or perhaps a Crossfire setup is faster than SLI? I'm no fan of either camp and just want what's best for my money, so you can tell me. :D

 

My budget for a new system would be around 1000 usd, so I'm debating whether to go with an inexpensive CRT and use the left over towards more memory or better GPU or CPU. To me an LCD is a luxury. A sure is cool to have item.

 

I originally wanted to go AMD but read Core 2 is a stronger CPU so I'm going Intel. I'll use this comp for gaming, probably Maya or 3Dmax, but mostly Black Shark.

 

My current comp:

 

Celeron 2.0

512 MB

GF 5200 FX

 

Nuff said! lol

[yamangman]

Make sure you get a conroe core, and not allendale. The top end ATi single GPU solution just beats the nVidia top end single GPU solution. I would always choose nVidia however. I hate ATi's practices in things such as drivers, driver interface and games and Unix support.

 

 

Just curious, why Ati over Nvidia because from what I've been reading, Gforce is faster. Or perhaps a Crossfire setup is faster than SLI? I'm no fan of either camp and just want what's best for my money, so you can tell me. :D

 

My budget for a new system would be around 1000 usd, so I'm debating whether to go with an inexpensive CRT and use the left over towards more memory or better GPU or CPU. To me an LCD is a luxury. A sure is cool to have item.

 

I originally wanted to go AMD but read Core 2 is a stronger CPU so I'm going Intel. I'll use this comp for gaming, probably Maya or 3Dmax, but mostly Black Shark.

 

My current comp:

 

Celeron 2.0

512 MB

GF 5200 FX

 

Nuff said! lol

[Kuky]

Just upgraded my system to... see bellow:pilotfly:

[leafer]

Roger that, yamangman.

 

Although I seriously doubt I'll be able to afford top-of-the-line GPU, so I'll stick with 7600 or something from ATI in that range.

 

Thanks all for helping.

 

:D

[Cdr.Instigator]

AMD Athlon 2.3

 

 

ATI XT850 Pro 256

 

1 gig DDR

[Kuky]

I have to add one thing here, becuase of some people who state on thier systems they have absolutely everything on Highest quality in game and driver setup, and running resolutions of 1600x1200 and state they never get frame rate bellow 30 is just plain lying ;)

 

I run 1280x1024 on 19" LCD and when I use settings like 4xAA 8xAF Highest MipMapping etc (in driver setup) and default High settings in game (High scenes and High visibility range) frame rate DOES drop to 20s when flying over a city :D

 

I know becuase I just upgraded my system to (see bellow in signature) and if I want to have 30FPS minimum I DO need to tweak settings manualy (in graphics.cfg file) and I don't know how 1600x1200 would run weth 6xAA 16AF, but again, lowest frame rate is still CPU limited due to high amount of objects (I can get 10000 objects easy flying over a city with high visibility setting, I've seen even 14000+)

 

Edit: by the way E6600 is running at 3GHz so basically equivalent to X6800 and a tad higher ;)

 

Edit2: I've also found out that trees settings in graphics.cfg set to high actually desreases frame quite a bit, as they are counting as objects, same as structures, aircraft etc. (I believe say MiG-29 has some 230 objects - you can check this by flying with a wingman over the see with no land in sight and enable frame rate)

 

I've been playing with these setting for a few days now, trying to see what each does and how it affects frame rate, and I've founf out trees are best set to 1000, 20000 and no need to have it as default 200000, 20000 ;)

 

I even set structures to 30000 range and with trees disabled (se to 0, 0) frame rate is supperb (25-30s or more easy)

[Force_Feedback]

AMD Athlon 64, San Diego 1mb 3700+ @ 2.31 Ghz Hyper 48+ cooler (35 degrees C under load)

 

Radeon 9800XT +Zalman Cu-700 cooler

[Guest IguanaKing]

I have to add one thing here, becuase of some people who state on thier systems they have absolutely everything on Highest quality in game and driver setup, and running resolutions of 1600x1200 and state they never get frame rate bellow 30 is just plain lying ;)

 

I run 1280x1024 on 19" LCD and when I use settings like 4xAA 8xAF Highest MipMapping etc (in driver setup) and default High settings in game (High scenes and High visibility range) frame rate DOES drop to 20s when flying over a city :D

 

I know becuase I just upgraded my system to (see bellow in signature) and if I want to have 30FPS minimum I DO need to tweak settings manualy (in graphics.cfg file) and I don't know how 1600x1200 would run weth 6xAA 16AF, but again, lowest frame rate is still CPU limited due to high amount of objects (I can get 10000 objects easy flying over a city with high visibility setting, I've seen even 14000+)

 

Edit: by the way E6600 is running at 3GHz so basically equivalent to X6800 and a tad higher ;)

 

Edit2: I've also found out that trees settings in graphics.cfg set to high actually desreases frame quite a bit, as they are counting as objects, same as structures, aircraft etc. (I believe say MiG-29 has some 230 objects - you can check this by flying with a wingman over the see with no land in sight and enable frame rate)

 

I've been playing with these setting for a few days now, trying to see what each does and how it affects frame rate, and I've founf out trees are best set to 1000, 20000 and no need to have it as default 200000, 20000 ;)

 

I even set structures to 30000 range and with trees disabled (se to 0, 0) frame rate is supperb (25-30s or more easy)

 

Hmmm...maybe you're just jealous or something, but I am not lying about my minimum frame rate. To be fair though, I haven't flown very many missions with it yet. So, it seems you're disappointed in some way by the performance you are getting with those same settings, and a few tweaks which I don't even have to use...but, wasn't it you who said anything above 2GB of memory doesn't matter, and that even that was more than LOMAC needs? Maybe that's where the difference is, eh? I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but my figures are accurate. 6X AA and 16X AF have only seemed to effect the upper limit of my frame-rate, it has no effect whatsoever on the minimum so far. The quality of the graphics is improved HUGELY though, as opposed to leaving those things turned off. You may not have your computer built and configured properly, but that's your fault, not mine...there is no need to accuse anyone of lying. :doh:

[yamangman]

Maybe a short while ago, but Intel's Conroe CPU is way, way ahead in terms of sheer processing horsepower.

 

Leafer, I'd definetly get a AMD and ATI mix, thats "a processing powerhouse" as AMD and ATI put it themselves, and it runs great for me.

 

GPU: ATI Radeon X800 256MB PCI-E MMX 3DNow

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+

 

However get a better card than me, soon I'll be getting windows vista, and upgrading to a Dx-10/512MB video card, witch will be needed to run smooth computer sims in the near future.

 

Good luck.

 

I have to agree with Kuky to some extent. A lot of people claim super high framerates with 'full settings' and 'full AA/AF' on systems with a fraction of the processing power of yours IgunanaKing, which leaves me more than a wee bit sceptical of some claims.

 

My machine is hardly bleeding edge (Athlon X2 4400 Toledo overclocked, XFX 7800GT, 2Gb low latency memory), but still a good performer, with 'full settings' and 6xaa, 16xaf, on a busy mission, or overcast or large cities, or lots of objects i.e. busy airfield, the game is an absolute slideshow. It leaves a somewhat bitter taste considering the titles age and complexity.

[golfsierra2]

Athlon 64 3400+ OCed to 2.52 GHz, 1 GB RAM PC400, GForce 6600GT 128 MB OCed to GPU 580 MHz/ RAM 1GHz, MSI K8N Neo FSR NForce 3

 

All set to medium gives me always 30+ FPS

 

I think I will stay with this rig for another year.

[Kuky]

IguanaKing,

 

Well yes, it was me who said I wouldn't expect any difference going from 2GB to 4GB or RAM, and I stand by my opinion (unless proven otherwise) because I have 2GB or RAM right now, and I have no Paging File (I disabled it completely) which means everything is in the RAM. When I run Lock-On and I set pre loading to 500Km (max default in game is 100Km) for both around objects and camera, There is still just over 1GB of RAM showing in Windows Task Manager, which means IT IS NOT USED. So how by any logic having more RAM be beneficial???

 

You stated Windows Vista will need lot more RAM, and that's a fine statement, or should I say speculation, becuase no one has Vista so far (unless you are one of the MS Vista Testers?).

 

I do believe people exagerate when they say how high frame rate they have, you can call me jealous, I don't really care, what I do care about is when people exagerate because it makes other disapointed when they get the system themselves and see it aint quite so what they hurd.

 

I don't know about if my system is not configured properly or not, but I aint green when it comes to PC setups and building your own system, or knowing about various new technology. I've built 3-4 systems for myself and done numerous upgrades.

 

I studied physics which tought me how to be precise about my statements therefore I have to say it's plain lie (you might call it exageration) to say you never get bellow 30FPS with such settings. Opinions are not facts... numbers are.

 

Like I said before, and many people flying Lock-On know this, lowest frame rate is CPU limited, and If I have a system that uses E6600 which is overclocked to 3GHz, being equivalent to X6800 and a tad higher, and when I use 4xAA 8xAF, 1280x1024 32bit, on X1950XTX, and in Lock-On I use default Highest settings with High Scenes and Visibility, and without any tweaking... I DO get well bellow 30FPS flying over a city... I'm sorry to call someone a liar, but to me to say with such system to go even 1600x1200 and 6xAA 16xAF you neve go bellow 30FPS simply can't be true... full stop. I can just imagine having an overcast and flying with that setting... over a large city... yeah right... just tell me what woodoo magic does you CPU have to perform to handle 10000-15000+ objects???

 

It's pure maths that if 1 CPU can run certain settings at, lets say 10000 objects and have 10FPS, and then you take equivalent system but take a 2nd CPU that can do same things double as fast... you still get 20FPS in exact same conditions... taking into account some other component doesn't become a bottleneck.

 

I can say with confidence that if E6600 running at 3GHz can do 15FPS with 15000 objects (checking from in built frame rate function in Lock-On), I'd need to overclock it to 6GHz to have 30FPS... that is if the video card is able to back it up etc.

[Guest IguanaKing]

Maybe a short while ago, but Intel's Conroe CPU is way, way ahead in terms of sheer processing horsepower.

 

 

 

I have to agree with Kuky to some extent. A lot of people claim super high framerates with 'full settings' and 'full AA/AF' on systems with a fraction of the processing power of yours IgunanaKing, which leaves me more than a wee bit sceptical of some claims.

 

Roger that, Yamangman. My low frame rates used to actually be a little higher on my old machine, but that was with no AA/AF and I had to tweak the hell out of other graphics settings, along with installing several mods for water and cloud textures. Its nice to finally have enough power to run it smoothly without having to do all that. Water I have set to "high" because not only did it make a significant dent in FPS, but it looked horrible. I think those horrible looks might just be an issue with my current drivers for the 1950XTX. I'm wondering if maybe XP Pro x64 is making a difference in the performance I'm seeing. I've also got a very mild OC going on my processor, to 3.21GHz. It made a difference of a couple FPS, but I think I'm going to keep it that way, because, for some strange reason, the CPU temperature is actually a little cooler now. But, that could just be from the fact that the thermal compound is getting closer to being fully cured. :)

[Guest IguanaKing]

Kuky,

 

Again I'm sorry that it bothers you so much that you have to make this personal. Feel free to be skeptical, it is your right. BTW...it wasn't me who mentioned anything about Windows Vista needing more memory, and I don't think that's what Pilotasso meant when he said that. ;) Windows Vista is just very likely to make further improvements to how memory is utilized by programs. Besides, it would have been silly for me to design and build my new rig just to make LOMAC happy. There are many programs, I'm sure, on the horizon, that will make use of that extra horsepower. ;) My 30 frame rate minimum is in A-10A campaign mission two, which is overcast, with a fairly large city, Jalta in part of it.

 

I respect your scientific background, I am an FAA-certified flight instrumentation inspector, so I'm pretty much trained the same way you are...if I exagerrate, someone dies-plain and simple. Again, feel free to not believe me, and I will just go on enjoying the results.

 

Cheers. :D

[Kuky]

IguanaKing, please do me a favour and do a test using Fraps, run default A-10 quick mission (destroy your targets of course :D and land at designated base) and let me know what you get. I have just done the same and these are the figures I get:

 

From FRAPS LOG:

--------------------

2006-10-12 20:42:08 - lockon

Frames: 19929 - Time: 616138ms - Avg: 32.345 - Min: 19 - Max: 63

 

Catalyst 6.8 CCC:

-----------------

1280x1024 32bit

4xAA (Adoptive AA OFF) 8xAF

Catalst AI - Standard

Mipmap detail - High Quality

V-Sinc - Always On

Monitor refresh rate is 60Hz

 

Lock-On graphics.cfg:

---------------------

Precaching

around_camera = 100000;

around_objects = 100000;

 

Camera

current = "High";

near_clip = 0.2;

middle_clip = 4;

far_clip = 80000;

structures = {200, 8000};

trees = {1000, 20000};

dynamic = {400, 8000};

objects = {5000, 20000};

mirage = {5000, 20000};

surface = {50000, 100000};

lights = {200, 10000};

lod = 1.5;

 

ShadowLevel = 3;

LightsLevel = 2;

MirrorsLevel = 1;

TextureLevel = 2;

WaterQuality = 2;

FogQuality = 1;

SceneFile = "High";

 

LandLodDistances

LandDay

L01 = 20000;

L12 = 40000;

LandNight

L01 = 10000;

L12 = 20000;

MFD

L01 = 20000;

L12 = 30000;

 

EffectOptions = 3;

Exhaust = 1;

 

Please run same graphics setting on your 1600x1200 6xAA 16xAF and let me know if you get 30FPS min :thumbup:

[3Sqn_Fudd]

Kuky and Iguana ... take it to PM's lol :lol:

 

Heya Leafer! I dont know where you're at in this process but I think i have a few things to add.

 

Make sure the machine you build has some harmony to it... and i mean dont go up in one area just to skimp in another. People do this all the time with Power Supply Units, they skimp.

 

First, are you building it yourself? If you are ...Kudos to you... It will be a much BETTER system. I'll offer some suggestions... with newegg.com and other sources as starting points

 

CPU: Conroe E6300 ... It's a very good chip for 180$ U.S.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010340343+50001157+1050722265&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=343

 

Motherboard: Complex choice, but if you're OCing you must have a motherboard BIOS that allows you to do so.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010340343+50001157+1050722265&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=343

 

Heatsink and Fan: This is one is well rated and at a great price (man i hope you're in N. America...lol) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134

 

System RAM: This is the one component that has drastic effects on OC ability, research on your forum of choice (not necc this one.)... I will always leave this componet up to others as I have no interest in keeping abreast of RAM tech. All i'd reccomend though is to have 2 matched 1 gig sticks. Try here...

http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=92

 

PCI-E Graphics Card: Again, Research where others have asked the SAME questions as you.

http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3

 

Power Supply Unit: Read and pick one from here... These guys dont reccomend something unless its good... there are some great ones starting at 61$

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854

 

Case: Here's mine, I love it... Things to look for are how well it gets hot air OUT! So the more 120mm fans, the better

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811215003

 

Operating System: Windows XP ?

 

Thermal Paste for CPU: Arctic Silver 5 or Artic Silver Ceramique (Ceramique is non-conductive) should fit the bill for about 6$

 

I'll stop right there because the total with shipping is estimated now at 1100$ U.S. .... hopefully you can use your old optical drives and hard drive.. If not...then readjust... good luck and PM me with how it goes

 

Here are my specs:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D (623-3)

AMD Opteron 165 (0547) s939 (w/Thermalright si-120 and 120mm Panaflo fan)

2x1gig Mushkin eXtreme Perf. PC-4000 (3-4-3-8)

BFG Nvidia 7800GT @ 500x1200

Creative X-fi Platinum

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W Power Supply

Gateway FPD2185W 21in LCD

TiR3 with VE

X-52

Headset soon to be BeyerDynamic DT-990pro's with Mic Mod!

[Pilotasso]

My FPS would be just fine if they didnt drop due to debris accumulation on the ground...grrr

[Kuky]

My FPS would be just fine if they didnt drop due to debris accumulation on the ground...grrr

 

:megalol: hehehe... funny :thumbup:

[Pilotasso]

^^^^funny? Its a known issue.

[Kuky]

errr... :huh: I thought it was funny because I understood your sentence in a completely different (and obviously wrong) manner :doh:

 

never mind, I go fly a bit now :joystick:

[Guest IguanaKing]

Nah...its all good Fudd. :D I'm not sure yet, but I think Kuky's challenge is going to kick my butt. I haven't flown Mission 1 yet on the new rig for my testing because Mission 1 is so boring. Mission 2 was much more fun because the weather forces you under the maximum engagement altitude for the Strela, so I've been playing with that, along with a little bit of on-line flying. But, as I recall, Mission 1 was one of at least 3 in my memory that was a major FPS killer. I have a feeling my 30FPS minimum is going to be toppled. :( Oh well...I'll post a fraps log for that mission as soon as I can get some things transferred from my old machine (the full version of fraps being one of them). We can start a new thread for that though, rather than continuing the hijack. :D

 

Peace, Kuky. Salute. :D

[Force_Feedback]

Yes, can't we make the debris decal stay time 0, or very short, so it won't clog up the game?

[Kusch]

AMD 1700XP@2100mhz, GF 4200TI, 1GB DDR and look great...in menu screen

[leafer]

I'm in Thailand and newegg doesn't ship overseas. :( I bought stuff from them before when I was living in LA; great company!

 

Thanks for those links, though. :)