[ P H E N Y L A L A N I N E |:. ------- .:|:. Stage 3.5 .:|00000011.00000101|:. -------- ]

Saturday, September 19, 2009

post://1549686946649553205/

PhysX has been added to the PC version of Batman with the v1.1 update. It does not ship with PhysX settings out of the box. Once installed you are provided several options for PhysX - Off, Normal, or High with various card recommendations.

The nVidia drivers allow you to change the PhysX settings - turning optimization on or off as well as the ability to choose which card handles the PhysX acceleration. I had thought offloading PhysX from my 2 x 285GTX2G cards working in SLi to the built-in 980a/780a would make things faster:

However, after applying the v1.1 w/ patch PhysX Batman, Normal PhysX was enabled. I was suddenly getting very low framerates (15fps). I turned on the "Show SLI Indicators" in the 3D settings menu so I could see how hard each of the video cards were working. They were both very low, indicating the cards were not working up to their ability, yet things were still slow. CPU usage hadn't spiked high enough to be a bottleneck and memory was free and clear.

It appeared having the PhysX on the older (and slower) chipset was slowing everything down. To test the theory I turned off PhysX and was getting framerates in the high 50s. It certainly was PhysX related.

I turned PhysX back on, normal setting and in the nVidia control panel I changed the setting to enable PhysX on the 285s instead of the 980a/780a. When I tried it again PhysX was visibily running, fallen leaves moving under your feet accompanied by smooth framerates between 55 to 60fps.

Based on this experience it appears that having PhysX enabled on an older chipsets may actually decrease performance over having PhysX enabled on the same video card(s) doing the graphics processing.

Here is a video of Batman running @ 2560 x 1600, Very High Detail, comparing PhysX - Normal to PhysX - High

Labels: games, games for windows, graphics, hardware, movie, screenshot, SLi

posted @ 19:49

-x-

(2) comments | Post a Comment

Video will be updated - it cut me down to 16:9 so most of the leaf effects fell out of frame.

I'm also hoping for higher quality once I install the new codecs.

By Josh, at Saturday, September 19, 2009 8:22:00 PM

Posted link to PhysX forum:
http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=33559&st=0

By Josh, at Sunday, September 20, 2009 9:48:00 AM

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

post://4306510762466182006/

I received my EVGA 295 GTX Co-Op today and here are the results!

17:45 - Card installed, powered on
18:00 - Drivers Updated, restarted
21:06 - done with benchmarking

Initial observations:
Compared to the 280 GTX:
- same length
- feels heavier
- a tad thinner

Hardware installation included 2 devices (GTX 295)
I left a 280 in there for strictly PhysX for now but going to do try benchmarks both with and without it on both cards.

Test: -/+ for decreased / increased performance

3DMark Vantage (Ambient Occlusion: ON | PhysX: ON): +
Score: 16209
CPU: 33477
Graphics: 13831

3DMark 2006 (Ambient Occlusion: ON | PhysX: ON): =
Score: 13260
SM 2.0: 4953
SM 3.0: 6965
CPU: 3268

3DMark Vantage (Ambient Occlusion: OFF | PhysX: OFF): +
Score: 12415
CPU: 8610
Graphics: 14560

3DMark 2006 (Ambient Occlusion: OFF | PhysX: OFF): -
Score: 13126
SM 2.0: 4830
SM 3.0: 6935
CPU: 3263

GTA IV: -
Benchark @ 1920 x 1200
Texture Quality High
Texture Filter Quality: Very High
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 30

Previous (2 x 280 GTX):
Average FPS: 52.01
Duration: 37.55 Sec
CPU Usage: 77%
System Memory Usage: 36%
Video Memory usage 92%

Current (1 x 295 GTX Co-Op):
Average FPS: 48.96
Duration: 37.72 sec
CPU Usage: 78%
System Memory Usage: 38%
Video Memory Usage: 99%

Crysis: -
I was a custom mix of Very High and High with a lower view distance with the previous cards but durring hectic battles I'd notice everything getting really choppy.

With the new card autodetect chose all High
1920 x 1200 was too much for it at first, but after it settled in and had the textures loaded it went relatively smooth and playable. I turned down to 1280 x 800, the next lowest 16:10 resolution in the list but the quality wasn't worth it. The text was way too blocky, and the trees all had squares where light shone in-between the leaves. I turned it up to 2560 x 1600 and it looked really good but and still had similar performance as the other resolutions. Overall I'd say this is an improvement as I can eek up the shaders and the physics with little to no impact in framerate... too bad said framerate is a steady 30 fps or so. I have the latest version and drivers but I remember a past bug in Crysis where it would run worse if you changed the resolution in game so I'll try this one again tomorrow.

NFS Undercover: +
I had it at 1920 x 1200 previously - with medium world effects (I hate the motion blur) all detail set to highest and 6x AA. I had turned off VSynch previously because it was pulling it down to 30 when I was probably getting about 40 or so, but I HAD to enable it with the new card. I was getting at least 60fps easy and even when I turned it up to 2560 x 1600 I had to turn on VSynch to make it not look like everything was in Fast Forward.

Benchmarks really don't gain much over my 2 x 280s and even go down in the game test. That's partly because the new card actually reduces my available video RAM. The RAM is what I had originally targeted as my bottleneck for draw distance in GTA and this isn't going to help at all, I even need to bring it down a little.

I'm not super impressed, especially since I could get the same performance and even better high resolution performance from my 2 (and now much cheaper) 280s. All in all I'm sure if you're running lower resolution you could kick some ass running 2 of these, but good luck with that.

Rendering is faster due to the increased clocks and there is a noticebly higher quality to the image but as far as sheer frame rates go - this card isn't going to cut it for anyone running higher then 1920 x 1200.

My recommendation is that if you're looking for high performance AND high resolution - stick with the 295 GTX 1g+ cards. I'll be waiting for the higher memory cards to come out, and praying my 90 days for the step up program is enough time.

Labels: 2009, 3dmark, consumerism, games, games for windows, hardware, materialism, video

posted @ 18:03

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

post://7853510666201610976/

more to follow, teaser:

Labels: 2009, consumerism, games, games for windows, hardware, technology

posted @ 21:05

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Thursday, March 26, 2009

post://6837641428007151744/

This year's birthday spoils:
- iPod Nano
- Novint Falcon
- NFS Undercover
- BF2142 Deluxe (for the living room PC)

I ended up working half a day today, spent the 2nd half being productive and hanging out with the dog.

I went and got my winter tires off the car, I think we're safe for snow. If it comes now I just won't go anywhere :)
I spent that time waiting listening to my iPod - I was totally that guy in the store with the iPod on. I meandered around Home Depot, looking at some bathroom stuff, and I found a fence I liked. I picked up a rake, and walked back to pick up my car. I didn't really think that much of it, but people look at you funny when you walk into a waiting area with a rake.

It wasn't too long, though I noticed something odd about the iPod touch. Even if you have video in your audio playlist it won't make it to your iPod unless you add the playlist under the video section. I have this thing about rating. I love rating my music, and now that I've perfected moving my whole Library (album art, comments, ratings, along with all the files themselves) I've gotten more serious about it.

1 star - don't like it, don't like it at all - I'll probably delete later
2 star - I appreciate it, but I don't like it enough to have it be played in my background music
3 star - background music
4 star - really good
5 star - makes me stammer when attempting to describe, tear up, or jump up and down
Armin Van Buuren - Shivers (Rising Star Mix) is a good example of what I'd give a 5.

I set up a running playlist of only non-rated files listing the newest out of whatever size, or number of files I restrict it to - but never put much of a dent in it, at least not until I got Jamie's old iPod. It was kinda broken, had synching issues - but she gave it to me for helping with her computer and I got it to mostly work. Doing things very patiently I could reload it ever 5 synchs or so and I'd get about 4 days worth of ratings at a time before I'd have to reload the firmware on it. With an iPod I could now rate the music during the day in the car or at work - I got a lot done.

It eventually frustrated me to the point of crushing it, so of course I took it apart to check it out. I've been non-rating MP3 playering since, at least I had a backup. Now I'm back in the groove. I also had to get a new case because the neoprene DLO case I had for the 1st gen nano covered the bottom 40% of the wheel on the new model - bastards, change it juuuuuust enough.

So I got BF2142 all working for the weekend - coupld of the guys are coming out and we'll have a multi-computery dethmatch of deth, so wanted to make sure all was in tip top shape. I also just installed NFS - I know it's going to be corny, but lets go see what they did with the graphics and this new "Heroic driving engine".

Labels: 2009, birthday, games for windows, hardware, music, technology, update

posted @ 10:09

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Sunday, January 25, 2009

post://6816059569584533463/

So I've spent the weekend... well, I guess that could be extended to the past month, doing computer stuff. I placed the hardware order on December 31st (so I could include it in the business costs for 2008) and received them on the 7th or so.

From there on it's been computers, computers, computers. I upgrade my own to free up a power supply and memory for my new Media PC for the living room. I took all the old stuff I had and got a brand new media pc case for it all. It's about the size (amazingly close in size) to my receiver and now have it all nicely arranged in the new entertainment center.

The original order started with Jamie. Her computer was up to the gill in spyware and antivirus and she was looking for a way to record TV. Since the existing setup couldn't quite pull that off I came up with a solution for her - a Media PC / desktop. That got me thinking about an actual media PC for myself and lead to me ordering the new case and replacement parts for my desktop so those old parts would be available for the Media PC.

In any case I came up with a really nice Thermaltake box case (like a shuttle case on steriods) and TV card arrangement. I waited on the TV card for myself until I could confirm if Comcast is QAM in my area. Per my experience with Jamie's PC being plugged into my cabe I can confirm it is not. They give me one digital channel in high quality off the line and it's always an add for a Wrestling PPV. So the only channels on my network are analog and most of those have that little known property that Comcast actually just got fined for - many of the channels say "this channel is still available on the digital teir" to try and entice the $13 a month-ers.

So I was working on 3 computers, more upgrading 1, making another from old parts in a new case and building a new system. Then Joe from Finishline called me. I haven't done business with him in a while - over a year in fact. It got where I was spending a lot of time supporting him over the phone with questions and the like and not getting anything from it. I finally started charging him for phone support and he didn't pay those invoices. I took the loss and moved on but he recently started calling me again when "his computer got stolen". He had taken it to a local shop for repair and they closed up and took his computer with them. They didn't return it and wouldn't return his calls. He ended up getting it back but it had been in the middle of a system refresh and was apart all over the place. He was in a bind and I'm planning on charging full price, so I agreed - that made the 4th.

So here I am in the office all weekend, with multiple computers on a KVM going back and forth between them, installing, downloading drivers, tweaking, and loving it. Of course, my ADD (or so the pamphlets would have me believe) never lets me focus for very long so I'm in and out of the office as things format and download so I'm not completely holed up the whole time. As a matter of fact I even had dinner with my wife last night, then we watched the office (had to resort to Hulu due to the cable issues) and then caught up on the Kyle XY finale from last year (we'll probably check out this season tonight). I then had Nicole try out Civ on the PS3. It's a pretty good game, and she didn't experience anywhere near the performance problems I had. She won via domination but to be fair she was building the United Nations... it just happened that Abraham Lincoln got his panties in a bunch before it could get completed.

So though I've been busy this weekend, but all in all it's been fairly enjoyable. The only thing I might like more is if the office was clean, but I can get around to that once I'm not using it to build. I so need to sort through my stuff and throw out the old parts(PIII and under). As it is I could never receive purely professional customers.

Side note - found this while browsing: The Unwanted Blog
It's got a lot of very cool general interest stuff as well as technological and historical items. A great blend of all things I'm interested in.

Labels: 3dmark, games for windows, graphics, hardware, link, technology, vista

posted @ 13:35

-x-

(1) comments | Post a Comment

side note about the link - of course nothing is perfect and though this blog is great otherwise, he does seem a bit bitter about Obama. Just have a little hope, give it some time, and I'll welcome your point of view in a couple years.

By Josh, at Sunday, January 25, 2009 2:09:00 PM

Sunday, December 07, 2008

post://6314627219298098290/

Here's the same progression in GTA benchmarks. I didn't have to do much work for this because GTA writes each benchmark to a separate txt file automatically. I pasted into Google Docs and made a graph of it all.

The details are here but this is the graph:

Labels: 3dmark, consumerism, games for windows, hardware, materialism, SLi, technology

posted @ 11:37

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Saturday, December 06, 2008

post://8239767402186441602/

Ok, so after the dust has settled I've completed the Hard Drive externalization (technical prototype) and here are the past couple benchmarks:

2 x New Graphics Card + CPU

New Graphics Card + CPU

New Graphics Card

New Motherboard

Original

Read em and weep.

Labels: 3dmark, consumerism, games for windows, hardware, materialism, SLi, technology

posted @ 22:51

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Friday, December 05, 2008

post://2095755929140285485/

Latest Benchmark	3DMark06 - 11059
2.0 PCI Ex Motherboard	3DMark06 - 10879
1.0 PCI Ex Motherboard w/ 2 8800 GTX	3DMark06 - 10674

Labels: 3dmark, graphics, hardware, SLi

posted @ 04:21

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

post://4296121579900533304/

I went back today and found some previous 3DMark06 Scores since I was finally able to get my 3DMark06 up and running. I still had my old VISTA x64 install on my extra HD (haven't needed to reformat it for space yet) so I installed everything (didn't work) and then copied over all the OpenAL32.dll to both system32 and syswow64 directories. I removed 3DMark06 and reinstalled from my Crosshair driver CD (w/ professsional SN) but when I went to submit it said a newer version was available. The patch wouldn't install (said 3DMark06 wasn't installed???) so I just copied the 3DMark folder over as well.

All in all I got it to work, but I'm thinking I need to turn the Cancel or Allow back on, this shit didn't happen when I had it ask me to do everything. I still haven't reinstalled SP1. I'll certainly make sure everything's working proper before I do it, but it's ineveitable.... inevietiiable... invevieitiaitiablale!

So it's running and I got a 10,333 base v1.0 - so here are some past 3Dmark scores nVidia 7800 - December 16th, 2006
Asylum GeForce FX 5900 w/ 128mb RAM

I found these doing a picosearch, still works... just re-indexed - give it a try

Labels: 3dmark, games, hardware, nostalgia, SLi

posted @ 19:38

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Sunday, June 15, 2008

post://7579065082664969228/

I picked up another card to do SLi this weekend. I wanted more, I wanted 2560x1600. I priced out what it would cost me to get a 9800GX2 including the trade-in from EVGA and it was going to be like $350+, so I instead spent $170 for another 8800 GTS - which were getting scarce so I moved on it.

I tested using 3D Mark Vantage (for VISTA) as my existing 3D Mark 2006 is not working in VISTAx64 because it says OpenAL32.dll is not present (which it is).
I'd rather use 3DMark 06 as it's a more accurate guage given my past configurations were also based in 2006 but with Creative software not installing for some weird error they can't solve I'm just working with what's working for me.

In any case, you'll see the difference with the score of 1 8800GTS vs 2 in SLi
1 x 8800GTS 640mb
Score: 4383
- CPU: 4228
- GPU: 4437

2 x 8800GTS 640mb in SLi
Score: 6642
- CPU: 4275
- GPU: 8145

I might post another score if I try some overclocking. It's nowhere near the 20,000 score reached by an individual with a QuadCore, 9850GX2, and PhysX card but I figured it out and I'm 118260 out of 155217 total, so that's a decent standing with a 76%.

Labels: consumerism, games, games for windows, hardware, SLi, technology

posted @ 21:43

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

post://8139086312421466235/

Graff.

I'm finally back online.
let me just start with the fact that Virtual Machine 2007 started this... wait... maybe MixMan DM2 started this... yeah...

I've recently gotten a bit of DJ gear. Nothing special, a turntable, then a mixer with the phono on one side and MP3 player or MiniDisk player on the other, followed by a SB Audigy FAT4L1TY. I'm really craving a way to have samples within easy reach. I have the midi keyboard but that was a bit large for what I wanted - here comes sexy DM2 (for XP). Just assign a sound to each little block, and decky decky blip blip at will.

But oh no, it doesn't work on VISTA - let alone VISTA64 - and I didn't have my XP or XP64 because my RAID 0 (<--0 is VERY important to the story!!) wasn't working because of what I thought was a bad bios on my motherboard. I figured a virtual machine might be just the ticket - I'd just run XP32 on top of VISTA64! (spoiler alert - it was my power supply - suddenly insufficient with the addition of the new soundcard I got). Lo and behold upon installing VM I was 15Gig less in my HD, USB doesn't work for VM and I was in a world of hurt in my config. My system had a layer of virtual everywhere I looked. I couldn't uninstall it right, it retained the tendrils and my network cards were kablooi due to the extra layer.

Countless hours of drivers, new drivers, wrong drivers, no drivers, anything to get it to work! Finally I put in an old PCI LAN card I had about... popped it in, popped in the cable, clicked the switch - baroooom, click. Huh? clicked the switch again - barom| click. ???? clicked the switch again and a nice ozone filled the air, pulled the plug, and lamented in the fact that my power supply had now gone kablooi.

Fast forward to a week and a half later (extra half for shipment from Puerto Rico to CA, only to re-ship to me in MA. New power supply, and finally able to get my computer up and running - set up the bios - yeah, everything's good. Put in the rest of the hardware and set up the RAID in BIOS - turned it on - BOOT DISK BLAH BLAH, INSERT SYSTEM DISK... and it did it in capitals just to smak me around.

Oye, so I tried the 3rd non-complicated-RAID disk for VISTA 64 that I had been running in all this disillusioned BIOS time. It also failed to boot. OK - so it's because I never had raid running in VISTA64? BSOD due to nvRAID driver? OK, I can understand that... disabled - same issue. DISKCRC.DLL even in safemode! GRAAA!

Finally put in the VISTA DVD and booted from it to do a repair to the system.
Repair worked! I could boot to VISTA 64, but alas, even once booted I still had no RAID - oh it showed up as a drive - 320G of space but no partitions, no drives, and no luck. Windows Update had some nvidia chipset drivers - oooh, I'll try those, nvidia raid, nvidia networking... all good stuff.

Rebooted, still no raid but I had networking. Put the computer to sleep.

Fast forward to today when I found a raid recovery program today at work - I was all ready to go... but no network?!! Try Try try... same issue I had before the whole system went kaput! ARG! FF>> 3 hours later and I've disabled nvidia onboard LAN ports (plural, 2 x gigabit) I inserted 1 x Intel PCI 100tx... and I'm online.

Never underextimate the replacement factor. I still think Vista is hoarked, I'm never getting the 15G back from the virtual machine reservation... looks like I'm in for a restore anyhow. Time to put the RAID to RAID 1 - mirroring, and buy 2 more drives for striping - where the very NONessential files will be kept. I've lost over 120 gig of music I've collected (maybe 110 is in other places - HDs, CDs, DVDs, etc) but mainly my purchased software, serials, and documents. I'm putting it all on my mac disk in the future. I'm sick of losing the stuff I pay to download. I want CDs dammit!

So now things are running (kinda) I can at least get back into the music. Nicole got me the expansion drive for my birthday so I can output to optical (which enables me to record to minidisk) and have some straight RCA ins. She also got me some real headphones, so I'm looking forward to letting loose on the deck when I'm not so hardware stressed.

So the lesson is RAID 1... RAID 0 is tempting, until you can't even restore it because it's a conglomerate mass of poo!

Labels: hardware, lament, onomonopia, technology

posted @ 20:28

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Saturday, March 01, 2008

post://179204888476567451/

It's been a long time since I needed to download something I couldn't find on a web page, and I guess that's why I've stayed away from Torrents.

I am digging through my pile of older games now and after trying Gothic 3 again (yes, it did the same stuttering crap - guess it's not compatible with the 7950GX2) I tried Aliens VS Predator 2.
I had the CD along with the insert that has the serial key. Apparently there is also a disk 2, as I was prompted for it when I got about halfway through the install. I checked the AvP2 box (one of the larger game boxes) and it's got all my other game manuals in it, but no CDs.

... so I'm not sure where it would be - so I go looking on the internet. I really only need the disk 2 ISO because I have the serial and the first disk, the play disk - so no crack needed and after I get it all installed - fully legit.

If it was easier to call a company and request a disk it might not be necessary... but it's also instant gratification (almost - I've got about 1:30 left)

I came accross this little baby for Torrents - BitComet. I've used all sorts of different ones in the past but this has got quite a bit of stuff and I had to bypass minimal junk when I installed it. If you're in need of a torrenterorer, give it a shot.

Labels: commentary, games, hardware, nostalgia

posted @ 11:02

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Saturday, January 26, 2008

post://1831564796362732751/

I've been needing to revamp the whole computer situation, and I think I've finally got it all in hand for the main PC: WinXP, WinXP64 on my SATA 3G RAID Striping HDs, and VISTA64 on my single SATA 3G. I've got to rebuild the VISTA boot menu to include the older choices, but that's just a matter of indicating which partition they're on.

The motherboard itself is acting wanky in the main machine. I bought an ASUS Crosshair so I could do dual 16x SLI and it appears to be having some sort of short related to the Clear BIOS switch. The LED and the included MB light (a light that illuminates the motherboard in case you're doing upgrades in the dark - which I often do) appear to be acting wanky after I cleared the CMOS (again). Hitting DEL to change the BIOS settings results in the computer turning off.

I dispise power issues, shorts, insufficient power... all bains to the otherwise straightforward process of assembling a computer.

So now the configuration is this:
TV PC running XP (since it's the only OS that will recognize my TV card) in the bedroom with the monitor. Main PC in the office running VISTA64 (with the others for backup should I need them) and this occured to me today - 160 Gig ATA133 with all my old TV shows and movies can go in the iMac which can be put in the living room and hooked to the TV. Since it's not HD there's no reason to go putting a big ol computer there. I'll also have the happy little iMac in the living room, it's silent and more of a living space sort of computer. I can record shows on the TV computer, edit and share them for the rest of the house on the network, so I can either watch them in bed or in the living room.

It's a much different arrangement then I was thinking before, but I think it works, especially given the ability to have the monitor upstairs with no fuss.

Here's some neat freeware I found:
Restoration - undelete even after emptying
Double Killer - find those duplicate files

Labels: hardware, materialism, media

posted @ 11:02

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Saturday, December 15, 2007

post://7510775520533038749/

I think I'm done with computer gaming. I just don't have the money to do it well. I invested for the monitor - and it's served me well, but I just can't believe what NVidia just announced - SLi x 3. I have 3 major problems with this:
1.) Cost - If you want 3 8800 GTX Ultra cards you are spending 3 x $700, that's $3000 just on video cards. I've never been one for building a $5000 PC, and this is hands down the way to do it.
2.) Space - Who has room for 3 oversized, extra long cards that suck 200 watts each? 1000W minimium is going to become 1500W, then 2000W.
3.) I jumped on Quad-SLi and there has been no further development. They're DX9 so that's it... not even next gen optimizations. There's so much more that could be done with them as ususally all 4 are not being used properly... why optimize when you can just throw another one in.

I'm very curious to see what happens with Spider from AMD/ATI. I have not like ATI in the past, but I expect AMD will do good things with them.

Labels: commentary, games, hardware

posted @ 10:22

-x-

(1) comments | Post a Comment

Quad SLI gaming in VISTA update:

none, don't bother - even when it works in "Single SLI" mode I see a line between the top and bottom sections of the screen, when I try 4 x SLI alternate frame rendering I see differences in the smoke, and issues when there is more going on in one section then another.

VISTA is a further example of PLRGLMPHLLLLL....

By Josh, at Wednesday, February 06, 2008 10:10:00 PM

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

post://6623514275047193929/

So I had heard about "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." a while back and was quite excited by it. I looked it up and wow... it was already out, and had been out since March! That meant it was only $30 now, so I went to go pick it up.

It ran like crap, and ran even worse at lower resolutions which shouldn't happen. Every other time I'd run it I'd get really good frame rates in the rendered intro scene and then it would get better rates in the game but still nothing too good.
I was rather disappointed by the whole thing... I certainly don't have the best video cards but they're quad-core, 2 x 7950s in SLi so I expected they'd run ok since the game wasn't brand new. I still think there's a tweak I can perform that will make it run better.

I also got a copy of Crysis - the demo ran like crap, but the full version runs much better - it doesn't work in native 64 bit but that's to be expected with a... second hand version.

Call of Duty 4 is a really great game, I'm currently playing it in 1280 x 800 16x10 res with no AA or AS filtering and I'm getting very strange effect. The lighting is a tad surreal, the edges around the other characters is too bright. The game itself is really good - the squad AI covered my ass for most of it. I tend to jump into the fire, so this was a new experience. Throwing a flash bang into the room while the 2 guys flank the door and then rush in once it goes off was really cool - I think the AI makes this the best squad based game I've played, though I think the last one I played was Swat4 =)

Labels: games, hardware

posted @ 13:10

(0) comments | Post a Comment

post://6330594734812820111/

I know this is impossible, but I wish I could get this for XMAS. The reviews show better performance out of 1 of these 8800 GTS cards then 2 7950GTs in SLI. Plus... this one comes with a free copy of Crysis... and Crysis runs natively under XP64.

Labels: games, hardware

posted @ 12:49

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Sunday, October 14, 2007

post://3208438134442782042/

I just spent this afternoon getting my old PC up and running with XP after 1 of my drives in the Raid 0 array went kablooi. I want a PVR PC, and it's been a long time coming. I had tried VISTA, then XP MCE after VISTA could only access the Digital tuner side of the card. As it turns out MCE uses the same set of drivers, so MCE could only recognize the digital side of the card as well.

So it was back to XP!

I got all the updated drivers from ATI, I've got the official CD for the DVD decoder... all set... and I received a ubiquitous error message:
"setup was unable to find components that can be installed on your current hardware or software configuration"
- turns out that means I don't have an ATI Display card (I'm running a NVIDIA 7800 PCIex) and according to the website, this is the last version of the media player (tv player) that they're making and there won't be any updates - do not pass go, do not collect $200.

I knew there were a few free options for me at this point - no legit version of ATI that worked, so thought these might be helpful to others who may have an ATI HDTV Tuner card with a non-ATI video card:

GBPVR - The first one I heard of back in the day, looks just like XP Media Center Edition.

Media Portal - Another slick interface with available iTunes-like skins

Freevo - Sourceforge based - yet another option, doesn't look quite as snazzy.

Labels: download, hardware, tv

posted @ 15:05

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Sunday, August 05, 2007

post://8681203176590360302/

Apparently 3D gaming glasses went byebye with the CRT. I found out after cruizing a bit, my interest sparked by a detail line in the nVidia drivers readme. I had a pair of glasses built into my old GeForce3. It was pretty cool, it could turn any 3D game into 3D. Of course it worked better with some games then others. Sometimes you could tell that they only made a sprite where a 3D shape should be, and that just sent things all askew.

I'm sure the technology is about where it used to be, but with my 30" monitor - I have a renewed interest in having things pop out at me. I also have the wheel again, so driving games would be interesting.

I kept seeing "CRT support only" as I looked around, until finally I searched for 3D glasses LCD and found that one company ("first and only") was supporting LCDs with their glasses. They recommend 70hz or better - so it still may not look all that great (my monitor goes 60hz max).

So if you've got an nVidia card (and apparently ATI supports it too?) and $100: Check out these 3D Glasses for LCDs from EDimensional.

Labels: consumerism, games, hardware

posted @ 11:40

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Saturday, December 16, 2006

post://277274301891567545/

This is from XP(32 Bit)

Main Test Results
3DMark Score: 5030 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score: 2488 Marks
SM 3.0 Score: 2403 Marks
CPU Score: 1003 Marks

Detailed Test Results
Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon: 19.186 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest: 22.289 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley: 0.316 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley: 0.509 FPS
HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0): 22.101 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0): 25.963 FPS

Labels: 3dmark, hardware

posted @ 00:11

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment

Monday, December 29, 2003

post://107272154934347185/

I went to the computer show yesterday. First time I've been able to catch one when it's at the ubiquitous Basketball Hall of Fame. It was the first time I'd been in there... ever, pre-construction or otherwise. I can't believe how big a sphere can be. It's amazing, wonderful, and so much to do... for basketball people. =]
I was only interested in the architecture and the computer show held within.

I bought a new case, as I was creating almost another new computer - black with blue bubbles up the side which cast a nice blue glow. It has a window (of course) with multicolored fan which casts more black-light-ish light about the innards. It looks quite nice. I already had a few Pentium 4s -- went with the hyperthreading 2.4ghz I had on hand. I made sure to get dual channel DDR (the only thing similar enough to get me off my 2+ year stint of RDRAM) on the motherboard as well as an 800mhz bus, RAID and SATA. I don't actually have an SATA drive yet, but it's there to improve performance in the future. I went with ASUS for the motherboard, and 1GB of Kingston RAM w/ "heatspreader" (a blue heat-sink type thing). I had to get a new video card too -- couldn't let that hold me back.
I settled with a mid-grade GeForce FX 5900 128mb RAM, 400mhz clock, Asylum brand.

New system:
P4 2.4ghz 800mhz bus w/ hyperthreading
1GB Dual Channel DDR RAM
RAID (60gig, 100gig, 120gig HDs)
Asylum GeForce FX 5900 w/ 128mb RAM, 400mhz clock
Sony DVD-R (500a)
Creative Soundblaster Audigy Platinum

I did my old performance tests, 3DMark 2001, 3DMark2003, and RedFaction comes with a neat little performance test in the setup program.
3DMark2001: 4100 -> 6200 -> 11701 -> 14600 3DMark2003: 430 -> 800 -> 4300 -> 4620 RedFaction: 3200 -> 14200 ->15700 MB/Sec (RAM transfer rate)
The first test was the old system, second test was new system w/ old video card (GeForce 3 64mb), the third test was new system w/ new video card, and the fourth test is single channel vs dual channel DDR. 3DMark2001 with the new card blew the power supply. I haven't run another test yet.

My previous RAM broke all the records with the RedFaction test, RDRAM running at 300-400mhz was more then the 1200 MB/Sec that DDR RAM would get running at 133-200mhz.
My jaw dropped when I saw what Dual Channel DDR could do -- I knew I made the right choice.

That number may also depend on the amount of RAM I have -- I had 512 MB previously, and now have 1 GB - since it's how much can be transferred each second, it most likely calculates that depending on how much RAM is present.

Other then some issues with Windows, things worked great -- I attempted to run it right off the bat and AGP440.drv was causing it not to start. I was able to run setup and repair the installation (re-install it) but had to re-activate and everything. I ran it successfully a few times, then after adding all the fans to the new case I was running some really intensive graphics tests when I heard a loud *POP* and everything suddenly quit.

I was really worried, I just spent a pretty pocketful of change here, and I just blew it all up?!! Nope -- just blew the power supply with my uber-computer. I put my power supply in from my real case (the giant one I had before) into the new one and worked like a charm. Windows now worked enough for me to get a few games in there but I detected underlying problems.

** update 12/30 **
Memory errors in Windows... pulled out one of the Memory Modules, no resets, no bluescreens. I called Kingston to get a new set of chips sent to me (they're paired to work as a dual channel - like RDRAM has been for about 2 years now) so they're on their way as I write this. In the meantime I'm running 1 512mb.

Labels: 3dmark, hardware

posted @ 12:52

-x-

(0) comments | Post a Comment