You do understand that Starcraft 2 will most likely run on the computer you have currently fine on high detail?:PBlizzard always makes their games look high end but not be high end, god knows how they manage it but that's how it is.
Of course. Blizzard knows how to make efficient code, as Valve, and some other game devs out there, who are less and less as time goes on, unfortunately.
Most games are badly written, and use system resources inefficiently. Many others are made so they do eat a lot of horsepower, and are also prepared to run better with a certain graphics card, so you are forced to buy such card in order to run it (graphics chip makers pay the dev company to do so). Other games, albeit a minority, are well made, but still too heavy to be run on current graphics cards.
Some are made to demonstrate new technologies, available on certain API's or video cards. Those made so you must buy a more powerful video card to run them are the ones which will take your rig, chew it, and say "buy four Ati/nVidia RadeonForce 11950 GTXTXUltra PE X2 so you can run me at high settings". As an example, we have Doom 3 (made for the Geforce 6800), F.E.A.R (so badly made that you needed a hell of a video card, and lots of AA so it does not looks like a blocky arcade), Ghost Reckon (a Physx Physics card demonstrator), Crysis (Highly anticipated nextgen DX10 game, which although has very nice graphics, can't run under Dx10 unless you have a more than high end card), and others.
Other are made so they can run on most computers outside today, like Half Life 2, (which I completed with a Geforce2, 512MB of ram, and an athlon 2000+), StarCraft (First time I played it, was on a 486Dx4, 16MB of ram, and an integrated 1mb video card), Prey (which ran very nicely on a Geforce 6600 with impressive graphics), and the like.
I hope that StarCraft 2 is from the latter than the prior ones.:)
' Wrote:Money isn't an object, neither is heat, or power usage, the military foots the electric bill at my house, so what do I care?:PAlso, I've never had problems with SLI, aside from the fact when it first came out and was basically in a beta period.
You do not care for the environment? Sad to hear that.
Despite electricity being quite cheap here, I try not to waste resources, as it is not good for the environment.
Either way, its your money. I hope you enjoy your new rig, although I think you will be disappointed when you see that the card falls in price to half of the launch price in a month period, and as they do not perform as expected. Still, someone has to buy those first cards, so they are cheaper for us when we go and get them 2-3 months later.
(If you find any mistake in my English, please let me know via a PM)
(Really, I speak terrible English, so please, tell me if I make mistakes. I'd like to improve it a bit )
Uh, the reason it sucks its not because it's nvidia, but because its a low end video card...
What do you expect of a low end card?
Ati low end cards also suck, too.
(If you find any mistake in my English, please let me know via a PM)
(Really, I speak terrible English, so please, tell me if I make mistakes. I'd like to improve it a bit )
Korrd: Apart from the efficient code argument I do believe Blizzard uses something else to fake high detail: art style. Look at Warcraft 3. The reason it still looks pretty good actually is because the art style matches perfectly across the entire landscape, there is no low-detail and high-detail models and textures. Everything is pretty much in the same detail. That also serves the illusion that the graphics are great, cause things don't differ majorly from each other. Take Dawn of War on the other hand where the unit models are incredibly high detail but the ground is not and you see how out of place they actually look.
That is efficiency. The ability to create the best looking graphics, from illusion or otherwise, using the least graphical horsepower possible.
@Korrd: The "Very High" settings on Crysis are actually not DX10 features at all. With some clever editing of the options files, you can force High settings to actually be Very High setting. I did this, actually >.>.. So Crysis, while looking like a hell of a game, is actually not DX 10.
Also, Im holding a preview of the 9800GTX in my hand, and it says, with games benchmarks, 30%-60% faster than 8800 Ultra. This was with the Beta drivers, which admittedly dont run stable on many games, but I hazard a guess that its certainly LOADS better than the ATi 3870 X2, which is poor...
@Sayne, mate I think the military's paying you too much:P
~shrugs~ meh, video cards come and video cards go. God I remember when VLB first came out, c.1995.... everyone was like, "w00t!!!! It plays Doom with no lag at all"
' Wrote:That is efficiency. The ability to create the best looking graphics, from illusion or otherwise, using the least graphical horsepower possible.
@Korrd: The "Very High" settings on Crysis are actually not DX10 features at all. With some clever editing of the options files, you can force High settings to actually be Very High setting. I did this, actually >.>.. So Crysis, while looking like a hell of a game, is actually not DX 10.
Also, Im holding a preview of the 9800GTX in my hand, and it says, with games benchmarks, 30%-60% faster than 8800 Ultra. This was with the Beta drivers, which admittedly dont run stable on many games, but I hazard a guess that its certainly LOADS better than the ATi 3870 X2, which is poor...
13cent, Try the 8800 GTX vs the 3870 HD.
Then you will see why we all love Nvidia...
Yeah. I did it too, and my FPS dropped into the "Seconds per frame" range. I have an x1950"Pro" (aka, overclocked GT).
I like nvidia more at the moment, as their drivers are better. ATi drivers are... painful.. Although they have improved A LOT since AMD ate ATi.
Blizzard has a lot of art on their models, but also makes efficient code too. I've seen games with warcraft-like graphics that chews your computer as if it were a 486...
(If you find any mistake in my English, please let me know via a PM)
(Really, I speak terrible English, so please, tell me if I make mistakes. I'd like to improve it a bit )
I'd like to point out completely in off topic manner that Valve also shines in the art department.
And I agree with you Korrd about code efficiency being on the decline. But that's because optimizing code needs time which the companies cronically lack of in the modern day timetabled game industry. Deadlines are everything.
Anyway. I'm quite happy with my current setup. Maybe next year I'll buy a new graphics card along with a bigger screen.
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