A Question about water reflections...

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Lord Gonchar said:

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Ross McColl said:
Computer parts seem more expensive in the US.

I'm from England and a 9800pro is about £80-£100...

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You can get a 9800pro in the US for $159 which is roughly £88

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I was referring to the quote that said "Dell offered the 9800 pro for ONLY $400". I was like wooooah!

keep an eye out for xt, ultram or pro after the make of the card. You tend to pay a little more but the difference is huge. Alternatively you can buy a lower card and overclock it, but thats just getting too technical :)

was the water reflection option available or is that something that happens or works with the full version?

I got the ATI All-In-Wonder 9600XT (128mb) in finally. Works like a charm. The peeps are a little more curvy and not so blocky, plus I got the water reflections and all of the rides (on board or not) run WAY better. It seems that the ones who are having problems need to just upgrade their video card and all will be well.....

~josh "trying to figure out how to get that kinda card on a laptop" H.

I bought the best card I can't afford, a GeForce 6800GT with 256 MB of RAM. It runs a little better (as it should, considering it's the second fasted card Nvidia makes), but I'm clearly bound by my CPU. I've had the CPU for two years, so perhaps it's time to upgrade.

So how many FPS are you getting now, Jeff?

Only about 30. I did some experimentation, and it has no problem rendering lots of geometry, it's just that my CPU can't send it enough quickly.

For example, using NoLimits as a benchmark, using the Canyon Runner track, I was getting around 20 fps with my 5600. Now I can max at 100 and not dip lower than 40 on the same track. Granted, I don't have dithering or antialiasing on either.

Doom 3 (came "free" with the card) only does high 20's at 640x800 with the pretty options on. The old card did about 4 fps.

I'm going to order a new CPU (mobile Athlon XP 2600+) and mother board (A-bit NF7-S). That combination is easily over-clocked. Most people have been able to boost that chip to 2.4 GHz easily, which outperforms a stock 3200+ (which natively runs at 2.2 GHz). Not bad at half the price.

I just tried the antialiasing, and now I'm excited to get a faster CPU. Check this screenshot out. Notice the jagged edges? Of course you don't, because the quality of this card's antialiasing is really that good. And that's at 1280x1204. Wow.

Hmmm.

I don't know crap about how one's system affects gaming.

I'm using an AMD 2800+ slightly OC'd to 2.14Ghz. I have the Sapphire card with the ATI9600 on it. I have 1 GB of RAM. For what it's worth I'm on an Epox EP-8RDA3 MoBo.

I upgraded to all 4 of those things just a couple weeks ago. The idea wasn't to be cutting edge (aside from RCT, I rarely game on my PC), but rather to bring a 3 year old system up to speed a bit.

With that setup I'm getting 27-32FPS on the RCT3 Demo and on that Canyon Runner coaster in No Limits I max at 100 and bottom out at 30 at one brief point but other wise, the low end is the high 30's. (both at 1024x768)

On the Doom3 Demo I was getting 20FPS (give or take a few) at 800x600 on the "high settings" default. (or whatever it's labeled - the one below the best)

Obviously the anti-aliasing on the 9600 doesn't touch what your screen shows, but with my limited gaming, I'm cool with it.

It's just making me think I really underestimated how important the CPU was to the equation. I'm limping by with a Vid Card chipset that's about 6 generations old and only cost me $97 and getting pretty decent performance for a casual gamer.

I'm thinking once you upgrade the CPU (like you said), your numbers should go through the roof.

Did you try 3DMark03 at all?

I know that ATI Radeon 7000 and up get reflections i get them when i turn my camera angle, but then again this is only the demo. The other thing is i can't overclick my comp and my processor overheats but my motherboard has an cpu overheat protection but that only works for AMD Athalon XP processors 2000 and up to 2500 and i run on a AMD Duron 1800 (1.8Ghz) so i think my speed has something to do with the way everything operates.

I'm sure some of the issue is that it's beta code, so the game engine isn't great to begin with. It'll be interesting to see how it performs when that "special" CD arrives soon. ;)

My requirements with 3D games are not all that high. I only want a framerate that doesn't drop below 30 fps at 1280x1024. Looking at benchmarks out there, I should have no problem doing that when I get the CPU upgrade, and that's with the antialiasing on and such.

It was probably time to upgrade anyway, as I've never been that satisfied with the speed of video compression.

Dude, I am pissed. Because that card was on sale at best buy 3 months ago for 200 bux. It's 256 mb 5500 but its overclocked. Which is why im guessing it was more expensive then it shoulda been.

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Kyle Fobe said:

...at best buy...more expensive then it shoulda been.

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Sometimes it pays to read between the lines ;)

Newegg :)

I checked Newegg... and they really didn't have any bargains as far as video cards go. They're not the lowest price on anything really, but they're low enough and have such a good reputation that they're good to buy from. I bought most of my HTPC there.

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...they're low enough and have such a good reputation that they're good to buy from.

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That's exactly the deal with Newegg. We actually have a Best Buy credit card and I don't think I've ever bought anything PC except software on it. Occasionally they'll run some kind of rebate deal on a hard drive or something and asuming you don't mind waiting for the check, you can score a decent deal, but for the most part I tend to avoid Best Buy for PC pieces and parts.

I saw the HTPC on your blog - that's pretty cool! :)

There is a big difference between a 2800+ barton and a 3200+ A64 as far as gaming goes.

Also a big difference between a 9600 and a 9800pro and I mean a BIG difference.

But at the end of the day, are you going to spend lots of money to upgrade a system just to play one game?

For me it's just time. My system runs fine for most things, and I don't remember the last time I went two years without a CPU/mobo upgrade. I love to mess with my PC guts, and it has been awhile.

Hey Jeff, speaking of CPU, what do you run on? How does the game perform? I'm working on an upgrade and I need advice! Do you recommend anything?

I'm replacing my aging old Athlon Thunderbird 2000+ with a mobile Athlon XP 2600+, which I intend to overclock to 3200+ levels. I went over that earlier in the thread.

i saw, good enough, i'm considering a AMD Athalon XP 2400 +. Hoping it works better with RCT3. :)

Got the CPU and mobo today. Holy crap is all I can say. I've pushed the thing to 2.4 GHz, which is faster than a 3200+, and it still idles at 41 degrees (with this fan and a little Ceramique goo).

I'm getting 45.7 fps in Doom 3 at 1280x1024 with everything turned on and 4x anti-aliasing. Awesome... I can't even describe it.

RCT3, however, is only marginally better. With all options cranked and reflections on, it bottoms out around 28 fps, which is not acceptable. Turn off the reflections and you'll get around 40. For the moment, I'm chalking it up to it not being RTM code.