PC Gamers Thread

[bogan]

I find that hard to believe & if true that'd be down to some seriously not "smart programming".
You said you're running max on your API driven machine so what are you're specs?

This stuff is very high level programming, tailored to the also very high level GPU physx and whatnot, so your run of the mill console stuff is seriously not "smart programming" in a modern PC context. Add to that the time it takes to do smart programming, and it might not be smart in a business sense; just look at Planetside 2 for an example of poor optimisation but a successful game. An example in C3, the water and grass reacts to splashes, wind and movement with realism far beyond any other game I've seen; but its probably cost the devs hundreds of thousands of dollars for that feature alone, so might not be worth doing for anybody other than crytek. In fact I think there was one commonly used technique that although it worked fine, crytek redeveloped it to work better with the current range of gpus, might have been displacement mapping, or some form of AA, can't remember.

Specs are P8Z77-V Pro-TB, 3770k overclocked to 4.2ghz, 16gb ram, GTX 680 DC2T overclocked to 1200mhz, and an SSD, driving a QHD display. Actually it was only 2x AA, so not quite max.

[Scuba_Steve]

And the DRM is working well... EA can't handle the amount of people wanting to play their game in America (on their 2 American servers ) with many receiving the message 'server full will retry again in 30 minutes'
Not sure if the Euro & Oceanic servers are facing similar probs, but it's fucking retarded not to be able to handle one of your most anticipated games on release especially when you're trying to convince people always-on DRM isn't a bad thing.

[bogan]

Apparently sim-city is not so good anyway.

However, what does look epic is Planetary Annihilation. When THQ went under I thought it was the end of the TA and SC series, but the kickstarter funded PA looks pretty sweet.
Speaking of THQ, Saints Row 4 will be coming out shortly as well, good thing some gaming houses know what titles are worth continuing despite a failed company.

Also, Planetside 2 is still epic, even after 250 hours into it, that shit has staying and timewasting power!

[SMOKEU]

Anyone here played Crysis 3? The graphics have to be the best I've seen from any game. I've seen it shit all over $800 video cards at crappy phone sized screen resolutions.
Even at the lowest graphics settings it looks nicer than most games at their highest settings.

[bogan]

Anyone here played Crysis 3? The graphics have to be the best I've seen from any game. I've seen it shit all over $800 video cards at crappy phone sized screen resolutions.
Even at the lowest graphics settings it looks nicer than most games at their highest settings.

Yeh, it was epic graphics, decent gameplay. You must have been looking at ATI cards then? My 680 ($880 iirc) I had to turn the AA down but otherwise it was a pretty solid 30fps throughout on the best settings, QHD screen too. Which is credit to the team at Crytek and their programming skills that they can get such good graphics without needing super SLI setups etc.

[SMOKEU]

Yeh, it was epic graphics, decent gameplay. You must have been looking at ATI cards then? My 680 ($880 iirc) I had to turn the AA down but otherwise it was a pretty solid 30fps throughout on the best settings, QHD screen too. Which is credit to the team at Crytek and their programming skills that they can get such good graphics without needing super SLI setups etc.

Even at 1080p a Titan can't max it out, let alone any AMD card. I'm playing at 1080p on an overclocked 2GB 6950 shader unlock (basically a 6970) and I can turn the textures up to very high, FXAA, and just about everything else down to low to get an average of around 45-60fps in the really demanding parts of the game like the jungle scenes where there's the most rendering to do.

It reminds me of the original Crysis where hardly anything could max it out when it was first released in 2007.

Metro Last Light also has some excellent graphics, although the game does seem quite dark most of the time (I haven't finished the game yet), so while it may not have the visual awe that the lush vegetation in Crysis 3 produces, it's also well worth checking out.

Hopefully with the new generation of consoles that come out we will finally get some decent looking console ports rather than the crappy graphics that we are forced to put up with from the majority of games.

[bogan]

Even at 1080p a Titan can't max it out, let alone any AMD card. I'm playing at 1080p on an overclocked 2GB 6950 shader unlock (basically a 6970) and I can turn the textures up to very high, FXAA, and just about everything else down to low to get an average of around 45-60fps in the really demanding parts of the game like the jungle scenes where there's the most rendering to do.

It reminds me of the original Crysis where hardly anything could max it out when it was first released in 2007.

Metro Last Light also has some excellent graphics, although the game does seem quite dark most of the time (I haven't finished the game yet), so while it may not have the visual awe that the lush vegetation in Crysis 3 produces, it's also well worth checking out.

Hopefully with the new generation of consoles that come out we will finally get some decent looking console ports rather than the crappy graphics that we are forced to put up with from the majority of games.

Pretty sure the Titan can play it at max settings on 1080p, maybe not max fps in all areas though.

I'll give it another play through once I get a second 680, apparently 2 660ti in SLI is pretty comparable to titan in performance so 2 680 should be mint. But if you really want to play a system killer, try Planetside 2 and tweak the ini for graphics settings, brutal on CPU and GPU.

Not a fan of 'looking for ammo in the dark' games so will be skipping the metro series.

[SMOKEU]

Pretty sure the Titan can play it at max settings on 1080p, maybe not max fps in all areas though.

I'll give it another play through once I get a second 680, apparently 2 660ti in SLI is pretty comparable to titan in performance so 2 680 should be mint. But if you really want to play a system killer, try Planetside 2 and tweak the ini for graphics settings, brutal on CPU and GPU.

Not a fan of 'looking for ammo in the dark' games so will be skipping the metro series.

I'll have a look at Planetside 2. I might actually give this generation of GPUs a miss and see what's in store when the AMD 8000 and Nvidia GTX700 series cards are fully released. I can't complain about my AMD card though as it has mined me around $2500 worth of Bitcoins, but it's really starting to show its age. The Titan still struggles with Crysis 3 here and here. The hothardware review only has 4X MSAA as well. 8X MSAA will be absolutely brutal, although it is at 1200p.

What resolution do you play at?

[bogan]

I'll have a look at Planetside 2. I might actually give this generation of GPUs a miss and see what's in store when the AMD 8000 and Nvidia GTX700 series cards are fully released. I can't complain about my AMD card though as it has mined me around $2500 worth of Bitcoins, but it's really starting to show its age. The Titan still struggles with Crysis 3 here and here. The hothardware review only has 4X MSAA as well. 8X MSAA will be absolutely brutal, although it is at 1200p.

What resolution do you play at?

Of the 700 series, only the 780 is worth getting, as it is a scaled back titan. The titan is too expensive for what it is, and the rest are just overclocks of the 600 series processors anyway. The 780 is 20-30% more performance than the 680, though some manufacturers OC the 680 20% anyway, so unless the 780 gets a decent OC, the 680 is prbably best value for money on a high end system anyway.

Yeh seems about right, I find 30-40 fps pretty playable.

QHD, which is 2560x1440 I think.

[imdying]

For your amusement.

[bogan]

lol, pretty much like that. Though I have yet to go the way of 7.1 surround sound headphones and mechanical keyboard...

I'll have a look at Planetside 2.

Btw, Briggs is the Aussie server so the best to play on, choosing the right outfit in whatever faction you go for has a big bearing on how fun the game is too btw.

[SMOKEU]

Btw, Briggs is the Aussie server so the best to play on, choosing the right outfit in whatever faction you go for has a big bearing on how fun the game is too btw.

Downloading now as we speak.

[G4L4XY]

Crysis 3 is awesome, can't play it on high settings as my rig is a bit outdated but can still play on med settings.

FC3 is awesome, I played that till I clocked it great game.

Downloaded Grid 2 yet to install.

Also got Metro last light which again am yet to install lol.

Played the first of the walking dead games, so much dialog for me, got too annoying.

[SMOKEU]

Crysis 3 is awesome, can't play it on high settings as my rig is a bit outdated but can still play on med settings.

FC3 is awesome, I played that till I clocked it great game.

Downloaded Grid 2 yet to install.

Also got Metro last light which again am yet to install lol.

Played the first of the walking dead games, so much dialog for me, got too annoying.

Grid 2 is yet another crappy console port, yet gameplay is rather fun.

Metro Last Light is pretty good. Hope you have a good GPU if you want to crank up the AA.

[yod]

Finally upgraded my system after almost 10 years on a 2500XP @2.2GHz (shocking, I know....kids, etc)

I've now turned into a total World of Tanks addict lol (with a bit of Diablo3 and SC2 on the side) so nice to be able run whatever the f**k I want again!!