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tman5293 said:

Why not just upgrade to a new card? 

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Probably to see if the new console do anything to market. Additionally the GTX480 might have been loads cheaper than a GTX660(nearest in production Nvidia card) or a HD 7850/70. Should still tide a rig over for a year or so.

Quote:

tangster said:

Probably to see if the new console do anything to market. Additionally the GTX480 might have been loads cheaper than a GTX660(nearest in production Nvidia card) or a HD 7850/70. Should still tide a rig over for a year or so.

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And that is where my elitism kicks in (I know, I'm sorry). If it can't handle games maxed out, it's not good enough.

Quote:

tman5293 said:

And that is where my elitism kicks in (I know, I'm sorry). If it can't handle games maxed out, it's not good enough.

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I know you probably posted your rig somewhere, but the fact is that maxed out is different depending on a number of factors, not limited to :

1. Resolution - multi monitor, 3D or 1440/1600p screens are more demanding.
2. Does maxed out mean 32x CSAA and 16x AF or just the in game settings?
3. What games are you playing? Crysis 3 is obviously more demanding than WoW.
4. Mods?

What is acceptably "maxed" to one person is woefully underpowered to another.

Quote:

tman5293 said:

Why not just upgrade to a new card? 

Click to expand...

 
Because I'm not rich, that's why. Even a $250 GTX 760 is out of my reach. Otherwise, I'd probably be waving waterblocked GTX Titans in everyone's faces.
 
Even then, what's the point in pairing a much more powerful card with a Q6600, even overclocked to 3.6 GHz? What I need isn't just a whole new graphics card, but a whole new COMPUTER.
 
And given my price estimates on recent parts, it's going to cost me around $600-700 just for CPU, mobo, and PSU. Now throw in the RAM, case and graphics card...you see where I'm going with this? It'll probably be $1000-1500 by the time I've pieced everything together, and that's not even including new drives, sound cards, peripherals or extra water-cooling equipment (I can just carry all that over from my current build).
 
Speaking of which, did I mention that the water-cooling loop is really the first purchase intended for that next build, but it just happens to work on my current system anyway due to careful choice of CPU waterblock?
 
Quote:

tangster said:

Probably to see if the new console do anything to market. Additionally the GTX480 might have been loads cheaper than a GTX660(nearest in production Nvidia card) or a HD 7850/70. Should still tide a rig over for a year or so.

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It only cost $108.75 shipped. I checked the reviews, and price-to-performance on that level is hard to beat.
 
Admitted, the GTX 760 at $250 could easily be today's 8800 GT in terms of being the price-to-performance king, but I already made the decision to go for that GTX 480 and hold off for Maxwell/GTX 800, which will be out by the time I'm ready for the REAL upgrade. Here's hoping it's the big jump from Kepler I've been waiting for, the total single-GPU Crysis manhandler.
 
Quote:

tman5293 said:

And that is where my elitism kicks in (I know, I'm sorry). If it can't handle games maxed out, it's not good enough.

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Try running PlanetSide 2 or ArmA III maxed-out at a constant 60 FPS (meaning MINIMUM framerates cannot be lower than 60 FPS), ANY resolution.
 
It's probably not going to happen at all with today's hardware, because the CPUs just aren't fast enough. In other words, NOTHING will be good enough for your standards...let alone mine.

Aw yiss, Kindom Hearts runs. Mostly...
 

 

 

 

 
For whatever reason, the game has serious slow down in the menus, and sometime cut scenes will slow down. It's weird because the EE and GS never really reach above 50%, and my CPU never gets above 30%.
 
Also, I'd just like to point out, KH has absolutely fantastic animations. It's weird that it has so much better animations than games from this gen.

The feels. I remember back when my cousin bought the two games and made me play it. I though 'banana shoes boy' and Disney characters!? Yuck. DIS IS 4 GURLS. 
 
But nope, the two games turned out to be quite awesome. However, it hasn't progressed since KH2 sadly   and everything since released is just fodder for money

I remember I first found out about it from a Jampack disc that had a trailer for it. I started to watch it, and Sora's clothes looked sorta like Tidus's from Final Fantasy X, so I thought it was some sort of sequel. After it showed Disney characters, it really started to blow my mind, and I had to have it. It was hard to convince even my JRPG-loving fans to try it, though, so I ended up having no one to talk to about it.
 
And you know what's sad? I've still yet to beat it. Maybe this time I'll finish it. I always get to the last boss, then get bored, since I already saw the ending when my brother beat it. I'm pretty sure I beat KH2, though.
 
Birth By Sleep is really good. You should totally get PPSSPP and play it. The levels aren't as big as a proper Kingdom Hearts game, but the combat plays extremely well, and the story is pretty good. (It's a prequel to KH1, so there's not really much to catch up on.)

Quote:

kukuk said:

I remember I first found out about it from a Jampack disc that had a trailer for it. I started to watch it, and Sora's clothes looked sorta like Tidus's from Final Fantasy X, so I thought it was some sort of sequel. After it showed Disney characters, it really started to blow my mind, and I had to have it. It was hard to convince even my JRPG-loving fans to try it, though, so I ended up having no one to talk to about it.
 
And you know what's sad? I've still yet to beat it. Maybe this time I'll finish it. I always get to the last boss, then get bored, since I already saw the ending when my brother beat it. I'm pretty sure I beat KH2, though.
 
Birth By Sleep is really good. You should totally get PPSSPP and play it. The levels aren't as big as a proper Kingdom Hearts game, but the combat plays extremely well, and the story is pretty good. (It's a prequel to KH1, so there's not really much to catch up on.)

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Nah, all I need to remain are my memories of it and the Utada Hikaru songs.

Well, looks like this GTX 480 won't be running at 95 degrees Celsius with a screaming fan on load for long...just managed to score a nice full-cover waterblock for a mere $40.
 
That should give me some nice overclocking headroom, without the fan noise. If only full-cover waterblocks for new graphics cards sold that affordably while the cards in question are still high-end...
 
...on that note, water-cooling is fast ending up the new Head-Fi for me when it comes to the "Sorry about your wallet" stakes. Next thing you know...more pumps! More radiators! Waterblock all the things!
 
EDIT: Got the waterblock, installed it, and sure enough, it's a dramatic drop in temps from the reference HSF...
 
...and then it sets in that my current fans on the Black Ice GTX are simply not cutting it, because the water temp's noticeably heating up too much. Gotta set aside some cash for some Scythe Gentle Typhoons...

AMD's Never Settle Deals
 
Dear God, they are just fantastic
 
$110 graphics card with 4 Never Settle Games bundled....oh gosh.

Quote:

bowei006 said:

AMD's Never Settle Deals
 
Dear God, they are just fantastic
 
$110 graphics card with 4 Never Settle Games bundled....oh gosh.

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Yep. They're great. I got six games for free from them by buying my two 7970 GHz Editions.

Quote:

tman5293 said:

 
Yep. They're great. I got six games for free from them by buying my two 7970 GHz Editions.

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One 7770 edition card right now comes with 4 games
Bioschock Infiite
Tomb Raider
Cryssi 3
Sim City
 
And it was on sale for like 100 euro's I believe

Quote:

bowei006 said:

One 7770 edition card right now comes with 4 games
Bioschock Infiite
Tomb Raider
Cryssi 3
Sim City
 
And it was on sale for like 100 euro's I believe

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Then they're giving even better deals now than they were before. I got 3 games with each card.
 
First card:
 
Sleeping Dogs
Hitman Absolution
Far Cry 3
 
Second Card:
 
Bioshock Infinite
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
Crysis 3

Quote:

tman5293 said:

 
Then they're giving even better deals now than they were before. I got 3 games with each card.
 
First card:
 
Sleeping Dogs
Hitman Absolution
Far Cry 3
 
Second Card:
 
Bioshock Infinite
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
Crysis 3

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I'm building a new computer in a few months (yay me).
 
I play WoT a lot but I don't care for the other P4Free game codes that Nvidia offers.
 
Some AAA titles are comming out soon, so I'll be upgrading my graphics card as soon as they offer new NEver Settle deals or 8000x cards.
 
AMD has got Nvidia by the balls. They kicked their arses in the console games and are now playing a role in unifying all the markets together in terms of efficency of the ports and turning them from 'ports' into full fledge games developed for usage on the chips. And their Never Settle deal is awesome
 
Seriously, Never Settle is like the God of gaming deals right now.

Just an update on bitcoin/whatevercoin mining.
 
Well, I've made $1500 in profit since I started oh...was it four months ago now? As I've mentioned before, it's easy to withdraw funds, so no problems there.
 
Profitability has taken a nosedive recently, I don't think I'll be going on for much longer, I'm getting <$5 per day now.