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| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14801 |   GX-Brandon (285) Mar 26, 2007 - 12:59 pm
| The game has always been $40. That's the MSRP. But if you shop around, stores with price matching or similar features are typically selling it for a few bucks less.
Personally I think its a great game, just early on its confusing because there really is no intro/storyline. Considering this is a new franchise, that's a bad move imo. When you think about it though, Half-Life 2 also had a terrible intro, but since it was an established franchise and had so much press going in it was a big deal. But with a game like STALKER you really don't get a feel for the story until you're further into the game.
It also doesn't help that you start out with no guns or armor, which makes the game a little tough early on. Once you get guns/armor, it gets much better. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14801 | GX-Brandon (285) Mar 26, 2007 - 12:55 pm
| | Wallshadows: That was my bad, I have the ATI mainstream and high-end rigs right next to one another and mistakenly labeled the X1900 XTX 512MB results with the X1800 XT results! I've just fixed those graphs, sorry for the confusion. I guess I shouldn't have had 2 identical looking cards running next to one another at once! ;) Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14801 | GX-Brandon (285) Mar 26, 2007 - 12:50 pm
| | Yeah, STALKER is known to have issues under Vista. I think they're trying to address them with a patch. And yeah, NVIDIA's 8800 drivers for Vista are definitely still a work in progress, would it be possible for you to dual boot? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14801 | GX-Brandon (285) Mar 26, 2007 - 07:38 am » Edited on Mar 26, 2007 - 07:40 am
| Hmm, if it were up to me and not THQ, I'd list the Radeon 9800 series as the bare minimum although I'm sure if you tweak the settings enough you could probably get playable performance out of the 9600 family.
For recommended requirements, I'd probably list a 7600 GT/X1950 Pro or better. Not that the game can't be played on the GeForce 6800s or Radeon X800/X1300 family, I just think if you want to play with full dynamic light (which looks awesome btw) you'll want a 7600 GT at the minimum, or simply OC your 7600 GS to GT levels...
EDIT: Make that a X1950 GT (instead of 1950 Pro) or better, my bad... Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/18926/279 | GX-Brandon (285) Mar 11, 2007 - 07:28 pm
| jacobvandy: Instead of using the first image from HardOCP, I've got the exact same image for you right here:
http://www.firingsquad.com/media/article_image.asp/2030/50
Please replace your image for the FiringSquad image ASAP. I got the same ATI briefing too. :) Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14634 | GX-Brandon (285) Mar 10, 2007 - 02:50 pm
| Time. To go back and test all these cards under both WinXP and Vista would be a couple extra days worth of work, and the driver situation for single GeForce cards hasn't changed that much anyway. There have been some OpenGL performance improvements, but everywhere else performance is the same.
I don't think we'll transition the testbeds over to Vista fulltime for many more months. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14430 | GX-Brandon (285) Feb 22, 2007 - 01:58 pm
| | I sorely miss the Wing Commander franchise, but this is not the right way to bring it back. The words "arcade-style experience" read too much like space invaders to me. I hope the gameplay is deeper than that, but with the PR's emphasis on maps instead of actual missions to fly I'm not expecting much. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14351 | GX-Brandon (285) Feb 16, 2007 - 12:03 pm
| By cheaper I'm obviously comparing it to the nForce 680i platform, and not a lower-end $110 SLI mobo like nForce 570, which by the way, can't OC very well with the Q6600. Lots of end user reports with disappointing results there, not to mention firsthand experience.
The ASUS L1N64-SLI mobo is way more high-end than your typical $110 nForce 570 SLI mobo. It's got 12 SATA ports, 4 PEG slots, dual GigE, etc, it's honestly not even close. I do think it would be a good idea for ASUS to eventually release a cheaper version with less features to hit the $200 price point though. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14289 | GX-Brandon (285) Feb 13, 2007 - 12:25 am
| doomtrooper: ripfire's 300W figure is for total system power, not just the 8800 GTX GPUs. As I said, I didn't run the numbers for this particular review, but I did test Core 2 and A64 X2 systems with 8800 GTX graphics and the power was nowhere near 1-kilowatt:
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_athlon_64_4800_65-nm_preview/page10.asp
Even with dual 8800 GTX cards in SLI with a quad-core CPU, you'd be nowhere near pushing 1-kilowatt.
Again, a PC is nowhere near the power levels of an AC unit. Even the most decked out PC with SLI, quad-core CPU, LED lighting, etc isn't going to come close to what you're suggesting. Also keep in mind that those are load figures, but for web browsing, typing up docs, etc, your power consumption is much closer to the idle power figures listed in the aforementioned article. You'd basically need to be running your PC under full load literally 24/7 to really affect your power bill, and to the best of my knowledge, no one does that. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14289 | GX-Brandon (285) Feb 12, 2007 - 02:02 pm
| I included power draw numbers in my 65-nm Brisbane review, simply to show the difference between AMD's 90-nm and 65-nm CPUs. That was a case where I felt power comparisons were useful.
In the case of the 8800 GTS 320MB though, I honestly didn't see the point of testing power draw, and felt that CSAA and 8xMSAA testing was more important. After all, it's the same clocks as the previous GTS, only with less memory, so nothing's really changed. I also agree with CodE-E that most gamers don't make their purchasing decisions based on power, but instead the most important factors are:
1) Performance
2) Price
3) Image Quality
I honestly think noise is probably a bigger issue than power. And doomtrooper, an A/C unit consumes SIGNIFICANTLY more power than your PC. Try running your A/C unit for 10 hours straight one month and you'll see that for yourself firsthand. Even if you're running your PC under load 24/7 it will consume nowhere near the power of an A/C unit. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14075 | GX-Brandon (285) Jan 27, 2007 - 09:05 am
| | Ren: I believe it is sold very selectively here in the states, AFAIK only a couple of board partners are exporting it here, Sapphire being one of them. I've been debating recently if I should review the card or not, is there any interest in this from you guys? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=13807 | GX-Brandon (285) Jan 08, 2007 - 12:04 pm
| Ape: First off, you've got to keep in mind that I'm working on multiple hardware articles simultaneously, and I may not have time to include ALL the AGP options out there in 1 article. I'm doing the best I can though. The X1650 XT AGP isn't available yet to the best of my knowledge (I think you're confusing the X1650 XT board with the Pro, which is available in AGP form), these AGP cards are literally just now coming in to the board partners and I'm putting the reviews of them up as fast as I can. Once I get a sample I'll certainly put the review up, it's not like I'm holding cards back on purpose or anything like that. I'm not really sure why you say the 7600GS AGP has been holding up the midrange for the past year, when the GPU hasn't even been out for a year, and as I mention in the article, the driver for the 7600 GS AGP hasn't been available since early summer. The 6800U and X850 XT PE are in there for legacy purposes.
If you are curious to see how all these GPUs stack up against one another, I would suggest you check out the X1650 XT PCIe review, they're all pretty much in that article. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=13756 | GX-Brandon (285) Jan 05, 2007 - 09:34 am
| We've explained at length our opinion on the Wii. It's great at what it is, but also remember that we're talking about the very top hardware products, and fundamentally hardware-wise the Wii is just a souped-up Gamecube with a new controller. Nintendo could've just as easily sold it as an accessory to the Gamecube, but they wisely chose to sell it as a new product.
Why else do you think they've been so vague on the hardware specs... Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=13756 | GX-Brandon (285) Jan 05, 2007 - 09:32 am
| That's a silly conclusion to come to. Just a month or two ago we were running ads for PowerColor and Sapphire, not to mention BFG and XFX, in addition to EVGA. And of course, you all no doubt noticed the ATI CrossFire ads last month. And I don't see Dell advertising anywhere on this site, yet they're on the top 5 list. I'm also pretty certain EVGA isn't the only manufacturer making GeForce 8800 cards, or nForce 680i motherboards.
I don't think any companies would work with us if they felt we were biased in our coverage. Why would they want to? And in case you didn't know, our editorial team is completely separate from advertising. We have no say on what ads do and don't appear on the site, just as they have no say on what articles we do and don't write. Flag this | Edit this post |
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