And he does it again! --> My newly ordered hardware upgrade! ;)

[Sardaukar]

Oh, just to let ya know.. I got the card 2 days after I ordered it (happy day happy day!) And lucky enough it came on a day off from work... SHoudl have seen me, I was in the middle of an online game grouping wiht some buddies.. as soon as I heard the FedEx truck pull in, I said a quick 'Ill be back in 15 guys! New GFX card!', logged out, quickly started the uninstall on my graphics, went out to pick the card off my doorstep, then came in, shut the power off, and popped the new card in.. within 3 minutes of throwing it in, I had it up and running.


My God these cards are an amazing advancement over anything.. a simple 350 dollar card outperfforms dual 7900's hands down... I literally threw up every game I had, 1600x1200, maximum settings across the board.. and I dont even stutter.. pulling an easy 50-80 fps depending on the game. In my own personal preference, if I dont get at least 60 FPS on a first person shooter then its not worth it.. higher frame rates mean you can flick yoru mouse behind you and it wont lag whatsoever and only drop the frames by 1 or 2.. and now im playing battlefield 2142 1600x1200 maxed out and its friggin amazing.. everythign runs so fast, its almost like everythign runs in bullettime and I can dodge anything! (Well.. not really, but you get my drift).



On 3DMark06 I got a score of 7653 on my system.. which is amazing for the computer pieces I have.. but I can take that score and know its because I have a nicely set up computer.. my next upgrade will eventually be the new 45nm chips coming out in a few quarters from intel.. I heard it was rumored they will make a debut halfway into second quarter, so I hope its true!.


Right now Im putting aside $2500 for a new topped out intel rig when the new chips come out.. since mine runs games just fine theres no reason to upgrade it...

And for anyone really wondering.. no, you dont need SLI on these cards, that will only hinder your CPU even more.. I can probably get another 25-30% out of this graphics card jsut by upgrading my CPU to somethign more standard (Dual Core e6600+ or so) but since I have no reason to as Im not experiencing any lag whatsoever.. Stickign with a single GPU is jsut fine and perfect.





Anyways, best of luck to everyone out there.. if you want any more information, let me know.. and jsut for the information... this card is just as short as my 6800GT I pulled out.. which is amazingly short.. it doesnt even extend past the edge of the motherboard.. its about half an inch short of that.. wheras an 8800GTX runs a good inch and a half past it or so (Might be more.. cant remember)




Oh, and also.. my birthday is tommorow (March 2nd) Turning 23.. and celebrating by splooging and buying myself a Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor.. sadly it still only runs at 1680xx1050.. but Im not going to spend an extra thousand dollars just to hit 1900x resolutions when I really dont need it (much less have the deskspace for a 26"+ monitor!)

[NoPeace]

My God these cards are an amazing advancement over anything.. a simple 350 dollar card outperfforms dual 7900's hands down... I literally threw up every game I had, 1600x1200, maximum settings across the board.. and I dont even stutter.. pulling an easy 50-80 fps depending on the game. In my own personal preference, if I dont get at least 60 FPS on a first person shooter then its not worth it.. higher frame rates mean you can flick yoru mouse behind you and it wont lag whatsoever and only drop the frames by 1 or 2.. and now im playing battlefield 2142 1600x1200 maxed out and its friggin amazing.. everythign runs so fast, its almost like everythign runs in bullettime and I can dodge anything! (Well.. not really, but you get my drift).

Out preforms dual 7900's? I don't think so. That's what the GTX is for. =P

Though the GTS does outperform a 7900GTX.

And yeah. Anything less then 60 FPS isn't worth it. Or if you on an LCD anything below the damn refresh rate isn't worth it at all. :cry:

And it sucks how you can play BF 2142. My stupid NIC is a piece of crap and always disconnected me and not ot mention dual x1900's didn't like to run that game. Though I should try it again since I went back to the 7900GTX.

And it's a real shame. A $350 card rivals my $600 one. O.O

On 3DMark06 I got a score of 7653 on my system.. which is amazing for the computer pieces I have.. but I can take that score and know its because I have a nicely set up computer.. my next upgrade will eventually be the new 45nm chips coming out in a few quarters from intel.. I heard it was rumored they will make a debut halfway into second quarter, so I hope its true!.

Nice score with a weak CPU. O.O

And the 45nm's wont be about until early 2008. The first batch of ES's should be out around late Q2 and 6 months latter they should be retail.

And they are going to be sick. About 3.5ghz with hyper threading.

Though the AMD K9's will be out late Q2 or Q3 and they should rival the C2D's.

Right now Im putting aside $2500 for a new topped out intel rig when the new chips come out.. since mine runs games just fine theres no reason to upgrade it...

And for anyone really wondering.. no, you dont need SLI on these cards, that will only hinder your CPU even more.. I can probably get another 25-30% out of this graphics card jsut by upgrading my CPU to somethign more standard (Dual Core e6600+ or so) but since I have no reason to as Im not experiencing any lag whatsoever.. Stickign with a single GPU is jsut fine and perfect.

Yeah you should see about a 25% gain with a better CPU. Though SLI will really come in handy with newer games as 320mb isn't quite enough to run a high resolution like 16x12 with 4 samples of AA and HDR. Which will be what any high end computer should run. =P

Anyways, best of luck to everyone out there.. if you want any more information, let me know.. and jsut for the information... this card is just as short as my 6800GT I pulled out.. which is amazingly short.. it doesnt even extend past the edge of the motherboard.. its about half an inch short of that.. wheras an 8800GTX runs a good inch and a half past it or so (Might be more.. cant remember)

The GTS is 9" just like the 7900GTX's and x1900's and the 8800GTX is 10.5".

Think the GTX is long? Try looking at the OEM version of the x2800XTX. It's 12" long! O.O

Oh, and also.. my birthday is tommorow (March 2nd) Turning 23.. and celebrating by splooging and buying myself a Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor.. sadly it still only runs at 1680xx1050.. but Im not going to spend an extra thousand dollars just to hit 1900x resolutions when I really dont need it (much less have the deskspace for a 26"+ monitor!)

Lol... I hear you on the montior. =P

I my self is thinking of getting the 20" version of it. Since it's the same resolution. Though Dell is planning on releasing a 22" monitor that does 19x12 and will cost about $50 more then a normal 22" one.

Hope that one comes out soon as it'll be kick ass to game in full HD.

NoPeace - out

[Sardaukar]

THe big reason I'm working ong etting myself a 226BW is because it provides a base 1000:1 Contrast, with 3000:1 digital ratio.. along with a 2ms G/G, the reviews are mad crazy about it.. and with the proper computer its bound to almost rival what a CRT can put out..

I can tell you though, I've been really if-if about ever switchign off of my current CRT, nothign beats the quality of one.. the only sad part, is the fact its a giant 60 lb paperweight taking up 1/3rd of my deskspace.


And christ at 12" on a graphics card.. yeah, it would it in my case right now, but anyone who wants to buy one would -have- to purchase a full tower case just to throw it in, unless of course some case making company gets smart and creates a new age case thats about 7-8" longer then a base mid size case.. that would turn some heads for sure.

[NoPeace]

THe big reason I'm working ong etting myself a 226BW is because it provides a base 1000:1 Contrast, with 3000:1 digital ratio.. along with a 2ms G/G, the reviews are mad crazy about it.. and with the proper computer its bound to almost rival what a CRT can put out..

Yeah they are quite sick. Got a Samsung HDTV with a 3000:1 ratio and it's pretty sick. Though at times it can be extream since there are a few bugs with the DNI engine that drives the added contrast but never the less it's pretty damn good.

But did you know that Dell monitors are actually Samsung with a different case and logo? ;)

I

can tell you though, I've been really if-if about ever switchign off of my current CRT, nothign beats the quality of one.. the only sad part, is the fact its a giant 60 lb paperweight taking up 1/3rd of my deskspace.

Yeah I was like that at first. But now I perfer a good LCD to a CRT any day now. Less space and just as good at times.

And christ at 12" on a graphics card.. yeah, it would it in my case right now, but anyone who wants to buy one would -have- to purchase a full tower case just to throw it in, unless of course some case making company gets smart and creates a new age case thats about 7-8" longer then a base mid size case.. that would turn some heads for sure.

Good thing that's just the OEM version. =P

The standard card is 9.5" long with a 2.5" long fan on the end of the OEM version.

The card itself draws 240w of power and the OEM draws another 30w!

So 270w for a single card. Combine that with another one and add it to their top desktop setup. You'll be seeing a setup that requires over 1kw of power. :sofa:

NoPeace - out

[Sardaukar]

Yep, right now Im running a 750w Thermaltake Toughpower, beautiful PSU, but running an SLI with one of those woudl be nuts.. I would 'personally' jsut stick to using hafl that power with dual 8800's if it came down to that ;) The added 1 KW power is exponential, youll be paying more for the PSU, more for the cards, and your energy bill will go up about 30% on your computer usage (just for computer.. so it might be another 20-30 bucks a month). So, yoru in it for the long haul if you go that route.. it gets very expensive ;)

[NoPeace]

Yep, right now Im running a 750w Thermaltake Toughpower, beautiful PSU, but running an SLI with one of those woudl be nuts.. I would 'personally' jsut stick to using hafl that power with dual 8800's if it came down to that ;) The added 1 KW power is exponential, youll be paying more for the PSU, more for the cards, and your energy bill will go up about 30% on your computer usage (just for computer.. so it might be another 20-30 bucks a month). So, yoru in it for the long haul if you go that route.. it gets very expensive ;)

Hence why I would refuse to get dual AMD cards. Even though they push well over a teraflop of FP computing power. O.O

Then again the 8900's (pair) should do it also and the 8800GTX's (pair) pushes like 900 gigaflops of computing power. =P

AMD is just becomming a real joke. They used to be the top of efficency but they are now lazy. Look at their quad FX setup.

Running 3dmark 06 with a dual FX-74 setup and SLI 8800GTX's pushes a 450-500 continusious load. Now if that was dual x2900XTX it would be well into the 700w rage. And who knows what dual x2900XTX2 (quad crossfire) would do. 800w maybe? O.O

Now here it costs $0.15 for a 1kw/h. So at .8kw/h it will cost $0.12 to run per hour. Given that the average gamer will use it for 6 hours a day it'll cost $0.72 a day to run. With 30 days a month it'll cost $21.60. And that's here in southern MA. Out in CA it'll be even more as power costs more there.

Now with that said you also need to look at cooling the thing. Sure Winter time it's no problem with the extra 800w heater. But in the summer time you don't turn on your 800w heater to warm up the place. You turn on your 5000 BTU AC to cool of the place it just wont handle as 5000 BTU is just able to cool down 1465w. So with the PC making 800w of heat the effency of the AC will only be 2200 BTU not enough to cool down the room. So what do you need to do? You need to buy a new 7500 BTU AC to cool your self down. And what does that do? Adds another 800w of power. But the thing is. Who only runs their AC for 6 hours? You run it 24/7. So at the extra $21.60 a month it takes to run your PC it will cost you an extra $86.40 to cool your house. So now that computer is costing you well over a $100 a month in the summer months!

NoPeace - out

[Sardaukar]

Exponential ;) And then, you also need to add in the extra cost of snacks.. because I, for one, woudl be on the computer more often trying to use that 100+ a month on my computer for something good ;) ;)

[Sardaukar]

Sorry for the double post.. but figured I shoudl do this to bump it (heh) and give an update


My new 22" 226BW Samsung 22" LCD monitor shoudl be here by Monday, along with a Razer Tarantula Tempest Blue Keyboard...


Monitor:
SAMSUNG's Digital World - LCD - Digital | 226BW

Keyboard:
Razer | Professional Gaming Peripherals - Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard




ALong with that, earlier yesterday right before I left for work, I got my other package I ordered up.. to go along with my red cathode lighting (enough to lighten.. not blind) I ordered up 2x4" and 2x12" UV Cathode lights.. or blacklights for those unfamiliar with the term UV Lighting.


I installed these, and my next project is to install the blue sleeving/heatshrink tubing to my cables.. the part before that though, is I am going to rewire.. literally.. any inside component, and the light's themselves with new UV Reactive wiring to extend the lengths to reach the store-bought switches i purchased and top everythign off with a neato look, and then purchase myself a new CPU heatsink with a blue UV fan to help cool things down a tad more.



And for anyone not in the know.. my current case is a very highly modded Silverstone case



Case:
Silverstone Special WIND TUNNEL Design Temjin 6 SST-TJ06-BW (Black) Computer Tower PC Case with See Through Window Side Panel




Currently, I have 4 switches in the front of my case.. two of them each controlling a 12" and 4" UV, and the other 2 controlling my 12" red cathode's.

Perhaps I may get a hold of a digital camera on my break this next tuesday and snap some pictures for you all :-)

[Rishwin]

not rly a fan of the razer tarantula, would personally have gone with the reclusa gaming keyboard which they made with microsoft.

[Sardaukar]

ENded up getting an instant -$20 off from the monitor, and -20$ off from the keyboard when I ordered them.. a darn steal if ya ask me ;) hehe.. Haven't ever used a Razer before, but I'll let ya know how it goes.



Edit: Saw the video on the Reclusa.. and it doesnt seem very ingenious or special at all.. Yes, it has the macro buttons, but those 4 'bumper' buttons are completely useless.. I highly doubt anyone would use them mid-game, as they are too inaccessible for being on a keyboard.. and the jog buttons.. those roller ones.. even if its volume or something, I highly doubt I woudl personally use those, I already have a control knob and a remote for my current speaker system.. having a knob on the keybaord to control windows audio volume wouldnt really impress me too much.. easier to just use the weighted knob on my logitech x-5500 speakers.

[SantaClaus1]

only 1680 x 1050 , thats pretty bad for a 22 inch izent it ?
my 20 inch 205bw can do that

[Sardaukar]

all 22" do that, you have to pay twice the money to get 19x12 for a 24" monitor, and at that point, they arent widely used for gaming because of the refresh rates.. a 22" at 2ms G2G and the 3000:1/700:1 contrast ratio is amazing for its size.. hence why its rarely in stock and being gobbled up by computer enthusiasts

[NoPeace]

all 22" do that, you have to pay twice the money to get 19x12 for a 24" monitor, and at that point, they arent widely used for gaming because of the refresh rates.. a 22" at 2ms G2G and the 3000:1/700:1 contrast ratio is amazing for its size.. hence why its rarely in stock and being gobbled up by computer enthusiasts

Dell (well Samsung makes the panel) is coming out with a 22" that does 19x12. Looks pretty sick ans is 1/2 as thick as normal LCDs.

But anyways... Tell me how that monitor is. I'm thinking about getting the 20" version (as I can't stand big text/icons) and would like to know how well the picture quality and if it ghosts or not.

My stupid ViewSonic as great colors but the thing ghosts like a bitch when there is light backgrounds and not to mention it's playing up to much on me. Need to wait 2 mins now to turn it back on if it turns off. -.-

Also it's amazing on the difference between a 700:1 contrast ratio to a 3000:1. My monitor is 700:1 and it's great but my HDTV is 3000:1 and it's like.... WOW... Don't see how people can buy something with less contrast and costs more. O.O

Also how could you spend that much on a keyboard! $129.99 with a $20 rebate. O.O

Sure it's sick looking but damn... I'll stick to my $1.29 Dell keyboard that I've been using for 4-5 years. =P

NoPeace - out

[Sardaukar]

hehe, actually, my keybaord was 99.99 at Circuit City, with a 20 dollar rebate.. so 79.99, $80 on it. Damn good deal if you ask me. My current keyboard/mouse combo I bought a while back was $150 when it first came out.. and its for the Laser MX Mouse and Logitech Bluetooth MX5000 Keyboard. The bluetooth is nice, the hub lets me connect to my phone and several other friends phones and transfer files over wirelessly.. and I don't get any interference.. but I really am sick of haing to replace batteries in the keyboards, hence why im getting this dual USB plug keyboard.. they last ALOT longer then any wireless based type.


The monitor is supposed to have no ghosting affects on it, I read hundreds and hundreds of reviews before I made an actual decision.. the Viewsonic 22" i was intereste din for a while, but from the reviews of it, it pales in comparison to the Dell//Samsung 22" 226BW. the 225 is good, but i might as well pay the same amount or less for the upgraded version of it.

[Sardaukar]

--------------------------


Alright well.. for the info, NoPeace.. there is NO ghosting whatsoever on thsi monitor, I've switched between dark and light backgrounds dragged things all over, played many games (Pretty much every new big name game out) and there is no delay, nothing.. the 2ms GtoG is actually true for this monitor :-)


The desk space I saved.. wow..

Lets just say, when I pulled off my old 20" CRT, I had about 2 more feet back on my desk to use.. this equates to about a foot and a half on each side.. along with the sides where I normally didnt use.. roughly, I gained about 6 square feet on my desk to actually -use- now.. I can put a plate of food in front of my monitor on my desk, and still have enough room left over to put.. more food! heh.. well, anyway

So, the 22" Samsung 226BW is an amazing purchase, I woudl highly recommend it.. no color distortions.. jsut opened up microsoft paint and did a full screen white image, its true white all around the center and edges of the screen.. no backlight//bleeding anywhere, true color sall around. and the contrast is amazing as well, along with a button I can switch the contrast colors at night/day depending on how my eyes are feeling.







The keyboard (Razer Tarantula) is friggin awesome as well.. easily tops any microsoft base keyboards I have used, took a bit to get used to having those macro keys on the sides.. my fingers kept wanting to hit the far bottom left one thinking it was a CTRL key, but after about an hour of gaming on battlefield 2142 it cured that problem right away.. great useability.. and I have my webcam plugged into the USB plug on the back. There are 2 gold plated USB connectors that are used to connect into yoru computer, and its easily just an amazing keyboard.. plus the LED visuals are awesome as well.. the Razer insignia on the hand rest glows from nothign to a bright blue slowly, enough to make it look awesome, but definatly not enough to distract the eyes. More of a "Wow, look at that!" type of glow.


All in all, I think in terms of money spent.. minus upgrading from my 6800 GT to an XFX 8800 GTS XXX edition 320mb GPU, this is the best purchase I ahve made this year.. goign from taht CRT to this monitor is amazing.

















p>S. Did you know Battlefield 2142 doesnt support 1680x1050 o.o it does the resolution below that.. 1280x960 or whatever one that was... rather depressing, seeing as how on my CRT i coudl pump out 1600x1200 and it looked great, runnign from that down to the step below 1680x1050 res is ratehr depressing looking :-(