*** The Official Tribes: Ascend Thread! ***

[BuffetSlayer]

27" as a length is not a lot bigger than 24" but when you apply it to a screen it becomes quite a decent amount... But I'd have thought it makes more of a difference depending on how close you sit - in the past I've had tiny little desks where the keyboard and mouse barely fit on the available space and the monitor is barely 1ft in front of my face, I can't imagine a big screen would have been very good there...

My only other thought is surely having extra peripheral vision would be an advantage? I guess only if the game supports setting your FOV quite high (which I think Tribes does)

My PC desk is big! lol.

However, I still actually only sit around 80cm away from my screen, currently a 19'' Viewsonic 4:3.

The other thing I have noticed is that 24'' 120hz monitors are not actually that much cheaper than the 27'' ones.

I think the point about peripheral vison is that you would have to move your eyes/head a lot more in order to keep track of what is going on, possibly causing eye strain, neck ache etc. Also, I have read that our field of vision is limited, so on bigger screens we tend to suffer with 'tunnel vision', whereas on a smaller monitor we dont.

Having never played on a big sexy monitor before, I am curious to know if users get headaches / eye strain etc?

27'' sounds like it might look mahoosive from 80CM away! lol.

Cheers

Buff

 

[1kiwi]

I'm using a 27" 120Hz and I love it. Perhaps it does make a difference at the pro level but I've never been at that level so it's not an issue for me. I would be surprised if dropping down to 24" would make any difference to my game.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

I'm using a 27" 120Hz and I love it. Perhaps it does make a difference at the pro level but I've never been at that level so it's not an issue for me. I would be surprised if dropping down to 24" would make any difference to my game.

Yeah - thats pretty much what I was thinking to be honest.

As an aside, I think I am going put my current rig on the bay to help fund my new one. Not sure what it is worth though. Anyone got any rough ideas?

Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard
Intel Core i5-3450 3.10GHz (IB)
GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB RAM
MSI HD 6870 OC 1024MB GPU
60GB vertexII SSD
230GB HDD
Samsung DVD R/RW
Corsair 620w modular PSU (HX series)
Antec BFG900 case
Viewsonic VX922 19" monitor (2ms g2g)
Logitech G15 v1 keyboard
Logitech MX518 mose
Creative labs 2.1 speaker system
Windows 7 64bit home premium

Cheers

Buff

 

[1kiwi]

Might be a better idea to try the members market. I would say around £400.

You may get more if you split. If you are going for 120Hz this time I would highly advise that you go for a GTX780. They are selling for around £400 second hand. That and the titan are the only non SLI card that will give you 120fps constant in Tribes.

 

[1kiwi]

Yeah - thats pretty much what I was thinking to be honest.

As an aside, I think I am going put my current rig on the bay to help fund my new one. Not sure what it is worth though. Anyone got any rough ideas?

Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard
Intel Core i5-3450 3.10GHz (IB)
GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB RAM
MSI HD 6870 OC 1024MB GPU
60GB vertexII SSD
230GB HDD
Samsung DVD R/RW
Corsair 620w modular PSU (HX series)
Antec BFG900 case
Viewsonic VX922 19" monitor (2ms g2g)
Logitech G15 v1 keyboard
Logitech MX518 mose
Creative labs 2.1 speaker system
Windows 7 64bit home premium

Cheers

Buff

One other thing - I would only get rid of the following parts marked inred, upgrading to a more overclockable IB with higher end motherboard and GTX780. The rest including your power supply should be fine.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Might be a better idea to try the members market. I would say around £400.

You may get more if you split. If you are going for 120Hz this time I would highly advise that you go for a GTX780. They are selling for around £400 second hand. That and the titan are the only non SLI card that will give you 120fps constant in Tribes.

OK mate - I was thinking between 400 and 500ish, which isnt bad really.

Yes - my choice boild down to eithe SLi 680's or 1 780. Having read about some SLi issues regarding frame delivery I think I will plump for the 780.

That said - I would be interested to hear of your experiences with the SLi 680's now that you have using them for a while.

Cheers

Buff

PS I dont have access to the MM unfortunately.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Also - I wanted a complete new setup - the works. New peripherals, headset, speakers, monitor, rig etc etc. The build I am planning weighs in around £2,600 for the lot:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N780OC-3GD) £512.99
1 x Iiyama Prolite G2773HS 120Hz 27" Widescreen LED 1MS Monitor - Black £329.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Intel 530 Series 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SSDSC2BW240A401929421) £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £187.99
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 High-Power 2.1 PC Speaker System - 232 Watts RMS £184.99
1 x Corsair AX860i Digital ATX '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020037-UK) £179.99
1 x Sennheiser PC 360 Gaming Headset £149.99
1 x Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card £134.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £134.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £129.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance K95 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Red Switch (CH-9000020-UK) £129.95
1 x Roccat Kone Pure Optical 4000DPI Core Performance Gaming Mouse, USB £59.99
Total : £2,628.84 (includes shipping : £27.55).

 

[uncle_rufus]

Also - I wanted a complete new setup - the works. New peripherals, headset, speakers, monitor, rig etc etc. The build I am planning weighs in around £2,600 for the lot

**snip**

Blimey... I'm sure many of us will have easily spent that kind of sum on our PCs over the years but when it's all in one giant purchase it sure is eye-watering...

My only comment would be: are you trying or looking to save any costs where you can? Because I think a lot of people agree that unless you're a full on music producer (maybe you are, I don't know) the £100+ sound-cards are probably overkill... And for the same reasoning, the top-tier CPUs are generally a bit wasted on a purely gaming focused system (i.e. performance of an i7 over an i5 notices most in encoding, 3d rendering etc. rather than gaming, likewise for massive amounts of RAM - of course I realise you may do all this as well in which case ignore me!)

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Hahah, well it has to get approval from the boss first, so it might end up just being a new mobo, g-card and cpu yet lol!

Or depending on her mood - a smack in the gob that I should be thankful for

 

[uncle_rufus]

Fair enough

Your old machine isn't bad to be honest... I agree with the other poster above about what to replace - spending crazy amounts on all the above components might leave you feeling a little disappointed considering you're only a generation behind (on CPU) and I expect your overall game experience would be pretty similar...

There's nothing wrong with a bit of future-proofing, sure, but in a climate where Desktop performance is sort of stagnating and most current games are still held back by 10+ year old console tech, with the next-gen consoles just around the corner.... Maybe if you're set on building a complete beast it would at least be worth waiting to see what happens after the PS4 and XB1 are released and the games (hopefully) start to spill onto the PC? It would suck to spend that kind of cash and find out that you didn't buy X, Y or Z component that ends up being a crucial part of all future systems, you know what I mean?

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Fair enough

Your old machine isn't bad to be honest... I agree with the other poster above about what to replace - spending crazy amounts on all the above components might leave you feeling a little disappointed considering you're only a generation behind (on CPU) and I expect your overall game experience would be pretty similar...

There's nothing wrong with a bit of future-proofing, sure, but in a climate where Desktop performance is sort of stagnating and most current games are still held back by 10+ year old console tech, with the next-gen consoles just around the corner.... Maybe if you're set on building a complete beast it would at least be worth waiting to see what happens after the PS4 and XB1 are released and the games (hopefully) start to spill onto the PC? It would suck to spend that kind of cash and find out that you didn't buy X, Y or Z component that ends up being a crucial part of all future systems, you know what I mean?

Yes the "wait till X, Y, Z" argument. The problem with that is there will always be something on the horizon, and if you keep waiting you find that is all you ever do......wait.

Agreed - this build is not entirely necessary, and I may yet just upgrade the essentials. It would certainly be cheaper!

I am not a music producer, but I appreciate good sound. Likewise - I dont really use the potential of an i7 at the moment - but who knows in future? If I build a rig like this, it is going to have to last me a good 7-8 years, maybe more. It seems to make sense to get the best I can so as to try and future proof my build.....

Not sure if a GTX 780 will fit in a BFG900 case anyway? My current card only just fits! lol

 

[uncle_rufus]

Agree with the perpetual waiting argument, however the next-gen console releases which are happening very soon are only going to come around every 10 years maybe (if these don't turn out to be the last consoles as-we-know-them)... So it makes sense to future-proof *after* you see what happens with the next-gen

Personally I think future-proofing isn't necessarily about buying the absolute best of the best for every component, it's about reading a lot of reviews, getting an understanding of what's available, what direction the technology is heading and making clever purchases at the sweet-spot of price and performance and the likely longevity of the components...

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Agree with the perpetual waiting argument, however the next-gen console releases which are happening very soon are only going to come around every 10 years maybe (if these don't turn out to be the last consoles as-we-know-them)... So it makes sense to future-proof *after* you see what happens with the next-gen

Personally I think future-proofing isn't necessarily about buying the absolute best of the best for every component, it's about reading a lot of reviews, getting an understanding of what's available, what direction the technology is heading and making clever purchases at the sweet-spot of price and performance and the likely longevity of the components...

I agree it will be interesting to see how things pan out. That said - my line of thought is that next gen console tech is just going to be based on PC tech anyway because essentially, that is what they are - multimedia PC's but ones that dont have all of the convenience of an actual PC. Furthermore, I doubt consoles will ever take the place of a PC even though developers are trying to make them appeal to a wider audience by improving versatility. True, the AAA games developers may cease titles for the PC but to be perfectly honest most AAA titles are a sack of ****e anyway - just rehashed clones sold for a premium. The PC gaming market is so fresh right now with the like of small independents setting up via greenlight and kickstart.

There are some small developers putting out titles that put the big software houses to shame.

True, there have been dark times with endless console ports - but the PC market does not need the AAA titles from the likes EA and Ubi anymore. With so many quality free to play titles and indy games out there, I personally think the PC market has not been this good in years. Additionally most PC gamers also own a console, so they have their cake and eat it

Muahahahah

 

[1kiwi]

That is a very very nice system you have speced Buff. I guess I just thought you were more price conscious?

But to be honest I think it's overkill, that is unless you have £2.5K burning a whole in your pocket?

I would actually like to revise my advice above. Your motherboard is quite capable and thus I would simply advise an upgrade to Intel Core i7-3770K and the 780GTX. Unless you have an existing 680GTX (like I did) it's not worth going SLI, especially with Tribes which will run better on a single GPU and a highly overclocked quad core.

EDIT: With that many posts you should have access to the members market.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

That is a very very nice system you have speced Buff. I guess I just thought you were more price conscious?

But to be honest I think it's overkill, that is unless you have £2.5K burning a whole in your pocket?

I would actually like to revise my advice above. Your motherboard is quite capable and thus I would simply advise an upgrade to Intel Core i7-3770K and the 780GTX. Unless you have an existing 680GTX (like I did) it's not worth going SLI, especially with Tribes which will run better on a single GPU and a highly overclocked quad core.

EDIT: With that many posts you should have access to the members market.

Yeah I am a bit more price conscious than some, but I am in a bit better financial predicament now than I was. The wedding/honeymoon is all done and dusted now! But bar my core components, my current rig has served me since 2005. I really feel like I need a complete overhaul. No thats a lie - I dont need one, but I want one really really bad!

But life and the wife might put a stop to that! lol.

How big is a 780 compared to a 6870? Just concerned my case is going to be too cramped. It already is to be honest, but luckily I have 5 fans cooling things down (noisy as f00k though!). Thats partly a reason for a new build as well - to get a bigger case and try and make things a bit more quiet. Its like sitting in a room with turbo-prop

I guess it might be overkill for today, but I am building a rig knowing that there will be conditions from my better half. If I build what I want, its going to have to last. How will that rig perform in 5 years time? Will it still be overkill, or just about keeping up? What about 8 years time?

No I cant access MM. I was under the impression it was 1000 posts or 500 if you have been a member for 3 years or something.

I also have an older rig I can sell too. Hopefully get £100 for it.

I have 2 cats a motorbike and a wife I can sell too. Oh and then theres always my soul

As an aside - what system would you spec in order to play tribes at 120FPS as well as being able to run current and future games at a respectable level?

I am open to advice on spec but ideally I would want an intel and nvidia setup. But if there are valid arguments for AMD, I would consider them. To be honest my HD 6870 has not missed a beat yet. Really pleased with it.

Cheers

Buff

 

[BuffetSlayer]

I built my new PC in December last year.

I get 120FPS on Tribes no problem. But the server lag is just woeful, and really messes with my aim.

I have traced my connection to the AMS servers IP, and my ping is like a yo yo.

Routing is fine most of the way, but as it hits the server it is very unstable.

I am not sure if it is ISP intervention, or the servers themselves.

Basically even though the scoreboard says I have 40 ping, I don't. I can have 3-4 different pings in the time it takes me to unload a single clip from a Gast.

Typical ping variation is thus:

40, 100, 35, 120, 80, 110, 100, 40, 60, 40, 110, 85, 120, 50, 80, 100, 40, 60, 40, 100........and so on and so forth.

Usually ping changes every few seconds when it is really unstable, or it will just hover at around the 100 mark.

Been this way for a year or more now, so I am bit fed up with it

 

[1kiwi]

Are you sure your ping is stable? Have you tried a think boardband test? Here mine:

I know that they had this issue allot with the NA servers because they were over utilized. The issue is that HiRez will be running these servers is a very lean way to minimize costs.

I wish they would just sell the IP so another publisher could pick up the game - redeveloping it using Unreal 4. The game is amazing to play in comp and with the right funding could be really big. The issue with HiRez was that they could never afford to advertise it - I only downloaded it because I noticed this thread on the forums and got taught how to play by the flam guys.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Are you sure your ping is stable? Have you tried a think boardband test? Here mine:

Spoiler

I know that they had this issue allot with the NA servers because they were over utilized. The issue is that HiRez will be running these servers is a very lean way to minimize costs.

I wish they would just sell the IP so another publisher could pick up the game - redeveloping it using Unreal 4. The game is amazing to play in comp and with the right funding could be really big. The issue with HiRez was that they could never afford to advertise it - I only downloaded it because I noticed this thread on the forums and got taught how to play by the flam guys.

Hi mate

Thinkbroadband does not support ping tracking on dynamic IP's, which mine is.

I have tried pingplotter.

When tracing to the IP I have for the AMS Tribes server (not sure if it is correct 85.17.208.134) it will not make the jump to the final IP. Comes up as jump unknown with 100% packet loss. The spiking is mostly UK side before the jump to mainland europe. Average ping is 30, highest is only recorded at 60, even though the graphs clearly show 100MS+ spikes.

So I have also tried it to trace to my Quake 3 server, also based in AMS (173.199.109.87) which is literally 1000FT away from where the Tribes server is located.........

Getting regular spiking from:

166.49.168.53 t2c4-xe-9-1-0-0.uk-eal.eu.bt.net
62.6.200.142 transit2-xe1-1-0.ealing.ukcore.bt.net

Spikes are 100-110MS (I have had a few at nearly 300MS) and they are happening about every 10-20 seconds. I don't really know if that is normal. However, they do not show up as red in the graphs for some reason, nor are they listed as the 'highest' ping in the statistics. It is like they just are not being recognised.

I also note that when trying to play on my server during the evenings, I mostly have around 80 ping. Other times, like during the day, I get 40 ping no problem.

 

[1kiwi]

Getting timeouts from 85.17.208.134

 

[Sunbed]

Do many people still play this? I uninstalled many months ago because servers were getting increasingly sparsely populated and my ping was really bad.

Such a shame because it's the most fun fps I've played for years. Is there anything similar on the horizon? I thought DirtyBomb would have potential but I fear it will die out pretty quickly.