What is it with all this new hardware hype!?

jessola

jessola

jessola

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Joined
14 Jan 2007
Posts
98
Location
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
We are constantly being bombarded with new and improved products for our PCs right across the board - Quad core CPUs, DDR3 ram, phat 8-series graphics cards, etc etc. Sure they give a performance boost, but is it all needed? My spec is as follows:
A single core socket 939 athlon 4000+
1 Gig of *DDR1* ram (not dual channel mode either)
A single GeForce 7900GS
A 580 watt power supply

I can play COD4 and the UTIII demo on full settings at 1280x1024, and the crysis demo at 1152x864, all with an average fps of 25-40, which is perfectly playable.

Sure my hardware is quite overclocked, but I still don't see why people are shelling out hundreds if not thousands of pounds for quad cores and the like. Any views?
 
jessola said:
We are constantly being bombarded with new and improved products for our PCs right across the board - Quad core CPUs, DDR3 ram, phat 8-series graphics cards, etc etc. Sure they give a performance boost, but is it all needed? My spec is as follows:
A single core socket 939 athlon 4000+
1 Gig of *DDR1* ram (not dual channel mode either)
A single GeForce 7900GS
A 580 watt power supply

I can play COD4 and the UTIII demo on full settings at 1280x1024, and the crysis demo at 1152x864, all with an average fps of 25-40, which is perfectly playable.

Sure my hardware is quite overclocked, but I still don't see why people are shelling out hundreds if not thousands of pounds for quad cores and the like. Any views?
Click to expand...

Im sure you didn't play Crysis at all high or very high settings? Thats why people buy new hardware. For the graphics and better performance.
 
i didnt play crysis at very high, becasue of DX9, but at 90% high it runs fine

and yeah i guess it would be even better on new hardware, but as the young'un i am i cannot possible afford so much as a ram upgrade, so its all good!
 
jessola said:
We are constantly being bombarded with new and improved products for our PCs right across the board - Quad core CPUs, DDR3 ram, phat 8-series graphics cards, etc etc. Sure they give a performance boost, but is it all needed? My spec is as follows:
A single core socket 939 athlon 4000+
1 Gig of *DDR1* ram (not dual channel mode either)
A single GeForce 7900GS
A 580 watt power supply

I can play COD4 and the UTIII demo on full settings at 1280x1024, and the crysis demo at 1152x864, all with an average fps of 25-40, which is perfectly playable.

Sure my hardware is quite overclocked, but I still don't see why people are shelling out hundreds if not thousands of pounds for quad cores and the like. Any views?
Click to expand...

You're asking why people get hyped about PC's on a PC enthusiast forum? Would you ask why people got hyped about cars on a car forum? Technology moves on, and has to do in order to drive the market.

1GB of RAM hasn't been standard for a couple of years now, and your CPU is now severely underpowered. If you don't want to upgrade then bow gracefully out of PC gaming and buy a console instead. You could upgrade that rig to a Core2 woth 2GB of ram for about £150. :)
 
Richdog said:
You're asking why people get hyped about PC's on a PC enthusiast forum? Would you ask why people got hyped about cars on a car forum? Technology moves on, and has to do in order to drive the market.

1GB of RAM hasn't been standard for a couple of years now, and your CPU is now severely underpowered. If you don't want to upgrade then bow gracefully out of PC gaming and buy a console instead. You could upgrade that rig to a Core2 woth 2GB of ram for about £150. :)
Click to expand...

I don't want to bow out of PC gaming, that's the point! And i couldn't afford £150 anyway, and it would be more because i would have to replace the motherboard as well.
Of course i will upgrade sooner or later, most likely mid 2008, when my hardware really does start to struggle. What I'm saying really is that in my opinion new hardware is not really necessary for a good 3 quarters of a year after its release.
 
jessola said:
We are constantly being bombarded with new and improved products for our PCs right across the board - Quad core CPUs, DDR3 ram, phat 8-series graphics cards, etc etc. Sure they give a performance boost, but is it all needed? My spec is as follows:
A single core socket 939 athlon 4000+
1 Gig of *DDR1* ram (not dual channel mode either)
A single GeForce 7900GS
A 580 watt power supply

I can play COD4 and the UTIII demo on full settings at 1280x1024, and the crysis demo at 1152x864, all with an average fps of 25-40, which is perfectly playable.

Sure my hardware is quite overclocked, but I still don't see why people are shelling out hundreds if not thousands of pounds for quad cores and the like. Any views?
Click to expand...

I keep my PC up-to-date for a few reasons:

1) To play the game on full settings

2) For a smooth experience

Sorry but 1gb won't even cut it with BF2.

I don't mean to offend you...
 
Seeing as my 2900XT overclocked gets 16fps on Very High settings and around 25fps on High settings on 1280x1024 I don't think there's any way your 7900GS can get the same.
 
jessola said:
I can play COD4 on full settings at 1280x1024,
Click to expand...

I call shenanigans!

I have a :-

X2 4200+ (Socket 939)
2GB of RAM (2x1GB in dual channel)
512MB 7900GS
580W Hiper PSU!

I can't run CoD4 on full settings at 1280x960 and get it anywhere near playable.
 
Azagoth said:
I call shenanigans!

I have a X2 4200+, 2GB of RAM, a 512MB 7900GS and a 580W Hiper PSU! I can't play CoD4 on full settings at 1280x960 and get it anywhere near playable.
Click to expand...

I have only 17 background processes running, and my 7900GS was one of those pre over clocked ones - its at 600/1600 (link here), my 4000+ is at 2.7Ghz and ram at 460.

If you suggest a way i can prove it i will be happy to..

and @Nymins Yeah 20-25 is more accurate for crysis, i got up to 40 on COD4 though
 
I struggle to get 25fps constant with a OC'd 8800GTS at high settings in vista,

I'm glad this game is working fine for someone

sid
 
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