PCFormat Forum Archive

Hardware

In the February print issue (PCF #167) the HD 6970 and HD6950 were put on the chopping block. A few pages later the HD6870 was thrown into a CrossFireX setup to prove its worth. The performance benefit of adding an extra graphics card was finally tangible and the Cayman GPU, while not as powerful as the GF110, it is still a step in the right direction for AMD

EDIT: Thread title derp, sorry.

What concerns me about reviews is that the components are tested against the toughest of the tough. Then i card gets slammed because it didnt get the job done as was expected.

Im more concerned about whether i'll be able to play a game a max setting and enjoy everything the developer has thrown into it. I'm not in the market to enter my pc in shows etc and show what great scores it gets with benchmarks. As long as the game runs smoothly and looks like a visual feast i'll be a happy camper.

RiddickJhb wrote:As long as the game runs smoothly and looks like a visual feast i'll be a happy camper.

You can have that with single cards setups.

True enough. My concern is in my naivity that i think my game is playing at max potential and infact it isn't. I'm just worried i missed a trick and that i'm missing out on expericeing the game as it should be experienced.

A good metaphor would be like driving a car in 3rd gear and not knowing that u have a 4th or 5th gear. So you're getting where you need to be but not the way you should be.

I think a good article PCF can write and publish would be a guide to make sure your pc is running at full potential. Covering aspects like settings you need to check or tweak in Windows, making sure certain drivers etc is correctly installed and so on. I know they have done overclocking tutorials but i'm sure not everyone is into OC'ing and would like their rigs to run as best as they can without fudging around trying to clock.

RiddickJhb: Are your drivers updated? have you got your games running at the native resolution of your monitor with AA and AF at full in game?

Yes to latest drivers and yes to naitive display. I dont crank the AA and AF up i usually keep them as standard.

Just to clarify i'm not complaining. I think my games look kickass but like i said i dont know the so called tricks to boost pc performance. A guy on steam told me how to "use more cores" of your pc.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2009/04/ho ... indows-pc/

Now i dont know if these tricks etc work but it's sure handy to know them.

I have a HD 6970 in my work PC and an HD 6870 in my home PC. The home PC gets teh all gaming glory and on a standard 22" 1680x1050 I can set everything to max including AA and AF. They help to make the game a little bit sexier. Your machine has the grunt, crank those settings and enjoy.

Little tweaks to get your games to use more cores are, for the most part, a fools errand. But if you want then go right ahead, I just consider them more admin stopping me from diving straight into the game ASAP.

KillerByte wrote:I just consider them more admin stopping me from diving straight into the game ASAP.

And 9.9/10 times have very little noticeable improvement to the original experience.

LOL! Love your style. Basically i'm trying to educate myself and try and figure these things out without lending my ears out too much.

Are you happy with your 6970? Mine's hdmi port stopped working and got it replaced. Sitting here with the replacement and havent even opened it because i'm still contemplating whether i should try and sell it and go back to the green team. Just worried it might be a manufacturering problem and i might be sitting with another grenade.

RiddickJhb wrote:I dont crank the AA and AF up i usually keep them as standard.

Ke?
You first say that you want to experience a game at it's absolute maximum potential, but then run AA and AF on defaults?

Nvidia can't give you Eyefinity on a single card. In fact if you want to experience the best your games can offer then why not buy two more monitors and enjoy Eyefinity.

Sojourn wrote:

RiddickJhb wrote:I dont crank the AA and AF up i usually keep them as standard.

Ke?
You first say that you want to experience a game at it's absolute maximum potential, but then run AA and AF on defaults?

As I stated earlier I'm not familiar with all these things. Educate me if you feel the need to. I know when i set up my settings i usually choose the highest avaliable on 1920x1080. I presumed on this high setting that the AA and AF would have been calibrated by default to a high value.

ah I see.
It is very simple. If there is a setting, max it. Not just the resolution.

I appreciate your point and i'll take note of it in future. Thank you.

+1 on Eyefinity. Check your Crossfire thread in the hardware section for a more detailed reply.