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Curious30
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join:2001-10-07
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Curious30

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PC Gaming Tech In General! Read Please :)

PC Gaming Tech in General

Someone teach me how to post Links in the best , I gotta get this post more organized
Note: This post is meant to discuss gaming questions in general commonly asked in the forums, so I decided to make a big post about it so that it might help us in the future. So if you can please vote the topic up so others can see it later in time. Thanks.

PC Hardware for Gaming:

One of the commonly most asked questions in this forum currently is about the video games so I’m going to first branch my topic on that first.

Video Cards
-First off, I would like to state that there are many video companies out there. Many are dying and 2 remain strong to fight off each other. These two companies are ATI Corp. »www.ati.com and NVIDIA Corp. »www.nvidia.com both of these companies have great cards out there right now but Nvidia has the advantage to this date. It’s most famous card is the Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4600. Here’s a list of their products from best to worst for gaming excluding business but keep in mind its worst is still quite good!
~Added 3 sections by Scavio and Karnog

Geforce 4 TI 4600
Geforce 4 Ti 4400
Geforce 3 Ti 500
Geforce 3 Ti 200
Geforce 3
Geforce 4 MX 440
Geforce 2 Ti200
Geforce 4 MX 220
Geforce 2 Ultra
Geforce 2 Pro
Geforce 2 GTS
Geforce 2 MX 200
Geforce 2 MX (older model)
Geforce 256
TNT 2 Mach 64
TNT

As you can see, it has gone a long way from its early beginnings.

ATI Corporations Line Up of Video Cards

Radeon 8500
Radeon 7500
Radeon 7200
Radeon 7000
Radeon (original)
Rage 128 Pro
Rage 128
Rage Pro

Ati Corp has really proven itself over the past couple of months with the release of the new Radeons which are relatively cheap and quite good.

For those wondering which card is better, to be honest the Geforce 3 Ti 500 is still by far the best but then again it’s the most expensive. The Radeon 8500 then comes second in power. Then the Geforce 3 Ti 200 and Radeon 7500 are tied in power to power. Note from the numbers do not judge that since 200 * 2.5 = 500 that the Geforce 3 Ti 500 is 2.5 times more powerful, that’s just advertising ploy.

Expect high FPS (Frames per second) if you are using the Geforce 3-4 or the new Radeons (if they have 8500, 7500, 7200, 7000). Video quality is determined partially by FPS, but high fps does not necessarily mean everything. Instead, thanks to the metioning of Scavio
quote:
For instance, Quake 3 at 1600x1200 with 4xAA on playing at 50 fps has much better video quality then 640x480 at 250 fps.
Sometimes some games may look horrible but that can be due to the fact the game makers didn’t spend much time on the game. A good example of this would be game comparison between Max Payne and CounterStrike: Half Life. Compared between the two graphics quality will be different between each other and the FPS will be also being different. Max Payne gives low fps mid 50s with a Geforce 3 while its graphics are beyond amazing. In CounterStrike… well, you get my point =) don’t get me wrong though I love Counterstrike with all my heart

DDR
If you can get a Video Card with DDR, get it. DDR is Double Data Rate in other words its memory responds faster 2x fast. See double? Duh. Most Geforce 3 automatically has DDR but look for it on the box. Some many not, if they don’t look, for a card that does. It improves it much better! You’ll see higher FPS and greater performance for your card. DDR is more expensive but is worth it.

Memory
Some cards may say 32mb or 64mb or even 16mb or 8 mb (shudders). The more mb the better. What this is the amount of colors it can display. Again the more the merrier because you’ll have a much more interactive gaming experience if you get a 64mb instead of the 32mb.

Video Drivers
ATI and Nvidia have now same plans on having video drivers. Usually these new upgraded Video Drivers are much better than before making the card better by using new software to tell how the card to operate causing higher fps and creating better graphics. So if you have an Nvidia or Ati cards and haven’t updated, I suggest you do so because chances are that you’ll like the new changes made by the software.

Overclocking of Video Cards
To overclock to a video card means to add more electricity causing the card to operate faster creating faster graphics, a better card and something more bang for the buck? Too good to be true? It is. Once you overclock or try and fail miserably the warranty that you had for the video card is void. So if you kill your card by add 20% more electricity than your neighborhood uses in a week then don’t expect that Nvidia will take the card and give you a new one. I don’t recommend overclocking cards since it is a risk, and if you have a Geforce 3 I highly don’t recommend it because you already have the power most games need today. But since you’re so stubborn and still want to overclock your card here’s some links that you could use

»www.hardocp.com/articles ··· ideo/oc/

Again I highly disapprove of it and I am not responsible for whatever you’re mind tells you to do. As Snake Eyes once said “A mind is a horrible thing to waste” the same goes for video cards. “A Geforce 4 is a horrible thing to waste” . Then again if you overclock correctly your card wont be wasted and you can brag to all your friends. Your choice.

There are somethings that are incorrect in this paragraph, I’m remembering when I did it on my BIOS, I thought it was acturally just adding a couple of more voltages, instead according to Scavio I’m going to quote it since it’s easier and won’t feel like I’m taking his/her credit.
quote:
In Overclocking you are you are increasing the core/memory speed to increase throughput.
PCI and AGP. The difference between the two? Better. AGP was a slot specifically designed for new 3d cards as the only thing an AGP can support is a video card. A PCI is a different slot designed to fit almost any computer hardware stick in peripheral. As you may have guessed the P stands for Peripheral. AGP was designed after the PCI and because of that getting a video card with AGP performance is better than a card with PCI Performance. You cannot place a AGP card in a PCI card and vice versa.

2x or 4x? What’s the difference between the two? The difference is minimal, as like a CD drive, more X is better. But don’t get me wrong though, 4x doesn’t mean its 2 times better than a 2x. In fact many say that a 4x and a 2x has almost unnoticeable effects between the two, but quote me as this by CutandWaste
quote:
My cat glares at my LCD screen more on 4x than it glares at it on 2x
. Back to topic , in case you’re wondering how to change the 2x and 4x you can usually do it in BIOS. Many times people complain that when their computer is having problems changing their video card speed from 4x to 2x sometimes seems to help, then again this isn’t the cure for everything.

New Section

CPUs (Central Processing Units) ~Mistake Corrected By Karnog

CPU, the main brain of your computer. If you have an excellent graphics card and a crappy CPU then you’re graphics wont go far. So lets read some stuff about CPU. A CPU is the stuff made by Intel and AMD. Since CPUs are so cheap right now I recommend getting something that isn’t Celeron and instead go for a Pentium 4 or an Althon XP.

Again there are 2 companies out there, AMD and Intel. Comp gurus like me can argue AMD that their CPUS are better (and cheaper) which is a good bang for the buck. A CPU can affect upon your computer by making everything run faster and better and less chances of freezing up your computer. I current recommend 1ghz if you’re an avid gamer and hate long “loading screens.” Many games currently don’t need this much speed but trust me you’ll like it when you get it. Again, you can overclock a CPU here’s a link, I’m not going to give you a warning again because I already did »www.tweak3d.net
Many games such as Max Payne will require a decent computer though, the better gaming experience you want, the more you pay unlike RAM, which we’re going to next.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

One word. Cheap. Today you can get some cheap RAM for a really good bang for the buck (I love that phrase don’t I?) Go to your local Best Buy or Fry’s or just online to get a good stick of 256 MB RAM. Games are needing more and more RAM these days so you should buy RAM since its cheaper than a CPU Upgrade.

Skrote says expensive brands such as higher quality brands Crucial etc tend to be better and are more stable. I agree with his opinion half and half, because if I were to compare, a 512 mb stick from Crucial is 2-3x the cost of a noname brand. It really depends on the budjet, but more RAM is just better
DIMM and DDR Technology
What this is the average technology everyone’s RAM uses except for that rich man who bought his comp with DDR. The difference? DDR is 2x faster than DIMM. Why doesn’t everyone have DDR? DDR is a relatively new technology but its only con is that it costs more than average DIMM. If you bought your comp in the past 2 years you definitely have DIMM unless you upgraded your motherboard. (We’ll get into that later)

Memory Limits ( )
Sad, but true there are a such thing as a memory limit. Depending on the year on your comp your motherboard will be limited to a certain limit of RAM. To check the limit rate, go to »www.kingston.com and find your computer out of the models, or you can always call your maker of your computer and find out. If you stick too much RAM in your comp than it can support it just wont work. If you made your comp by yourself you can always look in the manual of your motherboard and in that section should be RAM limits. New motherboards currently have a limit of 1.5 GB of RAM which is great but again this is for new motherboards.

Monitors
One of the most important things, don’t we stare this at least 3/24 hours of the day? Still a monitor is usually mistaken as one of the lesser important things. A monitor is what you’re looking at while your reading it so make sure you treat it properly, in other words stick place your oily hands or your friends oily hands on the monitor. Try to get a 15” + because this will greatly help. Even though it may take extra space you’ll be happy over the advancement.

Resolution in Gaming
A important thing about monitors is resolution support which is good because it can change the size of the everything you see on the computer. I recommend 800 by 600 or 1024 by 740 if your monitor can support it. Bigger is better but there comes to a point a certain resolution you just can’t read the text. Your choice. For Half Life its much better for a resolution 800 by 600 up.

LCD
Every time you go the computer superstore you might see those really cool monitors that are flat and straight and take so little space? Oh c’mon admit it, you’re the person that gets the fat slimy fingerprints on it! Well guess what, I have one, and my greasy fingerprints are on it unfortunately. Anyways, an LCD is great because it takes few space and if you buy a good brand its good for gaming. Note I mean something in the 500+ dollar ranges but if you can only support a cheap LCD then instead go for a regular monitor at 21”. It will definitely be better for gaming. Of course, a regular monitor with High Contrast, Antiglare Coating, FST, CRT will be better than a LCD but it’ll take much more desk space. I find it’s much better to game with free space and not crowded but you’ll never truly notice a monitor difference IMHO instead, a better video card will be much better cash spent.

Sound Cards
I can’t say much about this since I’m the only darn fool using Onboard Audio but I’ll tell you what I have learned from it. According to LasrX, a great sound card to use is the SB Gamer Prodigy. I can’t describe it any better than this man here Tekton
quote:
As soon as you connect the four speakers and subwoofer to the card (minimum amount of audio hardware needed!),fire-up Unreal Tournament,skip the intro ,get in a game: And hear the sound traveling around you,when your steps splash in audible puddles, while somewhere in the background,eerie music paints the foreboding dread and the whistling of the rocket behind you, ends just in time, to hear the blast and your death-throe reverberating cry,you will congratulate yourself for the sound (pun intended!)decision to get "Audigy".
The card is around 99 dollars if you buy it retail and it also includes 2 free full version games of Dues Ex: Game of the Year and Giants Citizen Kabuto. Pretty good, don’t ya think? You may be using sound card or onboard audio by determining if it says so when you bought your computer. Companies tend to brag about if they’re computer has a sound card. So if you don’t remember any bragging you don’t have a sound card and are using onboard audio like me.
»www.bestbuy.com/Detail.a ··· 11083316

Speakers
After you get a new sound card, you might want to get some new speakers. I’m asking a lot ain’t I? Don’t use those cruddy speakers given to you with this name called Infinity on them *cough cough IBM Aptiva cough cough* These speakers literally suck. Period. Find something on a site that has a subwoofer, then with 4 speakers. These 4 speakers should be placed in the 4 corners of your room. Now, why would you want some speakers like that? If you play online, by staying in one spot, you’ll hear your enemy. If you bought nice enough ones, and you aren’t deaf, you’ll have a good chance of listening where your enemy is coming out of it. So jump out shoot him and you’ve already got a head start in this game . If you really want an advantage and don’t want to guess get some “good” headphones designed for this and use that, even better I hear. Anything over 100 dollars is a really good deal.
»www.bestbuy.com/Detail.a ··· 11120379
Is a nice pack of speakers, anyone wish to donate to me? They are a bit expensive but with price comes quality!

Internet Connection
Real men play on 56k. Sure, famous quote there but then again I am the killer of a real man, with a 2:1 ratio on CS and 8:1 on newbie servers hah! Smart men play on Broadband. DSLreports. DSL. Digital SL. Digital Subscriber L. Digital Subscriber Lines. Am I getting you 56k readers sad yet . Just kidding with ya. In case you play multiplayer games like [DSLR]CS and [DSLR]UT, who play Counterstrike and Unreal Tournament you’ll notice a good many of them play on Broadband. A Broadband Connection which generally costs more such as around 50 dollars a month or up, is great for multiplayer gaming. Ping is generally like response time, at the point it takes you to aim and fire depending on your ping, adding your latency = Response time to make contact with your enemy or teammate (If you’re a teammate killer). Of course if your enemy has a lower ping, and he shoots you first and kills you, well you can’t fire back can you? Also HPB (Heavy Ping Bastards) namely 56kers when walking is like being drunk. You see one thing then one second later of not moving, you’ll suddenly have moved 10 feet. For a LPB (Low Ping Bastard) it’s like walking, well not drunk. Walk one second and you’ll move to the point nice and smoothly. If you’re already thinking wow with a HPB I have a large advantage since the enemy can’t see me! Wrong, the enemy sees you stuttering to your destination and will shoot you down before you see him. Get cable or DSL and face him and destroy your enemy. Natural Selection is it not? Those best fit to survive . Have a problem with your ISP? Go to the ISP forum that DSLR also has

Here’s a good link for your Internet Connection Info
»/allreviews You can see some reviews that you might want etc.

Mouse and Keyboard
Heck, I even have a section on this . Want better gaming; get an optical mouse and a wireless keyboard. Why this helps, I’ll tell you why, with an optical mouse you can get it as dirty as you want and you won’t mind because the laser won’t be affected. With wireless ability in heavy action games you’ll have much more room space to move around with, unfortunately for every good thing, there is bad. Want to know what it is? The fact that the signals from your mouse may often get lost result in choppiness in your gaming, so in other words, don’t use wireless. That’s a shame but its life. Wireless keyboard, with this, you can move around as much as possible after playing in a clan match for a long time, you’ll find yourself much more comfortable with the mouse in a different position than before. Besides, with a wireless keyboard they look much much cooler.
Regarding Mouse:
»what kinda mouse do u game with!!!
»What mouse do you use?

Mouse Pad
Depending on your choice, if you have an Optical, well then good for you, you’ve just saved your own ass 10 dollars from Best Buy/CompUSA/Fries. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter what mouse pad as much of the gamers of the DSLR Forum seem to see. Anyways here’s a link for what they use.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,2893249~root=pcgames~mode=flat

Frequently Asked Questions on DSLR Gaming Tech
Q: What is the Most Stable NVIDIA Drivers?
A: NVIDIA Det 4, 22.80 Last I’ve heard. You can grab them at http://www.templintech.com/templinweb/FILES.HTML

Q: Good 3d Mark Score?
A: 7000+ Plus. This really means you have a good computer, good RAM, good video card. Here’s a link to a fight in higher 3d Mark Scores.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,2295734~root=gamers~mode=flat
You can get the program at
http://gamershq.madonion.com/download/
I recommend you try it and see how great/crappy that computer is

Q: I'm having Lag Issues On My Gaming
A: Chances are, since I already metioned above that there is something wrong with your line. Some say is HAS to be but they're wrong, there is a chance it's your registry settings, check this http://www.dslreports.com/linequality and post it in a new post, then in the new post also have the results of http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks and http://www.dslreports.com/stest From that will the help start, it'll be much easier to determine the problem from that.

Q:Best Operating System for Gaming?
A: Right now, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) it's WinXp. It's stable, runs most like 97% I heard once (can't prove numbers) Win98 games. It's also much more stable and faster. So grab your closest Windows XP today (I sound like a Microsoft Rep. Hehe ~Question Asked goes to Skrote )

Q: Having Lag/Choke Problems in HL/CS
A: Due to an excellent post by XyLon69 and instead of posting entirely of what they said into here, here's a link to the post http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,2907929~root=gamers~mode=flat It should kill some lag problems, but you might also want to tweak your connection using this calculator http://www.dslreports.com/faq/677
and DR.TCP http://www.dslreports.com/front/drtcp.html

Note every problem in the next month at the Gaming Forum will be recorded and I will add to this to attempt to fix it, I will update this post as means so. If you want me to add a new section please tell me and I'll do so ASAP.

[text was edited by author 2002-03-31 22:58:19]

scavio
Premium Member
join:2001-07-14
Melmac

scavio

Premium Member

Not needed any longer....

****edit****

In 16bit mode there's 65,000 colors the card can use, in 32bit mode there is 16.7 millions colors. I would say your statement is generally correct now that I reread it though, more memory can cope with the higher number of colors better.

Curious30
Thanks
Premium Member
join:2001-10-07
Quincy, MA

Curious30

Premium Member

Correct 3 new mistakes Thanks to Karnog Thanks for reading man!

Added new stuff posted by Skrote.

Love the new help here coming guys, together we can make a "perfect" FAQ post
[text was edited by author 2002-03-31 20:10:50]

[text was edited by author 2002-03-31 22:48:05]

Karnog
join:2002-03-03
Westminster, CA

Karnog

Member

Pretty nice...
[text was edited by author 2002-03-31 20:11:44]

delt4
Congrats BUCCOS
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Pittsburgh, PA

delt4 to Curious30

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to Curious30
Wow, I think that was the longest post that I have ever seen on dslr.

bump!!!

Jaime
Premium Member
join:2001-06-03
Huntington Beach, CA

Jaime to Curious30

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to Curious30
About the ram, I DON'T recommend you buy crappy ram, get some good stuff like corsair, mushkin or crucial. In my ordeals getting shitty ram is like skimping on a power supply, you get what you pay for.
Jaime

Jaime to Curious30

Premium Member

to Curious30
Also "what is the best gaming os?" is a good question, maybe others would like to answer this one.

KingRatt
Premium Member
join:2002-02-24
Midland, MI

KingRatt to Curious30

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to Curious30
im happy with XP as my os. And Micron makes good affordable RAM.
Correrott
join:2001-12-24
Antelope, CA

Correrott to Curious30

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Quick question about XP. Home or Pro?

scavio
Premium Member
join:2001-07-14
Melmac

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to Curious30
Pro, all the way.

stowaway
Premium Member
join:2001-08-03
Kill Devil Hills, NC

stowaway to Curious30

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to Curious30
um, why are there MX cards listed above my beloved GF2 PRO?

This is the order I came up with.
Geforce 4 TI 4600
Geforce 4 Ti 4400
Geforce 3 Ti 500
Geforce 3 Ti 200
Geforce 3
Geforce 2 Ti200
Geforce 2 Ultra
Geforce 2 Pro
Geforce 4 MX 440
Geforce 2 GTS
Geforce 4 MX 220
Geforce 2 MX 200
Geforce 2 MX (older model)
Geforce 256
TNT 2 Mach 64
TNT

Kangaroo8
join:2000-08-11
Peoria, AZ

Kangaroo8 to Curious30

Member

to Curious30
said by CutandWaste:
Some cards may say 32mb or 64mb or even 16mb or 8 mb (shudders). The more mb the better. What this is the amount of colors it can display. Again the more the merrier because you’ll have a much more interactive gaming experience if you get a 64mb instead of the 32mb.

It has little to do with color depth. Driving a display at 2048 x 1536 x 32 uses only 12.6MB of video ram. Modern cards use the rest mainly for texture storage and as a buffer for AA.

KingRatt
Premium Member
join:2002-02-24
Midland, MI

KingRatt to Curious30

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to Curious30
XP Home is sufficient for me.
And the Radeon 8500 rocks the video world.

Curious30
Thanks
Premium Member
join:2001-10-07
Quincy, MA

Curious30

Premium Member

Still in my statement, I consider my statement still as correct standing But, I'll add that fact into it, but give me 1 hr and Ill add it in.
Correrott
join:2001-12-24
Antelope, CA

Correrott to Curious30

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to Curious30
Where is the Voodoo 3 2000? Man I've got to upgrade!
[text was edited by author 2002-04-02 21:24:37]

LuckyBob
Boww wowww LOST MY DOG
Premium Member
join:2001-05-05
B-Line

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Um I think that a gf2ultra could be better than a gf2ti

MrSavoy
Make It So
join:2000-03-30
West Babylon, NY

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Omg excellent post thank you dude this will come in handy for everyone here i would think, good job.

Karnog
join:2002-03-03
Westminster, CA

Karnog to LuckyBob

Member

to LuckyBob
"Um I think that a gf2ultra could be better than a gf2ti"

I don't understand why they even bothered with the Geforce2 ti's, It's the same damn thing as a Geforce2 pro pretty much. Same GPU, almost identical performance, I dont get it.
[text was edited by author 2002-04-03 00:43:28]

KeithM8
Zx6r Rider
join:2001-01-17
Broken Arrow, OK

KeithM8 to Curious30

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According to 3DMark and TomsHardware.com benchmarks it should be:

Geforce 4 Ti 4600
Geforce 4 Ti 4400
Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Geforce 3 Ti500
Geforce 3
Geforce 3 Ti200
Geforce 4 460
Geforce 4 440
Geforce 2 Ultra
Geforce 2 Ti
Geforce 2 Pro
Geforce 2 GTS
Geforce 256 DDR / Geforce 2 MX400
Geforce 2 MX
Geforce 2 MX200
TNT 2 Ultra
TNT 2

Reference this article: »www.tomshardware.com/gra ··· dex.html

justin
..needs sleep
Mod
join:1999-05-28
2031
Billion BiPAC 7800N
Apple AirPort Extreme (2011)

justin to Curious30

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I disagree that wireless mice are best for gaming.
their sample rate is limited, you cannot up them.. high mouse sample rates are very important for good FPS players. There are tweak utilities to increase the sample rate of regular non USB mice to 100+ samples per second.

Wireless cordless mice are even worse because there is a lag before they become fully awake after even a short wait.. to save battery power..