BFG+xtra gig o RAM kicks ruddy arse!

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 5:10 am

yeah! got the BFG and the xtra gig of ram... and yeah-ya, it kicks ruddy arse! i'm not kidding, though somewhat noiser than my old fx5200, the power and smoothness of this 250mg vid card has to be seen to be believed.

IL2 with maxed settings and PERFECT mode, 45 on takeoff with many other planes around me, once in the air, high 50s and 60s... and man that perfect water looks grand!

no doubt the xtra gig of ram ain't hurting nothing either...i've never played so good and smooth. everything's lovin' clear as a bell, noticing details that i never saw before both on the ground/ocean and on the planes themselves. and firefights between a dozen or more planes is smooth sailing... no unsightly stalls/stammers/stutters when the lead starts flying now.

this is great so far.

you other guys with BFGs getting similiar results?

Beowolff

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:00 pm

You know we are mate. Calm down there - some of us of had it for like almost a WHOLE month. Noobie Alert!

Serious, great card eh? Noisy? Not the card but the new psu/fan I had to purchase sure is louder (thermal regulated) when the card starts to get hot (60 degrees - which is really not hot but the fan fights to keep things in the mid 50 range).

Indeed, presently enjoying DCG's Normandy 1941 campaign with IL-2 maxed settings using Perfect and the 6800 using 2xQ AA. Really enjoying the early war plane set. Been "cheating" with a spits because either the AI is on Rookie level, or the 1941 Bf models are very poor in comparison. But hey, medal boy here isn't complaining I guess.

Some terrific dogfights in this one - seeing clusters of up to 4 squads coming together for some awesome encounters. Where are my Wednesday night regulars?

I agree that the visibility is improved using Perfect, not to mention the eye-candy of course. Getting great frame rates, similar to what you mentioned mate. What speed is your CPU btw?

Tact - "fellow happy 6800 GT owner" - S!

Ianus · Post by **Ianus** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:49 am

I've got an XP2800 with a 9800 pro on it at the moment. I'm not sure if my m/c would do that card full justice

What is the rest of your sys specs Beowolff ?

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 2:57 am

tac... you had this card a WHOLE month! graaaa...

well, Ianus, my unit is a fairly old one. started life as a HP Pavilion XT959 with a 1.8 gig cpu, 512mg ram, and a 32mg GeForce card. that was then. as IL2 got patches, a steady flow of upgrades commenced naturally.

at this time, that same XT959 is now sporting a 2.4 gig processor (from last years' upgrade) and now has the BFG 256mg Nvidia vid card, 2 gig of ram (old style) and just recently upgraded from XP1 to XP service pack 2.

as i said, its a fairly old system...or rather old-ish, as compared to the guys with 3 plus gig cpu's and such. but the steady updates have kept it 'somewhere' in line with the more modern machines. course i've now went about as far as i can go... both physically due to machine limits, and monetarily---just how much is it worth to keep on upgrading old technology?

my goal was/is to try and make it through with this machine until the new and up-coming dual core machines are out and in full production and the prices are starting to drop on them...and hopefully at that time, MS would have the new 64bit LongHorn OS out and ready for primetime. and with this latest round of upgrades (the extra gig of ram and the BFG) its looks like i just might (and might is a keyword of course) make it.

really... so far, this has been a hell of a upgrade for me. my machine has NEVER ran so good...even as a brand NEW machine. everything is slick...no doubt due to the increased ram. and video is now awesome with the BFG. and IL2 (my main game squeeze) is improved two to three fold or EVEN MORE! i repeat what i said in the other post... i'm actually seeing things in the game that simply WAS NOT visible to me before with the smaller amount of ram and the lesser FX card. its almost like the diff between daylight and dark. and yeah, it set me back a few greens... but man, for this sort of performance increase, it was cabbage very well spent.

would it do the same for you? guy, i just don't know. all of the freakin' electronic stuff is so picky and finicky. who's to say? yes, i 'think' it would, i have yet to hear a BFG user say a single bad word. but do i know it? no way.

let me put it this way... i cannot see how it could possible NOT give you a dramatic increase in gaming pleasure... my opinion. if it will supercharge my tired, old hp xt... it should definitely boost anybody's. but again, that is my opinion only.

now there are (from my research into it before buying) several different types and brands of the same general card. some say the slightly cheaper 6600 version is just as good. maybe so, but there has to be more than just one or two reasons why the 6600 is cheaper. as to brands, sure, there are many fine brand names available all using the same Nvidia cores or technology... i chose the BFG because it is already safely, from the BFG factory, overclocked---more bang right out of the box and done by experts. also, i love the BFG technologies LIFETIME warranty, and i know they have good to great customer service. that was a no brainer for me... but other card makers may have cards every bit as good too.

anyway, i've rambled on long enough. good luck no matter what you decide to do.

Salute!

Beowolff

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:15 am

One article I read discussed the need to balance CPU with the video card. It was rather interesting to see how much performance loss (i.e., frame rate) was experienced when using say the 6800 Ultra with a 3.4 GHz versus a 2.0 GHz.

As hopefully most realize buying the most expensive video card isn't necessarily going to result in outstanding performance, as most games require a very good CPU to play the game well. I see too many posts of people rushing out and buying an expensive card when they only have a 1.x CPU or 256 MB memory, not appreciating you need a fast CPU, 1 MB memory or more (XP), and of course a very good video card.

I believe I mentioned this before but just a rough guideline this particular article suggested up to 3 GHz folks would see the best performance with the 6800 GT model (or lower) versus the expensive Ultra model. Without the higher CPU speed the "full" abilities of the Ultra will be wasted along with your extra cash.

Beo your CPU is fast enough to take advantage of the GT model. Someone with a lower CPU speed might choose the 6600. This card (6600) would be a good choice for those with slower CPU speeds (low 2 GHz).

TactS!

Ianus · Post by **Ianus** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 1:08 pm

Interesting stuff indeed Beowolff and Tacticals.

I'm in a very similar situation as yourself Beowolff in terms of waiting for dual processor tech etc and am trying to hang on to my sys as much as I can.

My XP 2800 should really only go with the GT version rather than the ultra then?

I know that when Bob comes (still worried about the new FM in 4.0 here though) that the sys I buy is probably gonna cost big, but thats ok

hopefully because I can budget for that. Having said that to get the optimum out of my sys at the moment I could do with an Audigy 2 (saw one go on Ebay for £23 last week) and to upgrade my ram, which at the moment is as good a time as it gets to do!

Video card. Hmm! I havn't looked but for a 6800GT prices are probably £200-250 in England. As opposed to how much I love this game now,,, no contest really lol Total cost would probaly come in at about £300 I s'pose.

This has really got me thinking and am gonna go and do some research on this stuff basically to see what difference I can make. From your comments Beowollf I think it might happen, oh no money,, it's the root of all evil

hehe

Here is my sys at the moment

XP2800, Gigabyte GA7VAXP (Via Kt400chip), S/blaster live 5.1, 768 pc2700. 9800 pro.

The processor o/clocks via the fsb to make it a 3000XP without o/clocking my pci slots.

What do you think worth it?

:FI:Murph · Post by **:FI:Murph** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:21 pm

Beowolff; Are you using 2Gigs of RAM now? You said you added a Gig but did'nt mention how much you had to begin with.

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:38 am

yeah, pal... actually a bit more than that. i've got three slots and have two 512mgs in the first two, and the new 1gig stick in the third. total 2.24 gig. it really made an amazing difference in how my old HP operates. everything's faster (not just the games) but everything... click on a desktop icon now and it opens the app so fast its almost a blur. every app i've tried since the extra gig seems smoother and faster now. yeah, it 'may' be partly my imagination (lol) but i don't think so.
others may or not experience such a dramatic increase in speed and smoothness, but i sure have noticed such. wish i'd did it a good while back.

Beo