In this day and age of new hardware hype and the incredible game effects, physics and graphics, you really need to be careful what you leap into. It's one thing to read scads of reviews on the latest gear with benchmarks detailing awe inspiring stats, quite another to expect to get the same results.

It definitely depends many times on the game, the OS you're using, your hardware setup and whether you're using 64 bit and/or dual core. I'm a wait and see type anymore, especially after having bought my last system right after the video card I chose came on the market.

I'm constantly seeing guys mentioning problems running some games (like FEAR) at reasonable frame rates even with very high end spec, like the new 8800 by Nvidia. Lately it seems Nvidia is no better and perhaps worse than ATI at driver issues.

While many if not most of us would love to use the highest settings and resolution possible in every game we play, at some point you reach a saturation point and the extra FPS just don't mean beans. At that point you have to ask yourself if the extra expense, heat, and often times noise is worth it just to say, "Whoo hoo, I'm getting a +200FPS average with max settings!"

Bottom line, there's nothing wrong at all with using hardware that's adequate to get the job done with max or close to max settings and reasonable (adequately playable) frame rates. It affords you more to spend on games and is less likely to leave you feeling you could have done better price wise.

Since the industry and the hardware are constantly changing anyway, moderate expense is the reasonable way to go IMO. That is particularly true when major design changes are taking place in hardware, games, AND operating systems, which often creates a long waiting period for good driver support.

My spec is as follows, and is now about 28.5 months old:

P4 Northwood 3.0 CPU (retail w/stock fan & heatsink)
MSI 865PE Neo2-P MB (retail)
OCZ Platinum Low Latency RAM 2x 512 (retail)
Gigabyte X800XT Platinum (retail)
WD 74G Raptors x2-originally 1 (OEM)
Lite-On DVDRW SOHW-1633S (retail)
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 sound (retail)
Creative Gigaworks 5.1 speakers 560 watts (retail)
Kingwin KT-424 alu case (retail)
Antec Truepower 550 watt PSU (retail)
Viewsonic G220fb 21" CRT display (retail)
Logitech MX500 wired mouse (OEM)
Rosewill USB MM wired keyboard (retail)
XP Home (OEM)

With this setup I can play at max settings with 2x AA and 4x AF at about 60-70 ave FPS. When I make videos I drop the AF to 1x, Water to Very High, and Lights & Shadows to High. I then bump the resolution up from 1024x768 to 1280x800 (about 30% more pixels) and record at 30FPS with Fraps.

The one annoying thing about my hardware decision has been the infamous ATI stuttering in games like HL2, FEAR, and Doom3. Having bought the X800XT right after it came out for well over $500 has made the stuttering all the harder to cope with.

I will likely never purchase high end hardware right after it's debut ever again. I had been thinking the same of ATI in general for some time, but lately I can't say I'm impressed with what I'm reading about Nvidia either, mainly their driver support.

Another point to consider is that as games age, new technology may not be able to run the game as well as hardware from the time period that the game was developed in. Not because it is not fast enough, but because of incompatibilities with the software that was written to take advantage of now obsolete technology.

New hardware requires new drivers which will be optimized for applications that are current and older games that are no longer being supported by patches are not a priority for video card manufacturers.

Be prepared for Far Cry to be harder and harder to run as operating systems, video cards and CPUs change.

Good points coops, and more reasons not to get too caught up in the highest tech stuff right when it comes out. Too much change too fast is not a good thing IMO. The only way to combat it really is by waiting until well after the new tech debuts before changing over.

It seems they want to condition people to upgrading or replacing their PCs every year or two lately. Insisting on keeping your spec for 3-5 years (including OS) can keep you from having as many of these problems and send the manufacturers a strong message.

In reality many whom buy operating systems and high tech hardware right when it comes out often spend several months if not the whole first year waiting for decent support for it.

In the case of some tech, it can be a 1-3 year wait before there's enough software to make full use of it. Those of you whom bought into 64 bit, dual core, SLI, etc when it first came out know what I mean. There's just too much sales hype floating around for some to resist.

You have to wonder what the pricing would be like if people would stop preordering this stuff before it's even proven. The computer industry is a lot like pro sports, teams are willing to pay flash in the pan rookies big bucks before they even prove themselves worthy.

Well, this is a pretty old thread, but it is interesting to see the changes in technology over the years.

Here's what I STARTED to play Far Cry on:

Pentium 4 2.53 Ghz
1 gig PC 1066 Rambus memory (bus speed 533 mhz,
in dual channel is 1066 Mhz effective)
Nvidia TI 4200 w/128 meg
SB 16 PCI sound

Then, I upgraded to an Nvida FX 5950 Ultra/ 256 meg and WOW!!!, I could then FINALLY see the game in all it's glory!

Still, though the frame rates would drop on occasion in certain areas.

So, then I upgraded to an eVGA 6800 Ultra and
Far cry could be cranked ALL the way up, and
NO chopiness or stuttering.

Now, hopefully, you can see my current rig in my
signature below.
This most recent upgrade got me a motherboard
that has an "MGP" slot, which allows me to
run my AGP 6800 Ultra and later, upgrade to a
PCI Express 16x Vid card.

My next upgrade will be an eVGA 8800 GTX.

Bye for now...

windows xp media center
768mb ram
100gb HDD
1.8ghz AMD 3100+
128mb X300se ATI card

Afaik, anything over 60fps is not visible to the eye anyway, just for bragging rights.
Absolutely right on the hardware support, I have not used the 64 bit OS my processor supports and dual core is actually a disadvantage in FC.
My specs below:

AMD64 4200 Dual core.
ATI X850XT
2Gb DDR 400 memory
200GB Sata 3G hard drive
19" LG flat panel monitor.

I regularly get my ass pwned by people with "inferior" kit. Lots to be said for skill and a good isp.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2 Processor
Asus Crosshair NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Mother Board
2- 1Gig sticks of OCZ platimum 800 MHz DDR2 RAM
2 - 80 GIG Raptors in RAID 0 (YEs 80 GIG - probably from Dell)
X-Fi fatal1ty Sound Card
msi 7950 GX2 Video Card
Razor Diamondback 1200DPI Mouse
Razor eXactmat X mousepad
LTB 5.1 surround sound (****) headphones
LG 5ms 22" Widesceen LCD
Crappy but useful TDK DVD burner

Waiting to go in 2 - 500 GIG WD SATA drives (> 1TB!)

AMD FX-60 Dual Core @ 2.8GHz
Asus A8R-32 MVP Deluxe mobo
4 Gigs Corsair XMS CAS 2 RAM
two X1900XTX 512MB ATI cards in Crossfire
X-FI Fatality sound card
two 250Gig Seagate SATA 2 drives in RAID 0
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra speakers
20.1 inch Samsung LCD

I am currently running Farcry at 1600 X 1200 Resolution with 16X non angular high quality AF, 6X AA, V-sync Forced, all game effects are maxed. Configurator is tweaked so vegitation sprits to geometry are on 10 instead of 1. 64 bit content added in as well with an average of about 100FPS.

My first time through I used an AMD FX-51 and an X800XT-PE. It's like a new game now though. I am currently playing through the game on the realistic mode using stealth and I am having a fantastic time of it.

I did have to force tripple buffering on the game engine in order to get my current frame rate with V-sync enabled though. I don't understand why Cryteck did not support it to begin with. Then again, the V-sync option in the game doesn't even appear to work at least on my system it doesn't. I have to force it through my graphic control panel in order to get real results.

quote:

Originally posted by the_sextein:
My first time through I used an AMD FX-51 and an X800XT-PE. It's like a new game now though.

Lol, my first time through I had a P4 3.0 and 9800 Pro and I had one of the higher spec machines.

Its nice to see this game get tamed by hardware. Something that was unthinkable two years ago.

Yeah man I know what you mean. I said I had an X800XT-PE my first time through but the first time I actually played the game was with a crappy FX 5950 Ultra. At the time the drivers didn't really support DX9 very well and the game was really slow. I waited a few monthes until the X800XT-PE came out and then I played farcry for the first time through. Even then I was hardly keeping 30FPS with 2X AA. Now it's like silk. I can't imagine whatdual 8800GTX cards could do for it. You could probably push 16X AA and it would still be perfect.

Right now addaptive AA and any AA level after 6X causes noticable performance losses though. It's playable with 8XAA and performance addaptive AA but not near as smooth. 10X AA and above is unplayable in certain areas.

Funny thread necromancy

I first played Far Cry on my current rig's direct progenitor. Far Cry was actually the title responsible for getting me more into PC hardware, as I wanted to do everything I could to be able to play the game in more splendor

P4 2.66
Some ECS Mobo
1GB PC2700
Sapphire 9800 "Pro"
Soundblaster 128PCI
Some cheap, lame speakers
Viewsonic 17" CRT

I did a bunch of running upgrades to the previous box, and still run the same basic platform... though not one of the actual parts remains, and this poor thing is overclocked to within an inch of its life.

P4C 3.4 @ 3.85Ghz
Abit IC7-G MaxII
1GB OCZ PC4000/DDR-500 Gold
ATI X800XT AIW @ 560/1120
SB Audigy 2ZS Platinum
Altec Lansing 2.1 Speakers
2x 19" LCD Monitors

Still works well, but a new system will soon be in order. Finances permitting.

Good to see that you're still holding down the fort, Coops.

When i started i used

AMd athlon 2500+ @1.83ghz
Some crappy 512 ram
20gb western digital hd
15" samsung plasma
and to top it all off a geforce 4 mx4400 (agp 8* 64mb)

Now i run
Cooling: LiquoCool Antarctic TXR Extreme (CPU+Chipset+2VGA)
PSU: Enermax Galaxy Modular 1000W PSU
Motherboard: EVGA NF680i SLI (1333 FSB Conroe)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 Extreme Retail (4x2.66GHz 1066FSB 8Mb)
Memory: OCZ DDR2-1066 2x1024MB SLI Ready Edition Dual Channel Kit
Graphics: (2 x) Nvidia 8800GTX 768Mb PCIe HDCP
Hard Drive: (2 x) 150Gb Raptor 10000 16mb E-SATA
Storage HD: (2 x) 500Gb Barracuda 7200.10 16mb Cache SATA II NCQ
Optical Drive: Sony CDRW DVD Combo 52x32x52x16 OEM Black
Optical Drive 2: NEC AD-7173A 18x dual layer DVDRW black

CPU 6510
SPEED 0.985 MHz (PAL) / 1.023 MHz (NTSC)
CO-PROCESSOR VIC II (Video), SID (Sound)
RAM 64 KB
ROM 20 KB
TEXT MODES 40 columns x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES several, most used : 320 x 200
COLORS 16 + 16 border colours
SOUND 3 voices / 9 octaves, 4 waveforms (sound output through TV)
SIZE / WEIGHT 40.4 (W) x 21.6 (D) x 7.5 (H) cm / 1820 g
I/O PORTS RGB (composite, chroma/luma and sound in/out), 2 x Joystick plugs, Cardridge slot, Tape interfarce (300 bps), Serial, User Port, TV RF output
BUILT IN MEDIA Cassette unit. Provision for 170 KB 5.25'' floppy disc unit (1541)
POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit
KEYBOARD Full-stroke 66 keys with 4 function keys

ooops sorry...wrong rig..but who can tell me what kind that was, I first played games on that!


here is today...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ “Manchester”
Dual-Core, 2.2GHz, HT 2000MHz,
L1 Cache 128KB+128KB, L2 Cache 2 x 512KB
Foxconn, nVidia nForce 410
3070MB (3GB) PC3200 DDR400 (2x1GB 2x512MB) RAM
nVidia GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR2
ATI 550Pro TV Tuner
WesternDigital 320GB 7200RPM PATA
(Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit)
Seagate 120GB 7200RPM UltraATA
(Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit)
Philips 16X DVD-ROM Drive
TSSTcorp 16X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
Ultra 500Watt ATX 2.03
19inch HYUNDAI ImageQuest B90A LCD
Logitech X-530 70-watt, 5.1

I first played FC on:

Biostar M7NCD Pro
XP3200
9700 Pro
120GB SATA
SB Live
19" CRT

Right now I have:
MSI P6N-FI SLI
E6600
7950GT X2 SLI'ed
150GB Raptor/320GB Seagate
X-Fi
22" LCD

XP PRO 64bit windows
Matrix AMD 2x4400@2.420Ghz
A8n sli mobo
2 gig ddr4
2x sata 2 maxtor 10 320+160
Audigy 4 sound w/ zalman 5:1 headset
GF7 7800GT 256 Pcie w/ modded cooler
dvr-rw cdr-rw
19" crt

XP HOME 32bit windows
AMD 3500@2.2Ghz
Dual vista mobo
2x maxtor 80gig
Audigy 2 sound w/ creative 5:1
Asus 6800GT 256 Agp
dvd cdr-rw
19" tft

Windows vista
intel 1.7Ghz Laptop

And 360 on 42" sharp lcd 1920x1080

quote:

Originally posted by fabulouscoops:
Interesting to see the changes in technology since Far Cry came out.

Its only interesting untill you sum up all the money you have spent on upgrades

I first played Far Cry on P-IV 1.8GHz, 512MB RDRAM and a GF4600
But it is a little bit more smooth now with C2D E6700, 2GB RAM and a 7950 GX2.
Had a P-IV 3GHz, 2GB and GF6800GT between the two other computers too.

QDI P4I865PEA Pro
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz HT
2 Gb Ram 400 Mhz
ATI X1950Pro AGP 512 Mb witth 7.4 drivers
Sound Blaster Fatal1ty with 64 Mb Ram
160 Gb Maxtor SATA
Windows XP Pro SP2
all drivers updated

3DMark 2005 = 6800

AMD X2 4200+
Nvidia 7900GT
2 GB RAM
250 GB
Windows XP
X-fi Platinum

When I first started playing Far Cry this was my machine spec:
Intel D845PEBT2 Motherboard
Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz (Northwood Socket 478)
512MB PC 2700 RAM (bus speed 533 mhz 2x256MB)
Nvidia TI 4600 w/128 meg
SB PCI 512 sound

Today it's still not a bleeding edge machine but it plays the game with everything maxed, now:

Intel DP965LTCK Motherboard
Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz) (Socket 775)
3GB PC2 6400 RAM (2X1GB, 2X512MB)
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX PCI-E (768MB)
Onboard sound

I see all the frogs and other things now that I never saw with the TI 4600.

That old box is now my "retro" gaming machine.

[EDIT] Updated my video card. Got it on Friday.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rogerwilco99,