je_saist

K. Could I have you try this driver please: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/opengl_driver.html

http://developer.download.nvidia.com...ional_whql.exe

What you want... and what Stone Delivers... are diametrically opposed.

Several years back the Stone Armor's Granite Set had a minus-accuracy component, the logic being that as you were encased in a giant rock, your ability to move would be difficult. However, in play, it was found that the accuracy debuff harmed a Stone Tank's ability to hold aggro as they couldn't build off gauntlet.

The debuff was thus changed, for practical reasons, into a damage debuff. Stone Tanks do less damage by carrying a 30% Damage Debuff while in Granite

Now, you can work around the Damage Debuff with various IO sets, but then you'll run into another issue. Granite armor also carries a 65% recharge debuff. With the available IO sets, while you can, in theory, cancel out the 30% damage debuff, you'll still have a massive recharge penalty. If you cancel out the recharge penalty, you'll have to skip most damage buff IO's.

***

Now, there is a different way to view the problem: http://zerias.blogspot.com/2009/08/c...ank-build.html

You can build a stone armor to work outside of granite. Case in point, outside of granite my own stone armor has 35% defense to smash / lethal, 49% to Psionic, 40% to energy / neg energy, and 12 to fire / cold. That in itself isn't really impressive... unless I'm fighting rularuu or rikti, then it's Ha Ha, Can't Touch Me!

However, with rooted on, right now, I'm pushing 46hp... per second. If I punch Earth's Embrace, I cap my hitpoints (3200), and regen... 65hp... per second.

Now, with only 35% defense to smash / lethal, when coupled with a 65hp per second regen rate... that's pretty hard to kill.

***

Now, I went with Mace as I already had an Ice / Mace tank and I was vaguely familiar what sets i could use with Mace to overcome the recharge rate with granite. Canceling out Granite's Recharge Debuff also put me pretty close to having perma-earth's-embrace outside of granite.

***

Which brings me to the big problem with my build. Endurance consumption. The stackable armors of the Stone Armor set have one of the highest endurance consumption amounts in the game. You'll be yanking down 1.8+ endurance per second unslotted. That's more than Ice Armor, and Ice get's an endurance recovery power (Energy Absorption)

But... there is another way..

Dark Melee.

Dark Melee's a bit light on the directed damage. However, with a self-heal, a self-endurance recovery, and a self damage boost... you can make up for some of the faults of the Stone set. Survivability outside of granite would be improved, and you'd be able to dish out mob damage on a regular basis.

*pounces KayJMM and applies bright Pink Ribbons!*

-slifbos 2 does nothing on the live server: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219534

Post #3: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...20&postcount=3

I'm going to define... playable... as 10 frames per second to 15 frames per second.

I'mg going to define... enjoyable... as 25fps to 30fps.

Here's the spec page for the current Imacs: http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

The 21 inch has a resolution of 1920 x 1200

The 27 inch has a resolution of 2560 x 1440

***

Coupled with a Phenom 9600 a RadeonHD 4850 at 1920x1200 under the Cedega Testing Engines could drive most of the City of Heroes content in 25~30 frames per second with:

• Low Shadows
• Low Enviromental Reflections
• Ultra Quality Water
• Balanced Ambient Occlusion
• 200% Character / World Detail

A Phenom II 965 coupled with a RadeonHD 5770 at 1920x1200 can drive most of the City of Heroes content in 25~30 frames per second with:

• High Shadows
• Ultra Quality Reflections
• Ultra Quality Water
• Balanced Ambient Occlusion
• 200% Character / World Detail

***

Now, looking at the list of Graphics Processors available for the Imac right now, you probably are not going to be able to run Ultra Mode in the native resolution for the 27 inch.

If you aren not looking to run the game at Native LCD resolution, the RadeonHD 4850 coupled with either of the Core 2 Duo's or the Quad-Core I7 should be able to drive Medium levels in 1680*1050.

Avoid the quad-I5. It's a bit of... correction IS... a dog on performance.

***

Now, I've got 4650 in hand. It tends to spend most of it's time coupled to an older Single Cored system. I pulled it out and coupled it with the I7 I have on hand (it's the 2.66ghz version), so a bit below the I7 you would get in the Imac.

Shadow Maps are pretty much outside of the GPU's range at... well... any resolution.

In a resolution of 1280*1024 The 4650 seems to be able to handle:

• low to medium reflections depending on zone
• Ultra Quality Water
• fast occlusion
• 200% Character / World Detail

An Imac probably isn't going to be far off that. Yes, the 4670 has a higher clockrate, but the Imac only couples it with 256mb of video memory... and Ultra Mode features chew through video memory like candy.

**

So, to try and directly answer your question:

At native resolutions the Imac with a 4850 is going to suffer on Ultra Mode settings, but rock non Ultra Mode settings.

If you scale the resolution of the game down, a 4850 should be able to give you an enjoyable experience with some Ultra Mode features enabled.

This. The current game with all of the Ultra Mode textures / models weighs in around 3.1 gigs, so if you are doing a fresh install, it's going to take a long while.

Perhaps he will gain great strength of feet?

more likely she'll take him captive and throw him in ... Le Dungeon!

... yeah. I just got the picture to load here. I thought that was driver corruption with the red lines. I see now that he was using Microsoft Paint on the picture.