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The best place to ask questions about computer stuff is the Technical Issues Forum. The folks who hang out there tend to really know their stuff.
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Originally Posted by RiggsMcClane
Wasn't exactly sure where to post this but here goes. I'm looking to upgrade my pc. After having this one for six years it's really starting to show it's age in game and out. So, I was wondering if the below pc is capable of running Ultra Mode smoothly and if it's a decent desktop in general. Any opinions are appreciated.
Studio XPS 7100 AMD Athlon II X4 630 + ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMS 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache 16X DVD+/-RW Drive |
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
Quick answer: You'll be fine. Though I had issues with my ATI before I switched to Nvidia.
My stuff is pretty old. Athalon II x2, 4 gigs DDR2 ram, 9600 GSO. I keep ambient occlusion down down down but must have my textures running 200% and my depth slid to the right also. I don't care about window reflections so much, as long as they're there, and I must have water on up there.
That said, in a mothership raid or invasion, I'll go into N64 mode or I'll not even be able to target.
Oh, and before you get all gaga about your ram mHZ, see how badly your northbridge will bottleneck everything. May not be worth it. (and get a northbridge heatsink worth something)
The HD 5450 is a very, very weak video card so forget about UM. For $130 at Dell you can upgrade to the HD 5770 which should be able to do UM at their middle settings at 1600x900.
Don't see a problem off had with the rest.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
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Originally Posted by Father Xmas
The HD 5450 is a very, very weak video card so forget about UM.
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How's the graphics card a problem when it surpasses ultra mode requirements?
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8 Series (or higher), ATI Radeon® HD 2000 Series (or higher)
There is Ultra Mode, and then there is Ultra Mode with stuff turned up. Even really crazy gaming rigs will get choppy with all the Ultra Mode settings up.
edit: I also traded my ATI 5850 for a pair of Nvidia's because of a lot of driver issues the ATI's are having right now, for which I never could find a fix.
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Because having a minimum class of hardware, in this case one with universal shader hardware aka streaming processors aka DirectX 10 or higher capable video card, isn't the same as minimum strength needed for generally acceptable frame rates.|
Originally Posted by RiggsMcClane
How's the graphics card a problem when it surpasses ultra mode requirements?
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® HD 2000 Series (or higher) |
Back when City of Villains first came out with it's upgraded graphics engine, the minimum to enable those new features was a GeForce 6 series (forgot the which ATI series). Didn't mean that a 6200 could run the game well with those new effects turned on, just that you were allowed to turn them on. Same is true in this case with Ultra Mode.
There is a sticky on the Tech forum here that discusses which video cards that came out over the last couple of years can run the game with Ultra Mode turned on.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
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Originally Posted by RiggsMcClane
How's the graphics card a problem when it surpasses ultra mode requirements?
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8 Series (or higher), ATI Radeon® HD 2000 Series (or higher) |
This is actually several separate questions:
- Can the 5450 do Ultra Mode?
- Yes
- Can the 5450 do Ultra Mode at acceptable framerates?
- No
- What really constitues "ultra mode", since UM's settings span multiple sub-settings with varying levels of quality?
- THIS is the big sticking point.
If they want to run with all those UM settings (save ones known to sap performance and not really add anything to the VQ) cranked up and/or at very high resolutions (I play at 1920x1080 myself), it just will NOT cut it.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
I'm not concerned with having super crazy nuts ultra mode. I would however like better graphics than I have now, which is running a six year old nividia 5200. I'd like better details overall but that's about it.
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If you're going to spend money on a new PC, it's really a let-down to get *meh* performance and VQ gain. What you really want is a combination of better details AND better performance.|
Originally Posted by RiggsMcClane
I'm not concerned with having super crazy nuts ultra mode. I would however like better graphics than I have now, which is running a six year old nividia 5200. I'd like better details overall but that's about it.
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As such, people are recommending that you look at a different video card.
And, honestly, I'd recommend staying away from Dell/Alienware if you're looking for best bang for the buck for a gaming PC.
There are several other vendors out there that custom build PCs that'll give you more options.
Dell's XPS line is power user workstation stuff. While they acknowledge graphics as important (so you don't get built-in Intel stuff), they aren't really intended to give best results in gaming.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Honestly the integrated ATI 4200 on the motherboard of that Dell should be faster than your old FX 5200. The HD 5450 would be 3-5x as fast, similar to the old 6600GT.
In terms of today's video cards, you don't need something all that powerful to max out all of the non Ultramode settings. Something like the HD 5570 (an underclocked HD 5670 with usually much slower memory) could do the job at moderate resolution. But Ultramode effects are very GPU compute intensive. The HD 5770 has over 10x the raw compute power of the HD 5450 and over twice the power of the HD 5670.
The XPS use to be Dell's game line, then they bought Alienware and backed away from offering anything truly "gamer", such as systems capable of multiple video cards or overclocked CPUs.
If you are unwilling to spend the extra $130 to go from the HD 5450 to the HD 5770, then maybe the $50 to the HD 5670 may be more palatable. You should be able to play with some of the UM settings on their lowest settings.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Never really got around to buying a new pc but now my six year old dell is toast crashing anytime I play the game. I'm a little more open to a system that can get me mid to high range ultra mode. Sadly I'm stuck with something from dell. Here's what I came up with myself. It's an upgraded Studio XPS 7100 with 8 gigs of ram, a AMD Phenom II X4 945 + ATI Radeon™ HD 6770 1GB, running windows seven. Here's the link to the basic system and where you can see the above choice I've made: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...tudio-xps-7100
Anyway, I like to make informed decisions and you guys have helped me out in the past. So many thanks ahead of time.
PS: If there were a dell laptop that could run mid UM I'd be interested in looking into that as well.
Wasn't exactly sure where to post this but here goes. I'm looking to upgrade my pc. After having this one for six years it's really starting to show it's age in game and out. So, I was wondering if the below pc is capable of running Ultra Mode smoothly and if it's a decent desktop in general. Any opinions are appreciated.
Studio XPS 7100
AMD Athlon™ II X4 630 + ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB
6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMS
500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
16X DVD+/-RW Drive