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F.e.a.r. - Pc
- Thread starter Munson
- Start date
My machine ain't top of the range but it ain't too bad. FX53, 1GB Ram and an X800XT. Have to say I wasn't impressed by how well it ran, frame rate wasn't brill, it jerked a lot when it had to load stuff from the hard disk and I eventually quit the demo after it totally crashed my PC. Compared to HL2 it was pants. It was scary in places and the sound was awesome, graphics didn't really stun me though. They were good but because I can run HL2 and Doom in a higher res and at a higher frame rate I just wasn't impressed.
A lot of people are saying that, but this game is a cut above HL2 in visual terms mate. Mainly in the lighting and special effects. F.E.A.R is a lot more demanding for sure, but these games have to keep pushing the boundaries.
I'm 'only' running a P4 3.0, 2GB RAM & GeForce 6800Ultra @ 1280x1024 with most settings on medium to high, Vsync on. I'd say I'm averaging around 30-40fps in normal stuations (20 in bad ones), which isnt superb but very playable overall. Its a tech showcase game that needs major hardware to run an its best. However, I'm finding it a good shooter even with some stuff turned down to keep frame rates high.
I was able to run Doom3, FarCry & Half-Life2 pretty much on full eye-candy with UberSlick framerates...F.E.A.R is pushing the limits and for the first time in a year I'm starting to think about upgrades again. I am a framerate junkie so I'm very fussy, but I got F.E.A.R playing not tooooo bad with some tweaking.
The main thing is that the game seems very good so far :approve:
I'm 'only' running a P4 3.0, 2GB RAM & GeForce 6800Ultra @ 1280x1024 with most settings on medium to high, Vsync on. I'd say I'm averaging around 30-40fps in normal stuations (20 in bad ones), which isnt superb but very playable overall. Its a tech showcase game that needs major hardware to run an its best. However, I'm finding it a good shooter even with some stuff turned down to keep frame rates high.
I was able to run Doom3, FarCry & Half-Life2 pretty much on full eye-candy with UberSlick framerates...F.E.A.R is pushing the limits and for the first time in a year I'm starting to think about upgrades again. I am a framerate junkie so I'm very fussy, but I got F.E.A.R playing not tooooo bad with some tweaking.
The main thing is that the game seems very good so far :approve:
Basic visuals - were talking shader model stuff that's the same between all these games at the moment. Half-Life 2 was clever in that it didnt bother with fancy lighting. Doom 3 was clever in that it didnt bother drawing anything that was in a shadow. F.E.A.R is trying to do shader model stuff, with high res textures which EAT memory, whilst maintaining good lighting AND serious shadow effects, AND some cool special effects...it's not surprising that it's crippling a lot of PCs IMHO.
This and STALKER are the games that are showing up hardware that was cutting edge 12 months ago. Thats why I love PC gaming though - because I'm a proper geek.
This and STALKER are the games that are showing up hardware that was cutting edge 12 months ago. Thats why I love PC gaming though - because I'm a proper geek.
STALKER is taking forever. Half the dev team left for better paid jobs half way into the project. I've been looking forward to that too. Problem is over there they get paid buttons so it wasn't hard for someone to poach the tallent.
I enjoyed the F.E.A.R demo, think I'll fire off a mail in the morning and get a copy sent over, for research purposes of course.
I enjoyed the F.E.A.R demo, think I'll fire off a mail in the morning and get a copy sent over, for research purposes of course.
Akira2506 said:
Man I so want the 7800GTX, but the PCI-E path is taking me down a whole new socket 939 mobo route, and all that implies.
I would imagine with yout kit you'd be getting 30-40% higher frames than mine at any given detail level. But ignboring that I'm glad you agree about the combat. It's superb!
I personally demand 60fps from a game even when the action gets hectic otherwise it just isn't immersive. As I remember I was running in 1366x768 or whatever my LCD TV goes up to.
I know it does a lot of clever stuff that is a step up from Doom and HL2 but as I said because I can run those games at 100fps in a ridiculous resolution on my old monitor and with high levels of AA and AF they actually look better than F.E.A.R if you see what I mean? I am sure if I had some ridiculous SLI system so that I could run FEAR to the same extent as those games then it would look a lot better.
I know it does a lot of clever stuff that is a step up from Doom and HL2 but as I said because I can run those games at 100fps in a ridiculous resolution on my old monitor and with high levels of AA and AF they actually look better than F.E.A.R if you see what I mean? I am sure if I had some ridiculous SLI system so that I could run FEAR to the same extent as those games then it would look a lot better.
100fps peaks? Obviously you're not fussy enought to use Vsync then mate? Vsync will cap your frame rate at your monitor resfresh so I presume not. 60fps is the dream, but you will never average that in games likes HL2 or Doom3 with your video card unless you have magic pixies in your PC.
'Smooth' is a matter of opinion, but 60/100fps is technical statement of fact. I was just about able to get a fairly constant capped 60fps (LCD refresh) in Doom3 with a 6800Ultra, and trust me I keep my machine in tip-top condition.
You'd need a 7800GTX to average 60fps out of the games in this discussion. Anyway sorry for geeking it up - the whole point is that if you were running those games at 100fps (possible in peaks), then you are able to run F.E.A.R smoothly enough by turning some effects down - and the game is goog enough to warrant the effort for sure
Remember 60fps is the defacto standard. Any higher and the eye cannot see the difference. With Vsync off, I have seen 100fps+ peaks in Doom 3 etc. But I dmeand Vsync so with a 60hz LCD - my aim is a constant 60fps or the FPS divider kicks in (thanks to Vysnc)
'Smooth' is a matter of opinion, but 60/100fps is technical statement of fact. I was just about able to get a fairly constant capped 60fps (LCD refresh) in Doom3 with a 6800Ultra, and trust me I keep my machine in tip-top condition.
You'd need a 7800GTX to average 60fps out of the games in this discussion. Anyway sorry for geeking it up - the whole point is that if you were running those games at 100fps (possible in peaks), then you are able to run F.E.A.R smoothly enough by turning some effects down - and the game is goog enough to warrant the effort for sure
Remember 60fps is the defacto standard. Any higher and the eye cannot see the difference. With Vsync off, I have seen 100fps+ peaks in Doom 3 etc. But I dmeand Vsync so with a 60hz LCD - my aim is a constant 60fps or the FPS divider kicks in (thanks to Vysnc)
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Roy, I've just taken delivery of 34 Alienware PCs at work. Athlon X2 4800s, 2gb Corsair memory, and dual 7800GTX.
Problem is because it's all so new we can't get them stable so we're having to temporarily swap swap to ATI Radeon X850XTs as the X1800XT isn't out until the end of November. Real pain the arse that our app has problems with the current setup. I've been working closely with the Dev support guy at nvidia as I know him well from our Rage days. Still no luck.
Gone from over 13000 3Dmarks to just over 6k by swapping the cards. Alienware are being helpful though. Not every day they get an order that big, and they want more. lol
Problem is because it's all so new we can't get them stable so we're having to temporarily swap swap to ATI Radeon X850XTs as the X1800XT isn't out until the end of November. Real pain the arse that our app has problems with the current setup. I've been working closely with the Dev support guy at nvidia as I know him well from our Rage days. Still no luck.
Gone from over 13000 3Dmarks to just over 6k by swapping the cards. Alienware are being helpful though. Not every day they get an order that big, and they want more. lol
Yes I usually do use Vsync if I start to see that tearing effect. Doom 3 ran at 60fps in 1280x1024 and never dropped a frame. However on Doom 3 I didn't run any AA or any AF.
I do run a fair bit in HL2 though which again is rock solid at 60fps, no idea what it would be if I let it run unrestrained on my old CRT. I turn off the AA and AF for CS Source and that keeps it constantly at 60fps. In the original CS I used to run at 99fps all the time but that wasn't hard. If I put AA and AF on high levels in CS Source it goes to 40fps or something and boy do I notice that as I feel it really lowers my performance in the game.
Once I got a TFT though 60 was my limit and with only the lower resolutions available to me (I used to play games in 1600x1200 on my old monitor) I had to start using AA and AF more.
I do run a fair bit in HL2 though which again is rock solid at 60fps, no idea what it would be if I let it run unrestrained on my old CRT. I turn off the AA and AF for CS Source and that keeps it constantly at 60fps. In the original CS I used to run at 99fps all the time but that wasn't hard. If I put AA and AF on high levels in CS Source it goes to 40fps or something and boy do I notice that as I feel it really lowers my performance in the game.
Once I got a TFT though 60 was my limit and with only the lower resolutions available to me (I used to play games in 1600x1200 on my old monitor) I had to start using AA and AF more.
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Revels Mum & Sister
Same thing happened with the 6600GTs when they came out last November time
Me and the workshop guy at work bought 2 each. All 4 went faulty within 3 months and were replaced. When they were replaced same brand the Board Layout was totally different!!!!
I say the same may happen for these rushing to compete with out proper testing.
Me and the workshop guy at work bought 2 each. All 4 went faulty within 3 months and were replaced. When they were replaced same brand the Board Layout was totally different!!!!
I say the same may happen for these
rushing to compete with out proper testing.Roy Munson said:
All they have done is give me a headache since we got them. The programmers get on okay, but the artists and level designers machines have been crashing left right and centre.
Fast as f**k though.
I ran Doom 3 timedemo in a loop over night to test stability with that, it ran over 1000 times and was averaging 55fps at the maximum detail level with all filtering cranked right up to the max.
We published F.E.A.R so a freebie for me shouldn't be a problem.
I am looking at the Abit Deluxe mobo with heat pipe cooling for the chipset (cant think of the model #). I will probably stick a 3200+ venice in there for now and a single 7800GTX. That should do me for another year
I only want the heatpipe cooling 'cos I know chipset fans are noisy as fawk, and I like a quiet system. Is the 939 pin socket seen as future proof for around a year or so?
I only want the heatpipe cooling 'cos I know chipset fans are noisy as fawk, and I like a quiet system. Is the 939 pin socket seen as future proof for around a year or so?
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We've got Asus A8N SLI Deluxe boards in all ours, I've had to replace 3 Northbridge fans this week already. Asus are slipping, I've always had 100% confidence in there products until these boards.
Socket 939 looks set to be here for a good while yet, it supports the FX57s and X2 chips so it's all good.
Have you seen the board with 4 PCI-E slots? With the right card configuration you can run 10 monitors!!
My home PC is lower spec than my work one, but it's good enough for Doom 3 and Half Life 2, so will be fine for F.E.A.R.
I'll upgrade when I can't take advantage of the latest visuals. My old X800 XT PE is still doing well enough.
Socket 939 looks set to be here for a good while yet, it supports the FX57s and X2 chips so it's all good.
Have you seen the board with 4 PCI-E slots? With the right card configuration you can run 10 monitors!!
My home PC is lower spec than my work one, but it's good enough for Doom 3 and Half Life 2, so will be fine for F.E.A.R.
I'll upgrade when I can't take advantage of the latest visuals. My old X800 XT PE is still doing well enough.
Revels Mum & Sister
Yeah I have the A8N SLI Deluxe in the mine the 40MM fan Ran at an ear Screaming 8-9000 RPM.
Mine was replaced with the Northbridge heatsink when I sorted water coolng. However Asus have released the Premium version which has a PAssive Heatsink system on it.
I would go for the Asus board Roy. Its a cracker. Not had one problem with it, had it about 9 months now!
Mine was replaced with the Northbridge heatsink when I sorted water coolng. However Asus have released the Premium version which has a PAssive Heatsink system on it.
I would go for the Asus board Roy. Its a cracker. Not had one problem with it, had it about 9 months now!
Focus ST-2
was going to buy fear but might download the demo first like. Running 3500+ 64, 2 gb ram, BFG 6800 ultra water cooled. hopefully should run ok. if not looks like i am spending another £700 buck this year b******s stop updating everything so quick!!! lol
Roy Munson said:100fps peaks? Obviously you're not fussy enought to use Vsync then mate? Vsync will cap your frame rate at your monitor resfresh so I presume not. 60fps is the dream, but you will never average that in games likes HL2 or Doom3 with your video card unless you have magic pixies in your PC.
'Smooth' is a matter of opinion, but 60/100fps is technical statement of fact. I was just about able to get a fairly constant capped 60fps (LCD refresh) in Doom3 with a 6800Ultra, and trust me I keep my machine in tip-top condition.
You'd need a 7800GTX to average 60fps out of the games in this discussion. Anyway sorry for geeking it up - the whole point is that if you were running those games at 100fps (possible in peaks), then you are able to run F.E.A.R smoothly enough by turning some effects down - and the game is goog enough to warrant the effort for sure
Remember 60fps is the defacto standard. Any higher and the eye cannot see the difference. With Vsync off, I have seen 100fps+ peaks in Doom 3 etc. But I dmeand Vsync so with a 60hz LCD - my aim is a constant 60fps or the FPS divider kicks in (thanks to Vysnc)
in all fairness your eyes dont really see much difference after around 40fps they are capable of seeing much more but you usually cant tell the difference otherwise we would all be bitching at the rather low fps our tv's use and you wouldnt enjoy a lot of games on consoles which happened to run between 30 and 60 fps in general.
Although its nice to have 60+ anything after 35 is totally playable with only a small amount of people actually capable of seeing the difference fully.
And gotta love what the doom3 engine can do. As thats what FEAR is built upon just making use of some of its other features. The HL2 engine in all fairness isnt actually that great when its now taking over 24 hours to compile a map and you build a map in the D3 engine its compiled on the fly using real time shadows etc.
But if you havnt seen it should check out the tech demo for the farcry engine making use of DX10 with software layering. Looks awesome volumetric clouds, the bushes and trees react to you when you go past the shadows are incredible and HDR lighting etc.
Im not at the moment, I will be movign to watercooling when i build my next rig which will be in a couple months. 4400+ 2 gig corsair XMS xl (already got 1gb) and a 7800GTX. Want the water cooling for that 4400+ wanna see how much i can push it.
But if your going watercooling best to buy it in pieces rather than in a kit. Although means it usually comes to £200 - £300 for a decent rig.
But if your going watercooling best to buy it in pieces rather than in a kit. Although means it usually comes to £200 - £300 for a decent rig.
BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
s**t i have a very similar setup to you roy... xfx6800gt p4 3.2 1gig corsair... i've also been proud my system could handle anything on max settings....odd that i won't be able to with this game... can't see how it can be that good...perhaps built with a less efficent graphics engine?
quake 4 comes out soon and i'm expecting to run that full aa etc...
quake 4 comes out soon and i'm expecting to run that full aa etc...
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
Well, I'm still chugging along nicely with an Athlon 3200+, 9800 Pro, 2x 512 Corsair and an MSI nForce2 Ultra mobo. Not the screaming piece of tech it used to be, but it's ok for now!
In all fairness, I'm not looking at PC upgrades at least until next year. There seems to be loads of 'ifs & buts' at the moment - especially where 64-bit is concerned. The trouble is, like Roy said - for me to make a decent upgrade, it would be CPU, memory, mobo AND gfx card - a serious wedge of cash.
Framerates mean feck all to me. If the game runs smoothly then I'm happy. One massive waste of CPU and gfx time I think developers are pushing is with extreme high-end shadows. Yep, they look good, but when you're running for cover in BF2, reloading in md-step and hitting the prone position to nail the two following you - then the subtleness of the leading edge of the shadows is the least of my worries. Usually, shadows get turned down to medium or low for the most part with me...
D.
In all fairness, I'm not looking at PC upgrades at least until next year. There seems to be loads of 'ifs & buts' at the moment - especially where 64-bit is concerned. The trouble is, like Roy said - for me to make a decent upgrade, it would be CPU, memory, mobo AND gfx card - a serious wedge of cash.
Framerates mean feck all to me. If the game runs smoothly then I'm happy. One massive waste of CPU and gfx time I think developers are pushing is with extreme high-end shadows. Yep, they look good, but when you're running for cover in BF2, reloading in md-step and hitting the prone position to nail the two following you - then the subtleness of the leading edge of the shadows is the least of my worries. Usually, shadows get turned down to medium or low for the most part with me...
D.
You should see the Unreal 3 tech running on our machines, even with dual 7800GTX it brings them to there knees, and looks absolutely amazing. Blows all the games mentioned above totally out of the water.
Got the Xbox 360 working this morning, great!!! The Dophin demo running at over 3000fps is really exciting.
Got the Xbox 360 working this morning, great!!! The Dophin demo running at over 3000fps is really exciting.
Darren S said:Well, I'm still chugging along nicely with an Athlon 3200+, 9800 Pro, 2x 512 Corsair and an MSI nForce2 Ultra mobo. Not the screaming piece of tech it used to be, but it's ok for now!
In all fairness, I'm not looking at PC upgrades at least until next year. There seems to be loads of 'ifs & buts' at the moment - especially where 64-bit is concerned. The trouble is, like Roy said - for me to make a decent upgrade, it would be CPU, memory, mobo AND gfx card - a serious wedge of cash.
Framerates mean feck all to me. If the game runs smoothly then I'm happy. One massive waste of CPU and gfx time I think developers are pushing is with extreme high-end shadows. Yep, they look good, but when you're running for cover in BF2, reloading in md-step and hitting the prone position to nail the two following you - then the subtleness of the leading edge of the shadows is the least of my worries. Usually, shadows get turned down to medium or low for the most part with me...
D.
I agree with pretty much all of that, apart from the shadows thing. For me this is what makes PC gaming as interesting as it is. If the developers dont implement features that require extreme hardware, there's no need to make the hardware...perpetual cycle. The soft shadows in F.E.A.R cut my framerate down to what I call unplayable (mostly I'd say less than 20fps just idling with no combat) so I dont use that feature, but someone with an FX57 and dual 7800GTX cards might be able to - we're both happy
Quick tech question - will the 2gb PC3200 Crucial RAM in my Intel based mobo work ok on a socket 939 board? Athlons different in their memory control or something and dont support dual channel etc? I presume tha sticks would would ok but just wondering like.
Roy Munson said:I agree with pretty much all of that, apart from the shadows thing. For me this is what makes PC gaming as interesting as it is. If the developers dont implement features that require extreme hardware, there's no need to make the hardware...perpetual cycle. The soft shadows in F.E.A.R cut my framerate down to what I call unplayable (mostly I'd say less than 20fps just idling with no combat) so I dont use that feature, but someone with an FX57 and dual 7800GTX cards might be able to - we're both happy
Quick tech question - will the 2gb PC3200 Crucial RAM in my Intel based mobo work ok on a socket 939 board? Athlons different in their memory control or something and dont support dual channel etc? I presume tha sticks would would ok but just wondering like.
If it's in 4 sticks of 512 it will work okay Roy. If it's two 1gb sticks you might find you have problems but it should be okay. If you run 2 sticks it able to run at 400mhz, with 4 it's limited to 333mhz though you can force 400 in the BIOS.
Can't post any of our stuff, I'll be following it up with a picture of my P45 but here's some of the Unreal 3 stuff. http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml
