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{DvT}JonahHex · 09-16-2007, 11:19 AM

Aren't Quack4 and QW signifcantly newer games, and presumably better indicators of current/future game requirements, than UT2K4? If so, it sounds to me like Erad also makes a case for not spending the extra money on an Ultra.

Sooner or later there may be good reason to have/want the extra oomph of the Ultra. At the moment and in the immediate future -- like when UT3 is released -- I'm not sure that there any really good justification for it, given my experience with my GTXs and what Erad has said about his GTS.

Just for comparison purposes, the GTX is a faster GPU than the GTS and each of my GTXs has 786MB of video RAM compared to Erad's 320MB. The point being that he is getting results that, in the real world, are -- on screen while playing -- as good as mine, regardless of what the benchmark numbers say.

To try to illustrate this point I looked at my 3DMark03 (not the current 3DMark06) scores. Way back when, my best 03 score with my Ti4400 vid card was 1,592 and on the first test, "Wings of Fury," the Ti4400 averaged 103.9 fps. My best 3DMark03 score with the SLI pair of 8800GTXs is 66,178 and Wings of Fury played at 900.3 fps. Now, try to imagine those two systems running Wings of Fury side-by-side...what do you think the visual difference would be in viewing 103 fps next to 900 fps? If the numbers were not in front of you, I don't think you would be able to tell the difference...without the numbers and without knowing which card was driving which monitor, IMHO you wouldn't be able to say which was which.

Benchmarks are for locker room bragging rights: "My pekker is bigger 'n yer pekker," but the girl goes home with the one that doesn't rip her to shreds.

At this point in time, my suggestion is to go home with the vid card that doesn't rip your wallet to shreds. While you want a capable card that will provide good service for longer than a month or 6, it is almost never the case that top of the line, state of the art is necessary.

The further beat this point to death, I got an FX5950Ultra when it was TOTL, SOTA and it cost $500, lasted for 4 years, allowed me to skip the 6000 series and 7000 series but required me to upgrade in order to be ready for UT3. Now, the kicker: about 6 months (maybe less) after I got that card, {DvT}WarHawk got an FX5200 (for either $99 or $109), the bottom of the line of the 5000 series. He is still using it; is still happy with it; and is pissed that it appears he will have to spend the money on a new vid card in order to play UT3. The difference between this story and the current situation of anticipating UT3 and other yet to be released games is that both cards, the 5950 and the 5200, were purchased in order to play UT2K4 and we already had copies of UT2K4 before the cards were purchased. Hence, we knew what we needed/wanted -- now (for UT3 anyway) we are all still guessing.

09-16-2007, 11:19 AM	#7 (permalink)
{DvT}JonahHex Deviant Herder Mercenary Posts: 531 Shouts: 0 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Reno, NV Age: 62 Thanks: 22 Thanked 61 Times in 32 Posts	Aren't Quack4 and QW signifcantly newer games, and presumably better indicators of current/future game requirements, than UT2K4? If so, it sounds to me like Erad also makes a case for not spending the extra money on an Ultra. Sooner or later there may be good reason to have/want the extra oomph of the Ultra. At the moment and in the immediate future -- like when UT3 is released -- I'm not sure that there any really good justification for it, given my experience with my GTXs and what Erad has said about his GTS. Just for comparison purposes, the GTX is a faster GPU than the GTS and each of my GTXs has 786MB of video RAM compared to Erad's 320MB. The point being that he is getting results that, in the real world, are -- on screen while playing -- as good as mine, regardless of what the benchmark numbers say. To try to illustrate this point I looked at my 3DMark03 (not the current 3DMark06) scores. Way back when, my best 03 score with my Ti4400 vid card was 1,592 and on the first test, "Wings of Fury," the Ti4400 averaged 103.9 fps. My best 3DMark03 score with the SLI pair of 8800GTXs is 66,178 and Wings of Fury played at 900.3 fps. Now, try to imagine those two systems running Wings of Fury side-by-side...what do you think the visual difference would be in viewing 103 fps next to 900 fps? If the numbers were not in front of you, I don't think you would be able to tell the difference...without the numbers and without knowing which card was driving which monitor, IMHO you wouldn't be able to say which was which. Benchmarks are for locker room bragging rights: "My pekker is bigger 'n yer pekker," but the girl goes home with the one that doesn't rip her to shreds. At this point in time, my suggestion is to go home with the vid card that doesn't rip your wallet to shreds. While you want a capable card that will provide good service for longer than a month or 6, it is almost never the case that top of the line, state of the art is necessary. The further beat this point to death, I got an FX5950Ultra when it was TOTL, SOTA and it cost $500, lasted for 4 years, allowed me to skip the 6000 series and 7000 series but required me to upgrade in order to be ready for UT3. Now, the kicker: about 6 months (maybe less) after I got that card, {DvT}WarHawk got an FX5200 (for either $99 or $109), the bottom of the line of the 5000 series. He is still using it; is still happy with it; and is pissed that it appears he will have to spend the money on a new vid card in order to play UT3. The difference between this story and the current situation of anticipating UT3 and other yet to be released games is that both cards, the 5950 and the 5200, were purchased in order to play UT2K4 and we already had copies of UT2K4 before the cards were purchased. Hence, we knew what we needed/wanted -- now (for UT3 anyway) we are all still guessing. __________________ In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. --Douglas Adams Last edited by {DvT}JonahHex : 09-16-2007 at 11:34 AM.