Buliding computer for sh3&4

[Henry_pl]

Hi guys.

I'm buliding a new computer.

It may be weird, by my main concern is to build one that will run SH3 & incoming SH4 at the highest picture quality available.
I've seen all sh3 movies on youtube and google and I really want to get all those details WITHOUT slowing down or choking during explosions:yep:

I'm a SH-series fan, I spent MONTHS playing SH1 on 486 dx4 :ping:
Now I'm only able to play SH2- but with no dynamic campaign- its a bit borig to do the same missions for the X-th time.

Now i've got p4 1,6 GHZ, 256 sdram and GF4 mx460- so sh3 won't even install because it requires Shader Model

So i finally decided to get a new comp.

My basic hardware will be:
CPU: core 2 duo e6300
MoBo: Asus p5b dlx / or p5w dh dlx
RAM: 2 gigs 667
And I think it will not be the bottleneck for sh3 and even sh4:p

I'm hesitating about the graphics card, and thats what I want you guys to help me with:

Will GF7600GT run sh3 with highest quality without any problems ?
Does any of you run sh3 on this card ?

And- does SH3 use both HDR and AA technology ?
GF7xxx cards cannot support those 2 at the same time

I've got 2 options- buy a cheaper card now and wait a bit for DX10 cards, or buy a high-end card now (x1900xt ) and use it for 2-3 years.
From what i've read here, i guess that SH4 will not be an only-DX10-game, so x1900xt wil be enough for it.

[Gizzmoe]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

I would buy the X1900XT, it´s a great card. It´s kinda overkill for SH3, but with that card you can play SH3 at very high-res (if your monitor supports it) plus 6xAA and 16xAF.

[Goose_green]

I recently bought ASUS's EN7900GT TOP card which is factory overclocked, it runs SH3 on full AA settings and it flows very nicely - even with the Grey Wolves super mod the frame rates are very good too.

You could always get a cheaper card now, such as a 7600 which will satisfy your immediate cravings for SH3 and then you could look to what is better and cheaper in 6 months time - I'm sure SHIV will need something decent in the graphics card department.

The way computer technology is always changing it is best to wait out and see what SHIV really needs to get the most out of it. You maybe able to get the really high end cards now for cheaper later on and still be able to give SHIV a run for it's money.

Hope my comments help.

[Henry_pl]

Thank you guys for your advice, but still...

Anyone running SH3 on GF7600GT ? :-?

And

Does SH3 use both HDR and AA ?

and also- what do you mean by "sh3 at very hi-res" ?
Isnt't it to run only at 1024x768 ? (WITHOUT any .dll unoficial modifications ?)


I forgot to mention- the highest resolution i'm going to use in any game is 1280- i have a 17' CRT display and i'm not going to buy any LCD panel- i need CRT for fast online FPP's (counter strike 1.6 at 640x480 :lol:)

And please don't make any price comparisons (ex. "this one is better but the other one cheaper") because prices and their relations differ all around the world, and also- price is not that important for me.

Of course, 100$ in my pocket is always 100$ in my pocket- compared to buying something like x1900xt- but i'll not die of starvation if i'll have to pay for a better graphic card.

All I want from the new computer for now is to run SH3 (and maybe half-life 2)- of course with highest image quality.

I thought about 7600 because it offers best power/price relation in today's games.
However its not impossible for me to buy let's say x1800xt or x1900xt.
But still- if i could save some cash- then why shouldn't I ?

[mw2000]

I am running sh3 with a XFX GF7600GT card at 1280x1024 (using hi-res mod) at 4xAA. Runs superb and only get a little slowdown on a big battle (Malta single player mission for instance) but the card is great. Using above 4x Anti-alaising in sh3 on a 7600gt is not recommend. Can be brought now for just over £100 :)

[Gizzmoe]

Does SH3 use both HDR and AA ?

SH3 doesn´t use HDR.

and also- what do you mean by "sh3 at very hi-res" ?
Isnt't it to run only at 1024x768 ? (WITHOUT any .dll unoficial modifications ?)

Yes, 1024x786 only the only "official" resolution, but with some tricks it also support higher resolutions.

All I want from the new computer for now is to run SH3 (and maybe half-life 2)- of course with highest image quality.

Ok, then get the 7600GT.

[SubSerpent]

I am now using a 7900GT 512MB. SHIII runs oh so perfecto with it! :rock:

[THE_MASK]

http://www.tomshardware.com/

[NightCrawler]

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

My favorit is the AMD 64x2 +4800 with 2GB or more in it.
I wait when Vista will come up on the market than i going to make my own killer toy specialy for SHIV!!!!

check the site out, and save money !!!

[tankeriv]

The E6300 is quite a slow animal.

The Conroe is a bit of a hype now. And claiming all Conroes are fast is nonsense.
Rather go for a E6600 if you can afford one.

If you don't want to overclock btw, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ is a very good option.
Here in the Netherlands it cost 280 euro's and it runs par with the E6700. :)

[stabiz]

The 7600GT should run SH3 and GW like a dream. I am using a 256MB 6600GT now, and I got decent framerates with both high antialiasing and vsync with it. I have that disabled now, as videorecording and antialiasing is over the top for the card.

[Redwine]

Attempt to rise up the video card you had choiced. nV 7900/Ati X1900XT.

I run the sim on a PIV 3.4, 3Gb RAM, an ATI X800XT PE 256mb, and some times fps falls down to 7 fps with all programs into the background closed, and with many proccess terminated before run the game.

I can have about 50/60 iFPS n external view and 90/110 FPS into control room, but when a convoy is near or when at port with heavy traffic, some times i am not able to reach maximun time compression and in TC 1X FPS droops down lot of, same when there are many explosions with particles specially in more than one ship, some times FPS down to about 7 FPS.

[Hakahura]

Possibly controvercial, but I don't think you have to go mad or spend much to run SH3. All I've got is Nvidia GeForce PCX5300 128mb. I've had this card for about a year and it was cheap when I got it. £40 new. This works great for me no problems at all.
Though one thing to consider.
Is SH3/4 all you will use your machine for?
Ever?

[Henry_pl]

The E6300 is quite a slow animal.

The Conroe is a bit of a hype now. And claiming all Conroes are fast is nonsense.
Rather go for a E6600 if you can afford one.

If you don't want to overclock btw, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ is a very good option.
Here in the Netherlands it cost 280 euro's and it runs par with the E6700. :)


For now conroe is the best choice...

e6300 slow animal ?
man, look at any benchmarks... :oops:
For its price- its offers the best efficiency possible.

And also- why should I go for 6600 when I can overclock 6300 so that it will reach the level of 6700 using no extra cooling (only the one provided by Intel in BOX version) :up:
A friend of mine has done something like that only by increasing FSB and that 6300 runs great.
And recently- Asus released new BIOS for p5b deluxe- using which you can unlock multiplier on 6300 :p

Buying a CPU is buying a Motherboard- if I go for Intel right now i am sure that I'll be able to stick a very powerfull CPu in the next 2-3 years.
X6800 are going to be cheaper, also- 4 core Kentsfield is going to be released in 2007- and today's 975x/965 Mobos support it (check xtremesystems.org- a guy from Taiwan runs Kentsfield on Asus p5b deluxe :up:)

[Henry_pl]

Possibly controvercial, but I don't think you have to go mad or spend much to run SH3. All I've got is Nvidia GeForce PCX5300 128mb. I've had this card for about a year and it was cheap when I got it. £40 new. This works great for me no problems at all.
Though one thing to consider.
Is SH3/4 all you will use your machine for?
Ever?

Of course not.

I am also going to play Half Life 2. For now.

I'm not a type of gamer who needs to play all newest games.
For example- i'm not even going to think about Oblivion- yeah great graphics, but what about that fantasy-rpg bulls**t :doh:

Also FPP shooters like f.e.a.r.- again, great graphics, but I would rather play good old counter-strike1.6 on 640x480 and own some noobs via internet.

But there are some games that must be played (for me)
Half Life 1 was such a a game, SH series, Settlers, Half life 2.

That's why im buyng a new computer.

[stabiz]

Attempt to rise up the video card you had choiced. nV 7900/Ati X1900XT.

I run the sim on a PIV 3.4, 3Gb RAM, an ATI X800XT PE 256mb, and some times fps falls down to 7 fps with all programs into the background closed, and with many proccess terminated before run the game.

I can have about 50/60 iFPS n external view and 90/110 FPS into control room, but when a convoy is near or when at port with heavy traffic, some times i am not able to reach maximun time compression and in TC 1X FPS droops down lot of, same when there are many explosions with particles specially in more than one ship, some times FPS down to about 7 FPS.

Dude, there is something seriously wrong with your setup. I have up to 60-100fps in external view with GW, and I only have a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (2ghz) 1,5 gig Ram and 6600GT 256MB.

When I record video with fraps I never go below 15fps in ports.

I think you should try some other drivers.

[GT182]

Try a Radeon x1600 pro 512mb agp for only $ 139.99, if you're looking for an agp card.

If not an agp card then the x1800 and x1900 pci cards will cost much more. I've heard they are better than the newest nVidia cards. Tho maybe the geforce 7900 gtx 512 card is close.... but costs much much more.

Look in at pricewatch.com for more prices and info.

[Redwine]

Attempt to rise up the video card you had choiced. nV 7900/Ati X1900XT.

I run the sim on a PIV 3.4, 3Gb RAM, an ATI X800XT PE 256mb, and some times fps falls down to 7 fps with all programs into the background closed, and with many proccess terminated before run the game.

I can have about 50/60 iFPS n external view and 90/110 FPS into control room, but when a convoy is near or when at port with heavy traffic, some times i am not able to reach maximun time compression and in TC 1X FPS droops down lot of, same when there are many explosions with particles specially in more than one ship, some times FPS down to about 7 FPS.

Dude, there is something seriously wrong with your setup. I have up to 60-100fps in external view with GW, and I only have a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (2ghz) 1,5 gig Ram and 6600GT 256MB.

When I record video with fraps I never go below 15fps in ports.

I think you should try some other drivers.

May be, i think the same initially but after muc job i cant improve it more than i wrote above.

I tryed all, even to format my HD and install only SH3, i normally reinstall it on a just defraged HD periodically, i use Security Task Manager to terminate undesired XP proccess, i use End It All and eliminated all unnecesary programs from WXP ini.

I close my antivirus and antihackers and similar programs .....

That is all i can obtain.

May be i need to check eliminating giant sea floor textures, and mey be changing clouds or another textures, i have tons of them into Tex folder.

[NightCrawler]

The E6300 is quite a slow animal.

The Conroe is a bit of a hype now. And claiming all Conroes are fast is nonsense.
Rather go for a E6600 if you can afford one.

If you don't want to overclock btw, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ is a very good option.
Here in the Netherlands it cost 280 euro's and it runs par with the E6700. :)

5000+??? cool, than i might change my mind from 4800+ into 5000+ whats the specs of the 5000+?

[Tuddley3]

I think building your computer to fit SH3 & 4 is OK. I think the future of gaming will follow SH3's example. SH3 is a Memory taxing Sim, so if you can get your computer ste up to handle SH3 products, then you can probably run anything so it dont look like a slide show while playing it.

And why does my Avatar look like a little GAY SAILOR. I want a manly looking Avatar.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

hey i jus finished my system its in a full tower thermaltake armour case

i got the core 2 duo extreme editon cpu, and i got 2 geforce 7950 GX2's in sli = QUAD SLI BABY !! :rock::rock::rock::rock::rock:, i get on 16xxAA 32x AF since there is 4 video cards, it supports higher AA, AF, on a 19inch lcd at 1280 x 1024, i got 4 gb ocz dual channel ram , its ddr2 and its 2gb per stick, i got my video cards about 3 days ago and took me a hell of a long time to install them man r they huge.. if u seriously want smoooth high graphics for sh4 then the 7950 gx2 but be prepared to fork over 800$ for 1 gx2

[Grrbob25]

hey i jus finished my system its in a full tower thermaltake armour case

i got the core 2 duo extreme editon cpu, and i got 2 geforce 7950 GX2's in sli = QUAD SLI BABY !! :rock::rock::rock::rock::rock:, i get on 16xxAA 32x AF since there is 4 video cards, it supports higher AA, AF, on a 19inch lcd at 1280 x 1024, i got 4 gb ocz dual channel ram , its ddr2 and its 2gb per stick, i got my video cards about 3 days ago and took me a hell of a long time to install them man r they huge.. if u seriously want smoooth high graphics for sh4 then the 7950 gx2 but be prepared to fork over 800$ for 1 gx2
did u get the beta drivers for quad sli??? last I heard they werent out yet but that was awhile ago, so now im sure there out by now.........thats one helluva monster pc, but its a little overkill for sh3 since SLi is not supported by it

In the near future I'm gettin hooked up with:

AMD athlon 3700, 2.20ghtz, 2000mhz FSB, 1mb cache
2x ATi radeon x1600 PRO 512mb's
2gb DDR RAM
160GB
Windows Xp Home SP2

already got a sweet 19 in lcd, but everything else is gonna be new

it will be my little budget super gaming pc, but it will roll sh3 over with no prob, and will probably play G.R.A.W too!

[tankeriv]

The E6300 is quite a slow animal.

The Conroe is a bit of a hype now. And claiming all Conroes are fast is nonsense.
Rather go for a E6600 if you can afford one.

If you don't want to overclock btw, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ is a very good option.
Here in the Netherlands it cost 280 euro's and it runs par with the E6700. :)

For now conroe is the best choice...

e6300 slow animal ?
man, look at any benchmarks... :oops:
For its price- its offers the best efficiency possible.

And also- why should I go for 6600 when I can overclock 6300 so that it will reach the level of 6700 using no extra cooling (only the one provided by Intel in BOX version) :up:
A friend of mine has done something like that only by increasing FSB and that 6300 runs great.
And recently- Asus released new BIOS for p5b deluxe- using which you can unlock multiplier on 6300 :p

Buying a CPU is buying a Motherboard- if I go for Intel right now i am sure that I'll be able to stick a very powerfull CPu in the next 2-3 years.
X6800 are going to be cheaper, also- 4 core Kentsfield is going to be released in 2007- and today's 975x/965 Mobos support it (check xtremesystems.org- a guy from Taiwan runs Kentsfield on Asus p5b deluxe :up:)

See real life benchmarks.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/348/1

So not always.

Besides if you want to go for the long run. AM2 the current AMD socket is compatible with the AM3 socket so if you buy a K8L (The Conroe competitor) you will be able to use it in your current mainboard.

+ Intel will leave the LGA 775

So if you want to upgrade lateron the 775 is an abandoned socket. :( (unfortunately)

As you see the Core 2 Duo 1,8 is lagging behind a lot here.
Synthetic it probably will win.
But real life lot less. :(

[elite_hunter_sh3]

dont worry about quad sli beta drivers, ive taken the latest drivers and fiddled around with the coding :D alowwing 4 video cards, \o and i suggest a 1000 watt psu like the enermax galaxy i have that psu, stable, and i get 150+fps in sh3 everywhere docks too. and it loads within 4 seconds,

[Henry_pl]

Allright I've ordered the computer, it's going to be delivered on Monday, 12.00 (GMT +01:00)- already assembled :D

Specs:
Asus P5B deluxe
core 2 duo e6300
Patriot 2 GB ddr2 667
ATI Radeon x1800xt 256mb

I'll write how it works with SH3 as soon as possible :up:

One question- im hesitating about GW mod.
I've read a lot about it, but still have some questions:

1. Is the damage model changed (I've read something that in GW ships sink rather by flooding than exploding)
2. Am I correct- in SH3 1.4b enemy ports are mostly empty- whereas in GW they are full of tonnage :cool: ?
3. Is ping bug fixed in GW (DD's being able to ping you when you lay on the bottom) ?

[ref]

i get 150+fps in sh3 everywhere docks too. and it loads within 4 seconds,

:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:
me looking at my computer....


Ref


:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:

I've just looked again...

[tankeriv]

dont worry about quad sli beta drivers, ive taken the latest drivers and fiddled around with the coding :D alowwing 4 video cards, \o and i suggest a 1000 watt psu like the enermax galaxy i have that psu, stable, and i get 150+fps in sh3 everywhere docks too. and it loads within 4 seconds,

Nothing is more annoying than loading time.

Next upgrade to your kick ass machine try SCSI.
Have 2 15K disks together w a Dual Opteron 244 (approx Athlon 64 X2 3800+)
Here it loads within 2 secs :D

Definetly a big reccomendation. (Cost some penny's though)

Frame rates are excellent on my rig too.
BTW, 150 ain't that low? having same on 6800GT OC :hmm:

[GT182]

If I were to buy XP, I'd go with Pro for the reason of "Repair" in case of OS problems. You can't do that with XP Home, I've tried but it's just not there. Plus Pro has more options, which come in very handy I've been told.