My new SHIII Computer arrived today!

[maillemaker]

I bought it from Cyberpower.

It's an Intel i7-930 with an ASUS P6TSE motherboard.
6GB RAM
1TB HDD
Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 1GB

My old computer is an AMD 64+ Athalon 3200. It's about 5 years old, at least. I did upgrade its graphics card once to an AGP ATI x1950 a couple of years ago.

I've had some problems displaying large convoys in the past, and the game slows under TC when near ports.

Can't wait to get off work to play with my new gaming monster!

Steve

[frau kaleun]

My last computer was 5-6 years as well, got my new one not long after getting SH3 last fall. REALLY can tell the difference with a 1G vid card and all the rest of the upgrades, I think I only had the minimum requirements for most things on the old rig, and yes especially in port and with large convoys it's been a huge improvement.

Gute Jagd und fette Beute!

[YukonJack_AK]

@maillemaker - Sounds like a beautiful new rig man! Just a word or warning though... my setup is very similar to yours and I still have issues with TC near ports. For instance, I can manage 128x at best (at 10fps) when cutting through the Channel near Dover. I will say, the convoys will look amazing even with "FPS Killers" on like Enhanced Damage, Lifeboats & Debris, etc!

[The Enigma]

Congrats with that new rig.
I'm also in need of new equipment, but have to wait.
Don't have the needed $$$ yet.
But I've time.

[Paul Riley]

Sounds like a good un,I have no doubts the game will run perfectly smooth with that video card

[alexradu89]

Wait, you bought all this and you're thinking of SH3 ?
It sure sux to be ubi at this point, with SH5 being recently launched... but yeah better off playing SH3 than buggy SH5, congrats on the gaming rig and have fun

[Gilbou]

You'll be able to turn every graphic option on

In the nvidia control panel, select SH3.exe and force AA to x16, Anisotropic to x16 too.

[Paul Riley]

A note about AF and AA,regardless of how powerful the graphics card the game STILL must fully support those graphics options,otherwise you can still run into problems,not so much with performance but with artefacts and other glitches,but I personally doubt it in this case.I think there has been a thread in the past about SH3 having problems rendering AF properly,someone will have to clarify on this though.
On my card I have a special graphics option called 'super sampling' ,and this enhances transparency effects,with no apparent slowdown,other than the usual 'near port' fps hits everyone gets.

[maillemaker]

Thanks for the tips on AA.

I may buy SH4, as I'm also interested in American WWII subs.

But I've got so much yet to do in SH3 before I loose interest, that it will be a while. I usually stick with a game for years before moving on.

I really have no interest in buying a game that I can't play without online permission, like SH5 requires. I hate DRM (I just re-bought SH3 so I could install it on Windows 7 without Starforce issues) but I really, really hate having to phone home in order to work. I'm not going to support that kind of software.

Steve

[Paul Riley]

The online requirements for SH5 is a disgrace,its outrageous.Stick to SH3 + 4,better the devil you know
Hopefully the devs at SH5 will read all our objections and realise they made a foolish and fatal error,worse than the dreaded blue screen of death!

[Gilbou]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

A note about AF and AA,regardless of how powerful the graphics card the game STILL must fully support those graphics options,otherwise you can still run into problems,not so much with performance but with artefacts and other glitches,but I personally doubt it in this case.I think there has been a thread in the past about SH3 having problems rendering AF properly,someone will have to clarify on this though.
On my card I have a special graphics option called 'super sampling' ,and this enhances transparency effects,with no apparent slowdown,other than the usual 'near port' fps hits everyone gets.

Actually I have the following settings in my nvidia control panel
about sh3.exe :

Anisotropic : forced x16
(you can force anisotropic filtering to any image, this includes games that do NO anti aliasing at all)

Antialiasing - Gamma Correction : on
(improves color quality and reduction of jaggedness)

Antialiasing : forced x16xQ
(the xQ provides better image quality at a small performance cost)
Antialiasing:Transparency : Application controlled
(not really used in SH3)

Maximum pre-rendered frames : forced 3

Multi-display : forced single display
(I got 4 screens but only use one while playing. I need to force
this to get max performance from display being used when playing)

Texture filtering : Quality

Triple buffering : forced off (I dont use vsync, so triple buffering
does nothing)

While vertical sync turned off can and does produce tearing in
game when scrolling horizontally (top portion of screen being
out of alignment with botton part) you get more FPS anytime
with vert sync turned off.

Works fine, I get no artefacts.

Using a Nvidia 9800 GTX+ 512 Mb from Club 3d

[Paul Riley]

Of course,you can force AA and AF,but what I was saying was SOME games produce errors if they don't support it.The same applies to refresh rates for your monitor,if it is rated for 60hz and you force 70hz you COULD encounter problems,but this is not guaranteed.
If you max out your game settings and encounter no problems then thats great for you.

[Gilbou]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

Of course,you can force AA and AF,but what I was saying was SOME games produce errors if they don't support it.The same applies to refresh rates for your monitor,if it is rated for 60hz and you force 70hz you COULD encounter problems,but this is not guaranteed.
If you max out your game settings and encounter no problems then thats great for you.

Yeap. All my LCD screens say best for them is 60 Hz and I use them
at 75 Hz. And I do see the difference.

[YukonJack_AK]

Originally Posted by Gilbou

Actually I have the following settings in my nvidia control panel
about sh3.exe :

Antialiasing : forced x16xQ
(the xQ provides better image quality at a small performance cost)
Antialiasing:Transparency : Application controlled
(not really used in SH3)

Just out of curiosity... How are you able to get AA at 16x??? All I get is a black screen when I set AA to anything greater than 2x... And I really wanted to be rid of those jaggies too...

[Gilbou]

I'm using x16xQ with SH3
I don't see any problems but I'm not sure it really works because
sometimes I see jaggies on the far sea horizon.

Perhaps it even doesnt work at all