Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU.

Subject: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:15 am

When people game and they lag they tend to think it's their graphics card that is causing the problem. So therefore they will go out of their way to buy a new graphic card just to realize the only thing that improved was the image. I'm here to explain the different responsibilities of each matter in gaming.

Graphic cards - This isn't a bit deal. This just improves the image in the game. Of course some games like Borderlands require certain drivers for graphic cards like Cell Shader 3.0. Other games will require Pixel Shader 3.0. Don't purchase a new graphic card if you don't have the driver in your computer yet. If your graphic card supports either of them but you don't have it installed onto your graphic card you can simply go to the manufacturer's website (which will most likely always be Nvidia) and download the specified drivers.

RAM - RAM is short for Random Access Memory. It's the volatile (temporary) memory on your computer. As soon as the computer is turned off or the power is unplugged that memory will be gone. It's not really a big deal in gaming because as long as you meet the recommended RAM you'll be fine.

CPU - This is the major part of gaming. This controls the lag, the smoothness of controls, and most importantly the game play. The CPU is short for central processing unit and it is the brain to your computer. The best CPU's made in gaming that are factory made could be found in Alienwares. I currently have an Intel Duo Core 2 and it's not that great for gaming because I lag and get choppy game play in Left 4 Dead 2.

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Sun Dec 27, 2009 3:33 am

Arcane | §YN | wrote:: When people game and they lag they tend to think it's their graphics card that is causing the problem. So therefore they will go out of their way to buy a new graphic card just to realize the only thing that improved was the image. I'm here to explain the different responsibilities of each matter in gaming.

This is sometimes true, what I mean is going out and buying useless crap.

9 times out of 10 the majority of folks out there in the gaming universe tend to blame their connection (Internet) on the problem; aiming, shooting, common sense, etc. While this is most always not the case.

50ms is a very short amount of time for the syn packet to be sent to the server and for you to receive the package. However when you get into the 150-200 range you risk dropout/packet loss. Any higher and you risk delayed reaction when it comes to anything game/physics/dynamics type. Because your client can't catch up with the servers delivery of information.

'Lerp' can cause this to happen especially in Valve games, because the entities are positioned in matrices, configured to update the exact coordinates of said object or player.

What ends up happening is, you are aiming where the entity was on the last tick, as the server updates the area in which you 'were' aiming, it gets the updated position from the now moving entity and gives it a slightly different grid point location. Which can be caused by you failing to compensate for leading on your targets, failure to have a decent enough graphics card to run it at a smooth rate, in which you see a enemy in one spot, while the server updated that he is now in another location.

Arcane | §YN | wrote:: Graphic cards - This isn't a bit deal. This just improves the image in the game. Of course some games like Borderlands require certain drivers for graphic cards like Cell Shader 3.0. Other games will require Pixel Shader 3.0. Don't purchase a new graphic card if you don't have the driver in your computer yet. If your graphic card supports either of them but you don't have it installed onto your graphic card you can simply go to the manufacturer's website (which will most likely always be Nvidia) and download the specified drivers.

This is a BIG deal, this is the beast in which your army toils.

This is probably one of thee main components you can get, you MUST seek the best deal when it comes to card. Do NOT be fooled, graphics card come cheap as you wanna go. But when it comes down to it, they don't hold water to a reasonably priced, great card.

I own a signature series XFX 8800GT with 128 pipelines, something you must pay attention to. (Most cards now, especially mainstream 9600GT's etc only have 48-64 processors; this does not transfer over to ATI, because they use a different system for their processors, *320 Stream* is equal to probably 112-128 Nvidia.)

The amount of SHADER Stream Processors the faster the rate in which you receive the output/visual. Also shader memory clock and core clock are important things to look at.

Currently I'm clocked at: 1430 Shader Clock ; Core at 715 Memory Clock 999 with modified fan speed settings for overheat events.

This allows me to play just about every single game out there (EXCLUDING GTA4 ON MAX; Can run it on very high though.) from Crysis to Dragon Rising to Left 4 Dead series and all 118 other games I have on steam. All allowed to be maxed out at my native resolution 1680x1050.

Arcane | §YN | wrote:: RAM - RAM is short for Random Access Memory. It's the volatile (temporary) memory on your computer. As soon as the computer is turned off or the power is unplugged that memory will be gone. It's not really a big deal in gaming because as long as you meet the recommended RAM you'll be fine.

RAM is a BIG DEAL once again. Look at Latency, #1 thing that most people overlook, especially when buying new ram. It can mean all the difference between playing your game now, fast and fierce, or waiting for it to inch along and you get swept to the side.

RAM stores all the addresses for your data, it's location and where the piece can be brought up. Think of it as the library index for your computer.

The Client or Game in this instance asks (interfaces with input or programming) for 'Model' through interfaces and the ICH it trades it over the L2 L3 caches (which is why it is so important to have large amounts of memory in these.) of the CPU, CPU gets crackin says "hey we got 'Model'? " the RAM is contacted through the cache and it says, "yeah we got it, it's over here in sector 4, track 12." in which the Hard Drive replies, 'alright we will send it right away' then it's sent to the GMCH where it then handed to the graphics card to be displayed to you. In the most simplest way I could put it.

This all happens in a nanosecond.

Windows 7 makes it easier on your RAM (you can run with just 3gb and be fine.), meaning it doesnt eat up as much with the indexing service and things that Vista did. If you are running vista 4gb in a must have with major gaming, not Age of Empires, I mean Crysis.

But Column Address Strobe (CAS) is the main thing you have to deal with, it is what it handles that is perhaps one of the most important tasks in your PC.

It's the delay time between the moment a memory accesses a particular column on a module, and the moment the data from given array location is available on the module's output pins.

"In asynchronous DRAM, the interval is specified in nanoseconds. In synchronous DRAM, the interval is specified in clock cycles. Because the latency is dependent upon a number of clock ticks instead of an arbitrary time, the actual time for an SDRAM module to respond to a CAS event might vary between uses of the same module if the clock rate differs."

Arcane | §YN | wrote:: CPU - This is the major part of gaming. This controls the lag, the smoothness of controls, and most importantly the game play. The CPU is short for central processing unit and it is the brain to your computer. The best CPU's made in gaming that are factory made could be found in Alienwares. I currently have an Intel Duo Core 2 and it's not that great for gaming because I lag and get choppy game play in Left 4 Dead 2.

The CPU is a Switch, simple as that. It communicates in 1's and 0's, also know as Machine Language or Binary. While it is NOT the brain, more like the Central Nervous System, it plays the most vital role of all in a computer.

It determines all the calculations for any problem presented before it (in fact even nowadays, type in 20+ digit number in your windows calculator, multiply it by another 20+ digit number and finally divide it by some large or even decimal number. It will lock up your CPU for a moment, because it has to determine the answer for you.)

It also provides the information flow required for files to transfered around and thusly calculated as well. It is nothing but a Number Machine. The fact that it can stream multiple applications and data streams over the same pipelines at extremely high speeds is what makes it so great.

NO, the best are not in Alienware.

What you gotta look at here is the fact that you do not need a computer manufacturer to create a great system. It is even cheaper to buy the parts yourself and spend a half hour putting them together. You could probably pay less than half of what a Major company like Alienware or HP costs for better parts.

I have a Wolfsbane e5200 Dual Core, runs everything like a dream. Multiple games, Media Player running with Photoshop CS4 going, add in 20+ windows from Steam and my browser with tons of tabs open, it doesn't drop a single moment. I can play everything on max, including Crysis ULTRA configs. Full Physics island and not a single drop in FPS.

I bet it's your Graphics card that is bottlenecking your rig, or perhaps you don't have latest drivers and such installed. Because you should be able to run any Source game on even 2-3 year old hardware no problems whatsoever.

Anyways, You are PAYING FOR A BRAND, not the components.

Lastly, I'd like to add. HARD DRIVE [HDD]

This is also very important, Cache size 8-16mb, SATA 3.0GB, IDE all of these can be very confusing. But remember the amount of read and write time is crucial on HDD. Because your PAGE FILE is located on your hard drive (hopefully not the same as your win partition) which is known as Virtual Memory. It stores all the required information in this file to support the RAM in producing data. When this is slowed to access you will experience lag and more than likely errors with your games.

SATA 3.0GB 16mb cache is thee best way to go at this time, i'd stick with 500gb HDD's and just raid 1 them. Since 1TB seem to like to fail alot since they are still newer technology.

Hope this little lesson helped along what Arcane said, as I didn't want to derail the topic just add insight for him.

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:41 am

Lol, I forgot about hard drive. I really don't care about graphics and I have a 4 gig RAM so I guess it's not a bit deal to me...

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:08 am

there goes marvin with his colors again, ooo look at me i'm so fancy, i stand out from the crowd. you know what marvin, no, no i won't have it, i am not having it.

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:09 am

I won't have it either! -gives a deagle to Clientz and grabs an assault rifle-

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:26 am

lets pwn this newb

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:32 am

[ This topic got derailed fast, back on topic please. But while we are off the rails.]

/me holds his composure, standing gruff with a smirk on his face.

*Pulls up the rear sights, slides the bolt back with a loud click sound of the Mk 19

* Laying waste to the entire area, as he laughs to each shell going off.*

(Btw, The Mk 19 is a belt fed, blowback operated, air cooled, crew served, fully automatic weapon that fire 40mm Grenade Rounds.)

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:28 am

gettin a new processor

Intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz
800 Mhz bus speed, 512 L2 Cache
Hyper-Threading Enabled
Socket 478

(i know it fails lol but its better then the one i have now)

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:13 am

Holy fuck thats ancient technology. I remember my P4.

Man you can get a great Dual Core for like less than $50-75

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:43 pm

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. FML

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:25 pm

Dude compared to the pricing on a good Quad to the Downgrade of a Celeron or Pentium. A dual core is a damn good option, so don't hate too bad edge. Razz

Subject: Re: Graphic cards, RAM, and CPU. Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:48 pm

I barely get good frames in L4D2 when my options are all adjusted to the lowest resolution.