A question for all...

I was chatting with my brother the other day about computers and computer games. We are both in the market for new rigs and are very familiar with DS and these boards.

Our conversation touched all the areas of a new computer purchase discussion: monitor, games, GPU, PSU, SLI, etc.

I realized in that conversation that the games on the current market will run at max/almost max settings on a simple quad 2.6. We were customizing a computer for games that haven't been created yet. Sure, Crysis is a graphical masterpiece, but the game itself is not that great. Most people are playing WoW, Dragon Age Origins, CoX, Guild Wars (and GW 2 whenever it comes out) and your garden variety of other older shooters. All of which can be played on a 'Dell XPS' or anything with a decent speed processor, GPU and PSU, and a capable monitor with a great frame rate and graphics.

Is it simply a case of trying to extend the supremacy of your rig against a fast moving tech industry? What am I going to do with an OC'd 3.5, with 1000+ Ram and two 5870's? Besides hoping that some developer will create a MMORPG that demands a beast rig and that is so good, everyone and their mother is on that game. That game doesn't exist.

Does it simply come down to the desire to own a Maserati vs a nice sporty Acura?

ANY "gaming rig" that hits all the major areas of what a gaming rig should have will be able to run any game on the market (besides the flashy and substance free Crysis) at high resolutions with a great frame rate. So why build a monster LC OC'd gaming beast? I am certainly not against it. I wouldn't have found this site and made many a config if I wasn't interested. I just don't remember what exactly I was building this super gaming rig for...

Is everyone soul searching? 

gaming

3 5870's with 5Ghz 6 core chip will not even be able to hit the new monitors refresh rate with just the 120Mhz screens let alone 240Mhz and with multi cards you should run at double the refresh rate, so we are very under powered, but with a 19" monitor with low settings, almost any GPU on the market will run the game ok.

Originally posted by justin.kerr 3 5870's with 5Ghz 6 core chip will not even be able to hit the new monitors refresh rate with just the 120Mhz screens let alone 240Mhz and with multi cards you should run at double the refresh rate, so we are very under powered, but with a 19" monitor with low settings, almost any GPU on the market will run the game ok.

This makes more sense. I understand what in blazes you are talking about.

So we are agreed that any game currently on the market will run just fine, on high settings, on a standard quad 2.5 gaming machine and most 150$ graphics cards? Sure, you can't run 2560x1600 but wouldn't that make icons and what not very very small? I'm sure it would be detailed but 1680x1050 is high enough.

Originally posted by DST4ME if you think the 3.5Ghz speed and ram don't make no difference there, then you are mistaken. now what in blazes are you talking about?

If you don't know what I'm talking about perhaps you can re-read my original post or I can stated it more clearly:

You can run all the hottest new titles (not Crysis) at max settings and 1680x1050 on a quad 2.5-3.0, 750W, ONE 5870 or equivalent, 4-6gb of Ram. That system is well below any monster system you can config on DS. So, the question from the original post remains. What is the motivation behind dropping 3grand for a gaming computer to run current and upcoming games at max when you can achieve this for much less since the games that will need that type of power aren't even in development stages yet?

I'm not the enemy here. I love DS and I love configing bad a** gaming rigs with LCD, Digital read outs and two or three monster GPU's. I just forgot why I was making something so powerful...

Justin that will actually be 7680x1600,the vertical res will remain with 3 x30" spread across in landscape,or go for broke(literally :P) and double that up(3x30x2) for
7680x3200

Originally posted by justin.kerr Crysis is a woosy game compared to many of the new games, it is nearly 3 years old. even Dragons age likes fast CPU's I have 8 threads at nearly 5Ghz and will have a much more powerful CPU soon. lol and it still won't be enough.

Are you playing this game on 3 monitors? How is that system not capable of running DA at max settings? And what new games are pushing the CPU?

I feel sad for anyone still playing in 1680x1050 or less. I feel even more sad for anyone still playing in 1600x1200, as this means they don't even have a widescreen display. So very sad.

Anti-aliasing has its limits how much it can improve low resolution jaggies. It is pretty inefficient anyway, I find I get better FPS at higher resolution (1900x1200) with little or no AA than at lower resolutions with higher AA. Plus higher resolutions usually give you the extra benefit of more hud/menu room.