Skyrim: Beyond Ultra

I have what many would call a solid yet mediocre gaming PC.  Even so, I am running Skyrim at what I like to call Beyond Ultra settings.  Overall, it looks better than stock Ultra and it runs smoother too.  I'm posting about how I did it so friends with similar rigs can give it a shot.

Setup

CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.6 GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1600
GPU: GTX 460 768MB @ 825MHz Core & 1050MHz VRAM (Driver: 290.53)
Resolution: 1920x1080

I use several mods, but none that affect graphics much.  Bethesda's official Skyrim High Resolution Texture Pack is installed.  The game version is 1.5.26.

Please note that I chose my settings carefully based on my hardware configuration.  For example, I have to avoid settings that use a lot of VRAM, but I can go a little more heavy on those that rely on GPU and CPU core processing power.  Someone with an Athlon II and HD 5770 1GB will be in the opposite situation.  Your mileage may vary.  Know your hardware.

Also, understand that I did not spend the time required to test everything completely.  I cannot tell you exactly what causes some of these differences, though I can make educated guesses.  Honestly, I'd rather spend the rest of my free time playing instead of investigating.  I'd be interested to hear about your own testing results, though.

With that out of the way, below are the differences in my SkyrimPrefs.ini file.  The value shown is my "Beyond Ultra" setting.  Parentheses contain the stock Ultra value.

fShadowDistance=2000.0000 (8000.0000)

fShadowDistance not only affects the distance at which shadows will be drawn, it also affects the detail of the shadows.  (Outside only.  The inside option has no effect on shadow detail.)  Lower values will result in less jagged shadow edges, but higher values will increase the number of shadows by drawing them at farther distances.  In other words, setting it to a ridiculously small value will give you an extremely smooth shadow, but the the only shadow you see will be your own.

iShadowMapResolution=2048 (4096)

iShadowMapResolution affects shadow detail only.  Higher values will result in less jagged shadow edges.  This value can actually go up to 8192 for very smooth shadows.  Changing this value will affect the framerate dramatically.

Those first two are basically the only downsides of using "Beyond Ultra."  Everything else is way better.

iMaxAnisotropy=0 (16)  0 here because instead it's 16x in Nvidia control panel.

Instead of allowing Skyrim to handle Anisotropic Filtering, I prefer to let Nvidia do it via the Control Panel.  I believe this is what is making some of my textures look more detailed than stock Ultra.

iMultiSample=0 (8)  0 here because I use SMAA instead.

Forget the built-in MSAA!  I'm using Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing.  It looks better in my opinion, and it's much easier on the GPU.  SMAA also uses up less video memory.  Previously, I used 4xMSAA and I'd eventually run out of video memory and get stuttering after extended play.  (8x was used for these tests, though.)  Now that I'm using SMAA, I haven't had that happen yet.

bTreesReceiveShadows=1 (0)
bDrawLandShadows=1 (0)

These add more shadows outside.  Fairly self explanatory

In my NVIDIA Control Panel I have the below settings enabled.  Everything else is basically standard.

Ambient Occlusion: Quality (Off)

This adds totally awesome shading to the game.  Ambient Occlusion, on at least some level, is a must.

Anisotropic Filtering: 16x (Off)  Off here because stock Ultra sets it to 16 in Skyrim's settings.

While the number is the same, Nvidia does it better than Bethesda, so the quality ends up being higher.  Not all graphical settings are created equal.

Finally, I use SMAA, which is installed by placing some files in the Skyrim folder.

Results

Let's take a look at the results.  Below are images compared using Ultra (left) and my custom Beyond Ultra (right).  By the way, if you notice a difference in the location of HUD elements in my pics, that's just the result of other custom INI tweaks that should have no effect on performance or image quality.

In this image, you'll notice several important differences.

First, Beyond Ultra actually results in slightly less jagged shadows outside even though the iShadowMapResolution is lower.  This is because fShadowDistance also affects shadow detail.  This benefit only works on exterior areas.

Second, Beyond Ultra has more and better shadows all around, most noticeable on NPC clothing and plants.  This is due to Ambient Occlusion.

Third, the ground textures have greater detail on Beyond Ultra.  I'm not sure, but I think this may have something to do with Nvidia's Anisotropic Filtering being better than Skyrim's.

Fourth, the plants look smoother on Beyond Ultra because SMAA affects transparent textures (usually leaves, branches, etc) while MSAA does not.  Nvidia's control panel does allow you enable a different transparency antialiasing, but at a greater performance hit.  You'll notice that the other edges in the picture have the same smoothness on both settings.

Fifth, what's with Ultra's weird halo effect on the outside of the guy's right arm and left elbow?  I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm guessing it has to do with antialiasing.  Another bonus with SMAA, perhaps?

Major, major differences indoors.

First, you'll notice that many of the textures on stone and wood are more detailed with Beyond Ultra.  Strangely, however, the logs on the fire are more detailed in Ultra than Beyond Ultra.  This is the only instance of this I have noticed.  I wonder if it has something to do with smoke triggering SMAA, which would blur anything behind the smoke.  Just a guess.

Second, Ambient Occlusion absolutely shines here.  Look at all those beautiful shadows in the corners and around furniture!

Third, some of the shadows have more jagged edges in Beyond Ultra.  This is due to iShadowMapResolution being lower.

Fourth, the antialiasing on some edges is a little better with Ultra.

Some new things to notice out on the road.

First, look at the shadows on the roof and other parts of the building.  They're nonexistent in Beyond Ultra because of fShadowDistance being so low.

Second, Ambient Occlusion makes most of the other shadows way better, especially on rocks.

Third, we notice that a few textures are once again more detailed with Beyond Ultra.  Look at the stone wall to the left.  Interestingly, this seems to consistently happen on objects that are closer to the player.  The wall really makes this apparent.  Again, my guess is that we have NVIDIA's Anisotropic Filtering to thank for this

Fourth, plants look way smoother with Beyond Ultra because SMAA affects transparent textures.

Fifth, some of the edges on the building actually look just a little smoother in Beyond Ultra.  However, that fence board way on the left has some weirdness going on.  That's an eyesore.

A few new things with this one.

First, take a look at some of the mountains way in the upper left.  A few of the textures are more detailed on Beyond Ultra.  Probably due to NVIDIA's Anisotropic Filtering.

Second, the trees look way better with shadows in Beyond Ultra.  This is mostly due to bTreesReceiveShadows.

Third, plants are, once again, smoother with SMAA.

Fourth, the shorter shadow distance with Beyond Ultra is painfully obvious all around, but close-up plant shadows are a little more detailed.

Fifth, look at the wings on the windmill in the distance.  Ultra does something weird with them, possibly due to Skyrim's MSAA.

Performance

Finally, below are the benchmark results.  Measurements were taken with FRAPS while standing on the highest step of Dragonsreach with the view centered on the Glidergreen.  It has been said that this view is good for benchmarking because it's fairly demanding.

Ultra: 24.529 (22/28 Min/Max)
Beyond: 32.362 (30/34 Min/Max)
Epic: 20.218 (19/22 Min/Max)

"Epic" uses all the benefits of "Beyond Ultra" with fShadowDistance=8000.0000 and iShadowMapResolution=4096.  It's the best image quality of both worlds, but with the worst performance of the three.

Again, I must point out that using SMAA instead of MSAA (4x) has removed hard drive thrashing that would occur after varying amounts of gameplay.  I can play for hours with a very smooth gaming experience.  I no longer have to restart the game every so often to clear memory.

FYI, Vertical Sync is forced off for all these, though I plan on using NVIDIA's new Adaptive Vsync when the latest drivers come out of beta.  For now, the tearing isn't noticeable enough to warrant the performance hit.  Triple buffering uses up more memory than my video card can reasonably tolderate right now.  I do know that my framerates could be higher with NVIDIA's massive improvements to the latest drivers, but I'll wait for the WHQL version.  For now, it's smooth enough.

There you have it.  Some give and take with shadows, but overall I think it's a nice improvement over Ultra settings.  And it comes with a performance boost!  If you want to do your own investigations, I'd love to hear about them.

November Hardware

Computer hardware prices have been in a free fall lately, especially where video cards and RAM are concerned.  Now that the GTX 460 has been out for a few months, and AMD has provided some competition in the form of the HD 6850, prices on the 460 have fallen dramatically.  You can usually find a 768MB version for under $150, and the 1GB version for around $175.  The 6850 is still hovering around $200 because it's so new.  In a month or two we will see better stock and more sales/rebates, which should bring it closer to the GTX 460.

Right now, there is little reason for a budget-minded gamer to purchase anything beyond a GTX 460 1GB.  However, this will probably change with the introduction of AMD's HD 6950 next month.  Below, I've constructed two basic gaming machines using Newegg.com.  They might be inexpensive, but they are both quite powerful and extremely overclockable.

Bargain Gaming Rig

AMD Phenom II X3 715 Black Edition Triple-Core Processor - $80
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - $25 (after $10 rebate)
GIGABYTE GA-880GM-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX Motherboard - $80
PNY XLR8 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 - $50 (after $30 rebate)
EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 Video Card - $140 (after $30 rebate)
W.D. Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s H.D. - $70
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - $60
APEVIA ATX-JV650W 650W ATX12V Power Supply - $30 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - $20

Discount: $25 ($25 Case/MB Combo)
Shipping: $5
Total: $535

This machine has tremendous potential.  At stock, it will play all the latest games smoothly and at high detail.  You may be able to unlock the fourth CPU core using the motherboard's ACC feature.  Add a modest overclock to the CPU and a more significant overclock to the GPU, which it is easily capable of, and you'll be set for a long time.  Note that the motherboard supports firewire.

Budget Gaming Rig

Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - $209
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - $25 (after $10 rebate)
MSI P55-GD65 USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Motherboard - $140 (after $40 rebate)
PNY XLR8 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 - $50 (after $30 rebate)
Palit NE5X460SF1102 GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 1GB Video Card - $165 (after $35 rebate)
Seagate Barracuda ST31000528AS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s H.D. - $70
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - $70
APEVIA ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W ATX12V Power Supply - $40 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - $20

Discount: $75 ($65 CPU/MB Combo, $10 Case/HD Combo)
Shipping: $2
Total: $716

The most significant improvement here is the better processor.  On top of that, we have a slightly better video card, power supply, and case.  The motherboard supports both USB 3.0 and firewire.

Please note: If you're not seeing the prices listed here, make sure you've properly applied the combos, downloaded your rebate forms, and entered the promotion codes (if any).  I plan on making a separate post that discusses these three forms of saving more money from Newegg's already low prices.

September Update

There are similar deals for inexpensive yet powerful gaming rigs this month.  Below is an example using the new September deals.

Bargain Gaming Rig

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 - $86
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX - $55
RAM: OCZ Special Ops 4GB DDR3 1600 - $75 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 5770 - $145 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB - $70
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W - $40 (after $20 rebate)
DVD Burner: SAMSUNG 24X DVD Burner - $18
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX - $45

Discount: $60 ($25 HD/Case, $20 RAM/PSU, and $15 CPU/GPU Combos)
Shipping: $9
Total: $483

This case looks like an amazing deal.  It has great reviews, and the specs are impressive for the price.  Also, the motherboard supports ACC, so you may be able to unlock one or two of the disabled cores on this processor.  Note that if you need Windows, there's a combo deal with the motherboard for $10 off Windows 7 Home Premium, which would bring the total to $573.

I picked up a set of that Special Ops RAM last month, and it's been working just fine.  It brought some stability to Starcraft 2, which seems to be a big memory hog.  Speaking of SC2, here's my profile for anyone that's interested: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/1691667/1/Vypir/

If you're playing too, send me an invite!

Powerful and Affordable

It's that time again. Competition is once again working in our favor, and prices for gaming PCs are very attractive right now. Here is an example of a powerful machine for less than $500:

Bargain Gaming Rig

CPU: AMD Phenom II 550 - $88
Motherboard: ECS IC780M-A2 AM3 - $60
RAM: OCZ Special Ops Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - $65 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB - $135 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB/32MB - $55 (after $20 promo - ends 8/9)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $50 (after $20 rebate)
DVD Burner: LG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $18
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - $65 (after $20 rebate, $15 promo - ends 8/6)

Discount: $60 ($40 MB/PSU Combo, $20 RAM/GPU Combo)
Shipping: $9
Total: $485

Frankenstein Rig

If that's still too much for you, I have an even better deal for you. Right now, I have some used hardware I'd like to sell due to upgrading. I've never had any problems with it (otherwise I wouldn't risk selling it) and it's all performed very well. Here they are:

Video Card: ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M GeForce 8800 GT 512MB - $60

You can see some of my testing with it in my last blog post. It runs very cool and very quiet.

RAM: OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 - $20

Pretty straightforward. It's good memory and it's cheap.

Power Supply: KINGWIN ABT-450MM 450W - $20 (used by me)

The PSU also runs very quiet. It has PCI-e connectors for video cards, and SATA connectors for SATA hard drives, meaning you won't need adapters.

All three of these components have been used for about two years without incident. If you buy all three, I'll knock off $10 for a total of $90. If you want to build a new computer out of them, I'd suggest the following:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor - $59
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A770E - $70

Discount: $25 CPU/MB Combo
Shipping: Free
Total with used parts: $194

This assumes that you'll reuse an old case, hard drive, and CD/DVD drive. The motherboard has an IDE slot, and IDE ribbons can support two devices. (I also have a PCI IDE card if you need it.) If you don't have the components to reuse, perhaps grab something from the bargain rig above.

Yes, but can it play... Starcraft 2?

If you're wondering how all the hardware above will run Starcraft, see the following:

CPU Benchmarks
High-End GPU Benchmarks
More GPU Benchmarks

Some relevant points to take away:

1) The HD 5770 Will run it VERY smoothly, even at the highest resolutions.
2) The 9800 GTX+ also runs it smoothly at high resolutions. My 8800 GT should deliver about 80% of the performance of a 9800 GTX+.
3) The amount of video memory really doesn't matter, even on Ultra High Details.
4) The Athlon II 245 should deliver above 70% of the performance of a Core i5-750, which is basically the best gaming processor available. That's with a high end video card running at a low resolution, forcing the processors to bottleneck. Therefore, real world results will be much closer.
5) The Phenom II X2 550 really won't be much faster than the Athlon II, and that's under the same bottleneck conditions. Pick whatever Athlon/Phenom flavor floats your boat.

Also, if you don't have an operating system to reuse, I hear that Starcraft 2 runs well in Linux using Wine. Just sayin'.

Bonus Upgrade!

Left: ASUS 8800 GT, Right: EVGA GTX 460 SC

Introduction

It's time for an upgrade!  In anticipation of Starcraft 2, and realizing that I don't exactly have much cash to blow on gaming right now, I decided to enter a few hardware giveaways online.  One of them was run by Puget Systems, a business that specializes in custom PCs.  All I had to do was use their website to design a custom gaming PC (gee, never tried that before) and advertise it on Facebook.  They gave away two GeForce GTX 460 768MB video cards, and I was lucky enough to be randomly selected for the second one.  (By the way, Puget Systems just introduced a new line of products that use an aquarium to cool a PC.  I will say this: the presentation looks amazing.)

Up until now, I have been using an ASUS GeForce 8800 GT, which I bought for $130 from Newegg in June 2008.  The new GTX 460 is of the EVGA Superclocked variety, which is currently going for $210 on Newegg.  NVIDIA released the 8800 GT in October 2007, and the GTX 460 in July 2010.  Both were very similar in that, upon release, they provided a uniquely low price/performance ratio as far as NVIDIA cards go.  Both are also quite efficient in the realms of power, heat, and noise.  The GTX 460 is a true successor to the 8800 GT.

I decided this would be a good time to do some benchmarking for fun.  I basically want to see if I can put some measurements on just how much of an upgrade this is.  How will it enhance the games that I currently play?  Is there enough extra oomph for a larger monitor in the future?  Is my computer going to turn into a space heater?

Testing Details

I don't have a whole lot of free time right now, with two small children and another baby due any day.  Therefore, I decided to keep things simple.  I didn't spend time making sure all the drivers were consistent, though I did record the driver numbers for all tests.  I didn't spend much time researching the different types of antialiasing, though I think it was consistent across the board.  I only used games with automated benchmarks.  If I was actually doing a serious hardware comparison, I would have paid more attention to these details.

Here are my system specs:

Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP3, 32-bit / Linux Mint 9, 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (OC: 3.6 GHz, 1600 FSB)
Motherboard: Foxconn X38A (PCI-E 2.0 x16)
Memory: OCZ Platinum DDR2-800 2x1GB (5-5-5-15)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 250GB/16MB
Video Cards: ASUS 8800 GT 512MB / EVGA GTX 460 768MB SC
Power Supply: Apevia 650W
Case: NZXT Tempest

I know; I could use a RAM upgrade.  Thankfully, my motherboard also supports DDR3.  And yes, I have entered a few giveaways just for this purpose!  I also have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium sitting on my shelf.  I'll install the 64-bit flavor some day - maybe after the first service pack or a RAM upgrade.

Drivers used:

8800 GT Windows: 254.08
8800 GT Linux: 195.36.15
GTX 460 Windows: 258.96
GTX 460 Linux: 256.44

All tests ran at 1600x1200 (I'm still using a CRT), 16x Quality AA, with all in-game details set as high as possible.  Vsync and triple buffering were disabled.  For Company of Heroes, AA was enabled via the game menu.  For Doom 3 and Nexuiz, AA was forced via the NVIDIA control panel.  I used such high levels of AA in order to keep the framerates down to reasonable numbers at this resolution.

Company of Heroes was run in Windows, Nexuiz in Linux, and Doom 3 in both.  Wine was not used in Linux, though I could probably get CoH to run with it if I had the time.  If Wine can run my heavily-modded version of Oblivion (which it does), CoH should be no problem.  I may try it in the future.  Nexuiz was run via the Phoronix Test Suite, an automated benchmarking tool that I had never used before.  I hear it runs in Windows too, so I may visit that in the future as well.  I am likely to re-run some tests when I upgrade to Windows 7.

Core/Memory clocks:

ASUS 8800 GT Stock: 600/900
ASUS 8800 GT Overclocked: 650/1000
Ref. GTX 460 Stock: 675/900 (not tested)
EVGA GTX 460 Superclocked: 763/950
EVGA GTX 460 Overclocked: 825/1000
EVGA GTX 460 Overvolted: 900/1050

The GTX 460 used a voltage of 0.975 by default, and I set it to 1.025 when overvolted.  I didn't try to push the cards in order to get the maximum overclock possible.  I just used what I figured would be safe based on my own research.  I could have probably gotten more out of the new card if I really cared to do so and had the time for testing.  I was unable to overclock the GTX 460 in Linux because the driver didn't seem to recognize the Coolbits option.  It worked fine for my 8800 GT; perhaps the 460 is still too new.  Fortunately, this is a factory "superclocked" edition, I still have speeds in Linux that are higher than reference.

Results

The Company of Heroes results are fairly straightforward, and impressive.  Obviously, I have more frames than I know what to do with.  All indicators suggest Starcraft 2 will be silky smooth as well.

Something must be abnormal with my Windows Doom 3 setup.  Yes, framerates increased, but not nearly as much as Linux; the Linux number is closer to what we should expect.  The Windows performance is inconsistent with the other benchmarks too.  I didn't notice any differences in detail between Windows and Linux, though fine details can be hard to see at these settings.  I know that AA was definitely working in Linux.  I'll probably revisit this in Windows 7, but for right now I am assuming that it's a fluke.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Nexuiz is an open source FPS built on a heavily modified Quake 3 engine.  It uses several advanced graphical effects, such as HDR, so it's a favorite for Linux benchmarks.  The results here are nothing special, but it is interesting to note that the difference is not as large as the other two games.  This was a great opportunity to try out the Phoronix Test Suite (http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com) for the first time.

This chart is quite impressive.  Even with a hefty overclock, it's still cooler than my old card at stock.  It should be noted that this card actually clocks itself way down (core, memory, and voltage) when idle, which explains the chilly idle temps.  Also, it was interesting to note that overclocking and overvolting only affects the speeds and voltage under load.  When idle, all the numbers are the same across the board.

(It should also be noted that there was a bit of dust on my 8800 GT when I finally uninstalled it.  It wasn't too bad because I clean regularly, but it was enough to possibly make a small difference.)

I really like the physical cooling system on the new hardware as well.  Rather than use a fan in the front that pushes air across the heatsink and out a rear exhaust, it simply blows air directly onto the top of the heatsink.  The ASUS 8800 GT has a similar system.  This has one disadvantage - the hot air is not all vented out the back of the case.  However, it has advantages that I consider to be more important:

1) The GPU itself runs cooler.  If the GPU is the hottest component in my system, I want it to have the best cooling.  In addition, my NXZT Tempest has amazing ventilation, so the hot air gets sucked right out anyway.
2) The fan runs quieter.  It spins consistently around 40%, and I can't hear it over the other components.  That's saying something, because my entire PC is pretty quiet.
3) It's easier to clean.  In this department, though, the ASUS 8800 GT is even better because it doesn't have a big plastic shield over the top.  The plastic shield is probably the only negative thing I can find with the GTX 460.  It looks cool, but I don't buy win internal components for looks.  Some manufacturers, such as MSI, have removed them.

Conclusion

My machine will certainly be able to handle more advanced games with ease, and at higher resolutions.  In fact, with results like this, why would I want a GTX 480?  It's not like I'd get higher detail, but I would get more noise, heat, and power consumption.  This card is a perfect fit for my goals.  I think I'll keep it set to 825/1000 with no overvolting, as the card can handle this without breaking a sweat.

Perhaps a more demanding game and a 1920*something monitor will present more of a challenge, but I wouldn't count on it.  It will be interesting to see if Windows 7, and maybe 4GB of DDR3, will provide any measurable differences.  I'd like to see if I can find a simple way to benchmark The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Empire: Total War, as both are more demanding than the games above.  Oblivion needs no introduction, and I use a lot of mods that make it more of a resource hog.  Empire isn't nearly as popular, but it does some crazy things with memory, drawing massive armies across battlefields.  I'd like to see it in more benchmarks because it's rather unique in this regard.  As always, I'm open to suggestions.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a happy camper.  Thanks, Puget Systems!

Fermis and Ghosts

Back in December, I said, "Don't expect GPU prices to drop significantly until the summer season."  The reasons for this were that we still had a while to wait for NVIDIA's GTX 4XX series, and it would take a while for them to ramp up production, produce midrange cards, and offer competitive prices against AMD.

Well, not only did NVIDIA drag their feet with Fermi, but it was also quite unimpressive when launched.  The GTX 480 and 470 were expensive and inefficient, so AMD had no reason to lower their prices.  However, NVIDIA has finally come out with something worth considering: the GeForce GTX 460.

The GTX 460 comes in two flavors - a 768 MB and a 1GB version.  The 768 is going for $200, and the 1GB is around $230.  The 1GB model also has a few other hardware tweaks that give it an average 10% better performance over the 768 model.  Due to a significant redesign, both models consume much less power and generate much less heat than the bigger GTX parts.

The 460 cards are already forcing AMD's prices down, especially the 5830 and 5850.  If you wait until next month, you'll probably see prices across the board hit very tempting ranges.  Of course, the GTX 460 is already quite tempting as it is.

In other news, I just purchased a GIGABYTE GM-M8000 from Newegg.  They had it on sale for $25 (after $20 rebate) with free shipping.  It feels great so far, but I have yet to use it for any extended game time.  This thing is loaded with features that normally cost at least $60.  They've discontinued this model in favor of the GM-M8000X which costs exactly that, but the feature set is almost exactly the same.

This beautiful piece of hardware is a great complement to my Microsoft Sidewinder X6 that I am absolutely loving.  Now, if I can just get ahold of a Belkin n52te SpeedPad, my dream peripheral collection will be complete!

Gaming Rigs Reloaded

It's that time. I've been getting a lot of questions about hardware for gaming PCs, so this post is long overdue. Want to build a new PC? Read on:

Bargain Gaming Rig

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $83
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $90 (after $15 rebate)
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 - $60
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB - $110
Antec Three Hundred Illusion - $60
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $55 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20

Discount: $63 ($20 DVD/PSU Combo, $20 HD Promo, $15 Case Combo, $8 PSU Promo)
Shipping: $24
Total: $564

The first thing you should note is that the processor is dual-core, but motherboard has the ACC feature which may allow you to unlock one or two more cores.  This is not a guarantee, and success will depend on why the two extra cores were disabled in the first place.  You have no way of knowing if this will work until you actually try it, but people generally seem to have good results.  Regardless, modern games still show little benefit from using more than two cores when played with reasonable detail.  For a total of $143 for this motherboard and CPU, you really can't go wrong either way.  Note that the motherboard does not support firewire, so you'll have to pay a little more if you want it.

There's not much to say about the RAM or heatsink.  Decent latency and plenty of cooling.  DDR2 prices are right up there with DDR3, so might as well stick with the newer stuff unless you find an unbeatable deal.

Video cards are still pretty expensive right now, but the Radeon HD 4850 seems to be one of the few exceptions.  There are still plenty of these cards to go around, so the price has remained stable.  It will run Starcraft II smoothly at great detail, so it's the ideal selection to hold you over until we see how the competition with newer cards plays out.

The hard drive has a nice $20 off promo code until 5/10, it has a 1TB of space, and it's a top performer among non-SSD drives.  You could save around $35 by going with something smaller and slower, but this great value makes it a tough decision.  Note that it supports SATA III even though the motherboard only supports SATA II.  However, I'm not sure you can notice the difference between the two unless you use a SSD.

The Antec 300 Illusion also has a $15 off promo until 5/10.  The case is nothing spectacular, but it is tried and true with excellent cooling.

The OCZ power supply is modular, meaning you can detach the cables you don't use.  It has an $8 off promo until 5/11 and a combo that basically gives you a free DVD burner.  If you desire, you can save an additional $9.50 by getting the 500W version, which should be plenty to power all the items listed here.

Practical Power Rig

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $83
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 - $340
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 - $60
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB - $139 (after $10 rebate)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB - $80
NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK - $60 (after $20 rebate)
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $55 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20

Discount: $68 ($30 GPU/RAM Combo, $20 DVD/PSU Combo, $10 HD Promo, $8 PSU Promo)
Shipping: $14
Total: $908

Here we have the addition of a Radeon HD 5850, which will basically play any modern game smoothly at its highest settings.  This isn't the cheapest one you can find, but the $30 combo with the RAM makes it a reasonable deal.

You'll notice that this build uses a 60GB SSD.  The OCZ Vertex is a good performer with TRIM support (just make sure you're using the latest firmware) to prevent performance degredation.  If you use it to hold your operating system plus a handful of your most used games/applications, you will eliminate a lot of waiting from boot and loading times.  Store everything else on the Caviar Green, which is inexpensive, cool, quiet, and has plenty of space.  If you're interested, it utilizes the new large sector technology you may have heard about, but that'll make little difference when compared to the Vertex.  The Green also has a $10 off promo until 5/9.

I actually had the pleasure of recently building a machine with the NXZT Hades.  It has three temperature probes that display the results on the top of the front panel, and they're quite accurate.  There are two voltage knobs inside the front panel that allow you to regulate the speeds of all the fans if you connect them properly.  There are several other features I really like about this case, and it's amazing that the price is so low.

You might have some trouble with the large side fan getting in the way of your CPU cooler.  I used a Xigmatek S1283 without the fan attached, and there was only a little room to spare.  I moved the Xigmatek fan to the rear spot on the case and put the rear 120mm fan on the front top spot, which worked out very well.

This build is more expensive, but you will absolutely notice the performance difference.

Overkill Rig

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz - $200
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
Galaxy 70XKH3HS8GUX GeForce GTX 470 - $350
ASUS P7P55-M LGA 1156 Intel P55 - $108
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB - $139 (after $10 rebate)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB - $80
NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK - $60 (after $20 rebate)
Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M 750W - $75 (after $20 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20

Discount: $80 ($60 GPU/PSU Combo, $10 CPU/MB Combo, $10 HD Promo)
Shipping: $12
Total: $1,099

If you're not an AMD fan, feel free to give this machine a try.  The processor is one of the best gaming processors available today, and the motherboard supports firewire.  However, these advantages will cost you about $155, and you may not even notice the difference in performance for most games.

The video card/power supply combo of $60 off is an amazing deal.  There are actually several flavors of GTX 470 with the same price and combo, so feel free to take your pick.  The 470 will perform a little better than the 5850 in most games, but you'll want to consult benchmarks for the ones you play.

That's it.  Many of these parts can (and probably should) be mixed and matched to suit your price/performance needs.  Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or via e-mail.  Even though I haven't tested most of this hardware myself, I always choose parts that get at least 4/5 "eggs" on Newegg (unless there is a very good reason to pick something else), and I check the reviews for other information like component noise.  You can be relatively confident that these components will be quiet, efficient, and reliable.

Amazing Case&PSU Combo

It's been a while since I've posted any recommendations for budget gaming PC hardware, and there's a reason for that. Video card prices are terrible right now, and RAM isn't much better. The production of AMD's HD4XXX series has dropped in favor of the new but understocked HD5xxx generation. In addition, AMD won't have any real competition from Nvidia for a few more months. Don't expect GPU prices to drop significantly until the summer season, after the price of Nvidia's yet unreleased hardware starts to settle.

As far as RAM goes, it looks like DDR2's reign is ending in favor of DDR3, so a lower supply has brought the prices up to DDR3 levels. By the time video card prices significantly drop, we might also see DDR3 go down a bit more.

Regardless, I did happen to notice a totally awesome deal that I wanted to make people aware of. AZZA, a company that doesn't seem to get much attention, has a great rebate/combo/sale/promo offer at Newegg for a PC case and power supply. Here it is:

Case: AZZA Solano 1000 Black Steel/Metal mesh ATX Full Tower - $65 (after $45 rebate and $10 promo code)

Power Supply: AZZA Dynamo 850W ATX Power Supply - $60 (after $40 rebate)

Discount: $20 (Case/PSU combo deal)

Shipping: $10

Total: $115

The shipping on the case is free, which is awesome because cases usually have the highest shipping costs. The same $20 combo deal also applies to three different power supplies. Here are the other two:

AZZA Dynamo 650W ATX Power Supply - $40 (after $30 rebate)
AZZA Dynamo 500W ATX Power Supply - $20 (after $20 rebate)

The 850W PSU has 2 6-Pin and 2 6+2-Pin PCI-Express connectors for lots of GPU power, as well as 4 12V rails.
The 650W PSU has 1 6-Pin and 1 6+2-Pin PCI-Express connectors and 2 12V rails.
The 500W PSU has 1 6-Pin PCI-Express connector for a modest single-GPU setup and 2 12V rails as well.

Therefore, if your power needs are similar to those of my current gaming machine, you can get away with spending a total of $74 (after rebates) for an awesome case with a nice 500W PSU.

Things to note:

- The rebates for the power supplies end on Dec 31st, the promo code for the case ends Jan 1st, and the rebate for the case ends Jan 5th.
- The case seems to have gotten great reviews on several review sites, as well as 5/5 eggs at Newegg.
- The Power Supplies seem to have decent reviews with 4/5 eggs, although the 500W only has 3/5 eggs. I generally don't suggest getting anything with less than 4/5 eggs and a healthy number of reviews, but I think it's safe to assume that the smaller PSU shares the same build quality as its bigger brothers. It wouldn't hurt to do a little more research, but at this price you're really not risking a whole lot. Remember, Newegg's customer service is second to none.

I know this deal is very rebate heavy, but I've always been comfortable with taking advantage of the rebate system. This bargain is so good that even if you're not planning on building a PC for a few months, you might want to grab these items anyway and use the rebate money to build the rest of your system later. Sure, other deals will be available in the future, but I haven't seen anything this good for a long time. Just be sure you are able test them right away to verify that they're working properly.

In other news...

I got a Microsoft SideWinder X6 keyboard for Christmas and am loving it. It was on my list because I wanted something with backlighting and a detachable numpad. The healthy list other features is nice, but I haven't had time to play with them much yet.

One thing to note is that it's a little weird getting used to the new key positioning. The macro keys on the left throw me off when I want to hit Tab or Shift, and removing the numpad also messes me up on the right side. I was expecting this and I'm sure it will pass with time. I want to try keeping the numpad on the left for a more ideal gaming position, so we'll see how that works out.