Back into the PC Master Race. It was never a total absence but still.
yesterday I finished downloading Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 (I have the original game on the PC, too, not the expansion unlike in the XB1) ..
And I was playing Diablo 3 and I almost started to cry because of the emotion and the good times I had in Diablo 2, literally.
It is a long story ... but to summarize. I am a PC user who under normal conditions would never have or hardly touch a console.
When I bought my 1st computer because of a compensation from an insurance company after being hit by a car and losing my spleen.. I was really hooked, I dreamed of being a programmer and a Carmack wannabe, it was amazing to be able to do everything from music to documents to play, edit hidden files from programs or games and see what happened. After some years my family saw that as an addiction, which was partly I guess, but on the other hand I had this hunch it was the future and I couldn't find a place to study something related to computers nearby.
Some years passed until 2004 when I was writing guides of Diablo 2, but sometimse my family at home thought too much computer wasnt good for me, maybe they were right, the time when I was writing those guides and coping with life and romantic stuff, it was stressful. Despite that, under normal conditions, I was a good student.
So I had that stigma for years. Back in 2004 I bought the original Xbox and well, I started using consoles. I had the GameCube, I played SNES, NES, Master System, PS1, PS2, MegaCD, in their day, consoles of my friends ..
Now that I do not have to be held accountable for my actions, having a computer makes me feel at home and I study programming. And that's why I played Diablo 3 on PC at 60 fps yesterday and experience what it is to have a PC without the limitations of consoles -XB1 version of Diablo 3 drops Framerate-, plus the memories of Diablo 2..
It made me think that I lost 12 years spending time and money on consoles, and my eyes got teary.
And I was playing Diablo 3 and I almost started to cry because of the emotion and the good times I had in Diablo 2, literally.
It is a long story ... but to summarize. I am a PC user who under normal conditions would never have or hardly touch a console.
When I bought my 1st computer because of a compensation from an insurance company after being hit by a car and losing my spleen.. I was really hooked, I dreamed of being a programmer and a Carmack wannabe, it was amazing to be able to do everything from music to documents to play, edit hidden files from programs or games and see what happened. After some years my family saw that as an addiction, which was partly I guess, but on the other hand I had this hunch it was the future and I couldn't find a place to study something related to computers nearby.
Some years passed until 2004 when I was writing guides of Diablo 2, but sometimse my family at home thought too much computer wasnt good for me, maybe they were right, the time when I was writing those guides and coping with life and romantic stuff, it was stressful. Despite that, under normal conditions, I was a good student.
So I had that stigma for years. Back in 2004 I bought the original Xbox and well, I started using consoles. I had the GameCube, I played SNES, NES, Master System, PS1, PS2, MegaCD, in their day, consoles of my friends ..
Now that I do not have to be held accountable for my actions, having a computer makes me feel at home and I study programming. And that's why I played Diablo 3 on PC at 60 fps yesterday and experience what it is to have a PC without the limitations of consoles -XB1 version of Diablo 3 drops Framerate-, plus the memories of Diablo 2..
It made me think that I lost 12 years spending time and money on consoles, and my eyes got teary.
hehe, yes, I am waiting for my pin.
As for consoles, not that I repent, it was an enriching experience to know the other side, and I enjoyed consoles with games like Call of Juarez for instance, and there is also the bickering and stuff. But the PC side of things is always much more peaceful and I got into console wars and remember how much I used to laugh at console gamers fighting over their favourite console and thinking to myself something lilke.., "well, I don't get it, wasting so much energy defending such a puny hardware".
Despite the good times with consoles, meeting interesting people, the laughs,etc, I'd gladly go back and abridge my 12 years of Gamecube and Xbox experience and reduce it to two years or less.
Finally installed FEAR (GoG version), a game that I really enjoyed in the X360 era. I liked the suspense and while it was like the typical coiled and intricately involved way of explaining a simple story (this is typical of videogames, like Halo for example), I enjoyed the suspense, Alma the girl was mesmerising and despite the corridor style it was sooo good as a game that I completed it like twice times. It is amazing to run it at 1080p 60fps now without the GPU and CPU heating and the fan sounds very soft as when you are in the OS.
However, I found the framerate erratic at first. It was kinda jumpy. I found out that the game runs at 30 fps after a while because of this issue -which has a fix-:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/21090/discussions/0/343785380897389173
Now I am enjoying 60 stable fps and the experience goes very far beyond what I experienced with the Xbox 360 version. Still, it was a great game on the X360 and always will.
However, I found the framerate erratic at first. It was kinda jumpy. I found out that the game runs at 30 fps after a while because of this issue -which has a fix-:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/21090/discussions/0/343785380897389173
Now I am enjoying 60 stable fps and the experience goes very far beyond what I experienced with the Xbox 360 version. Still, it was a great game on the X360 and always will.
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Found out that Crysis 2 is one of the best stability benchmarks out there, compared to anything I tried.
Passed the 3D Mark tests several times, also the Heaven benchmark, none of them gave me any trouble except in situations where I was conscious I was really pushing the PC to the max, overclocking to numbers I wasn't comfortable with.
Turns out that some time ago I decided to increase the overall GPU to a 7% over the original, which is much lower than the numbers shown by DF in their RX 570 video, but greater than the very slight overclock I started with. It's been almost 2 weeks with a 7% overclock and no benchmark nor game was problematic.:smile2:
So I decided to install Crysis 2, one of the very few games I have on Origin -along with Dragon Age Origins, also had the X360 version of those games- from 2011 and played at 1080p 60fps on Ultra without issues... (I enjoyed Crysis 1 more but think Crysis 2 is a decent sequel):smile2:
BUT it sent me to the desktop twice and Radeon Settings decided to stop the GPU and return to default values those two times.
Third time though the screen went black, signal lost (the rest of the componentes were working) and the PC had to be restarted cos' I couldn't see a thing. And that's more serious.
So Crysis 2 is a great stability benchmark.:smile2: Decreased the OC from 7% to 4% (shall keep it at that 4% forever, 1320MHz core clock, 1820MHz memory clock) and haven't had any issues since, regardless of Crysis settings or resolutions (1080p, 4K), so that's a totally solid OC.
Passed the 3D Mark tests several times, also the Heaven benchmark, none of them gave me any trouble except in situations where I was conscious I was really pushing the PC to the max, overclocking to numbers I wasn't comfortable with.
Turns out that some time ago I decided to increase the overall GPU to a 7% over the original, which is much lower than the numbers shown by DF in their RX 570 video, but greater than the very slight overclock I started with. It's been almost 2 weeks with a 7% overclock and no benchmark nor game was problematic.:smile2:
So I decided to install Crysis 2, one of the very few games I have on Origin -along with Dragon Age Origins, also had the X360 version of those games- from 2011 and played at 1080p 60fps on Ultra without issues... (I enjoyed Crysis 1 more but think Crysis 2 is a decent sequel):smile2:
BUT it sent me to the desktop twice and Radeon Settings decided to stop the GPU and return to default values those two times.
Third time though the screen went black, signal lost (the rest of the componentes were working) and the PC had to be restarted cos' I couldn't see a thing. And that's more serious.
So Crysis 2 is a great stability benchmark.:smile2: Decreased the OC from 7% to 4% (shall keep it at that 4% forever, 1320MHz core clock, 1820MHz memory clock) and haven't had any issues since, regardless of Crysis settings or resolutions (1080p, 4K), so that's a totally solid OC.
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Why not if it's free?
durability, power consumption, heat ?
just wanted to get stable performance for my money. Power consumption at 4% in demanding situations doesn't seem to go over 138W, which is good? Not a big fan of power at the cost of your electricity bill.
As for durability, MSI graphics card manual says the GPU is ready to live 10 years even at max speed. Dunno.... My idea is to get a Vega card in the near future -among other components I need like a SSD- and sell this one to a classmate who is into farming.
Additionally, I am also thinking about not using MSI Afterburner for overclocking but simply Wattman from AMD, which is part of the drivers' software by AMD now and checks when and how the GPU failed --nice to find an issue with clocks and so on.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3094...rclocking-tool-for-radeon-graphics-cards.html
On a different note, a mate has purchased the Switch. I think it is a very interesting console, because being a Nintendo device they do their thing and power always increases in their devices but they don't boast about it to come up short.
as I mentioned i na different post I got Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed (the most recent versionin this Humble Bundle sale. It only costs 4€ and it is worth every penny! .
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/...onicWeekend_store_20170601&utm_content=Banner
I had the original Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing on the X360 and it was a lot of fun, although I expected 60 fps and with such graphics it was impossible. In fact, the game had an uncapped framerate, it was obvious it ran at more than 30 fps -a la Call of Juarez- most of the time but not very smooth. That's why I didn't get Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, because the framerate wasn't 60 fps. Now I am happy I didn't :smile2: because now I am enjoying the best version. The Transformed version is better than the original, which was quite good already, and it runs at 1080p 60fps on my PC without stressing the CPU and GPU at all. The experience is exponentially better.
I also got Sonic Adventure 2.
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/...onicWeekend_store_20170601&utm_content=Banner
I had the original Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing on the X360 and it was a lot of fun, although I expected 60 fps and with such graphics it was impossible. In fact, the game had an uncapped framerate, it was obvious it ran at more than 30 fps -a la Call of Juarez- most of the time but not very smooth. That's why I didn't get Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, because the framerate wasn't 60 fps. Now I am happy I didn't :smile2: because now I am enjoying the best version. The Transformed version is better than the original, which was quite good already, and it runs at 1080p 60fps on my PC without stressing the CPU and GPU at all. The experience is exponentially better.
I also got Sonic Adventure 2.
well, I reduced the max voltage to 1050mV instead of the original maximum 1150mV, using AMD Wattman. Kept the 4% OC, but that voltage is more than enough for the GPU to run in a stable way --needs more testing.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3094...rclocking-tool-for-radeon-graphics-cards.html
I also enabled Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) in the Radeon settings and set it locked to 60 fps (don't care for extra frames I am not going to notice at all):
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2942...delivers-real-benefits-for-radeon-gamers.html
These are the results, power consumption, framerate and VRAM memory usage (at 1080p):
This stuff is really fun. Gotta test the heavyweigths, like Crysis 2 and share the results. Hope it is stable, but never crashed before with those oc settings, only thing I changed is the voltage.
Some extra tests at 1080p:
Sonic and Sega All Stars Transformed
Sonic Adventure 2
Crysis 2. This is one of the most demanding titles. Picture was taken a Ultra settings. 1440p and 50fps at Ultra is doable, 4k30 too, but it's not the same. 125-128W is the max power consumption I got from the card.
The Elder Scrolls Skyrim Special Edition. This is one of the toughest to get it running a 1080p 60 fps, in a stable way. 1080p Ultra is a no go for perfect 60fps. Though some effects aren't actually necessary. But oddly enough it can drop more frames in small interiors than in the huge open world. VRAM consumption is the highest of all titles.
Sonic and Sega All Stars Transformed
Sonic Adventure 2
Crysis 2. This is one of the most demanding titles. Picture was taken a Ultra settings. 1440p and 50fps at Ultra is doable, 4k30 too, but it's not the same. 125-128W is the max power consumption I got from the card.
The Elder Scrolls Skyrim Special Edition. This is one of the toughest to get it running a 1080p 60 fps, in a stable way. 1080p Ultra is a no go for perfect 60fps. Though some effects aren't actually necessary. But oddly enough it can drop more frames in small interiors than in the huge open world. VRAM consumption is the highest of all titles.
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/Note to self
Tell cyan about fraps so he doesn't have to use his camera to take photographs of his monitor
http://www.fraps.com
Tell cyan about fraps so he doesn't have to use his camera to take photographs of his monitor
http://www.fraps.com
Can't you also press Print Screen in games and paste into some image editor?
think so, although I don't know how to use other utilities like Relive, which takes like 3% of your GPU power to record what's happening on screen at 60 fps. However I think I lose the statistics layer (fps, rendering api, power consumption, mem consumption), but I haven't checked tbh. The screenshots I got aren't saved anywhere in the pictures folder.
Edit: turned out that the screenshots I got are saved into the Public profile of the computer, and they show the stats too if you check the related option. But I was looking into my own -standard, not admin- user's pictures folder and there was nothing there.
Deponia
FEAR
Broken Sword Director's Cut -sometimes it shows some artifacts-
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Yes but not allways
talking of framerate, Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) from AMD fails to stop this Direct3D 8 game from running at above 60 fps. It might look ideal, but the experience is very uneven and jerky and stressful for the GPU and CPU. The game is old so temperatures don't soar but the fan spins a little and there is no need too in a slow paced, classic adventure game. I am talking about Broken Sword 3.
Rivatuner is integrated in MSI Afterburner and they say there is a framerate limiter there, but I didn't find it --maybe this one works.
Broken Sword 3 is a tough cookie. Videos run at 25 fps, actual gameplay something around 3000 fps.
FMV videos from Broken Sword 3: (locked at 25 fps)
Can it run Crysis? It does. The GoG version of this legendary game is easy to install and all, but the game is quite demanding. 1080p 60fps isn't a problem. However, it is a power hungry game. I prefer not to go over 100W, but anyways. At 90º the GPU starts to throttle or just disconnects, so it's close...
Far Cry 2. The PC doesn't get very noisy and the game runs very well. I see a lot of details I missed in the X360 days.
Life is Strange.
One of my favourites games ever. 60 fps don't make a huge difference given the gameplay, but they are so noticeable. What a difference from the console version. Dunno what happens with the art style of this game, EQAAx16 or MSAAx8 have a tough time hiding the aliasing, it was also typical in the console version. This is the demo, I have the full game on the X360, I am considering getting it for the PC 'cos I love it so much, but I shall wait for a sale.
Blazkowicz
Legend
Broken Sword Director's Cut -sometimes it shows some artifacts-
lol what the fuck is that. the shit they put in video games nowadays. Fuck Carchon!
it's the overlay of MSI Afterburner's -with Rivatuner integrated- stats, the same you see in other pictures.