FAQ-QUESTIONS,release date,system specs, for CoD

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by klem

I'm going now with

Intel i7 950 3.06GHz (overclockable)
6Gb DDR3 RAM
XFX 5870 GPU
ASUS Sabertooth mobo
SSD for the OS and Flying software (IL-2, FSX, SOW)
700w Storm PSU (cos i have one in the cupboard)
plus a couple of HDDs for other stuff

If that doesn't run SoW which has been in development for 7+ years(?) then I won't bother buying it.

Obviously an i7 is not going to be a problem - but what would be nice, is to have a better understanding of the game's use of Physx and Tesselation, and whether it matters if we go nvidia or amd (ATI). Obviously both will work, but it could, for example, make good use of features that one card is better at.

Why are you going for a 5870, is that 2nd hand? It seems the new 6xxx series may be better value.

Originally Posted by swiss

WTF?

It's the final lap, they have a publisher and and a demo for nvidia.
This is the first time the light at then end of tunnel seems to be indeed daylight.)

Nope, that's another lost soul with his torch out

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by Triggaaar

Nope, that's another lost soul with his torch out

Can't hold on much longer myself.

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Triggaaar

Why are you going for a 5870, is that 2nd hand? It seems the new 6xxx series may be better value.

You do know the 58xx is a totally different league?

68xx maybe newer and cheaper, but they are not meant to compete with the 58xx - the 68xx is more like a 460.

[klem]

[QUOTE=Triggaaar;194691]Obviously an i7 is not going to be a problem - but what would be nice, is to have a better understanding of the game's use of Physx and Tesselation, and whether it matters if we go nvidia or amd (ATI). Obviously both will work, but it could, for example, make good use of features that one card is better at.

Why are you going for a 5870, is that 2nd hand? It seems the new 6xxx series may be better value.]

Hi Triggaaar
No the 5870 will be new.
I started with the 5000 series as I was impressed with the i7/5850 combination in my laptop. 5870 was the highest in the family I could afford and all review checks kicked Nvidia into touch.

Also, as far as I could see from quick google results the 6000 series was a marginal level of performance down on the 5000 series, especially the 5870/5890. In addition it is much cheaper than the 5870 so "surely not as good as the 5870 even if a strange jump in numbering" (yes, a wild assumption). Strange for a new release.

For example, looking here.....
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=82
See 5870 vs 6870, the 5870 outperforms the 6870 although it is 2Gb vs 1Gb.
But then in...
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha...phire_HD_6870/
The 6870 and 5870 swing around depending on the game, at stock speeds, although the 6870 uses less power.
And here...
http://techgage.com/article/amd_rade...6870_hd_6850/1
The 5870 beats the 6870 in virtually all comparisons except where heavy Tesselation is involved (no I'm not some expert - and as you say, will SoW use Tesselation?). One of their conclusions is
"The Radeon HD 6870 is about ~15% slower than the HD 5870, but costs much less ($240 from $400)."

I know there's not a huge difference reported between 6870 and 5870. So now I am wondering and looking forward to more opinions here.

"Oleg confirmed there will be a x64 exe"
Good. Hopefully on release

Actually I never tried an ATI. And Oleg saying it will look better on Nvidia doesn't help me change this trend.
If Oleg stated, that it would look as good on Ati I would definately buy the new 6970, because the new gtx 580 stuff of nvidia seems to be a "fail" again.
Hot, loud, ...

Too bad Sandy Bridge isn't out this year.

Originally Posted by Hecke

Actually I never tried an ATI. And Oleg saying it will look better on Nvidia doesn't help me change this trend.
If Oleg stated, that it would look as good on Ati I would definately buy the new 6970, because the new gtx 580 stuff of nvidia seems to be a "fail" again.
Hot, loud, ...

Too bad Sandy Bridge isn't out this year.

I've played 15-20 games that had the big green Nvidia logo at the start and none of them looked any better or any worse on an ATI card. Image quality usually becomes a factor if you're playing a game at 16x AF or 8x FSAA.

You're not going to notice a difference between the two cards until you look at your power consumption and your wallet. The screen is the last place their differences become apparent. I don't want to sound like an ATI fanboy, but their cards have been hitting the performance/price sweet spot a lot better for the past few years than Nvidia has.

If anyone is trying to decide what they should get, go to tom's hardware, check out the video card chart in your game of choice, and see the performance stats of all the different cards. Now find the performance area you want and check out the card prices. Whatever gives you the most FPS at the lowest price is the winner.

[julian265]

^ Valid points. But there are other things which make me stay with Nvidia. These are things I've experienced or noticed on forums. Your experience may be different, but of course I'm always going to place more weight on my own observations when making decisions.

Compatibility.
In IL2 my 4870 had graphics corruption issues unless I stayed with the 8.9 drivers. The same happened again to 5xxx owners. (then they fixed the drivers, then broke them again in the next version, then fixed...)

DCS: A-10C (yes, it's a beta, but I still think it's relevant) there are quite a few high-end (i7, etc) computer owners complaining about terrible frame-rates. The link between them? They have late-model ATI cards.

In general, on the forums I frequent, I notice more threads about problems with ATI-based hardware and compatibility than nvidia.

Control panel.
I don't like nvidia's CP much, but the ATI CP, I cannot stand! For example, when using the on-board ATI stuff on a TVPC, I needed to disable over-scan (IIRC). After much fruitless poking around, I found the answer on a forum - you need to press a little, UN-LABELLED button (which did not look like a button!) to get to the relevant section...

Then there's the catalyst AI, which seems to need to be turned off for most of my games, making me wonder why it is there, and enabled by default.

I could put up with the control panel if I were confident about the card's functionality, but my observations about compatibility issues put me off, to the point where I justify the extra cost and (somewhat irrelevant) extra heat/power usage. These are just my observations, no doubt others will see the opposite, or the opposite might be true for a different set of games.

[domian]

Originally Posted by julian265

DCS: A-10C (yes, it's a beta, but I still think it's relevant) there are quite a few high-end (i7, etc) computer owners complaining about terrible frame-rates. The link between them? They have late-model ATI cards.

I can confirm that.

But Lock On - the base layer - runs much better on Nvidia Cards for years.

do you guys know, if ...

a AMD - ATI combination works better than a AMD - Nvidia combo?

or if ...

a Intel - Nvidia combination works better than a Intel - ATI combo?

I'm speaking of stuff with comparable power.
Just wondering because AMD and Intel are competitors as well as Nvidia and ATI, so they might have intentionally done sth to make some combinations work not as good.

[klem]

Originally Posted by speculum jockey

If anyone is trying to decide what they should get, go to tom's hardware, check out the video card chart in your game of choice, and see the performance stats of all the different cards.

Well I just did that and they don't cover the 6000 series yet in their Graphics card best buy Hierarchy. What they do say here..

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...arts,2776.html

is "The Radeon HD 6870 is slower than Radeon HD 5870. Radeon HD 6850 is slower than Radeon HD 5850. It's confusing, we know, but AMD has what it considers a good explanation for the naming scheme." and in the final page Verdict "The high-end Radeon HD 5870 and 5970 will be replaced by the “Cayman” and “Antilles” Radeon HD 6900-series before the end of Q4 2010."... also supported by supposedly leaked AMD information (I won't post the link as there may be legal issues) stating the ATI "Cayman" is supposedly being released late November=6970?, Antilles in December=6990?

There's nothing on AMDs site about the 6900 series and they don't answer the phone ("leave a number and we'll call back") but other Google-guessers are expecting release in late November and guessing the 6970 to be round 1/3 more in price than 5870. It's only someone's guesswork though. So I may have to wait ?

Back to this Thread, I don't see AMD doing anything more before SoW is released so for me that's part of the system spec puzzle resolved. 6970/6990 will probably be the way to go for max effect unless you want to wait for Nvidia's response. But what do I know?