How much power do you need for FRAPs

[llee]

Hey all, with Black Friday coming up I want to make sure that I know whether or not to splurge on a graphics card. I play games at a 1400x900 resolution.

Specs so far:
Intel Ci7-860 (Stock)
PaliT GTX 460 1GB (860/2200)
2x2GB Corsair DDR3-1333
OCZ Vertex 120GB
2TB Samsung F4 HDD

My plan is to be able to record 720p footage (I'll adjust resolution of course) at full size and full speed in Bad Company 2 at maximum settings save HBAO/AA/AF. The GTX 460 just isn't strong enough. Do any of you have card recommendations that will get the job done? There is an HD 5870 that's going for around $210 but I'm not sure how that'll perform.

any thoughts?

 

[RavenSEAL]

GTX480/580 should be fine.

 

[Throckmorton]

I would think that for recording the video that your video card is outputting, what matters is your CPU.

Or does the video card somehow get used for encoding even while you're gaming?

 

[Throckmorton]

Confirmed... the video card isn't what matters http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/637781-fraps-lag.html

 

[Lonyo]

Another harddrive might help as well, depending on where the game is installed. If you are trying to run the game from a HDD and record to the same HDD, it could cause some laggy spots, if the game is on your SSD that shouldn't be a problem though.

I'm surprised your GTX460 1GB isn't strong enough for max settings without AA/AF at only 1280x720.
Benchmarks show it as getting 80+ FPS at 1680x1050 with 4xAA...

 

[ElFenix]

splurge on a monitor

 

[llee]

I have an update to post. I realized that Microsoft Security Essentials was scanning everything that FRAPS was pumping out, so there was screen stuttering ever 4 seconds or so. After adding FRAPS to the list of exceptions, I can now pump out smooth 720p footage at 59ish fps.

MAKE SURE A/V DOESN'T SCAN FRAPS FILES!

splurge on a monitor

Is my philosophy of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it?" wrong?

 

[Arkaign]

I have an update to post. I realized that Microsoft Security Essentials was scanning everything that FRAPS was pumping out, so there was screen stuttering ever 4 seconds or so. After adding FRAPS to the list of exceptions, I can now pump out smooth 720p footage at 59ish fps.

MAKE SURE A/V DOESN'T SCAN FRAPS FILES!



Is my philosophy of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it?" wrong?[/QUOTE]

Erm. I get where you're coming from, but 1440x900 with the kind of hardware you're running is something approaching a travesty if you're a gamer. Even cheap 1680x1050 screens are a huge relief in terms of screen real estate. I went from :

1440x900 (19" Viewsonic a few years back)
to
1680x1050 (22" Viewsonic a few years back)
to
1920x1200 (current 25.5" Samsung)

And each step up was awesome, definitely the most satisfying single upgrades I've done.

With the prices coming down and holiday sales, it's worth a look. Obviously you know what matters to you, everyone is different, but imho 1440x900 with a nice i7 and GTX460 is sort of like running a Viper on 15" tires.

 

[Throckmorton]

Thanks for the tip about MSSE. That makes me wonder what else it scans... Savegames? Screenshots?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Thanks for the tip about MSSE. That makes me wonder what else it scans... Savegames? Screenshots?

Any antivirus can scan anytime a file is read or written to the hard drive. So if you play a game that does a lot of these micro read/writes, check the settings of your virus scanner and you may be able to reduce some hitching.

 

[cubeless]

my kid was trying to record with fraps... it sux because it's single threaded... he found a thing called playclaw that he says works better...

 

[RavenSEAL]

Ignore, wrong thread.

 

[Teizo]

Any antivirus can scan anytime a file is read or written to the hard drive. So if you play a game that does a lot of these micro read/writes, check the settings of your virus scanner and you may be able to reduce some hitching.

Thanks for the tip.