Steam performance analyser- accurate?

[GeneralOreo]

A while ago I had a 7900GS, which is now dead in the corner of this room, and I attempted to play some old games: Half Life and Far Cry. It was a few weeks ago so I don't remember all the details but both games 'recommended' certain settings, I guess with the former it's part of Steam or something, and both weren't the highest...

Now my system was with the 7900GS, 4400+, 2GB, I would say it should be able to run two old games at the highest settings? With Half Life I got really high frame rates at the beginning, like in the hundreds I think, or just almost a hundred, I don't remember... I didn't go into either game more than the first 2 minutes so maybe those reommended settings were right...

But I'll never know because my 7900GS is dead and I'll be building an new system soon. What is the point of this thread? To put to rest this OCD thought that's pervading my mind like a noxious fume. Or something like that. I NEEDD TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Uh, yeah, so do you usually ignore or follow those recommnded settings?

 

[Balt]

I usually ignore them. I very frequently run below recommended settings because I really hate frame lag. For example, most Source-engine games will default to 2xAA for me, but I disable it and the games run much smoother when there's action taking place.

 

[Skunkwourk]

I also ignore it. On my Laptop with a mobility radeon x1400 it defaulted to something like AA8X, and everything on High. Yeah right. To get the frame rate I wanted I had to force it to run in DirectX 8.1.

 

[GeneralOreo]

Weird, so it over-estimates your hardware? I thought it'd be the other way around.

 

[RandomFool]

Originally posted by: Eghck
I also ignore it. On my Laptop with a mobility radeon x1400 it defaulted to something like AA8X, and everything on High. Yeah right. To get the frame rate I wanted I had to force it to run in DirectX 8.1.

Same here. I set everything to low and upped my resolution to 1024x768. Usually it'll run with ok with the recommended settings but it'll run much better if you lower them.

 

[GeneralOreo]

Ok since this is related, what does it take to run Far Cry at 1680X1050 and highest settings with some decent AA/AF?

something must've been wrong with my system for the game not to select/recommend the highest setting. I think my CPU wasn't getting enough power and my HDD was an old PATA and, uh, I don't know. 7900GS 256MB should be able to run a 2004 game at the highest settings I think, I don't know much about PC gaming so I could be missing something here.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: GeneralOreo
Ok since this is related, what does it take to run Far Cry at 1680X1050 and highest settings with some decent AA/AF?

something must've been wrong with my system for the game not to select/recommend the highest setting. I think my CPU wasn't getting enough power and my HDD was an old PATA and, uh, I don't know. 7900GS 256MB should be able to run a 2004 game at the highest settings I think, I don't know much about PC gaming so I could be missing something here.

Well, if you wanna bit nitpicky, I've gotten points of lag before on my 8800GTS 320mb, so... make of it what you will. The biggest performance hit with FarCry is environmental details, though... all that grass isn't easy to render. I have all my settings up to max except for environment, which I believe is one below max.

 

[Captante]

I routinely ignore all such advice & set everything to maximum & even at 1920x1200 my 8800GTX has yet to give me any real trouble.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: GeneralOreo
Weird, so it over-estimates your hardware? I thought it'd be the other way around.

normally they underestimate

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: GeneralOreo
Weird, so it over-estimates your hardware? I thought it'd be the other way around.

normally they underestimate

Yes, that is my experience. I typically have to go into settings to manually increase the AA and AF to max.

KT

 

[Modular]

FarCry's hardware detector is notorious for being incorrect. I have a P4 2.8 non-HT, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a 6600gt AGP @ 585/1010 that runs the game at 1680x1050 with all in-game settings maxed (no HDR, but 2xQ AA and 8X AF through the nVidia CP) and I'm generally between 30-45 FPS.

 

[Sniper82]

heh I never keep what the game sets the settings to. I max or almost max all games(aside from AA/AF) that I play to max or near it at 1680x1050 with just a 7900GT. I often pretend I got a 8800 series in my PC . But of course I am happy with 25-30fps though and don't mind a hiccup here and there.