When was the last time you could run a game on HIGHEST settings?

[mizzou]

I'm thinking after Doom3 came out...my PC builds started to struggle epicly with new release games. The new total war games, CRYSIS, Supreme Commander...many of these games seemed to challenge your graphics card and CPU to the extreme.

I think the Radeon 9700PRO was beginning of my setups where my PC builds struggled with games.

Back in the day of Pentium 100-200's, I remember fondly where a new CPU would pretty much mean you had a few years of destroying video games. Loading up quake, duke nukem 3d, Star Wars, etc. and running it at as high of a resolution as you wanted or modifying it to show as many units on screen as you wanted.

Drop in a Monster 3dfx / Voodoo card, you could then play Mechwarrior and other games at smooth as butter speeds.

But then...a new game like Thief or Half Life or something like that, would push the envelope a little bit, and you would feel the need to upgrade.


I feel like now, it is so hard to get ahead of the game, it's almost impossible without spending enormous amounts of $$$$. I can't just upgrade my CPU and Graphics card...even if I do that there is no guarantee I can play games at the "extreme" end of settings. There are hundreds of options to choose from, hundreds of matches.

So basically now, I play a few years behind the curve and typically game somewhere in the middle to low settings, and that has been a permanent place since around the year 2001. I miss being able to not worry about settings.

Bleh!

Just thought of this as I am starting to get an itch to upgrade from my phenom and 5850 setup.

 

[SithSolo1]

Now?

Before this I'd say probably when I had my 7900 GTO but I was only playing WoW at the time.

A build from this thread should get you to that place again and most times its under $1k. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

 

[Midwayman]

Depends on what you mean by highest.... Ultra presets on my monitor, now. 4k multimonitor on ultra...... yah I've never had a rig like that.

 

[davie jambo]

Can do it now easy enough

 

[motsm]

Similar to OP, maybe Doom 3, as I remember getting it bundled with my 6800GT and maxing it. Though I had an 8800GTX that could max most everything when it came out, I just don't remember specific games I suppose. The problem for me now isn't that games have surpassed current GPU strength, but that many of them no longer support MSAA. So that means I'm forcing SGSSAA, SSAA, or downsampling, which can make any game a challenge to run.

 

[Childs]

I can do it now, but normally drop some settings to get to 120fps.

 

[escrow4]

You never will unless you spend thousands. The 780 Ti GHz I have in my gaming box can't max out every setting in every AAA game like Crysis 3 or Metro Last Light even once you add in maxed out AA and maxed out PhysX. I always aim for core settings at a solid 60FPS, AA optional. That is just about doable.

 

[RockinZ28]

Way too many variables these days. No I can't run games on triple 4k monitors with 32xAA in 3d at 120fps.

I can however run all games to my liking at 1080p@60fps, with some AA and mostly max in game settings, which I'm perfectly happy with.

 

[nurturedhate]

If we remove the very very high end displays such as 4k and multimonitor then the answer is right now and for a LOT less money than what it would take in the 90s as per your example. Especially as cpu upgrade cycles have expanded greatly over the last 5 years.

 

[BoberFett]

When I had a Voodoo2?

I haven't bothered to stay bleeding edge for a long time. I'm not willing to play the Upgrade Game. It's the same game every year with slightly better graphics.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh, with 3x1080p eyefinity and 6870s crossfired, most games I'm running med settings, newwer games I run on just one monitor, usually high or highest... But, I rarely play new games, so most of what I play I can do high/max settings at 5760:1080 or 1920:1080 if games do not offer eyefinity support.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

About a month ago. A 7970 is a bit overkill for 1280x1024, but it died.

 

[magomago]

what are you talking about?!?!?! Back when CPU technology was progressing fast, pc hardware would obsolete the previous generation so fast, and games would constantly punish all sorts of technology. What a TNT struggled with, a TNT2 push to shame.

Its only in the last few years that a 4 year old 2500K, pair it with a high end card, and smashed through most things. Today we are spoiled.

 

[Puppies04]

I'm thinking after Doom3 came out...my PC builds started to struggle epicly with new release games. The new total war games, CRYSIS, Supreme Commander...many of these games seemed to challenge your graphics card and CPU to the extreme.

I think the Radeon 9700PRO was beginning of my setups where my PC builds struggled with games.

Back in the day of Pentium 100-200's, I remember fondly where a new CPU would pretty much mean you had a few years of destroying video games. Loading up quake, duke nukem 3d, Star Wars, etc. and running it at as high of a resolution as you wanted or modifying it to show as many units on screen as you wanted.

Drop in a Monster 3dfx / Voodoo card, you could then play Mechwarrior and other games at smooth as butter speeds.

But then...a new game like Thief or Half Life or something like that, would push the envelope a little bit, and you would feel the need to upgrade.


I feel like now, it is so hard to get ahead of the game, it's almost impossible without spending enormous amounts of $$$$. I can't just upgrade my CPU and Graphics card...even if I do that there is no guarantee I can play games at the "extreme" end of settings. There are hundreds of options to choose from, hundreds of matches.

So basically now, I play a few years behind the curve and typically game somewhere in the middle to low settings, and that has been a permanent place since around the year 2001. I miss being able to not worry about settings.

Bleh!

Just thought of this as I am starting to get an itch to upgrade from my phenom and 5850 setup.

You have a 5 year old GPU (with too little RAM) and CPU. Tell me a time in the past since the dawn of 3D games where a 5 year old PC that was mid range when built would still play new releases at high settings.

You are living in a fantasy world.

On a side note, pc gamers have never had it so good. a 4 year old 2600K with a moderate overclock that was purchased with a GTX570, upgraded to a GTX770 and then swapped for a GTX970 will play pretty much any game at max @1080P. Assuming moderate returns on the old GPUs the entire cost of that setup and upgrades comes in at less than a single gaming PC from 7 or 8 years ago which would have required a complete overhaul within 3 years to maintain decent framerates on new releases.

Considering things like steam sales,humble bundles, rereleases of old classics like baldurs gate and the rise of indie gaming and PC gamers have never had it so sweet.

TLR

Your rig is old, upgrade it sensibly now (4790K,mobo,GTX970) and come back in 5 years to have another moan.

 

[xantub]

hmm... yesterday?
Granted, it was a 2-3 year old game (Dragon Age 2). Then again, my CPU is 2 years old and my video card is a 'middle range' 1 year old card.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I run most games on their highest to almost highest settings. Alien Isolation I ran with higher settings (after tweaks).

As long as the FPS doesn't drop lower than 30...I don't tend to care....

 

[Zenoth]

Well, my system is aging, overall it's about 3 years-old or so. The last component I bought was the GPU, my current still-kicking asses GTX670 (what a beast, seriously), which I bought back in hummm... sometime in January 2012 I believe? Not sure anymore.

But anyway, depends on the games of course. I mean I can run World of Goo on maximum settings, but not Shadow of Mordor, can't have everything in life! Ah well. I do plan on upgrading (the whole system) sooner rather than later, however, probably during Q1 next year. Then, I'll be able to run 'pretty much everything' on maximum settings, at 1080p that is, I won't even approach 4K gaming until another decade (at which point 4K will be the 'previous generation' standard resolution, which means it's going to be cheaper for me, hooray).

 

[alcoholbob]

In 1993 I got the fastest PC out, a P5 66MHz for like $2,500 in order to play Doom.

1 year later it was stuttering trying to play Doom 2. It wasn't until a month after Doom 2 released that there was a CPU fast enough to run it, the Pentium 75MHz.

Hardware has always been going obsolete fast.

 

[Blue_Max]

I can do it now!

...provided I'm playing games from 2-3 years ago.

 

[Blitzvogel]

When I built my first rig in early 2007 with an Athlon x2 Windsor and an 8800GTS until......

.......Crysis took a huge, steaming dump on it D:

 

[Bateluer]

The last time I couldn't run a game at maximum settings or could? So long as I've been gainfully employed, I've made sure I'd had decently high spec'd hardware.

Back in 2003-05, I had a stricter budget, and had to make due with a Radeon 9600 Pro, then later a Geforce 6800. The Radeon 4870, bought at release, held on amazingly well for years, handled any game until Witcher 2 at 1080p and maximum settings. Also had some issues when I first got my 1440p displays and the Radeon 6950 I had at the time, addressed with an upgrade to a 7950B, and then a 290X when they launched.

 

[Blitzvogel]

.......I first got my 1440p displays and the Radeon 6950 I had at the time, addressed with an upgrade to a 7950B, and then a 290X when they launched.

Tell me about the bunnies again George:whiste:

 

[Elcs]

Well with my rig I have no trouble playing Minesweeper on max graphical settings... so I guess in answer to your question, 5 minutes ago.

 

[JTsyo]

Since I tend to play a lot of older games, I can run them on highest but the last time my rig maxed out a current game was BF3.

 

[Ionith]

I think a better question is when was the last time I couldn't run a game on highest settings.