You'll Need Heavy Duty Hardware for the games in 2004

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Shooters have traditionally not used that much ram (relatively speaking) so what makes Doom 3 need 2GB?

Probably textures I'm guessing.

-Por

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
...sounds like complete BS to me.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a a duck....

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
...sounds like complete BS to me.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a a duck....

MaximumPC isn't called MaximumBS for nuthin' . . .

. . . they have magazines to sell. 😛

don't be fooled . .. 😉

 

[SneakyStuff]

Well, it says with full eye candy on you'll need that, but I never do that anyway, unreal 2k4, farcry, and stuff like painkiller run just fune on the system i've got, provided i dont go crazy with the detail levels, as long as I can play at 1024 x 768, im happy 🙂

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
...sounds like complete BS to me.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a a duck....

MaximumPC isn't called MaximumBS for nuthin' . . .

. . . they have magazines to sell. 😛

don't be fooled . .. 😉

They're probably getting a kickback from the hardware manufacturers to scare some people into throwing some cash into upgrades they may not need as of yet. Sorta funny that this story is coming out right now when nVidia and ATi need to get rid of a lot of old inventory, just before the next generation cards hit the shelves and make the current inventory of Radeon 9800s and GFFX 5950s depreciate a LOT in the matter of a few weeks.

 

[randumb]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
Isn't the A64 3400+ (3200 as well ? ) faster then the FX-51?

The A64 3400+ is around the same speed as the FX-51, and the A64 3200+ is a little bit slower.

 

[Corporate Thug]

are they smoking something?

2 fvckin gigs of ram?!?!?!

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: randumb

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Isn't the A64 3400+ (3200 as well ? ) faster then the FX-51?

The A64 3400+ is around the same speed as the FX-51, and the A64 3200+ is a little bit slower.

Just as I thought

The 3200 is ~$230 and the 3400 is ~$420

FX51 ~ $750

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: randumb

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Isn't the A64 3400+ (3200 as well ? ) faster then the FX-51?

The A64 3400+ is around the same speed as the FX-51, and the A64 3200+ is a little bit slower.

Just as I thought

The 3200 is ~$230 and the 3400 is ~$420

FX51 ~ $750

the performance difference of course does not merit the difference in tax

not to mention you have to spend more on registered ram for the FX

 

[XBoxLPU]

Exactly

 

[judasmachine]

To play Dungeon Siege 2 you'll need alot of patience. Sorry, I got bored with the original very quickly.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Shooters have traditionally not used that much ram (relatively speaking) so what makes Doom 3 need 2GB?

Probably textures I'm guessing.

-Por

nah that would KILL performance to use ram to buffer up textures.

 

[Elcs]

What kind of FPS should we expect at "maximum" settings with those systems?
What resolution?
What levels of AA/AF?
What pixel shaders... special features etc?

How do those people get jobs when they write articles like that?

The amount of people who would spend all that amount of money to play their games at 1600x1200, x16 AF, x6/8 AA is a relatively low proportion of gamers. Id assume that most people would be happy at 800x600 or 1024x768 with 'medium' settings with or without AA/AF.

 

[MichaelZ]

as long as i can play 1280x1024, i'm happy.

 

[JBT]

2GB's of ram? hmm I smell something...

 

[Scifience]

That doesn't even look right because I've always heard that Half-Life 2 will have higher system requirements than Doom 3, and they say Doom 3 has the higher requirements.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

FarCry only uses 340MB ram.

after i play far cry, my peak memory usage is just around 1GB


JB

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Scifience
That doesn't even look right because I've always heard that Half-Life 2 will have higher system requirements than Doom 3, and they say Doom 3 has the higher requirements.

HL2 doesn't exsist at this point.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze

FarCry only uses 340MB ram.

after i play far cry, my peak memory usage is just around 1GB


JB

While playing under win2k, I pause the game, and tab to windows and check memory usage. 673 meg or around there with nothing else running.

 

[Gagabiji]

The folks over at Maximum PC are nuts. End of story.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Shooters have traditionally not used that much ram (relatively speaking) so what makes Doom 3 need 2GB?

Probably textures I'm guessing.

-Por

nah that would KILL performance to use ram to buffer up textures.

The maps and instructional data have to be loaded into the system RAM. But thats it. The textures are 'buffered' there but not rendered there. So I also see little logic in what MaxiumPC wrote.

 

[Zepper]

As if it's not in Maximum PC's self-interest to help spur some market churn...
.bh.

 

[Special1Sauce]

Thank god I'm upgrading!

 

[Megatomic]

I'm not sure of how I feel about the listed specs. In the first place, you can't play many of the listed games yet. Second, of those that are listed that are available, my modest system (see sig) can play them well. Third, MaxPC is NOT the mag it once was. I don't trust all of their reports (often their rumors are akin to those of TheInq and other similar sites).

Grain of salt? Nah, I'll take the entire shaker on this one. 🙂

 

[Brian48]

I've read through that issue. Those are not the minimum or recommended specs. They're the specs that you'd want if were a complete performance geek that absolutely has to run everything at MAX res with MAX eye candy. I wouldn't worry about.

Using FarCry as an example, the game runs pretty darn well with a 2000XP equivalent + 128mb R8500 + 512mb. Sure, at least 768mb of RAM would totally remove all the hitching attributed to HDD thrashing, but it's still WAY more than playable at 1024x768 with medium-low settings. You have to remember, LOW settings for this game is equivalent to HIGH settings for older games. This is not another HALO, the game still looks GREAT.

UT2004 on the same machine absolutely flies using the same 1024x768 with MAX visual settings.