Gaming Rigs part III

Hello!

So, uhm, I've done some benchmark running.
You can see some screengrabs here:

http://lickmyear.org/images/scratch/

If you have a look at this, you'll likely notice that the clock speed on CPU-Z is showing 800MHz
Well, apparently that's a problem with CPU-Z not recognising AM3 socket chips.
DMI Info shows the real deal. 3.8GHz. Woot.

Which brings us to the benchmark results.
They're low. Really low. ~9k for the GPU stuff on 3dmark vantage.
It goes even lower when you disable PPU, but I'm not about to do that.

I've been told it might be PSU, but then also been told it might not be the PSU.
So I guess I need to order a new PSU, and see.

Damn it.

Gaming Rigs II

So, I went with the Ultima Warlord. GTX 295. AMD Phenom core II (geeeeeeeeeeeek) overclocked to 3.8 GHz or something.
I don't really know.

Funny thing? It still struggles in Total War. Although, to be fair, only when I'm firing 32 rockets at the same time from the very advanced artillery (rocket artillery).
Like this:



And if he can do it, why can't I? Hmmm?

It might be something to do with my running Windows 7, which is actually pretty sweet.
But, the graphics card drivers might not be best supported under it.

So, Sunday is going to spent running some benchmarks, playing with drivers, and generally trying to optimise it.
If that all goes ok. I'll be trying to overclock it.
Why? Because that's what we do. Buy new stuff, and then try to break it.

Oh, and trying to get DOW II to run. Currently, it does not like me at all.

Pixel City

On a train at the moment, and there's WiFi!
Not fast enough to do any work, which is a shame, but fine for browsing.
Whilst just poking around (something I must do a lot more, it seems), I stumbled across this:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2940

Here's a video, to give you an idea of what's going on.



Essentially, this dude has written a program which generates cool nighttime cityscapes. If you head over to his blog, you'll see, in no small amount of detail, how he's done it, but the video will give you most of what you need to know.
I spent a couple of hours reading all the posts in detail, and if you're a programmer, you may find it interesting.

I guess the key part is that he hasn't drawn anything at all - just given the computer some rules on how to generate these cities.

Gaming rigs

I picked up Empire: Total War the other day. It's pretty awesome, if you like that sort of thing, which I totally do.
Been playing on a laptop, but it's a bit depressing.
So, I've been looking at a gaming rig, for around a grand.
A quick bit of reading last night, and a mail to some excellent geek friends, and it became pretty obvious what I needed.

It became pretty obvious that I needed the nVidia GTX 295 was the correct video card choice.
But, which chip? Phenom II is cheap, and more energy efficient. i7 is way faster, but costs more. Which to buy?
I suspect I'll end up with the Phenom.