Hi guys ..
This is a hard one to answer as I the FX-55 system isn't built yet ...
I have explained in the "Insiders" a little while ago ...
BIG problems but I'm getting there ...
I only had a 480W PS ... it was supposed to be 580 ... :? ... I didn't notice that what was delivered (a year ago) was wrong ... :oops:
Blown ... 480W-Tagan SLi
Blown ... Athlon 64 FX-60
Blown ... Asus A8N Deluxe SLi
Blown ... bottom 512Mb 7800 - XXX
All under warranty so all new replacements ... 8)
... and I decided to upgrade ... :roll: ... GRAW will be worth it ... I hope ... :shock:
... so I had a whole load of "spare" bits and decided to make a system out of them ... :D
... so I now have three systems ... :shock: :lol: :shock: ... see below ...
The SLi's aren't built yet ... using the Parhelia system at the moment.
When the TripleHead2Go comes out in May I'll use the three 19" tft's with one of the SLi systems ... and let my sister have the old P4 - Parhelia.
So at this point I have the just the FX-60 and the Parhelia systems ... so I haven't tested or seen Oblivion on the FX-55 system.
That said ... after doing some testing with the FX-60 system ...
1920x1200 2xAA ... everything at max plus a few graphics enhancements but with a 120 setting for the grass density ...
Wandering around the countryside
with my horse and pet dog in tow ... anything from 30fps in heavily wooded areas ...to 45+fps in more open countryside.
As you can imagine it's not "butter smooth" if I get into a fight in heavily wooded areas ... :roll:
Indoors anything from 50fps to well over 150fps
1920x1200 No AA but with HDR ... everything at max plus a few graphics enhancements but with a 120 setting for the grass density ...
I get a few more fps ... but I think HDR looks crap and I would much rather have the 2xAA.
BTW ... I just found out that my high res textures look crap with HDR ... you are better off using the original shaja textures as mine become too bright with HDR.
I have put a note to this effect in my post about the textures.
So it's not perfect ... I hope there will be a patch that optimises for SLi and/or dual core ... or may be new "optimised drivers" from Nvidia.
When COD 2 and Quake IV were optimised for dual core my fps went up big time ... :D
Interestingly ... I don't see a great deal of difference in frame rates if I run it at 1680x1050 ... but it does seem a bit smoother ...
Running at 1440x900 gives me up to 10fps more and again it seems smoother ... of course it looks a little soft ... but a lot better than I thought it would look.
Once I have the FX-55 system with the 7800's up and running I'll do some comparison tests for you with the same ini file etc. ... it will be interesting to see what difference the 7900's and the FX-60 make. I know the FX-60 alone made a huge diffrence in the 3D Mark scores over the FX-55 ... I can't remember exactly what and I lost the scores when the PS blew ...
As to whether the extra bucks for better cards is worth it ... I think so but I can afford it ...
I want the fastest cards I can get ... every extra helps when running such high resolutions that comes with widescreens.
I can afford them so I get them ... as soon as Quad SLi gets more established I'll upgrade to that too along with a PhysX card.
BTW ... here in England I was able to get the 7900's a little cheaper than the cost of the 7800's (when I bought them ... of course the price has dropped now) ... and I hear that they are dropping the 7800 512MB from there range if not all 7800's ... :shock: