MetaChat - Ask MeCha: Gaming PC Woes

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20 August 2007

Ask MeCha: Gaming PC Woes →[More:]

So I've been waiting several months for a game called Bioshock. Not sure if you've heard of it or not.

I've been waiting for months for this game, fairly confident it would run well on medium settings.

Anyway, I downloaded the demo tonight, the game releases tomorrow.

Runs like absolute shit.

I had to run it on 800 x 600 (I have a 1680x1050 screen), and the highest I could get was medium graphics settings. Months of waiting and I don't think I'm going to buy it after all (and I was really looking forward to it too). Nvidia released new drivers for graphics cards just for the release, and there wasn't even a driver released for my graphics card (nvidia geforce go 7900 gs)

I suppose this should serve as a motivator to build my own rig, eh? Because if this doesn't run there's no way in hell that Crysis is going to, and I have my fears about The Orange Box now too...

But my main fear is that it's going to take me so long to buy all the separate parts that by the time I get the system up and running, it's going to be outdated, thus necessitating me to buy more parts!

How do I go about doing this? How do I build a rig that kicks moderate amounts of ass and runs modern games smoothly, without spending all of my money at once or getting stuck in a perpetual loop of replacing outdated parts?

post by: CitrusFreak12 at: 20:51 | 20 comments

Huh. I should've popped an "AskMeCha" in front. Forgot to do that.

posted by CitrusFreak12 20 August | 21:13

Yeah, I'm waiting for this for my 360 and thought I'd give the demo a try, but I'm hearing so many disappointed reactions that I'm afraid my rig--which is fairly beefy--will run it.

My advice? Buy a whole new rig. Getting caught in upgrade hell isn't really worth it these days. I bought my last machine from Velocity Micro in late 2004 and am very pleased with it, though I do have to blow dust bunnies out of it at least once a week or else the cpu fan cranks WAYYYYY up.

If $1000 or so is too much, get a 360, and hope that the next next-gen won't come around for 5 years or so. :-)

posted by WolfDaddy 20 August | 21:30

Well, as long as you're into PC gaming you'll always be stuck replacing outdated parts every 2 or 3 years. What I did was buy a barebones kit from tiger direct that I haven't had to make many updates to in the last 4 years or so. Although I need to get a new motherboard now.

posted by puke & cry 20 August | 21:31

My advice? Buy a 360.

posted by box 20 August | 22:49

I edited the post for you, CF.

We're getting Bioshock and Two Worlds tomorrow. I'm looking forward to playing them.

If you can afford it, I would say get a 360 too. You may be the sole computer user in your household, but here, with four people but only two computers, we don't use them for games, so it really pays to get the consoles. The 360 is in use pretty much all day and all night by someone - it's used more than the computers are.

posted by iconomy 20 August | 23:17

Thanks for the help guys. My roomie has a 360, so I'll put some money aside over a long period of time, just in case I ever decide to get one. I'd only be using it for the four months I'm not at college with his 360. We're getting the game for the 360 as well.

How much does a used 360 usually go for?

posted by CitrusFreak12 20 August | 23:24

CF12: New systems range from 279.99 - 499.99. Used systems seem to range from 189.99 - 399.99

But then again, who needs a 360? I was fondly recalling Freespace 2 with a friend online when lo and behold, I discover the game's engine has been open source for some time and boy does it look purty!

posted by WolfDaddy 21 August | 01:00

How do I go about doing this? How do I build a rig that kicks moderate amounts of ass and runs modern games smoothly, without spending all of my money at once or getting stuck in a perpetual loop of replacing outdated parts?

Just buy a new graphics card. I bet the rest of your system is up to running this.

posted by chrismear 21 August | 07:18

The go 7900 gs is a laptop card though, no? Laptops are a great compromise, but not well situated for keeping up with bleeding edge games development.

posted by GeckoDundee 21 August | 07:37

On a more positive note, I might suggest setting a restore point and then installing the latest forceware drivers. If it works out, great. If not, revert to the restore point and your old drivers. (You might also want to look into getting a driver cleaning utility and possibly check out sites like Guru3d).

posted by GeckoDundee 21 August | 07:43

What chrismear said. Also, thanks for letting me know there's a demo out there... I started the download before I left for work this morning. I've been reading about this game, and it sounds incredible.

posted by BoringPostcards 21 August | 07:57

Just buy a new graphics card. I bet the rest of your system is up to running this.

Can I do that with a laptop? Sorry I should have mentioned that. It's a dell, and my friend who has a dell mentioned it should be possible but I don't know. And what laptop card would be good to get?

I don't know what forceware drivers are, but if someone could explain them to me I'd be more than happy to give it a shot!

posted by CitrusFreak12 21 August | 09:20

"Forceware drivers" are just what nVidia call the latest drivers for nvidia cards.

My recommendation (and I'm going out on a limb here), is to download and install the latest "forceware" drivers for nVidia cards.

Let me (or us) know how you go.

posted by GeckoDundee 21 August | 10:18

FYI the Source engine is vastly less resource intensive than UE3 which is what BioShock is built with.

I have a low end PC (1.8Ghz Athlon, 1GB Ram, Radeon 9600) and it runs Source games at a playable 40-60FPS range.

I have a slightly beefier laptop in a similar configuration and its also used to play Source games and UT2K4 which is UE2 based but I know it can't go much farther than that.

posted by appidydafoo 21 August | 10:59

Can I do that with a laptop?

The answer to that is usually a no. However, they are starting to come out with what are basically external video cards for laptops. If your laptop has the right slot, you maybe could. They were shown at some trade shows, CES 2007 I think, but I don't know if they ever actually made it to market yet. Asus was making it, and it was called XG Station or something. IIRC your laptop needs to have an ExpressCard slot and you have to hook up to a stand alone monitor.

Now, this is just one man's opinion (and not a criticism, many people just need a laptop's form factor and portability), but laptops are not a very good solution for PC gaming. Due to the size, power, and cooling restraints, the best video card you can get in one approaches average compared to one a desktop. The practical upshot of that is that brand spanking new, they are at best adequate, and at worse already behind the curve. I'm a PC gamer at heart, and every couple of years I drop a big wad of cash on the best machine I can make at that time, and build myself one desktop to rule them all. However, if reality stuck me with a laptop, I would probably just go console for gaming.

posted by King of Prontopia 21 August | 11:32

Hrm, gecko... the latest driver for my card came out a month before I got the computer

I'll attempt to download it when I get home.

Appidydafoo, thanks, I feel much better knowing/remembering that Valve's stuff will still run on my dinky machine.

King of Prontopia, yeah I think you're right. I didn't think my laptop would have trouble with games this early though. It ran Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2 and a few other games very well. STALKER should have been an omen for me, that ran like crap too.

I guess I'll have to save my pennies and hopefully I'll be able to buy a decent rig next summer?

posted by CitrusFreak12 21 August | 13:17

Oh, I missed that it's a laptop.

posted by chrismear 22 August | 02:43

Not that anyone is going to see this, but I thought you should all know I went out and bought a 360 tonight.

And I've been playing bioshock on it for the past five hours.

WOO!

posted by CitrusFreak12 22 August | 03:12

wheee!

posted by taz 22 August | 03:29

See?? SEE??? Yeah.

posted by disclaimer 22 August | 23:15

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