Will this run MxO Well?

**phi** · 06/03/2008 18:32:45

Make that HD 3870 a HD3870 X2 (dual card - 2 cards in one) all the benefits of crossfire action... without the configuration hastles.

Previous to this I would have recommended the same card that PS10N and I have which is the nVidia 7950 GX2 ... but you would have a very hard time finding one.

*edit* Here's a review on the card for you:
http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews...ideo/hd3870-x2/

**phi**

Ahhh.. How far we have come from the old days when upping the sped of your machine meant adding an FPU chip... yes a whole chip for dealing with floating decimal point maths. (They build it right into the CPU these days)

**Phluff**

phi wrote:

Make that HD 3870 a HD3870 X2 (dual card - 2 cards in one) all the benefits of crossfire action... without the configuration hastles.

Previous to this I would have recommended the same card that PS10N and I have which is the nVidia 7950 GX2 ... but you would have a very hard time finding one.

*edit* Here's a review on the card for you:
http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews...ideo/hd3870-x2/

Wow... that IS nice! So... you pheel pretty comfortable that this card won't have any compatability issues or glitches in MxO?

Thank you Phi! SMILEY

**phi**

Phluff wrote:

phi wrote:
Make that HD 3870 a HD3870 X2 (dual card - 2 cards in one) all the benefits of crossfire action... without the configuration hastles.

Previous to this I would have recommended the same card that PS10N and I have which is the nVidia 7950 GX2 ... but you would have a very hard time finding one.

*edit* Here's a review on the card for you:
http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews...ideo/hd3870-x2/

Wow... that IS nice! So... you pheel pretty comfortable that this card won't have any compatability issues or glitches in MxO?
Thank you Phi! " />

No issues that I'm aware of.

**Pylat** · 06/04/2008 00:11:11

I have a 3870 and I have lag issues indoors. After spending some time indoors it goes away but whenever I enter an indoor environment for the first time after I log on I get serious lag.

EDIT: I should probably specify further. If the place has a familiar pallette to another indoor area I've been to before it won't be so laggy.

Eg: Running missions in Richland inside the apartment building, first 5 minutes it'll be laggy, soon after I won't have much trouble in any familiar indoor area, but if I were to go inside a building in International (Different Palette/Look to Richland indoor areas) I would have the same sort of issue for the first 5 minutes or so.

**phi**

That lag is caused by texture caching. The first time you go indoors everything slows because your PC is madly swapping out textures to the GFX memory on the card.

You can fix that by adjusting the caching distances in your options.cfg file to suit your hardware (lots of GRAM = large cache... longer initial load time but faster after that. Not much GRAM = small cache = optimised texture swapping to the card from the HDD = faster texture swapping times)

Also don't forget the 3870x2 has a GPU to swap textures and a GPU to do the drawing ... and twice the GRAM. Dual-cards benefit more than simply a card that is twice the speed.

Incidentally the 3870x2 is slightly overclocked.

**Pylat**

Funnily enough I just tried to use the fix the devs implemented for GeForce 8xxx cards and it works, which I find very strange cause two faction mates with 8800's tried that fix and it did nothing.

Does anyone happen to know what those useropts commands actually change in terms of graphical details, if any? I think I can see a difference but it's hard to pinpoint.

modellighting_enable = 0
modellighting_ambadd_r = 0.33
modellighting_ambadd_g = 0.33
modellighting_ambadd_b = 0.33

**-Mercidos-**

I have 2 3870s and before that I was using a 2900xt, and I have never had the indoor lag issue. Of course the 3870s are on a Vista Ultimate 64bit box w/ 4GB of RAM, but the 2900xt was an xp pro box with only 2GBs.

Anyway Phluff I'd say going with the 8400 for the CPU is a far better choice for gaming over all. To put it in perspective the lowest end Core 2 duos perform on par with the highest end Athlon X2 in gaming (and the highest end Phenom is about on par with the fastest X2 in gaming that doesn't use more than 2 cores) so a 3GHz 8400 will far exceed the 2.5GHz 9850 in nearly all gaming situations (the only one I can think that it wouldn't is SupCom with the multicore fix).

**Pylat**

I'm running mine on xp, I think just like the 8xxx indoor lag it only happens when you use xp, then again Vista has a whole suite of bugs instead.

**TonyJaa**

I have HD 3870x2 and i'm very pleased with it.The card is amazing..I don't think you will have any problem with XP.On the other hand,i have Vista(Grrrrrrrrrrr) and i have some graphical glitches.Also remember this:3870x2 is a HUGE card,it takes 2 slots.Choose your motherboard wisely!

**phi** · 06/04/2008 07:06:44

Pylat wrote:

Funnily enough I just tried to use the fix the devs implemented for GeForce 8xxx cards and it works, which I find very strange cause two faction mates with 8800's tried that fix and it did nothing.

Does anyone happen to know what those useropts commands actually change in terms of graphical details, if any? I think I can see a difference but it's hard to pinpoint.

modellighting_enable = 0 *Turns off Dynamic lighting on character and world object models, like chairs, tables, computers etc.
modellighting_ambadd_r = 0.33 *these 3 lines set the base ambient lighting adjustment for all models to have a 1/3 brightness boost
modellighting_ambadd_g = 0.33 *Red + Green + Blue (in equal amounts) = White (no colour shift)
modellighting_ambadd_b = 0.33 *to see what this does set all values except red to 0 and set red to 0.75 (3/4 boost to red... affected items will turn bright red)

The reason this fixes the slowdown is because for some reason, the more decorative world objects (or doodads) there are in a building the slower everything gets. Rarebit and 9mmFu discovered this by going into buildings with no objects and buildings with lots of objects... Test it yourself by going into a run down old building in Achan with no fixtures... then go into a bank (there's one in Kedemoth I believe). Turning off all the dynamic lighting for these objects seems to fix the slow down.

**Phluff**

Thanks everyone phor your help. After balancing my horse power needs, and what $ I could spend. I decided to get only the 1 3870 card, with the option to add second card to it later if I want. The Mother Board is Crossfire enabled and all, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'd like to see if everything is ok for me with the 1 card phirst. SMILEY

Here is the complete system that I just ordered last night.

If anyone sees anything in there that I should 'not' have done, let me know and maybe I can change it. lol I will be shipping in a week or two.

Thanks again! SMILEY

Gamer Infinity 8800 Pro
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core^TM 2 Duo E8400 CPU @ 3.0GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache 64-bit [+1145]
CAS: ($25 off Mail-in Rebate) New! Apevia X-Jupiter Full Tower Gaming Server w/ Temp Display and Fan Control 420 Watt Power [-20] (G Type Black Color with Side-Window)
CASUPGRADE: 12in COLD CATHODE NEON LIGHT [+10] (BLUE COLOR)
CS_FAN: Default case fans
CD: Sony 20X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [+3] (BLACK COLOR)
CD2: SONY 16X DVD-ROM [+5] (BLACK COLOR)
CABLE: Round Cable Upgrade for Optical Drive [+19]
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
FREEBIE_CU1: FREE! CyberPower Multi-Purpose Carrying Briefcase ($19.99 Value)
FREEBIE_CU2: FREE! Cyberpower Unleash The Power T-Shirt ($19 Value)
FAN: Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooling Fan(Slient 21dBA & Overclock Proof w/ Highest Efficiency Cooling) [+15]
FLOPPY: NONE
HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
HDD2: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive [+95]
KEYBOARD: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard [+80]
MOUSE: Logitech G9 Laser Mouse [+74]
MODEM: Creative Labs PCI 56K v.92 FAX Modem [+16]
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5K Intel P35 CrossFire Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio [+25]
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Memory w/ Heat Spreader [+50])
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2 [+61]
PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU [+19]
POWERSUPPLY: 800 Watts Power Supplies [+51] (($10 off Mail-in Rebate) Xion SuperNova Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready)
RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: Creative Labs X-Fi 24-BIT PCI Sound Card [+79]
SPEAKERS: Logitech (BLACK) X-540 70Watts 5.1 Configuration Speaker System
TEMP: THERMAL TEMPERATURE LCD DISPLAY WITH 3X FAN CONTROLLER [+12] (BLACK COLOR)
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 3870 PCI-E x16 512MB Video Card [+1] (Sapphire Powered by ATI [+5])
WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card

Total $1,745.00

Coupon: SMARTCOMPU (5% Discount) -$87.25
SUBTOTAL $1,657.75
Sales Tax (N/A) $0.00
Shipping: Fedex Ground $65.00
Shipping Discount -$65.00

GRAND TOTAL $1,657.75
Phree shipping and 5% Off helped.... whew.

(But the company I work phor is goin to reimburse me phor 1/2 since I work phrom home some)

**phi** · 06/16/2008 16:50:30

Do you EVER use Dial-UP internet or send faxes from your PC? If the answer is no then you could ditch the modem. Freeing up a PCI slot and possibly giving you the cash and socket to upgrade that network card to 10/100/1000.

This is purely optional and probably won't make much difference to you.

Other than that the system looks pretty *CENSORED* phine!

*EDIT* Ignore that... stick with the system you chose. Just as I was reading the specs, "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake came on the radio... I haven't heard that song in ages.

It's a SIGN!

**Phluff**

phi wrote:

Do you EVER use Dial-UP internet or send faxes from your PC? If the answer is no then you could ditch the modem. Freeing up a PCI slot and possibly giving you the cash and socket to upgrade that network card to 10/100/1000.

This is purely optional and probably won't make much difference to you.

Other than that the system looks pretty *CENSORED* phine!

*EDIT* Ignore that... stick with the system you chose. Just as I was reading the specs, "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake came on the radio... I haven't heard that song in ages.

It's a SIGN!

LOL! That's my theme song too! ^_^

And ...yep, I do need the modem for dial up 'backup' in case my wireless internet goes down... which does happen more often than I'd like. And if it happens when I'm working phrom home... it means driving 35 miles into the office. :/ The gas phor one trip to work and back would pay phor the modem. SMILEY

I didn't realize the network card made that much difference, but it is something I can easily upgrade later since they're not too expensive. SMILEY

Thanks Phi! SMILEY

*counting the days till the thing shows up now* O_O

**Hydrazine** · 06/17/2008 08:05:27

Yes, the core2 duo was the better choice but I bet you really wanted to get the PH-enom, huh?