|
By RedPhyve at 09/10/2008 - 08:03
|
It is with great sadness and regret...that I announce that the love-affair between SLI and myself, has ended. Initially, when we started out all fresh and dewy-eyed with 6800GT OC's running at ridiculous frequencies, it was great, all games fell before us, nothing stood up to the awesome power. Quake, Doom3, even the awesome F.E.A.R could not slow us down. HL2? Dream on.
For three years we wrecked and rolled through the gaming landscape, until we saw, in the distance...Crysis, looming large, a system-breaker. Assassin's Creed, another of the "next-gen" games, coming soon. We needed a change.
So, into battle were sent twin 8800GT OC's, ready to kick ass and take names and boy did we. Again, all seemed to fall to the power of the 88's but...sometimes...they needed tweaking. Profiling. Sometimes my games crashed. Blue-screened. They hung. I edited ini files, ran with different settings, bodge here and patch there. Eventually I took one card out. Crap. Everything ran fine. No issues. I had to face it, SLI and the 88's were the issue.
I refused to give in, I hunted, I googled, lurked in forums, found others with the same issues. We combined forces and posts, looking vainly for something, anything that would work. We'd find solutions, but they worked partially, only for some or just not at all. We re-flashed bioses, went back to older drivers and bioses, even to the extent of re-flashing our motherboards...nada.
So, late last evening, I replaced the 7950GX2 in the Dell XPS 720 with the BFG 8800GT OC from my Alienware. I gave up on the dream. SLI won't work properly with twin 88's. Not with the games I play. Now I'm playing TDU and GRID, Crysis and Creed. They work, and in 3 out of the 4, are actually faster than when in SLI, and all my other games...my frame-rates have dropped, but not drastically.
Farewell SLI, we had a fantastic run...it didn't last but damn, it was a great ride!
|
|
|
|
By breakdownizzle at 09/09/2008 - 18:43
|
well i ordered another Alienware Desktop, my other one that i have i am selling to my friend because he cannot get any help, he has no credit, so i told him i would help him out and an excuse for me to get something better than what i already have hehe.
i ordered it yesterday, set to ship on the 15th, here are the specs
Processor: AMD Phenom™ X4 9550 Quad Core 2.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache
Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware P2 Chassis with AlienIce 3.0 Video Cooling - Conspiracy Blue
System Lighting: Alienware Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue
System Cooling: Alienware Standard System Cooling
Power Supply: Alienware 750 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
Graphics Processor: Single 896MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Memory: 4GB† Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 x 1024MB
Motherboard: Alienware Approved AMD 790FX Motherboard
Includes PCI-Express 2.0, BIOS Overclocking Utility, and Support for AMD Phenom Quad-Core Processors
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1 – DirectX 10 Ready!
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 250GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache
Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Enthusiast Essentials: Single High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Port
Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio - Standard
Keyboard: Standard Keyboard - Standard Keyboard
Mouse: Standard Mouse - Standard Optical 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
i went with AMD this time, i dont know why i did, just wanted to try it out
total was $1700 , $500 more than my previous system i got about 2 months ago, but i went with Quad core and the 896mb GTX 260 this time 
|
|
|
|
By Greeny at 09/08/2008 - 20:21
|
Guys
I am in a dilemma:
Here are my current options:
1. I can buy Kapersky as a bundle, I like the user interface.
2. I hate Norton as it is so intrusive, but it is SO easy to use
3. I can dowload a load of free software - e.g AVG
I want Firewall, Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, Backup and Anti Spam software (and ideally a package like Registry mechanic)
What is the recommended route for minimising system resource usage whilst maximising useability?
What do YOU recommend?
Regards
Greeny
|
|
|
|
By EVIL-SCOTSMAN at 09/08/2008 - 08:59
|
|
yeah, you heard me, start teh posting now before I take measures and start killing kittens.
|
|
|
|
By lilfields at 09/05/2008 - 03:29
|
I'm surprised there is no CERN thread here...so I'll start one, since next week they are going to start it up. The CERN LHC will begin operation in it's "big bang" collision on 9/10/08.
What is CERN? Why, it's The European Organization for Nuclear Research...why does this matter? Well...because of matter itself. CERN has a new toy they are going to start up that could advance our understanding of the universe drastically...but there is one problem...which with no scientific of physics background believe the world will be sucked into a black hole that the CERN is going to create...
CERN's new toy is the largest particle accelerator in the entire world called the Large Hadron Collider:
Yes...it looks awesome...but what is it for?
According to Wikipedia it hopes to answer the following questions
Quote:
When in operation, about seven thousand scientists from eighty countries will have access to the LHC. Physicists hope to use the collider to test various grand unified theories and enhance their ability to answer the following questions:- Is the popular Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses in the Standard Model realized in nature? If so, how many Higgs bosons are there, and what are their masses?
- Will the more precise measurements of the masses of the quarks continue to be mutually consistent within the Standard Model?
- Do particles have supersymmetric ("SUSY") partners?
- Why are there apparent violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter? See also CP-violation.
- Are there extra dimensions indicated by theoretical gravitons, as predicted by various models inspired by string theory, and can we "see" them?
- What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?
- Why is gravity so many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three fundamental forces?
|
Some Information of what is going to go down on 9/10/08:
Quote:
The LHC, installed in a 27-kilometre (16.9-mile) tunnel on the French-Swiss border, is to start unleashing a beam of protons next Wednesday in the first stage of its commissioning process.
Two parallel beams of particles, one going clockwise and the other anti-clockwise, will blast around the underground ring.
At four locations on the ring, superconducting magnets will bend the beams so that groups of protons smash into each other in a giant chamber which is swathed with detectors to record the resulting sub-atomic debris.
This invisible rubble could help resolve some of the biggest questions in physics, such as the nature of mass, the weakness of gravity and whether, as some theoreticians suggest, there exist dimensions beyond our own.
|
Why would anyone try to stop this? Eh, just read these articles...apparently people are suing to stop the world from a huge black hole that this thing is supposedly going to create...
AFP: Apocalypse Not: Atom-smasher won't doom planet, says study
ZDNet Government mobile edition
Quite frankly...I can't wait to see the results.
|
|
|
|
By shazza at 09/04/2008 - 03:04
|
|
I dunno ... I thought the VP pick was goofy, but decided I should give the woman a chance. Listening to her speech at the convention tonite, I just keep thinking --- "there's something not quite right." Seems like a bit of a wack job to me.
|
|
|
|
By RedPhyve at 09/02/2008 - 08:07
|
Chrome
That's Google's new browser...but on the slashdot page, scroll down to the comments and see how the weirdos on slashdot debate the position and purpose of the address-bar and the tabs bar...these people obviously have no idea of the joys of sexual intercourse and have no intention or inclination of ever finding out.
More here and the comic is here.
I'd be interested to see how many of these ideas make into the first beta. I like some of these ideas a lot! This is looking wicked cool!
|
|
|
|
|
Navigation
|
|
|
|
User login
|
|
|
|
Random Wallpapers
|
|
|
Who's online
|
| There are currently 0 users and 15 guests online. |
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
