Saturday, November 20, 2010
Video Card Price vs Performance (11-18-2010)
Here is a graph that I made to help determine what gaming video card might be the best bang for the buck. This graph compares the price of each card taken from newegg.com on 11/17/2010 and 11/18/2010 and graphs it against each cards' performance in Crysis: Warhead at 1920x1200 resolution. The tests were performed and published by anandtech.com. I made the graph to get a better feel for each card's value.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Processor Gaming Performance vs Price
To go along with my previous post comparing the Left 4 Dead 2 performance of various processor families, I decided to post these two graphs as well. These take the same Left 4 Dead 2 performance test from Tom's Hardware and graphs it against September 27, 2010 prices of each desktop processor that I could find at Newegg.The first graph is all desktop processors that I could find on Newegg. The second graph is a magnified version of the less expensive processors. I was looking for a good value under $200 and was curious how things looked around $100. It just seems that the goal in this benchmark is something in the 200 fps range which puts you in the $150 to $200 range.
Just like on the last post - one test doesn't completely illustrate the benefits and pitfalls of a particular processor. But, I am considering parts for a computer that I want to build currently and I have to draw the line somewhere and eventually make a decision.
I decided that to try to compare processors and prices on several benchmarks is too much work for one computer building decision. This is especially true when a processor like the Core i5-750 is such an obvious choice if I decide to go the Intel route.Hopefully, this work is of value to someone else that is considering processors to make a similar decision.
Gaming Performance by Processor Family
I just read Mike Magee's column from the September 2010 issue of Computer Power User (CPU) about how difficult it is for typical computer shoppers to differentiate between the different processors and processor families available today.It got me thinking and I put together a couple of little graphs comparing the performance of current processor families in a Left 4 Dead 2 benchmark run and published by Tom's Hardware. The benchmark is conducted at 1680 x 1050 screen resolution and medium settings.
I'm not sure how great this test is but I have found it useful in determining that the Core i5-750 and some of the Phenom II X4 processors are pretty good bargins for gamers based on current prices at Newegg.
If you find the picture hard to read, click on it to open it up and click on it again to open it full size. You can make out most of the processor family names that are container in the boxes on the graph.
The higher on the graph a particular box goes, the higher the framerate of that family of processors in this game test.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Dell Laptop Vertical Lines
I have a Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 laptop that I have been using since I purchased it new in March 2005. I only bought a 1 year warranty which I can't say I necessarily regret, but this past March (2008), my system LCD began developing vertical lines. I mention the dates because even with a 3 year warranty, my LCD problem would not be covered. I know there are 4 year warranties, but computers are nearly disposable after 3 or 4 years.
Mine is still quite functional for daily computing tasks, but the hard drive and graphics card are starting to show their age. The GeForce Go 6800 Ultra is still viable for things like Half Life 2, but I am again to the point I was in 2005 when I purchased this laptop. Back in 2005, I was getting into Half Life 2 and Far Cry. My laptop at the time, a Gateway Tablet PC from early 2004, played each game roughly as slideshows even at 640x480. My desktop computer from about 2001 was worse and clocked something like 2fps on each game and rendering was pathetic since that system's video card was DirectX 7 or something sad like that. To make my decision to upgrade from my 1 year old Tablet PC easier was the fact that the hard drive died in that system while I was considering building a more powerful desktop. I replaced the hard drive and gave that system to my wife and bought the XPS Gen 2 that I am using now. It turned out that the $1500 system I was considering building was now available in a laptop that I purchased for about $2500. I thought it was cool to get that and portability for that price.
This system was great and it spoiled me. The screen is native 1920x1200 and I use it at that resolution for everything. Now I feel I have to have that resolution. Perhaps a 22" 1600x1050 LCD would be as good - maybe better with less eyestrain since text can be quite small on this system. Back then I could game competently at that resolution on this system. About a year ago, with "improvements" to Half Life 2 and related Hammer games, I had to reduce my resolution to 12XX x whatever to get passable frame rates when playing online. Gone were the days of 100fps at 1920x1200 like I sometimes saw in games that were the same generation as my system. The problem with upgrading is that almost nothing can run today's toughest (Crysis) similar to what this system used to run Far Cry back in its day. I will probably upgrade anyways eventually - probably before hardware catches up with Crysis. But, for know I am gaming on an Xbox 360 and just doing old and casual games on my Gen 2.
Anyways, back to the reason for this post. In March 2008, my Gen 2 system developed its first vertical line. I got my second line on March 28th and my first line changed color on March 29th. It has almost been "fun" watching my screen go down the crapper. That sounds stupid, but it helps justify my next computer! Got my third line May 15th and my forth line on June 7th. It started becoming fairly intrusive. The screen is still useable, but it's starting to get annoying. Now today, June 20th, I got another line and noticed that my first line is now 2 pixels wide and has changed colors yet again. I find the color changing interesting, but have learned that it is probably no reason to have hope for reversal of this problem. Interestingly, the vertical ines are not discernable on a white background like when Word or my browser are on the screen. The lines do knock out pixel-wide sections of text, though and goof up my nice desktop image and my title bars and task bar.
Today, I finally decided to check with Dell on this issue. As expected, their website was fairly useless and basically told me, "outta warranty, outta luck". So, I googled the problem with this string [+"XPS Gen 2" +screen +"vertical lines"]. Omit the brackets if you want to use this in Google. I got 153 hits and the first page is all the farther I had to go to get more information. The URL for the search results is http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%2B%22XPS+Gen+2%22+%2Bscreen+%2B%22vertical+lines%22 . Most notable from my search is that if under warranty, Dell supposedly will replace your LCD if you have this problem. If you have it, don't waste time, get it fixed. The page, http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/06/19/17774.aspx , has more information that may be helpful. I looked at it and read through it, but did not go any further. I am not sure of Dell's responsiveness to issues such as this, but this may be a reasonable starting point for this type of problem.
Back to my tangent: I have been considering building a desktop system for the past year and a half. It's just fun to look at components and compare prices. I have been using laptops exclusively for 4 years and actually thought I may never mess with another desktop. But hard drive space has been cramped these 4 years and causes me to be very selective about what goes onto my systems. That's probably a good thing. I prefer to have all the software I own installed on my system, so limited hard drive space is a problem. At least I perceive it to be a limiting factor. Also, with an updated (higher megapixel) digital camera, an Archos 605 with a DVR base station and a hard drive based video camera, I'd like terrabytes of hard drive space rather than 100 or 200 GBs. I currently am limping along with my system's 80gig drive, an external 80gig and an external 250gig. I works but is kind of a pain.
So, I am back to considering desktop computers. Graphics are pretty competent in laptops (still or almost or kind of or something). With enough $$$$, you can even get 'em with pretty good SLI. Even so, I don't feel comfortable configuring a system that will barely run today's most demanding game (Crysis) at high resolutions (1600x1050 or better). I'm sure twin $695 GeForce Go 8800's will run everything and at least run Crysis at some resolution. But, $695 each?! Not to mention these systems are less svelt than my 8.5 lb. Gen 2 with a brick for a power supply. They will also surely cost $3k plus. Whereas, I could build an SLI desktop with dual 8800 GT's (pretty good) for about $1700. That is configured with 3 or 4 hard drives vs. the one or two in today's uber-laptop. So, you can see for what I am considering, the desktop may be the better option. The lure of portability is strong though. Which will win??? I do know that the screen issue is causing me to have doubt about another Dell system. It's not only that and I know they didn't even make the screen. But, they seem to have outgrown themselves. The systems are getting more interesting, but customer service is weird and I have a bad task in my mouth from the years of them advertising great prices on systems with anemic RAM configurations. BTW, this Gen 2 has 1GB of Ram.
Good luck if you have a vertical line problem and let me know your thoughts if you run across this blog and read through all of this.
Mine is still quite functional for daily computing tasks, but the hard drive and graphics card are starting to show their age. The GeForce Go 6800 Ultra is still viable for things like Half Life 2, but I am again to the point I was in 2005 when I purchased this laptop. Back in 2005, I was getting into Half Life 2 and Far Cry. My laptop at the time, a Gateway Tablet PC from early 2004, played each game roughly as slideshows even at 640x480. My desktop computer from about 2001 was worse and clocked something like 2fps on each game and rendering was pathetic since that system's video card was DirectX 7 or something sad like that. To make my decision to upgrade from my 1 year old Tablet PC easier was the fact that the hard drive died in that system while I was considering building a more powerful desktop. I replaced the hard drive and gave that system to my wife and bought the XPS Gen 2 that I am using now. It turned out that the $1500 system I was considering building was now available in a laptop that I purchased for about $2500. I thought it was cool to get that and portability for that price.
This system was great and it spoiled me. The screen is native 1920x1200 and I use it at that resolution for everything. Now I feel I have to have that resolution. Perhaps a 22" 1600x1050 LCD would be as good - maybe better with less eyestrain since text can be quite small on this system. Back then I could game competently at that resolution on this system. About a year ago, with "improvements" to Half Life 2 and related Hammer games, I had to reduce my resolution to 12XX x whatever to get passable frame rates when playing online. Gone were the days of 100fps at 1920x1200 like I sometimes saw in games that were the same generation as my system. The problem with upgrading is that almost nothing can run today's toughest (Crysis) similar to what this system used to run Far Cry back in its day. I will probably upgrade anyways eventually - probably before hardware catches up with Crysis. But, for know I am gaming on an Xbox 360 and just doing old and casual games on my Gen 2.
Anyways, back to the reason for this post. In March 2008, my Gen 2 system developed its first vertical line. I got my second line on March 28th and my first line changed color on March 29th. It has almost been "fun" watching my screen go down the crapper. That sounds stupid, but it helps justify my next computer! Got my third line May 15th and my forth line on June 7th. It started becoming fairly intrusive. The screen is still useable, but it's starting to get annoying. Now today, June 20th, I got another line and noticed that my first line is now 2 pixels wide and has changed colors yet again. I find the color changing interesting, but have learned that it is probably no reason to have hope for reversal of this problem. Interestingly, the vertical ines are not discernable on a white background like when Word or my browser are on the screen. The lines do knock out pixel-wide sections of text, though and goof up my nice desktop image and my title bars and task bar.
Today, I finally decided to check with Dell on this issue. As expected, their website was fairly useless and basically told me, "outta warranty, outta luck". So, I googled the problem with this string [+"XPS Gen 2" +screen +"vertical lines"]. Omit the brackets if you want to use this in Google. I got 153 hits and the first page is all the farther I had to go to get more information. The URL for the search results is http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%2B%22XPS+Gen+2%22+%2Bscreen+%2B%22vertical+lines%22 . Most notable from my search is that if under warranty, Dell supposedly will replace your LCD if you have this problem. If you have it, don't waste time, get it fixed. The page, http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/06/19/17774.aspx , has more information that may be helpful. I looked at it and read through it, but did not go any further. I am not sure of Dell's responsiveness to issues such as this, but this may be a reasonable starting point for this type of problem.
Back to my tangent: I have been considering building a desktop system for the past year and a half. It's just fun to look at components and compare prices. I have been using laptops exclusively for 4 years and actually thought I may never mess with another desktop. But hard drive space has been cramped these 4 years and causes me to be very selective about what goes onto my systems. That's probably a good thing. I prefer to have all the software I own installed on my system, so limited hard drive space is a problem. At least I perceive it to be a limiting factor. Also, with an updated (higher megapixel) digital camera, an Archos 605 with a DVR base station and a hard drive based video camera, I'd like terrabytes of hard drive space rather than 100 or 200 GBs. I currently am limping along with my system's 80gig drive, an external 80gig and an external 250gig. I works but is kind of a pain.
So, I am back to considering desktop computers. Graphics are pretty competent in laptops (still or almost or kind of or something). With enough $$$$, you can even get 'em with pretty good SLI. Even so, I don't feel comfortable configuring a system that will barely run today's most demanding game (Crysis) at high resolutions (1600x1050 or better). I'm sure twin $695 GeForce Go 8800's will run everything and at least run Crysis at some resolution. But, $695 each?! Not to mention these systems are less svelt than my 8.5 lb. Gen 2 with a brick for a power supply. They will also surely cost $3k plus. Whereas, I could build an SLI desktop with dual 8800 GT's (pretty good) for about $1700. That is configured with 3 or 4 hard drives vs. the one or two in today's uber-laptop. So, you can see for what I am considering, the desktop may be the better option. The lure of portability is strong though. Which will win??? I do know that the screen issue is causing me to have doubt about another Dell system. It's not only that and I know they didn't even make the screen. But, they seem to have outgrown themselves. The systems are getting more interesting, but customer service is weird and I have a bad task in my mouth from the years of them advertising great prices on systems with anemic RAM configurations. BTW, this Gen 2 has 1GB of Ram.
Good luck if you have a vertical line problem and let me know your thoughts if you run across this blog and read through all of this.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
iPhone Links of Interest
In an effort to get some traffic to my blog, I am posting about the iPhone. Just kidding. I want some traffic, but in reality I have the hots for the iPhone.
When it came out, I discounted it due to its apparent lack of keyboard and its lack of my favorite flash memory format, the SD card. I read all that I could about it and had previously read a lot about the T-Mobile Dash and Wing since I am with T-Mobile and really want a smartphone. Late last year, maybe November 2007, I finally decided that I wanted an iPhone. I had an opportunity to play with a friends iPhone and play with them and the iPod Touch at my local Apple store and was quite impressed. I read the iPhone manual as well.
There are some nearly fatal omissions to the iPhone, in my opinion, but it is so slick and the interface so logical and organized that I now feel that I "owe it to myself" to get an iPhone.
My two year commitment to T-Mobile will "mature" this month (January), so I figure I'll be clear to jump to AT&T with my mobile phone number. I have researched trying to run the iPhone on T-Mobile and it almost seems like a viable alternative, but I really don't want to make time to reload my phone software and hacks everytime something doesn't work quite right, so I am leaning towards the AT&T route.
I like building computers too, but with limited funds and limited time, I really haven't built a system since before I first went back to school in 2001. I modified or built about 7 systems from 1997-1999, but got heavily into stock car racing in 1998 through 2001, so my computer tweaking fell by the wayside. I'd rather get back into that or something new to me (Flash game programming) rather than spending all my spare time tending to my wife and I's hacked T-Mobile iPhones. So, it seems most practical to go the AT&T route even though I have been real happy with T-Mobile.
As for hacking the iPhone, some available hacks are still worth investigating. I'll gather links to some of the hacks sites for reference in case your browser won't pull up the Google website.
For now though, I will just fight the urge to go buy our iPhones for as long as I can.
If I can find how to access my home network with an iPhone and at least view documents from my network, then my desire for an SD card slot will no longer matter.
More to come...
When it came out, I discounted it due to its apparent lack of keyboard and its lack of my favorite flash memory format, the SD card. I read all that I could about it and had previously read a lot about the T-Mobile Dash and Wing since I am with T-Mobile and really want a smartphone. Late last year, maybe November 2007, I finally decided that I wanted an iPhone. I had an opportunity to play with a friends iPhone and play with them and the iPod Touch at my local Apple store and was quite impressed. I read the iPhone manual as well.
There are some nearly fatal omissions to the iPhone, in my opinion, but it is so slick and the interface so logical and organized that I now feel that I "owe it to myself" to get an iPhone.
My two year commitment to T-Mobile will "mature" this month (January), so I figure I'll be clear to jump to AT&T with my mobile phone number. I have researched trying to run the iPhone on T-Mobile and it almost seems like a viable alternative, but I really don't want to make time to reload my phone software and hacks everytime something doesn't work quite right, so I am leaning towards the AT&T route.
I like building computers too, but with limited funds and limited time, I really haven't built a system since before I first went back to school in 2001. I modified or built about 7 systems from 1997-1999, but got heavily into stock car racing in 1998 through 2001, so my computer tweaking fell by the wayside. I'd rather get back into that or something new to me (Flash game programming) rather than spending all my spare time tending to my wife and I's hacked T-Mobile iPhones. So, it seems most practical to go the AT&T route even though I have been real happy with T-Mobile.
As for hacking the iPhone, some available hacks are still worth investigating. I'll gather links to some of the hacks sites for reference in case your browser won't pull up the Google website.
For now though, I will just fight the urge to go buy our iPhones for as long as I can.
If I can find how to access my home network with an iPhone and at least view documents from my network, then my desire for an SD card slot will no longer matter.
More to come...
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