Nah. It's easy to fool the consumers: all they have to do is add together the Ghz from BOTH cores to get the higher number. So if they run a dual core 2Ghz Pentium M style processor they can call it a 4Ghz machine.
The Pentium 4 (and other Intel processors) breaks down the larger x86 instructions into small RISC like components known as micro-ops which are then processed by the cpu. There is some information here: PC Processor Microarchitecture
With our cable service, six feet under is not free. It comes with HBO service. To use the on demand HBO service is an additional fee. There is also an extra fee if you want digital cable which enables the on demand. So if you are strictly interested in watching six feet under or a couple of HBO shows you are hit with three additional fees. Of course there is also bit torrent but one shouldn't mention that in polite company.
I don't think so. While it is cheaper - it's more like $1000 cheaper. I imagine you did not up the Mac's video card to a 6800 Ultra. ATI's 9800XT is last generations top of the line and can't compare to the 6800 Ultra. You can't do a really accurate compare between the two systems - a few things you get on the Alienware that the Mac doesn't have include:
PCI-Express motherboard 10,000 RPM hard drives in RAID configuration 24bit audio sound card
That being said the Mac has dual 64 bit processors.
You just can't make an apples to apples comparison. I'm not saying either is better than the other - that entirely depends on what you are doing with the computer.
Oddly enough I've found a couple of drinks improves my game. I know, I know go ahead and call bullshit if you like - but virtually every time I've hit top position in quake 3 or battlefield I've been at least a bit drunk. I attribute this not to it improving my motor skills in anyway but in that it loosens me up and lets me get absorbed in the game. I find it easier to focus in and kick ass. I also tend not to get frustrated as easily - I tend to get revenge.
You're right. It will run Doom 3. Just keep in mind you are looking at probably running in 640x480 at low or maybe medium detail. So what? Everyone says Doom 3 even at low res is the best looking game ever. Well maybe but I can say from experience that when you kick it over to high detail at 1024x768 and up with full details on - it's almost like playing an entirely different game. I find the 5200 in the iMac disappointing because it has no "head room". It's last generations low end card and has trouble with some current games let alone games coming out in a year. The fact of the matter is that you CAN'T upgrade it so couldn't they have put a more mid range card in at least? Something like a 5700 with 128MB of RAM? Or at least have it as an option? The 5200FX is a part that retails for $50-$60!
The Dell model illustrates one of the things I hate about low end models offered by major manufacturers. Although the computer has a fast processor, the lack of system RAM is going to create problems. The onboard video is sharing the system RAM cutting into the total available for the OS. Sure if you are just using it for email and some web browsing it's fine, but if thats the case you could drop down to a Celeron or lower speed P4 and save a bunch of money with not much apparent losss of speed. The shared/onboard video setup makes even the anemic 64MB 5200 in the iMac look good.
What are you talking about no upgrade path? Upgrading on a Mac is WAY easier than on a PC. You don't need to install cards, change jumpers - when it's time to upgrade you just pick it up, throw it away and go buy a new one.
thank you drunk gamers:)
Re:I'm frequently amazed by older "G" rated movies
on
PG-13 Rating Turns 20
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· Score: 1
Interesting. Thanks for the info. I always wondered at it being rated G. I wonder if the rereleases where edited down at all.
Well - as someone who used a Mac LONG before using a PC. And used a Mac for many years. All I can say is that I wish Apple had made a multiple button mouse. Just so I could map command and option to buttons. If you are doing DTP or editing or Photoshop or whatever - you will using command, option and control to modify your mouse clicks constantly. So perhaps those poor old people who don't know what button to click need a one button mouse - not me. Most of the Mac based designers at my work use Microsoft optical mice for the additional buttons and scroll wheel. This "the OS is so great it only needs one mouse button" stuff is crap. Power users will be more efficient with more buttons.
Well at least with NWN you COULD carry your character into the expansions - although this was less than ideal for expansion pack one (Shadows of Undrentide) as it was designed for lower levels. Expansion pack two upped the maximum level limit and worked great for characters imported from either the regular game or expansion 1. In fact since I hit maximum level fairly early in the original game, I had still acquired experience for the remainder of the game and gamed two levels almost instantly when starting expansion pack 2. I think it's pretty tough for developers to create a sequel or expansion which scales to your level though. I mean are they just supposed to add a ton more monsters - or change all the goblins into demons? Some of the old gold box D&D rpgs did allow you to import characters from game to sequel - but they had play balance problems when doing this. In general the sequel became to easy when you used the experienced characters.
I'm frequently amazed by older "G" rated movies
on
PG-13 Rating Turns 20
·
· Score: 1
The original Planet of the Apes movies was rated G. Complete with violence ("get your damn dirty hands off me"), beastiality (ape on human kissing), swearing against the creator ("Goddamn it all to hell!") and just plain smut (Charleton Heston's naked ass). Boy the times have changed.
There was a service for the Atari 2600 called CVC Gameline which allowed you to download games to the Atari via a 1200 baud modem. I don't believe it actually allowed for competitive play against people in other locations however. It was simply a pay to play on demand system.
While some games are certainly guilty of this - plenty will run so long as your card supports hardware transform and lighting (everything from geforce series and up on nvidia, not sure about on the ATIs). Or you could invest $80 in a newer lowend card and run it. You will need to run in lower res (640x480) and turn down the effects, but a lot of stuff will run ok. And hey guess what? 700mhz processor, less graphics effects, playing at 640x480 = exactly what you can expect from an X-Box.
Yep. This was a horrible move but one with a very simple motive. They did not want to compete with the X-Box release just the same as why Halo was not released on the PC until much later. This is a simple - hope to get someone to by the console system to play the game approach. It is a bit of a wonder that they bothered to make the PC game at all and it is completely baffling that they didn't differeniate it at all from the console version in the marketing.
In general COH is pretty good for less hardcore players. In many ways it has just replaced the time I would spend in an online shooter such as Battlefield or Unreal. That being said, I wish there was something in between the regular missions and the 5 hour task force missions. Task force missions are great ways to get both a ton a experience and a complete story arc but they are pretty time consuming. I really don't have 5 hours to play very often. I agree that the $15 / month (or less if you pay upfront for more than one month) is not bad when you figure the amount of time you are likely to play. I've only bought one other game since I started playing COH (over 3 months ago)- so my total gaming cost has gone down.
There are tools available that can read NTFS partitions for recovery. In addition to commercial tools such as NTFSDOS or ERD Commander, Knoppix uses open source NTFS tools to allow you to recover data. Last time I checked they were read only, but thats all you need to recover. I used to only use FAT32 because it was easy to recover, but now it makes more sense to use the more robust NTFS. NTFS handles large drives much better.
On my P4 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM with a 5600 Ultra the frame rates in Doom where not so great. Of course I like playing at higher res since I have a 19" monitor - but at 1024x768 in medium detail I was getting in the range of 20-35 fps depending on what was going on in the game. I upgraded (not just for Doom but ever since Far Cry I'd been wanting to upgrade) to a 3.2 with a 6800 GT and am getting 40-60 fps in high detail at 1600x1200 with 4x antialiasing. I'm sure the 5700 Ultra is better, but I would highly recommend considering going for even a regular 6800 if you can swing the cash. The 6 series seems to be a seriously better chipset than the 5s. My 6800 GT also does a rock solid overclock to Ultra clock speeds. I would imagine the 6800 is decently overclockable as well.
It will run OK on your system. Just "OK", not really amazingly good. My new box was being shipped over when Doom 3 came out so I tested it on my old system. I was able to do 1024x768 at medium level detail on a P 2.4GHz (533 FSB), 1 gig DDR 333 and GeForce FX 5600 ultra. Framerates were a bit choppy - in the 20-30 range. New box with the 6800 GT, 3.2GHz, 1 gig DDR 400 - runs 1600x1200 high detail with 4X antialiasing at about 50-60 FPS. Does this matter? Well, I'd say that visually its a whole different ball game. It went from being a good looking game to being the best looking game I've ever seen. Also, I have a 19 inch monitor so lower res looks kind of jaggedy. For the record, I didn't upgrade just for Doom 3 - I've been saving since Far Cry showed me that my system was not gonna handle newest releases all that great. Call me stupid but I really prefer buying the higher end cards (usually the step below from the top). Next to this 6800 GT, the best time I had with a card was getting a GeForce 4400 when it first came out. Its a lot of money and if you are a casual gamer its probably not worth it. But just like people who spend WAY more on high end stereo or home theater equipment - if you are an enthusiast its worth the cost.
I see your bullshit and raise you another bullshit. Sure its easy to get to the same place on the screen - and so long as your application focus is correct you will get the right menu. But if you are clicked on a different window than the app you wanted to access the menu for you are going to have to mouse over to highlight the correct window and then scoot back up to the menu bar again. As for your try it drunk sometime comment. I have. It isn't a problem at least for me. I guess my hand eye coordination is better than the rest of the population. Regarding which OS version - the integrated menu is in all versions of Mac OS. Yes I don't hear the "why am I out of memory issues" anymore from OS X users. I understand the technical differences between the OSs. I just get grumpy because MacOS up to version 9 had horrible memory (lack of)management and multitasking. And yes I still have to support OS 9 for some legacy applications and older systems. Whereas I haven't seen Win 3.1 in years. I really would like to hear your defense of my second personal thing I can't stand about Macs - the one button mouse. And don't you give me that "because the interface is so good you only need one mouse button". Having done plenty of time in desktop video and publishing environments I can tell you its really one button plus 3 keys to modify the one click. But seriously all BS and flames aside, I think OS X is a very good OS. I just have a problem with Mac users who need to chime in on every thread to tell us how it is the PERFECT OS. It's not. It has it's problems. It's very good and better for a lot of tasks than the other ones out there. But it is NOT perfect anymore than the Windows version of iTunes was the greatest win32 app ever written. Steve Jobs likes to use those kind of terms and they are BS marketing talk. If you say Macs "just work" or that they "saved Christmas" you are just parroting Jobs bombastic marketing drivel.
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Nah. It's easy to fool the consumers: all they have to do is add together the Ghz from BOTH cores to get the higher number. So if they run a dual core 2Ghz Pentium M style processor they can call it a 4Ghz machine.
The Pentium 4 (and other Intel processors) breaks down the larger x86 instructions into small RISC like components known as micro-ops which are then processed by the cpu.
There is some information here:
PC Processor Microarchitecture
With our cable service, six feet under is not free. It comes with HBO service. To use the on demand HBO service is an additional fee. There is also an extra fee if you want digital cable which enables the on demand. So if you are strictly interested in watching six feet under or a couple of HBO shows you are hit with three additional fees.
Of course there is also bit torrent but one shouldn't mention that in polite company.
I don't think so. While it is cheaper - it's more like $1000 cheaper. I imagine you did not up the Mac's video card to a 6800 Ultra. ATI's 9800XT is last generations top of the line and can't compare to the 6800 Ultra.
You can't do a really accurate compare between the two systems - a few things you get on the Alienware that the Mac doesn't have include:
PCI-Express motherboard
10,000 RPM hard drives in RAID configuration
24bit audio sound card
That being said the Mac has dual 64 bit processors.
You just can't make an apples to apples comparison. I'm not saying either is better than the other - that entirely depends on what you are doing with the computer.
Oddly enough I've found a couple of drinks improves my game. I know, I know go ahead and call bullshit if you like - but virtually every time I've hit top position in quake 3 or battlefield I've been at least a bit drunk.
I attribute this not to it improving my motor skills in anyway but in that it loosens me up and lets me get absorbed in the game. I find it easier to focus in and kick ass.
I also tend not to get frustrated as easily - I tend to get revenge.
Yes he lost the middle finger on his right hand during the invasion of Normandy.
Scotty's Missing Finger
They shot around it in the T.V. series. Remember all those close up shots of just the hands on the transporter? They aren't Scotty's hands.
You're right. It will run Doom 3. Just keep in mind you are looking at probably running in 640x480 at low or maybe medium detail. So what? Everyone says Doom 3 even at low res is the best looking game ever. Well maybe but I can say from experience that when you kick it over to high detail at 1024x768 and up with full details on - it's almost like playing an entirely different game.
I find the 5200 in the iMac disappointing because it has no "head room". It's last generations low end card and has trouble with some current games let alone games coming out in a year. The fact of the matter is that you CAN'T upgrade it so couldn't they have put a more mid range card in at least? Something like a 5700 with 128MB of RAM? Or at least have it as an option? The 5200FX is a part that retails for $50-$60!
The Dell model illustrates one of the things I hate about low end models offered by major manufacturers. Although the computer has a fast processor, the lack of system RAM is going to create problems. The onboard video is sharing the system RAM cutting into the total available for the OS. Sure if you are just using it for email and some web browsing it's fine, but if thats the case you could drop down to a Celeron or lower speed P4 and save a bunch of money with not much apparent losss of speed.
The shared/onboard video setup makes even the anemic 64MB 5200 in the iMac look good.
Here's the link for anyone who hasn't seen it:
Gamer Switch (ugo.com)
What are you talking about no upgrade path? Upgrading on a Mac is WAY easier than on a PC. You don't need to install cards, change jumpers - when it's time to upgrade you just pick it up, throw it away and go buy a new one.
:)
thank you drunk gamers
Interesting. Thanks for the info. I always wondered at it being rated G. I wonder if the rereleases where edited down at all.
Well - as someone who used a Mac LONG before using a PC. And used a Mac for many years. All I can say is that I wish Apple had made a multiple button mouse. Just so I could map command and option to buttons. If you are doing DTP or editing or Photoshop or whatever - you will using command, option and control to modify your mouse clicks constantly.
So perhaps those poor old people who don't know what button to click need a one button mouse - not me.
Most of the Mac based designers at my work use Microsoft optical mice for the additional buttons and scroll wheel.
This "the OS is so great it only needs one mouse button" stuff is crap. Power users will be more efficient with more buttons.
Well at least with NWN you COULD carry your character into the expansions - although this was less than ideal for expansion pack one (Shadows of Undrentide) as it was designed for lower levels. Expansion pack two upped the maximum level limit and worked great for characters imported from either the regular game or expansion 1. In fact since I hit maximum level fairly early in the original game, I had still acquired experience for the remainder of the game and gamed two levels almost instantly when starting expansion pack 2.
I think it's pretty tough for developers to create a sequel or expansion which scales to your level though. I mean are they just supposed to add a ton more monsters - or change all the goblins into demons?
Some of the old gold box D&D rpgs did allow you to import characters from game to sequel - but they had play balance problems when doing this. In general the sequel became to easy when you used the experienced characters.
The original Planet of the Apes movies was rated G. Complete with violence ("get your damn dirty hands off me"), beastiality (ape on human kissing), swearing against the creator ("Goddamn it all to hell!") and just plain smut (Charleton Heston's naked ass).
Boy the times have changed.
Games are no longer entertaining - yet ROCKS are?
I've always thought it takes a particular type of person to become a geologist.
There was a service for the Atari 2600 called CVC Gameline which allowed you to download games to the Atari via a 1200 baud modem. I don't believe it actually allowed for competitive play against people in other locations however. It was simply a pay to play on demand system.
While some games are certainly guilty of this - plenty will run so long as your card supports hardware transform and lighting (everything from geforce series and up on nvidia, not sure about on the ATIs). Or you could invest $80 in a newer lowend card and run it. You will need to run in lower res (640x480) and turn down the effects, but a lot of stuff will run ok.
And hey guess what? 700mhz processor, less graphics effects, playing at 640x480 = exactly what you can expect from an X-Box.
Yep. This was a horrible move but one with a very simple motive. They did not want to compete with the X-Box release just the same as why Halo was not released on the PC until much later.
This is a simple - hope to get someone to by the console system to play the game approach.
It is a bit of a wonder that they bothered to make the PC game at all and it is completely baffling that they didn't differeniate it at all from the console version in the marketing.
In general COH is pretty good for less hardcore players. In many ways it has just replaced the time I would spend in an online shooter such as Battlefield or Unreal.
That being said, I wish there was something in between the regular missions and the 5 hour task force missions. Task force missions are great ways to get both a ton a experience and a complete story arc but they are pretty time consuming. I really don't have 5 hours to play very often.
I agree that the $15 / month (or less if you pay upfront for more than one month) is not bad when you figure the amount of time you are likely to play. I've only bought one other game since I started playing COH (over 3 months ago)- so my total gaming cost has gone down.
Hate to feed a troll but:
"We don't stop playing because we grow old... we grow old because we stop playing."
-George Bernard Shaw
There are tools available that can read NTFS partitions for recovery. In addition to commercial tools such as NTFSDOS or ERD Commander, Knoppix uses open source NTFS tools to allow you to recover data. Last time I checked they were read only, but thats all you need to recover.
I used to only use FAT32 because it was easy to recover, but now it makes more sense to use the more robust NTFS. NTFS handles large drives much better.
On my P4 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM with a 5600 Ultra the frame rates in Doom where not so great. Of course I like playing at higher res since I have a 19" monitor - but at 1024x768 in medium detail I was getting in the range of 20-35 fps depending on what was going on in the game.
I upgraded (not just for Doom but ever since Far Cry I'd been wanting to upgrade) to a 3.2 with a 6800 GT and am getting 40-60 fps in high detail at 1600x1200 with 4x antialiasing.
I'm sure the 5700 Ultra is better, but I would highly recommend considering going for even a regular 6800 if you can swing the cash.
The 6 series seems to be a seriously better chipset than the 5s. My 6800 GT also does a rock solid overclock to Ultra clock speeds. I would imagine the 6800 is decently overclockable as well.
Is it just me - or does everyone in the "boy band" mpeg seem to have down's syndrome?
It will run OK on your system. Just "OK", not really amazingly good.
My new box was being shipped over when Doom 3 came out so I tested it on my old system. I was able to do 1024x768 at medium level detail on a P 2.4GHz (533 FSB), 1 gig DDR 333 and GeForce FX 5600 ultra. Framerates were a bit choppy - in the 20-30 range.
New box with the 6800 GT, 3.2GHz, 1 gig DDR 400 - runs 1600x1200 high detail with 4X antialiasing at about 50-60 FPS.
Does this matter? Well, I'd say that visually its a whole different ball game. It went from being a good looking game to being the best looking game I've ever seen. Also, I have a 19 inch monitor so lower res looks kind of jaggedy.
For the record, I didn't upgrade just for Doom 3 - I've been saving since Far Cry showed me that my system was not gonna handle newest releases all that great. Call me stupid but I really prefer buying the higher end cards (usually the step below from the top). Next to this 6800 GT, the best time I had with a card was getting a GeForce 4400 when it first came out.
Its a lot of money and if you are a casual gamer its probably not worth it. But just like people who spend WAY more on high end stereo or home theater equipment - if you are an enthusiast its worth the cost.
I see your bullshit and raise you another bullshit.
Sure its easy to get to the same place on the screen - and so long as your application focus is correct you will get the right menu. But if you are clicked on a different window than the app you wanted to access the menu for you are going to have to mouse over to highlight the correct window and then scoot back up to the menu bar again.
As for your try it drunk sometime comment. I have. It isn't a problem at least for me. I guess my hand eye coordination is better than the rest of the population.
Regarding which OS version - the integrated menu is in all versions of Mac OS. Yes I don't hear the "why am I out of memory issues" anymore from OS X users. I understand the technical differences between the OSs. I just get grumpy because MacOS up to version 9 had horrible memory (lack of)management and multitasking. And yes I still have to support OS 9 for some legacy applications and older systems. Whereas I haven't seen Win 3.1 in years.
I really would like to hear your defense of my second personal thing I can't stand about Macs - the one button mouse. And don't you give me that "because the interface is so good you only need one mouse button". Having done plenty of time in desktop video and publishing environments I can tell you its really one button plus 3 keys to modify the one click.
But seriously all BS and flames aside, I think OS X is a very good OS. I just have a problem with Mac users who need to chime in on every thread to tell us how it is the PERFECT OS. It's not. It has it's problems. It's very good and better for a lot of tasks than the other ones out there. But it is NOT perfect anymore than the Windows version of iTunes was the greatest win32 app ever written.
Steve Jobs likes to use those kind of terms and they are BS marketing talk. If you say Macs "just work" or that they "saved Christmas" you are just parroting Jobs bombastic marketing drivel.