Rts Freak

Love the RTS games (age of whatever, empires, empire earth...etc) and always will. Have an R3000 with the 9000IGP card now and know that it is reaching its end (although it has done suprisingly well). How much longer do you think it will last and how powerful of a computer (mainly the graphics card) should I get to replace it so the new comp. lasts at least 3 years? I'm thinking a high end card (7800 or x1600/1800) won't be required. Thoughts?

 

I'm not sure any GPU will last 3 years of gaming--unless you're willing to settle for lower settings towards the end of that period.

 

Hmmm, I'd say for RTS, it shouldn't be that bad. 1-2 years perhaps, if you are willing to play at low resolution and no shadows/special effects.

RTS games have never really needed high end GPUs to play.

 

Well, Dawn of War certainly looks better on a high end system. And Company of Heroes is going to be a pain to play on low-end systems. True, they're not as demanding as, say, Oblivion, but that doesn't mean you can get away with the cheapest gpu you can find...

I'd get a solid mid-range card, like a 7600 or something.

 

Dawn of war works well on low end hardware. My friend runs it on high settings on his Fx5200 - which by modern standards is a useless, terrible card that can't run most new games.

I'd second getting a good mid range card like 7600 or 1600. A 7400 or x1400 would suffice though if you're on a budget- I'm using a 7400 myself, and play alot of Dawn of War at all high settings at 1280x800 @ 30-60fps.

 

Thanks guys. I had been leaning toward either the x1400 or 7600 (HP DV8000T). Prolly won't pull the trigger till at least next year though. Don't think the wife would let that fly now Who knows, maybe I can just play empire earth and the old age of empires forever.

 

I still play C&C: Generals A 7600 would probably be good for you. But in a year, the landscape will be totally different as far as graphics cards. Wait to even try thinking about it until then

 

Yeah, I meant that it's able to take advantage of higher end cards. My point was that this game is what, two years old, and is still capable of pushing modern cards when all details are enabled. And future RTS'es are probably going to be more demanding than that.

 

An x1600 isnt high end, its midrange

But for your purposes a nice midrange card like the x1600 or 7600 would be a great choice. If you were on a tight budget the x1400 or 7300 would do fine.

 

act of war is the best rts after general

 

I'm waiting for the new DOW - Dark Crusade and C&C 3 Tiberium Wars. That should be interesting.

 

PitaBred, I know you're right about waiting until it is time but for some reason, and i'm sure others are like this, I love trying to build something now even though I'm not even going to buy. I'll try to stetch until Feb. or so. We'll see.
And I was thinking of getting Act of War, Age of Empires III, or something else. Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

Suggestions? Dawn of War!
And Company of Heroes when it comes out. Relic makes the best RTS'es, period...

 

Dawn of War is great! Rise of Legends is another good one.

 

With all of these new and great RTS games poping up, and hopefully
starcraft 2, it may not be very long until your igp card is unplayable.

probebly mid 2007 will be your GPU's final death in terms of RTS games.

I don't believe that an X1600+ will be a requirement any time soon.

but Radeon 9700+ and GF 6 series requirements may not be far off.

 

I doubt the 6 series will die anytime soon. The 6800GT and up are still running all games on high. The only problem is going to be DX10. When it becomes standard, ALL card not certified for DX10 are out.

 

That's exactly why I said that gaming in 3 years is going to be tough with a current GPU without playing at lower settings. Although RTS are less demanding, there is the potential with all the units in play and detail settings for future games to tax GPUs.

 

Act of war plus its high reason is 15GB , OMG, what gonna happen to my poor poor HDD. Was LOTR:BFME2 any good, compare to the 1st BFME
My BFME just died on me (

 

With, i think toshiba, releasing a 750GB notebook hard drive in the near future, I'm sure that High disk space will not be an issue.

The main reason that I believe that games will require at least a GF 6 or radeon 9700 is because of the amount of enemies that will appear on screen.

Lets say that the developers put phisics in their RTS game. Which would be awsome, but to have so many things with phisics would require a high end vertex shader.

 

Rise of Legends uses physics in its building destruction and has a ragdoll effect for small infantry units. Its more of a hit to the processor than the video card when its turned on though. The buildings will explode according to what is being shot at and then the parts from the explosion site will fall and roll realistically according to what terrain they landed on. The buildings collapsing and imploding also use a similar effect. Theres just a lot more debris.

 

Company of Heroes has physics for everything. Tanks can crash through walls, Explosions create craters you can use for cover, and everything else you might imagine of physics and deformable terrain (Even your destroyed tanks can be used as cover for your infantry)

 

Well my friend plays AOE3 at max settings on an IGP9000 ati card from 2004. If you get a x1600/7600 it should rts for you for a long time. I play EE2 and AOE3 on my system (specs below) and the laptop just yawns at max settings in a major battle. Try to get decent graphics as rts games are getting more and more graphic (e.g. AOE3), and I see the rag doll effect in these games alot too. Take a look at the shadows and the efects they have when you move, also the water effects in both EE2 and aoe3 are amazing. Last night I had a fleet of transport helicopters flying over a body of water and it was just plain beautiful.

 

Liquid, just curious what you paid for your system.

 

Well its been a while, but ~$1250 shipped to my door with a 3 year warranty. They go for $1054 here.

 

That's a pretty nice Laptop you got there, Liquid! I don't care much for Acer's design schemes, but it looks really nice!