Beta end 2006

[Mark]

X-Ram isn't worth it. It does next to nothing, to be honest. The plain X-Fi without X-Ram is a good buy and is affordable. The other X-Fi flavors are overpirced, or were the last time checked.

The "Killer NIC" card is also a good buy if you play FEAR (which I do) or WoW (which I don't). It actually works. Really. I **** you not. Check HardOCP.com for a review.

[skimike]

X-RAM's usefulness currently is questionable. In theory, however, it follows the same principle as video RAM, just nowhere near the performance (it doesn't have to be because it's pushing orders of magnitude less data).

As for the Killer NIC, I'd vote for the X-Fi over that for sure. Network tests are highly subjective and affected by everything in between the client and the server. Unless the tests are performed on a dedicated circuit, performing tests between the Killer NIC and any other NIC that supports offloading is meaningless. I've seen reviews that claim the Killer NIC is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Conversely, I've seen reviews that demonstrate the contrary. The X-Fi, on the other hand, makes a noticeable improvement in framerate and it doesn't take a controlled environment to prove it. While it's cool to be able to run an app on a NIC from a geek perspective, the Killer NIC's usefulness is ultimately a question of motherboard layout and design, depending where on the bus the card is versus integrated solutions and the feature set the integrated solution includes. The QoS features of the NIC aren't exclusive, either. I believe the most recent Marvell NICs are doing that on the 680i motherboards and the 680i's definitely allow for bonding/truncing/whatever the heck NVIDIA is calling it.

It's a matter of personal opinion as to which to get, but I sincerely believe there's more bang for the buck in an X-Fi card than a NIC, especially given that most MMOs are UDP and not TCP based. The last I knew, the Killer NIC was like $250. The X-Fi with X-RAM was only $120 - it's the same price as the XtremeMusic.

Just to add, I have exactly one usable PCI slot which is dedicated to an X-Fi. Both Bigfoot and Creative really need to make the switch to PCI-Express if they want to stay alive. If immersion is anything, the X-Fi is going to offer a person more than a NIC that may or may not offer a performance benefit given the ever-changing characteristics of shared packet-switched networks. x.x

I'm just of the opinion that X-RAM, while a gimmick, is less of a gimmick than the Killer NIC, and since it's glued to an X-Fi whose audio quality is outstanding (comparatively speaking - audiophiles hush)...

Then again, there are issues with the X-Fi (and any hardware accelerated EAX card, for that matter) in Vista. Vista doesn't support any sort of EAX hardware accleration because of their new driver layout. I don't claim to have looked into it that deeply since I'm assuming the masses will cry bloody hell before Vista launches to the general public in January, I just know it's currently an issue. I've also heard that Creative is going to perform voodoo evil magic in their drivers for the X-Fi and will intercept the DirectSound calls and convert them on the fly to OpenAL calls or whatever (again, I don't remember the details) so they'll be hardware accelerated. I'm assuming that's going to be at the cost of CPU cycles, though. So maybe that Killer NIC is looking more appealing... /boggle


Edit: Ought to move my reply someplace else....it's a total hi-jack of the thread and completely unrelated to "Beta 2006". Need a hardware thread. lol.

[Cruzader]

yeah /agree we need a hardware & software thread =) !

[Mark]

Well, in my personal situation, I'd much rather have a Killer NIC than an X-Fi. My reasoning? First off, my onboard sound is good enough for me. I wanted a n X-Fi when they first came out, true, but now I'm just not as hyped about them as I used to be. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination. Second, I have only one PCI slot to spare, since I run on a mATX mobo. I've put a cheap $15 NIC in my PCI slot. I'd much rather have a $250 NIC in that slot. Third, the NIC on my mobo is crap and bluescreens my rig every so often (nVidia's hardware firewall drivers are ****, don't install them). Fourth, I play FEAR all the time, and I want this kind of performance, bad: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

FEAR Deathmatch

FEAR is another fast paced shooter game where we were thinking the talents of the Killer NIC would be exposed and this time we have more definitive results from Joshua, our native Austin FEAR DM expert. I spent a good deal of time watching this guy play and to categorize him as an expert is not an exaggeration. I watched him repeatedly go into DM games and use nothing but dual pistols and own the map. Joshua saw distinct differences between his Killer and non-Killer sessions.

He was easily able to identify his gaming session using the Killer NIC with confidence. One of the more notable things he conveyed to me was that his “machine was ahead of what was on the server.” He explained this was allowing him to take shots and get cover before others had time to react to his presence. Joshua said the the onboard NIC felt the same as his machine at home, but the Killer NIC gave him a better experience in that it, “felt smoother with less lag kills.” He went on to note that the overall reaction felt better and the Killer NIC supplied a smoothness of play he did not get with the onboard NIC.

One rather humorous note he made was that the Killer NIC did away with the “spray and pray” element of the game. He summed it all with saying this about the Killer NIC differences. “It does make me want to get one, but I don't have that much money.”

And while we're on the subject of random add-in cards for our PCs, let's hate on the PhysX, shall we? It's even less useful than the Killer NIC, imho.

[Cruzader]

Killer NIC is Simply Bullshit,

[skimike]

I'm still sitting on the fence with PhysX. Clearly, the engine itself is sound and there is a clear need for physics in games such as GRAW. What bothers me is the concept of physics processing done on a separate PCI card such as the Aegia. Since most of the physics processing we see is merely for eye-candy versus real-world interactivity, sending that data to the CPU then to the PCI physics card then to the PCI-E graphics card(s) introduces a certain amount of latency. I think that's why NVIDIA and ATI are jumping on the physics bandwagon because they know they can do the processing Aegia's doing on a separate PCI card directly on their own GPUs. Thus far, I'm not impressed with Aegia's solution. Apparently there have been some improvements since it was first released and CoV and some other games actually show some framerate improvement versus losses when using the Aegia PhysX solution but I'm really curious what NVIDIA has up their sleeve with that third PCI-E slot on the 680i motherboards. Intel is also claiming that physics should and will eventually all be done on one or multiple cores of its new and upcoming multi-core CPU products.

Now that everyone wants to introduce their own physics processing solutions, I can understand why companies hate making PC games so much and long to build exclusively for consoles. PCs are such a lousy expensive hobby.

[fedorian]

This forum isn't about the beta anymore. The subject is about when the beta may come out. There is a forum about Hardware in the ChitChat section.

[Shade]

Originally Posted by fedorian

This forum isn't about the beta anymore. The subject is about when the beta may come out. There is a forum about Hardware in the ChitChat section.

You mean thread? ;P

[Lerik]

I don't really want to ruin peoples hopes for Aion. From playing NCSoft games for the past 5 years, I've come to know that their word is about as trustworthy as a crack-addicts saying he just need $5 for a cheeseburger..

Aion will come out, just not when people would expect/want it to. Every game NC does has a Closed beta, which is only offered to current subscribers to their current games and it's a very very very limited amount of people. They will do that for about 2 weeks to a month. Then it's an Open Beta, to stress test the servers, like someone already posted. Then it'll be released.

Considering how they've done in the past with Lineage 1 and 2, I'm going to guess late Feb/early March for the game to finally be out.

[Avayar]

Well Late february would be good for me ^^
Then i wouldn't have to worry bout exams

[fedorian]

February is fine for me, I can wait. If it makes the game even better i can even wait some more.

@Shade, that's what i ment. I always get those things mest up: treads, sections, subsections, forums, subforums, whatever. Most important: you can leave your posts somewhere.

[Pancak3s]

ya... i'd prob have to go with Feb.... i hope this extra waiting is well worth it =D

[dalin]

well, march would make for a fantastic birthday present for me, buuut... i would certainly prefer to have at least particiapted in a beta or two before then...

[Red_Bear]

Hey if its out around March 5th itll be perfect a great Bday present .

As for the way this has gone maybe I should have voted yes on Hardware Software Section.

Phyix cards are useless from what I saw in GRAW it acctually lowered what the GPUs could process.

It was somewhere on the Overclockers.co.uk forum, it seemed stupid how the same thing could look worse with this great new asset. Plus it installed Ageis drivers onto my PC even though I dont have the Physicx card which is annoying to say the least, even mroe useless programs added to my start tray :S

[Pancak3s]

i hope they offer a "gpu animation" option ;o