LadyCrimson

I stole a horse to check those out, and they feel rather awkward to ride/control. But they look cool...although I could have done without the anatomically correct behind that I noticed when zooming around it in 3rd person. Has anyone here made any mods themselves? I downloaded the editor, going to mess with that.

I keep fiddling with mine. I just can't stand the way Oblivion looks w/this card under 1024, even with max AA/AF and such. I dunno...maybe I'm doing something wrong - but I'm tossing in the towel, I don't care anymore, lol. Don't get me wrong, the up-close details are marvelous, especially in daylight, but the distance/dark I don't like much..too painted looking, even if it is in focus. Anyway... "In the jungle the mighty jungle..."

It would appear to me that you have no clothes on. "

If you're male, you get a scene where Disciple makes a 'call' to those he works for and he says "This is Mical"...hence, that's his name.

Never had an ATI card, can't compare. I know gamers tend to like them more tho. The only cards I had before nivida ones was...Voodoo...

I don't like Bloom w/this card. It looks much better/clearer without soft-lens lighting effects.

We have liftoff...cards in and working. I'm still getting lowish FPS in the game (20-25) but it's not chugging at all and 'feels' smooth, w/all the settings etc...so I'm happy. Oddly at first I didn't think it looked any better, and almost thought it looked worse in certain aspects...probably because it's more detailed/sharp? and thus what looked smooth before looks fuzzy or jagged instead, I dunno. I will admit that it makes high AA feel a lot more neccesary, cause the jaggedness is more noticable/distracting, at least in Oblivion. Strange. I had to mess with the settings for a long time before I found something I liked.

They only raise you to 25/Apprentice from picking the Major Skill, IIRC. And I think they only do so if your skill lvl isn't already 25...otherwise they add nothing, perhaps. I reloaded a save and abused sneak even more than I had before, then went up to the point where you pick your class w/the King's guard, and this time I was an Expert. When I left sewers I still was, along with the 75 Sneak level.

The problem w/researching computer hardware for me is that I don't understand what I'm reading, so I have little comprehension about why one is is better than the other even with the researh. I usually just look at 'ratings' or read what's popular/liked on forums, grab a list of the middle-priced ones that are well-liked and try those. Vid card reviews are like reading professional physics reports.

The 'day/night' cycle is, if anything, even shorter than in MW. I find this really annoying if you're more the explorer type than a 'just finish the game' type. Supposedly you can alter the ratio around via the console, haven't tried it yet, I just might. Someone mentioned the tutorial skill gains not staying with him - just thought I'd mention they stuck for me, I entered the 'world' as a Journeyman sneaker. You probably got glitched or something. Finally, I'm curious what y'alls preference is for the main/minor skill in relation to leveling up. By that I mean, do you like your preferred often used skills to be minor, so they don't affect your leveling up process and hence you can explore longer before the monsters start getting harder etc, or do you like the monster scaling to go up as fast as possible? I always liked to do the first option.

You're probably mixing Heroes of Might & Magic strategy series with the Might & Magic (no Heroes in the titles) series, which are 1st person party-based RPG's...not quite hack n slash but a lot of combat focus, yes.

Yeah, hubby says 500. Agree on the forum thing too. I'm here whining, after all. Hah! But on the other side, sometimes advocates of something can be a little overdone too. It's a balance. Hubby's the one that buys the core PC stuff, and so far it's always been fine, he does well at price vs what you get for it for our usually modest needs. But he's a mass network/office/giant hub type guy - game-minded home machines are outstripping his knowledge on what's good for the price now, I think. Anyhoo...judging from Hades's googly eyes, that's enough from me on this one. Just frustrating, when ya wanted to be playing your game etc.

Just in case my experiences with this helps anyone else...reading the evga forums it appears it does want an 18 amp actually supplied on the 12V rail (tho you might get away with less if you're lucky) and looking under my PS again, it appears it's only 16. Thus that's likely the problem, since all the plugs are plugged. However, a lot of people seem to be having problems with display and drivers not intializing at all or inconsistently, while evga keeps harping it's the power supply (even if yours is good enough) or a bad card (when people exchange the cards 3 or 4 times...). Also, I have an MIS Neo type motherboard and some folks with those seem to have a lot of problems as well (one person said those moboards tend to undervolt the prcoessor/memory/AGP & he reset them higher which improved the cards performance/artifact problems for him a lot - I don't think I'll bother with that, but I did find it interesting. My husband says installing a new PS can be kind of a pain (30 minutes for him maybe, 3 hours and a lot of desk pounding for me, maybe) and he looks a little grumpy about doing it himself (hehe) and started grumbling how it might be less hassle to just build a new PC w/ a new MB etc. Anyway, I'm now completely undecided what I'm going to do. It's all about less hassle for us, more than anything else. ----------- Oh and about the 1280 resolution - that's just a personal preference. I found once I started playing in that for a while, I just couldn't go back...1024 looks washed out & less 'clean' looking to my eyes now, AA/AF or not. I mean, think about how once 1024 became standard, no one wants 800x600...same thing. If you're used to 1024, looks great. If you're use to higher, it doesn't.

I only have the sound and HD in there tho, besides the case fans. Unplugged, still noise. Oh well, I'll get a PS tomorrow and see if that works. Cross my fingers for simple solution.

Heh...yeah...I suppose it'll be easier to buy a power supply first and see if that works. With that quote it's a good possibility...too bad the stores are closed now, lol. Hubby says I could unplug everything else in there just to see if that made the card go to get a clue if that was really it or not.

Yes, that's plugged in, and actually, the 6200 had one too. The 7800gs box says 350W or greater, not 400...but I suppose that's still possible, especially if they mention that noise.

Yeah, plugged in and all that...board supposed to support up to AGP4 I think, if that's what you mean by standard. I'm looking for the MB drivers and such, maybe they need updating.

The rest of my system is fine...not the fastest hardware, but fine. (P4-3ghz/2RAM etc). I installed the card and it won't initialize, making a high pitched single tone (not beeps). So either it's broken out of the box or the no-longer-current motherboard is somehow not compatabile with it. Is there anyway/site to find out if a specific mobo has a problem with certain cards? And yes I'm irritated now.

Why I don't shop on-line...you can't buy, try/change your mind, return, and buy something else all in 4 hours. I went with the ge7800GS. The X850Pro had a nicer price tag but I'm still convinced ATI still has more compatiability w/game issues from reading all the game-tech help forum sections. The upgrade will also help my digital photography and such, but if I put this in and Oblivion still chugs badly on middling 1280 settings I'm going to be really PO'd. :angry:

That would be 350W

I can see why people like the ATI's in general beyond performance. They seem generally cheaper. I'd still rather have the nivida tho, I'm used to them. Well, hubby probably won't like the price tag for a vanity item but oh well, too bad. Thanks hades that did help. I think my power supply is pretty 'standard' or slightly above - I'd have to look. It's not superpowered tho.

It's an AGP slot, my mobo doesn't support PCIE. I guess that ge one is pcie? And LoneWolf, I know, I'm not usually quite that impulsive, but that stores close so I figured either it would be ok and I'd install or it'd suck and I'd go out again. I didn't want to go home just to reasearch and go back again to buy if it turned out it was ok. I'm weird that way.

Oh...I considered a ge7800GS but I thought I read some big debates on that one here vs. the 6800, or something...

it's not an all in wonder...but it's not a 'pro' either, just says X1300. Bloody cards and all their titles, it's confusing. I'm looking at Toms Hardware website right now. They say the Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro AGP is $150ish online, which irritates me. I guess it looks like I should return it and wade thru traffic to go to Fry's. Bah.