I was in the same boat a while back but haven't regretted the purchase of the PS3 at all. I use it a lot for Bluray's, mainly ones I get through Netflix, but there are some great games as well.
Wipeout HD is outstanding. The Motorstorm series is also a lot of fun. inFamous looks great and will likely be my next pick up. Can't wait until God of War III.
BTW, there are some great deals floating around on the PS3 right now. Dell has some good discounts - (check dealnews.com) and I believe Amazon cut their price. Sony has a very good deal if you apply for a Sony credit card.
This will be a day 1 purchase for me IF 1) there is a way to transfer all my existing UMD's, and 2) there is additional storage available via SD card slot.
Ordered on Tuesday with Dirt Cheap Shipping (ie. free) and already got it today. About 6 or 7 missions into the single player and so far really enjoying it. I'm especially loving the "Loot!".
One of the most important things to consider is what resolution do you plan to game at? Also, do you plan to run multiple monitors?
I game at 1920x1200 and I run two 24" Dell monitors. I briefly ran two 8800GTX's in SLI, but didn't like that two monitors are not supported when SLI is enabled. It was a bit of a pain going into the control panel turning SLI on and off. I ultimately "traded up" one of my 8800GTX's with eVGA and got a GTX280. I've been extremely happy with it.
My suggestion is getting the fastest single graphics card you can afford - either an ATI 4850 or 4870 or a nVidia GTX260 or 280. You can always add a second card down the road when you need more power.
I'm running an eVGA 680i motherboard and it has performed well, but be aware that it does not support the latest Quad core Penryn processors. This could be a factor if you want to upgrade your Dual Core at later date.
Crysis is multicore aware, so having a quad should help in that game.
The nomenclature used for graphics cards can definitely be confusing. For nVidia, the first number (6xxx, 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx etc) generally has referred to the "generation". Therefore a 9xxx card is a newer generation than a 8xxx. However with their latest cards they changed the naming again and now we have the GTX280 at the top of the line.
GTX's have usually been nVidia's top card model in a given line, but the have also released GTX Ultra cards which are usually faster clocked versions. GT's are usually one step back from GTX's, and GS cards one step below GT. There have also been some GTS cards. Confused yet?
GX2 cards are essentially two graphics cards in one - a 9800GX2 is basically the equivalent of two 9800GTX's in SLI.
My advice would be to pick a card based on your budget (if you decide to upgrade) and then go to some sights like www.anandtech.com , www.tomshardware.com, and www.firingsquad.com, and check benchmarks of the cards AT RESOLUTIONS THAT YOU PLAN ON PLAYING at. This is very important and will help you understand where that particular card fits into the grand scheme of things.
BTW, I checked and www.amazon.com has Titan Quest Gold edition in stock....
Vista is available in both 32bit and 64bit versions. Depending on which version of Vista you purchase, you might actually get both versions on the disk. An exception to this is are the OEM versions, which usually just come with one or the other.
Initially driver support was very bad for the 64bit version of Vista. It has improved substantially but there are still some issues. Apparently TV tuner cards still do not function well under the 64bit version. Also, some older games don't run well under 64bit Vista.
That being said, any "Games for Windows" certified titles will run under 64bit Vista - so moving forward there shouldn't be many problems with new titles.
What are the advantages of 64bit Windows? Mainly a slight performance increase and the ability to use more RAM. 32bit Vista is limited to about 3.5GB, but you can easily set up an 8GB machine with 64bit Vista.
I'm still running 32Bit Vista, but likely will make the switch to 64Bit the next time I do a clean install.
If you are looking forward to Diablo 3, then definitely get Titan Quest. It is a available in a "Gold Edition" for $20 and it includes the Expansion pack Immortal Throne. The game is a lot of fun both single or multiplayer and should run fine on your current videocard.
Their is going to be a big update for The Witcher in September, but the update will be free if you purchased it already. It is a quality title.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. got better with the updates/patches and may be something you'd like since you are a fan of FPS and RPGs.
Crysis: Warhead will be out soon and can be pre-ordered for less than $30 on Amazon. Seems like a great deal.
You can preorder Warhammer:Online from Gogamer.com and they will give you a key to get into the open beta. If MMO's are of interest to you this might be worth it.
Mass Effect on PC is great if you haven't played. Best game I played this year.
Log in to comment