Man, I seriously can't get enough of my Computer Upgrades eh? But there's a reason to put up as a topic. The potential upgrade that I'm pointing towards that is my motherboard. There's a reason for the needed upgrade. And it's all have to do with USB 3.0 layouts should I want to go SLI.
The biggest problem I have with my current layout on my motherboard is the lack of a USB 3.0 header on the motherboard. There were 2 USB 3.0s at the back but the USB 2.0s already being so populated could stress the heck out of the power draw needed. So I started to use those USB PCI-E Expansion cards. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports as I/O and a Header to plug in a USB 3.0 to the front bay that came with it. Then another problem came, The PCI-E USB 3.0 header can't reach the 5.25" front bay for the USB 3.0s. So I jury rigged one of my USB 3.0 header to 2 x USB 3.0 ports that came with a P8P67 Pro (The ATX version of the P8P67M-Pro) to the card, took out the PCI Bracket and route it outside the case. Ugly yes, I know, at least now I've 4 more USB 3.0s but THEN another problem came.
I want to go SLI on my ZOTAC GTX 780. However, the only free PCI-E is wired for 4X. And SLI doesn't support on a 16X and 4X. So now with the 3rd slot being occupied, my only room of expansion is either a Dual GPU 690 or the 790, both of which are very expensive and swapping out to a 780 Ti doesn't really net a huge difference in performance since my current 780 is heavily overclocked to match a Stock 780 Ti. It's all because of the lack of USB 3.0 that I need to forces me only on a single card.
The only probable solution is to use an ATX motherboard or any Z68/P67 ASUS Motherboard that has a working USB 3.0 header. I can't use my P8P67 Pro because the USB 3.0 header pins are broken. And I want to spend something on a cheap. So I'm trying to look for a cheap Z68 ASUS Maximus IV (Any one of those will do as long there's a USB 3.0 header on the board). Sacrificing 2 USB 3.0s shouldn't be no issue but at least it'll free me some room to do SLI.
Well, those are a couple of potential upgrades. Other maintenance things to do is to get some compressed gas to clean my computer, strap in a couple more USB fans and use a better thermal compound for my Corsair H70 instead of using the one that comes with the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 which I'm still using for my i5 machine.
Monday 27 January 2014
Wednesday 22 January 2014
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition, White) Tablet Review. - SM-P605
Heya, recently, I acquired the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Tablet as a gift so I just want to give a rundown of this tablet. It was meant to be as a present for both Christmas and my birthday. When I got it, I knew I was in for a treat.
Overview
Samsung has been on the ball with their extremely successful Galaxy line of Tablets and smartphones, perfecting their designs every single time and made them able to compete with the likes of Apple and Sony. And after 2 years with the 2012 10.1 Tablet, it's no surprise that Samsung decided to release their new flagship, ready for the year 2014 which is a lot better and a lot smarter. It's meant to compete with the Google Nexus 10 which oddly enough, is also being sold alongside the Note at Samsung Retailers in Singapore. Well some parts including the SoC processing unit are made OEM by Samsung which would probably explain why they're also on sale there.
Now let's go over the specs pretty quick. The Hardware powering this new flagship is very similar to its baby brother flagship smart phone, the Galaxy Note 3 Smartphone.
Technical Specifications
Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 / MSM8974: 2.3 GHz, 2MB Cache
Qualcomm Adreno 330 Graphics Processing Unit: 450 MHz
10.1" WQXGA LCD TFT Display: Resolution 2560 x 1600
3072 MB DDR RAM
8MP 3264 x 1836 Rear Facing Camera, 2MP Front Facing Camera, both 1080p Video Recording Capable.
32GB Flash Capacity, with room to house a micro SD for more space.
LTE and 4G Support
Micro SIM
UNBOXING
Here's what you'll find upon opening the box:
- Tablet, which includes a S-Pen AKA the stylus already stowed in its slot.
- Quick Start Guides
- Promo and Feature Brochures
- Warranty Cards; how it'll be printed depends on the country you live in.
- White Micro USB to USB cable.
- White USB Charging Outlet.
- White Headset (Headphone and Microphone)
- Some plastic wads and doodads that I've no idea what they do.
GENERAL FEEL OF GALAXY NOTE 10.1 2014 TABLET
If anyone of you have used the 2014's Predecessor, the 2012's 10.1 Note, most of the ergonomics are the same, you'll instantly feel at home with it. It's a tiny bit lighter and slimmer and therefore more portable. Some of you will notice straightaway is shifting the aspect ratio of 4:3 1280 x 800 to 16:10 2560 x 1600.
With such screen resolutions, something has gotta give to provide the performance needed. The Snapdragon 800 Processor is presently the most powerful SoCs for Tablet barring the upcoming nVidia Tegra K-1 announced at CES 2014. Powering up tablet in the graphics department is the Adreno 330, which allow rendering of most apps just right for the job.
Here's some of the IO given:
Top: Volume Rocker, Power switch, Infrared Sensor
Bottom: Micro USB 2.0 for charging / Data Transfer
Left: Left Stereo Speaker, Microphone / Headphone Combo Jack
Right: S-Pen Stylus (Included and stowed), Micro SD, Micro SIM, Right Stereo Speaker
Back: 8MP Camera with Flash
Front: Screen, Home, File and Return Buttons, Front Facing 2MP Camera
If you have concerns for storage, don't worry. The capacity of the base model starts from 16GB and has 32GB variants like mine. And if that's not enough, feel free to stick in a micro SD card to increase your Capacity by up to 64GB for room up to theoretically almost a 100GB.
Another noticeable difference is that this tablet is among the only few that includes a micro SIM card slot used in most of today's Smart Phones. And yes, this device doubles as a phone with a SIM card inserted so you have an all in one solution. It'll be recommended to use a headset because using the speaker will make everyone listen in your conversation. To me I'd rather use a separate phone as it is unwieldy for a tablet.
SCREEN QUALITY
The tablet carries a WQXGA resolution of a very high 2560 x 1600, much higher than HD, showing nearly 4.1 Megapixels and with a density of nearly 300 pixels per inch.
Viewing angles are great. I didn't notice much of a brightness level drop regardless of how angled I tilt the Note 10.1. Only in extreme angles will the colors and the brightness levels of the screen will change which is good enough.
TAKING PICTURES / VIDEO WITH THE NOTE
Now the camera built in has the same Megapixel Resolution as the Samsung Galaxy S3 but that doesn't mean it's bad. It has a built in but albeit low ranged tiny flash. I would recommend some places with good lighting and it's a lot better taking pictures outdoors. The weight makes it abit unwieldy to take images by pressing the Capture button on the Camera's UI as that can potentially shake your tablet ever so slightly. That's when voice command option commands in if you want. It doesn't pick Singapore Accents well but it does take my 'Cheese' Command clearly which is absolutely fine by me. You can steady yourself and then give the commands once you're good.
What I've done here is to compare the image quality between the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition and an iPad Retina. Now the noticeable difference is the aspect ratio. The iPad Retina takes images in a 4:3 aspect, while the Galaxy Note takes images in a Widescreen 16:9.
Overview
Samsung has been on the ball with their extremely successful Galaxy line of Tablets and smartphones, perfecting their designs every single time and made them able to compete with the likes of Apple and Sony. And after 2 years with the 2012 10.1 Tablet, it's no surprise that Samsung decided to release their new flagship, ready for the year 2014 which is a lot better and a lot smarter. It's meant to compete with the Google Nexus 10 which oddly enough, is also being sold alongside the Note at Samsung Retailers in Singapore. Well some parts including the SoC processing unit are made OEM by Samsung which would probably explain why they're also on sale there.
Now let's go over the specs pretty quick. The Hardware powering this new flagship is very similar to its baby brother flagship smart phone, the Galaxy Note 3 Smartphone.
Technical Specifications
Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 / MSM8974: 2.3 GHz, 2MB Cache
Qualcomm Adreno 330 Graphics Processing Unit: 450 MHz
10.1" WQXGA LCD TFT Display: Resolution 2560 x 1600
3072 MB DDR RAM
8MP 3264 x 1836 Rear Facing Camera, 2MP Front Facing Camera, both 1080p Video Recording Capable.
32GB Flash Capacity, with room to house a micro SD for more space.
LTE and 4G Support
Micro SIM
UNBOXING
 |
| Everything from the Box Taken from my footage of the unboxing in my YouTube Channel |
Here's what you'll find upon opening the box:
- Tablet, which includes a S-Pen AKA the stylus already stowed in its slot.
- Quick Start Guides
- Promo and Feature Brochures
- Warranty Cards; how it'll be printed depends on the country you live in.
- White Micro USB to USB cable.
- White USB Charging Outlet.
- White Headset (Headphone and Microphone)
- Some plastic wads and doodads that I've no idea what they do.
GENERAL FEEL OF GALAXY NOTE 10.1 2014 TABLET
If anyone of you have used the 2014's Predecessor, the 2012's 10.1 Note, most of the ergonomics are the same, you'll instantly feel at home with it. It's a tiny bit lighter and slimmer and therefore more portable. Some of you will notice straightaway is shifting the aspect ratio of 4:3 1280 x 800 to 16:10 2560 x 1600.
With such screen resolutions, something has gotta give to provide the performance needed. The Snapdragon 800 Processor is presently the most powerful SoCs for Tablet barring the upcoming nVidia Tegra K-1 announced at CES 2014. Powering up tablet in the graphics department is the Adreno 330, which allow rendering of most apps just right for the job.
Here's some of the IO given:
Top: Volume Rocker, Power switch, Infrared Sensor
Bottom: Micro USB 2.0 for charging / Data Transfer
Left: Left Stereo Speaker, Microphone / Headphone Combo Jack
Right: S-Pen Stylus (Included and stowed), Micro SD, Micro SIM, Right Stereo Speaker
Back: 8MP Camera with Flash
Front: Screen, Home, File and Return Buttons, Front Facing 2MP Camera
If you have concerns for storage, don't worry. The capacity of the base model starts from 16GB and has 32GB variants like mine. And if that's not enough, feel free to stick in a micro SD card to increase your Capacity by up to 64GB for room up to theoretically almost a 100GB.
Another noticeable difference is that this tablet is among the only few that includes a micro SIM card slot used in most of today's Smart Phones. And yes, this device doubles as a phone with a SIM card inserted so you have an all in one solution. It'll be recommended to use a headset because using the speaker will make everyone listen in your conversation. To me I'd rather use a separate phone as it is unwieldy for a tablet.
SCREEN QUALITY
The tablet carries a WQXGA resolution of a very high 2560 x 1600, much higher than HD, showing nearly 4.1 Megapixels and with a density of nearly 300 pixels per inch.
Viewing angles are great. I didn't notice much of a brightness level drop regardless of how angled I tilt the Note 10.1. Only in extreme angles will the colors and the brightness levels of the screen will change which is good enough.
TAKING PICTURES / VIDEO WITH THE NOTE
Now the camera built in has the same Megapixel Resolution as the Samsung Galaxy S3 but that doesn't mean it's bad. It has a built in but albeit low ranged tiny flash. I would recommend some places with good lighting and it's a lot better taking pictures outdoors. The weight makes it abit unwieldy to take images by pressing the Capture button on the Camera's UI as that can potentially shake your tablet ever so slightly. That's when voice command option commands in if you want. It doesn't pick Singapore Accents well but it does take my 'Cheese' Command clearly which is absolutely fine by me. You can steady yourself and then give the commands once you're good.
What I've done here is to compare the image quality between the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition and an iPad Retina. Now the noticeable difference is the aspect ratio. The iPad Retina takes images in a 4:3 aspect, while the Galaxy Note takes images in a Widescreen 16:9.
 |
| Picture of my 2 Monitors taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Picture Resolution: 3264 x 1836 at 16:9 |
.jpg) |
| The Same Image taken with an iPad Retina at 2592 x 1936 at 4:3 |
 |
| Facing outdoors from my Bedroom Window Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) |
 |
| Facing outdoors from my Bedroom Window IPad Retina |
Now frankly speaking, even the older Apple iPad Retina is still capable of taking images pretty well. The only thing to take note while taking pictures with this is that the camera lens is situated at the extreme corner, makes taking landscape photographs a bit more time to find a suitable angle to position it and you'll find your fingers blocking the lens now and again if you hold it wrongly. The Note is less of a problem because the lens is situated dead center at the top of the tablet (or dead middle on its side if in Portrait) so it's easier to point and aim where you want it.
HEAT AND ENERGY EMISSIONS
Heat is no issue when you exert some load in. The leather-like backing somehow mitigates it further, so holding the tablet during use is still tolerable.
A 8220 mAH battery, even more than my Aftershock X11 lol. A lot more than the older tablet, and rightly so. Unsurprisingly leaves nothing of complaint. Only minor issue is that the battery can't be removed, expected for a tablet. But battery life is where the Tablet also excels well.
As long as the tablet has a minimal amount of background running programs and with the display set to timeout after a couple minutes inactivity, a full charge can take days or weeks when using at the right time. Once drained, before you turn in for the night, hook your tablet to your USB and charging unit and plug your charging unit to the wall socket and turn it on. Leave it be while you sleep and it'll be done by the time you wake up the next morning.
REPAIR SERVICES
HEAT AND ENERGY EMISSIONS
Heat is no issue when you exert some load in. The leather-like backing somehow mitigates it further, so holding the tablet during use is still tolerable.
A 8220 mAH battery, even more than my Aftershock X11 lol. A lot more than the older tablet, and rightly so. Unsurprisingly leaves nothing of complaint. Only minor issue is that the battery can't be removed, expected for a tablet. But battery life is where the Tablet also excels well.
As long as the tablet has a minimal amount of background running programs and with the display set to timeout after a couple minutes inactivity, a full charge can take days or weeks when using at the right time. Once drained, before you turn in for the night, hook your tablet to your USB and charging unit and plug your charging unit to the wall socket and turn it on. Leave it be while you sleep and it'll be done by the time you wake up the next morning.
REPAIR SERVICES
Now a bit of backstory because the screen went dead about a week of using it, I didn't drop the tablet whatsoever. At most is I nearly dropped it and managed to catch the tablet in time, it's only after that the screen when black. Took it back to Samsung, told me it would take 3 days, but I got the call to say it's ready in less than 24 hours I took it to service. Promptly collected it the day after, and the problem was that simple. Samsung, how the heck did you miss securing the cable linking the screen to the Board? But anyway, it's still covered by warranty and the replacing of cable and collection was completed well ahead. Recorded and uploaded a Piano Cover the next day to give it a whirl, no problem. So I think repair services are top notch, just watch the quality control. Even the cable shouldn't be overlooked.
THE BREAKDOWN
So far I'm having real good fun with it. Apart from the little sag with the cable linking the screen and the motherboard, we're all back to normal! It's a bit pricey, almost a thousand bucks, my mum got it for 888 after a discount. However, if you look after it, it'll serve you well. So for now my porta-rigs are complete and it'll be brought around alongside my laptop.
THE BREAKDOWN
So far I'm having real good fun with it. Apart from the little sag with the cable linking the screen and the motherboard, we're all back to normal! It's a bit pricey, almost a thousand bucks, my mum got it for 888 after a discount. However, if you look after it, it'll serve you well. So for now my porta-rigs are complete and it'll be brought around alongside my laptop.
Video Cards of 2013: My Choice of 5 Video Cards of 2013.
Heya, year 2013 has been a freak year especially when it comes to video cards with both sides going downright and dirty when it comes to video Cards. Now let's go over on Both Camps to see what the heck went on in 2013. At the same time, I'll be mentioning my choice of 5 Video Cards, in no particular order. A (***) marking will denote as one of my 5.
------------------------------
NVidia
------------------------------
GTX Titan
(Most Pricey Single GPU GTX)
The First GK 110 Card that was released on a desktop grade GPU. Its origins lie from the Tesla K20 SuperComputing unit. It had the most memory of all current nVidia Cards. Now this card still remains expensive and hard to find because it's more for double precision CUDA Work. This card was still nonetheless very suitable for gaming and the 6GB Frame buffer running on a 384 bit bus could allow pushing of higher resolutions. Now since the GTX 680, the reference coolers has been given a boost and has proven effective for the cooling needs which is why many users can live by the reference cooling for the current generation of GTX 700 series cards. Needless to say, there has been no non-reference versions of this card however and as it still stands, it still costs more than double of the GTX 780. That cost is enough to buy 2 GTX 780s in SLI so Don't buy it. Anyways, rumors of a Black Titan just surfaced for the past couple weeks so we'll wait and see how this hilarity ensue.
------------------------------
***GTX 780
(Titan's Tiny but Mighty Baby Brother)
The Top card before the 780 Ti came out but is still holding on its own well. This Second GK 110 Card is meant to replace the last generation GK 104 based GTX 680. The newer 780 has 50% more CUDA Cores, 50% more memory (3GB vs 2GB), 50% more bit bus and using the Titan reference coolers. It was basically a real souped up Kepler, but still essentially possess most of the features that the Titan has save the double precision cores. You may dub it the 'Baby Titan' since performs admirably against the competition and very similarly to the Titan. This is the card I use in my machine after my GTX 680 and Crossfire 6970s.
It was priced fairly high initially but the release of the GTX 780 Ti and the R9 290 and 290X lowered that to really appealing levels in November which was the time I bought my Zotac Card. Limited stocks of the R9 290/290X caused their own prices being jacked up on Newegg because of Bitcoin Mining. Finding a Non-reference GTX 780 you can find it easily. But yet the Reference card with the reference cooler is also a good pick for it still overclocks well enough to achieve that performance level. Although overthrown by the newer flagship 780 Ti, a good overclock can fix that, a reason that it's pointless to spend for the 780 Ti or even more for the ridiculous Titan. The AMD's counterparts are the direct opposite which I'm covering later. For that point, it has my nod of approval as one of my 5 since I use one. G-Sync is natively supported on all GK-110s even though this tech is announced way after the 780's release. It has support for Gamestreaming on an nVidia Shield so it's something to think about.
------------------------------
***GTX 770
(Souped up GTX 680)
Essentially a heavily overclocked and rebadged GTX 680 that is released if people can't afford a GTX 780. The GTX 770 was priced initially at 399 USD but also received a price cuts alongside the GTX 780 to 329. A Non Reference Card although costing a bit more would still trump the R9 280X cards whose prices seem to bump up because of a shortage in supply. Despite being outperformed by the GTX 780 and the R9 290, The card's good value for money still stands because you still have game bundles being sold with it.
------------------------------
***GTX 780 Ti
(Kepler Fully Unleashed)
The mother load of all Kepler based GPUs and the Titan's and the 780's big brother. With full 2880 CUDA cores and SMX Blocks unlocked, The GTX 780 Ti fully unlocked the true performance of the GK 110 Core. The 780 Ti was released shortly as a response to the R9 290X's release. And with the current coolers still more than enough to handle the heat, it's a lot more efficient in performance and power usage than the R9 290X. It's still priced high, but nowhere as high as the ridiculous Titans. Now the GTX 780 Ti only has 3GB of memory but 6GB versions of the card are currently in consideration to fully render the Titans essentially redundant. Like the GTX 780, the reference GTX 780 Ti overclocks like a dream, and able to inch very close to the Dual GPU 690s. It's pretty much meant for the drooling PC enthusiasts. Raw performance alone earns a place in my Top 5. There are other cards in the making right now, in particular the EVGA's Classified K|NGP|N's (Kingpin) incarnation of the GTX 780 Ti.
------------------------------
GTX 760
(Mainstream Crowd Pleaser)
A more than capable card for the affordable gamer. The GTX 760 performs around the Radeon 7950 levels for around the price of the less powerful R9 270X. It's based off a GK 104 chip used in the GTX 680, 670 and 660 Ti. As the currently the most entry level of the GTX 700 series, it still sports a good 1152 Cuda Cores and a considerable amount of memory buffer, allowing the GTX 760 to perform in league with the GTX 670.
------------------------------
GTX 650 Ti Boost
(Last Generation's Budget GTX)
I understand it's considered as last gen card but the GTX 650 Ti boost was still a decent performer that holds its ground to the R9 270 and the Radeon 7850. It was a huge step up from the first GTX 650 Ti because of the whopping addition of memory bandwidth. And judging on performance numbers and rumours, I can somehow estimate that it'll perform closer if not better than the upcoming Maxwell based GTX 750 Ti, which is weird. In terms of pricing, you can still readily find 650 Ti Boosts on the cheap. And this card will perform slightly better than the old GTX 580. This will be good on a real tight budget build or a secondary build.
------------------------------
Advanced Micro Devices
------------------------------
Radeon 7990
(Dual GPU Beast)
Developed in response to the GTX 690 and has seen a HEAVY price cuts all over the place. But stocks seem to be scarce nowadays because of the more performance per GPU. And Dual GPU cards seem to face a problem with frame pacing. Despite this, this card remains good for a smaller enclosure in a mini ITX system so you can possibly have the maximum performance available. If you looking for a card in a mini ITX build, this could probably be it. So far there has only been one aftermarket one, the Power Color Devil 13.
------------------------------
***R9 290X
(Aloha, Hot Hawaii!)
Was quite the hype when the Hawaii Chip was announced aptly...in Hawaii. The R9 290X was promised to be a Titan Killer. Yeah in a way it did, being powerful and carries a large 4GB of GDDR5 RAM running on a 512-bit bus, which is the most bit bus available, apart from Intel's Iris Pro. It also did away with Crossfire bridges.
However the reference GPU did have a few flaws. The base clock was stated to go up to a certain core clock, so the core clocks could go anywhere up to that depending on the thermals in the card. Now retail cards keep hitting the thermal threshold at 95 Degrees all the time. As if the heat wasn't enough, The R9 290X's reference cooler was loud and noisy and relatively unable to take the thermal thresholds well, hardly allowing for any overclocking. Nevertheless, the R9 290X sort of took nVidia by surprise, because the initial value of this card was what that set this card apart. For one, it was significantly cheaper than the GTX 780 by the time of release which triggered the massive GeForce price cuts all over the place. Furthermore it was performing better in terms of FPS than the 780 and the Titan. Aftermarket cooling solutions later dramatically improved on how much cooler and more consistent the card performs, granting the 290X a vast amount of thermal space for overclocking. And because of that additional space, you can take it even further and has been demonstrated to be able to reach performance levels of 780 Tis for less cost and about the same way the GTX 780 does. You pay slightly more for the cooling, but it's well worth the investment. So yeah, one of my Top 5, but go for non-reference cards as my recommendation. Sapphire Toxic Version of the R9 290X is probably the best and coolest-running card there is.
------------------------------
***R9 290
(Baby 290X, to the rescue!)
The slightly cut down brother of the R9 290X. It doesn't really differ much except just a small cut of Stream Processors and a slightly reduced base max clocks and significantly lower price. Not stressing as much as the R9 290X does allow a bit more efficiency and more consistent max clocks. The R9 290's performance difference compared to the R9 290X is pretty damn small. Although still a hot running card unless you're using a non-reference GPU, it performs in League with the GTX 780 and the Titan while being initially cheaper than even the cut-priced GTX 780. Despite it being more expensive now due to limited stock and of course Bitcoin Mining, it still is a great choice for Value, and very viable and powerful in Crossfire. Despite still facing Frame Pacing inconsistencies in Crossfire, this has shown significant improvement with subsequent driver updates. It's still worth its value for it alongside the GTX 780 SLI are both cheaper than a single Titan especially with AMD Mantle. Another one of my Top 5 and Like the R9 290X, I would highly recommend a non-reference GPU.
------------------------------
***R9 280X
(Tahiti XT Refreshed)
Essentially a rebadged Radeon 7970 GHz edition Card, with the additional tweaks like TruAudio and stuff that makes production in general cheaper. A Great fill in if you can't afford the already good value R9 290. Non-reference R9 280Xs are readily available and will still give great performance in 2560 X 1440. Good value medium-high performance card. And yes, being the same Tahiti Architecture as the Radeon 7970, it has been proven that you can Crossfire the R9 280X with that. A Great budget card if you want a decent price crossfire setups and you don't want to spend a bomb on a new card.
------------------------------
NVidia
------------------------------
GTX Titan
(Most Pricey Single GPU GTX)
The First GK 110 Card that was released on a desktop grade GPU. Its origins lie from the Tesla K20 SuperComputing unit. It had the most memory of all current nVidia Cards. Now this card still remains expensive and hard to find because it's more for double precision CUDA Work. This card was still nonetheless very suitable for gaming and the 6GB Frame buffer running on a 384 bit bus could allow pushing of higher resolutions. Now since the GTX 680, the reference coolers has been given a boost and has proven effective for the cooling needs which is why many users can live by the reference cooling for the current generation of GTX 700 series cards. Needless to say, there has been no non-reference versions of this card however and as it still stands, it still costs more than double of the GTX 780. That cost is enough to buy 2 GTX 780s in SLI so Don't buy it. Anyways, rumors of a Black Titan just surfaced for the past couple weeks so we'll wait and see how this hilarity ensue.
------------------------------
***GTX 780
(Titan's Tiny but Mighty Baby Brother)
 |
| My very own ZOTAC GTX 780 AMP! GPU Currently Overclocked, and can easily boost 1.2 GHz. At that time before the 780 Ti, this was easily the fastest 780s you can get. |
 |
| Example of a Reference GTX 780; The OEM reference coolers on the GTX 700 series are no slouch, adequate and silent enough. Readily supports G-Sync despite it being released way before the Technology was even announced. |
It was priced fairly high initially but the release of the GTX 780 Ti and the R9 290 and 290X lowered that to really appealing levels in November which was the time I bought my Zotac Card. Limited stocks of the R9 290/290X caused their own prices being jacked up on Newegg because of Bitcoin Mining. Finding a Non-reference GTX 780 you can find it easily. But yet the Reference card with the reference cooler is also a good pick for it still overclocks well enough to achieve that performance level. Although overthrown by the newer flagship 780 Ti, a good overclock can fix that, a reason that it's pointless to spend for the 780 Ti or even more for the ridiculous Titan. The AMD's counterparts are the direct opposite which I'm covering later. For that point, it has my nod of approval as one of my 5 since I use one. G-Sync is natively supported on all GK-110s even though this tech is announced way after the 780's release. It has support for Gamestreaming on an nVidia Shield so it's something to think about.
------------------------------
***GTX 770
(Souped up GTX 680)
Essentially a heavily overclocked and rebadged GTX 680 that is released if people can't afford a GTX 780. The GTX 770 was priced initially at 399 USD but also received a price cuts alongside the GTX 780 to 329. A Non Reference Card although costing a bit more would still trump the R9 280X cards whose prices seem to bump up because of a shortage in supply. Despite being outperformed by the GTX 780 and the R9 290, The card's good value for money still stands because you still have game bundles being sold with it.
------------------------------
***GTX 780 Ti
(Kepler Fully Unleashed)
The mother load of all Kepler based GPUs and the Titan's and the 780's big brother. With full 2880 CUDA cores and SMX Blocks unlocked, The GTX 780 Ti fully unlocked the true performance of the GK 110 Core. The 780 Ti was released shortly as a response to the R9 290X's release. And with the current coolers still more than enough to handle the heat, it's a lot more efficient in performance and power usage than the R9 290X. It's still priced high, but nowhere as high as the ridiculous Titans. Now the GTX 780 Ti only has 3GB of memory but 6GB versions of the card are currently in consideration to fully render the Titans essentially redundant. Like the GTX 780, the reference GTX 780 Ti overclocks like a dream, and able to inch very close to the Dual GPU 690s. It's pretty much meant for the drooling PC enthusiasts. Raw performance alone earns a place in my Top 5. There are other cards in the making right now, in particular the EVGA's Classified K|NGP|N's (Kingpin) incarnation of the GTX 780 Ti.
------------------------------
GTX 760
(Mainstream Crowd Pleaser)
 |
| An MSI Twin Frozr GTX 760 Gaming Edition GPU owned by a choir friend, Leon. Still a good mainstream card for the budget. |
A more than capable card for the affordable gamer. The GTX 760 performs around the Radeon 7950 levels for around the price of the less powerful R9 270X. It's based off a GK 104 chip used in the GTX 680, 670 and 660 Ti. As the currently the most entry level of the GTX 700 series, it still sports a good 1152 Cuda Cores and a considerable amount of memory buffer, allowing the GTX 760 to perform in league with the GTX 670.
------------------------------
GTX 650 Ti Boost
(Last Generation's Budget GTX)
I understand it's considered as last gen card but the GTX 650 Ti boost was still a decent performer that holds its ground to the R9 270 and the Radeon 7850. It was a huge step up from the first GTX 650 Ti because of the whopping addition of memory bandwidth. And judging on performance numbers and rumours, I can somehow estimate that it'll perform closer if not better than the upcoming Maxwell based GTX 750 Ti, which is weird. In terms of pricing, you can still readily find 650 Ti Boosts on the cheap. And this card will perform slightly better than the old GTX 580. This will be good on a real tight budget build or a secondary build.
------------------------------
Advanced Micro Devices
------------------------------
Radeon 7990
(Dual GPU Beast)
Developed in response to the GTX 690 and has seen a HEAVY price cuts all over the place. But stocks seem to be scarce nowadays because of the more performance per GPU. And Dual GPU cards seem to face a problem with frame pacing. Despite this, this card remains good for a smaller enclosure in a mini ITX system so you can possibly have the maximum performance available. If you looking for a card in a mini ITX build, this could probably be it. So far there has only been one aftermarket one, the Power Color Devil 13.
------------------------------
***R9 290X
(Aloha, Hot Hawaii!)
 |
| A reference R9 290X owned by another choir buddy who DIYs his own rigs. Darryl stated as long as you have a good case and ventilation, noise and to some extent throttling shouldn't be too much of your worries. |
However the reference GPU did have a few flaws. The base clock was stated to go up to a certain core clock, so the core clocks could go anywhere up to that depending on the thermals in the card. Now retail cards keep hitting the thermal threshold at 95 Degrees all the time. As if the heat wasn't enough, The R9 290X's reference cooler was loud and noisy and relatively unable to take the thermal thresholds well, hardly allowing for any overclocking. Nevertheless, the R9 290X sort of took nVidia by surprise, because the initial value of this card was what that set this card apart. For one, it was significantly cheaper than the GTX 780 by the time of release which triggered the massive GeForce price cuts all over the place. Furthermore it was performing better in terms of FPS than the 780 and the Titan. Aftermarket cooling solutions later dramatically improved on how much cooler and more consistent the card performs, granting the 290X a vast amount of thermal space for overclocking. And because of that additional space, you can take it even further and has been demonstrated to be able to reach performance levels of 780 Tis for less cost and about the same way the GTX 780 does. You pay slightly more for the cooling, but it's well worth the investment. So yeah, one of my Top 5, but go for non-reference cards as my recommendation. Sapphire Toxic Version of the R9 290X is probably the best and coolest-running card there is.
------------------------------
***R9 290
(Baby 290X, to the rescue!)
 |
| The venerable Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 OC heavily improves cooling and reduces noise, improving overall performance consistency whilst giving much more room to overclock. Design Scheme Looks very much Zotac-ish. |
The slightly cut down brother of the R9 290X. It doesn't really differ much except just a small cut of Stream Processors and a slightly reduced base max clocks and significantly lower price. Not stressing as much as the R9 290X does allow a bit more efficiency and more consistent max clocks. The R9 290's performance difference compared to the R9 290X is pretty damn small. Although still a hot running card unless you're using a non-reference GPU, it performs in League with the GTX 780 and the Titan while being initially cheaper than even the cut-priced GTX 780. Despite it being more expensive now due to limited stock and of course Bitcoin Mining, it still is a great choice for Value, and very viable and powerful in Crossfire. Despite still facing Frame Pacing inconsistencies in Crossfire, this has shown significant improvement with subsequent driver updates. It's still worth its value for it alongside the GTX 780 SLI are both cheaper than a single Titan especially with AMD Mantle. Another one of my Top 5 and Like the R9 290X, I would highly recommend a non-reference GPU.
------------------------------
***R9 280X
(Tahiti XT Refreshed)
Essentially a rebadged Radeon 7970 GHz edition Card, with the additional tweaks like TruAudio and stuff that makes production in general cheaper. A Great fill in if you can't afford the already good value R9 290. Non-reference R9 280Xs are readily available and will still give great performance in 2560 X 1440. Good value medium-high performance card. And yes, being the same Tahiti Architecture as the Radeon 7970, it has been proven that you can Crossfire the R9 280X with that. A Great budget card if you want a decent price crossfire setups and you don't want to spend a bomb on a new card.
Sunday 12 January 2014
GTX 780 Testing II: nVidia Surround / Samsung SyncMaster S22B350T and AOC E2250SWDN testing
Well, 2 monitors arrived yesterday. And I bought as a self funded birthday present for myself. I did have some money on hand so I bought one from VR-Zone and another from BlingQ, a refutable seller of EBay that sell refurbished items. And Great: Both Samsung S22B350T and the AOC E2250SWDN monitors are working as it should, especially the Samsung one.Throughout the day in church I was holding on to the screen before and after mass and a Birthday Tea with one of the choir founders. Then I came back home and the AOC Monitor had already arrived that night.
Now all these are 21.5 Inch Monitors. And my Setup was this.
So with those I setup my nVidia Surround like this. And setting those up is actually quite straightforward. Just had to prop a few books for the AOC E2250SWDN on the right because of its shorter height. Breaking out and installing the monitors took about 10-15 minutes and some tinkering with settings about 3-5 minutes. Now most games will require you to start with 1920 x 1080 resolution then enforce it in game to apply the surround. Subsequent launches will force 5760 x 1080 correctly.
And a general refresher, here's a look at the interior of my Computer:
Core i7 2600K OC at 4.5 GHz
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 RAM
(2 x 4GB Black, 2 x 4GB Blue)
Zotac nVidia Geforce GTX 780 AMP! Edition
Asus P8P67M-Pro Motherboard
Corsair H70 Push/Pull
Fractal Design Define R3 with Fan Control Hub.
Corsair HX1000
128GB OCZ Vertex 4
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB
Seagate Momentus 500GB
As for Port selection on my Zotac GTX 780 AMP! Edition Video card; that's how I use my inputs:
Now funnily enough, D-Sub / VGA to DVI Adapter works with no issues whatsoever in nVidia Surround. I was initially abit scared that it won't work because all I had was 1 DVI cable in hand. Whereas I have a tonne of VGA cables. So yup, one VGA, one DVI and one HDMI which is my main screen. Now here are some of the games I give a quick spin just to test it out and to see how much a single GTX 780 can handle the full 5760 x 1080 resolution (6.2208 Megapixels across all 3 screens, 68 3/4% more pixels than 2560 X 1440). More games are on the way.
Now all these are 21.5 Inch Monitors. And my Setup was this.
So with those I setup my nVidia Surround like this. And setting those up is actually quite straightforward. Just had to prop a few books for the AOC E2250SWDN on the right because of its shorter height. Breaking out and installing the monitors took about 10-15 minutes and some tinkering with settings about 3-5 minutes. Now most games will require you to start with 1920 x 1080 resolution then enforce it in game to apply the surround. Subsequent launches will force 5760 x 1080 correctly.
 |
| Current Desk Layout. Notice some of my Music Theory Books supporting the AOC Monitor |
And a general refresher, here's a look at the interior of my Computer:
Core i7 2600K OC at 4.5 GHz
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 RAM
(2 x 4GB Black, 2 x 4GB Blue)
Zotac nVidia Geforce GTX 780 AMP! Edition
Asus P8P67M-Pro Motherboard
Corsair H70 Push/Pull
Fractal Design Define R3 with Fan Control Hub.
Corsair HX1000
128GB OCZ Vertex 4
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB
Seagate Momentus 500GB
As for Port selection on my Zotac GTX 780 AMP! Edition Video card; that's how I use my inputs:
 |
| Top: D-Sub to DVI - AOC E2250SWDN from Ebay - BlingQ Right: HDMI - Samsung SyncMaster S22B350T from jw339jw of VR-Zone Bottom: DVI-I - Philips 222 EL 2 from KnightRaven of VR/Hardware-Zone |
Hellgate: London
Old Game, Stretched UI, not a great title to try Surround although it's supported.
Path of Exile (Open Beta)
One of my key favorites. Runs no problem, Stretched EXP bar but not a major distraction.
140+ fps estimated on 5760 x 1080 fully maxed out settings.
Battlefield 4 running on Singapore Map
Natively supports Triple Monitors without any bloated UI. Just about playable on Maxed settings, but lowering Motion Blur and MSAA a bit will make BF4 frame rate substantially more fluent without affecting quality that much either. BF3 should have an easy time running.
Torchlight II: No problem with Surround and Eyefinity.
No bloated UI which is great.
Diablo III Public Test Realm - I still need an access to Reaper of Souls BETA ugh... shit!
Fullscreen Windowed at 5760 x 1080. FRAPS at about 130 on average.
Fullscreen Windowed at 5760 x 1080. FRAPS at about 130 on average.
Crysis 3: Now this is one of those games where ideally to enjoy would need SLI 780s / 780 TIs to crank the settings out. You may want to turn your settings down to High like I did. At maximum, game wasn't really playable. Even at not max details, heck even minimum quality at least in native resolutions, the game still looks beautiful, as I wrote on my top 5 games of 2013. A second GTX 780 will help things out but I don't have the money to buy another one. So One GTX 780 will have to do, for now.
More Crysis 3 shots
More Crysis 3 Shots
More Crysis 3 Shots
 |
| StarCraft II Heart of the Swarm - A great game to test your CPU limits when in surround, especially in later missions. You need a certain hack to play this resolution though. And game cinematics and your leviathan screens between missions rather than the Video Cinematics will be less than ideal because those will be bloated. It's best to have the game running at 5760 x 2160 rather than 1080p. In 5760 x 1080, a single GTX 780 will still get tanked at times even though it's perfectly playable at maximum settings. |
 |
| Another SC2 HOTS Shot: Lab Rats Mission, close up shot. |
 |
| Screenshot: Metro Last Light. 5760 x 1080: Played with SSAA off, Motion Blur Off, AF at x4, the rest is at max. |
 |
| Another StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Shot. 2nd Mission of Campaign. |
Monday 6 January 2014
Great Games of 2013, My choice of 5 games.
Well, this is my take on my choice of 5 games, in no particular order because to be completely honest, I like em' all. And let's just face it folks, no game is perfect. But some games get real mention as my choice of my 5 games, whether it being a big or a small title. Don't judge me on my sort of game repertoire because face it, we don't have money to buy an entire library of games. All of these games have scored Gold endorsements here but there's a reason to be in my Top 5. The placing depends on content, replay value, Computer hardware requirements. Just FYI I use 2 systems to generally have some runs and most times I run on 1080p. In future I'm gonna see the viability of playing in 5760 x 1080.
1. Desktop
Core i7 2600K OC 4.4GHz
16GB RAM
1920 x 1080 Resolution
3GB nVidia GTX 780 GHz Edition
2. Laptop / LAN Party Machine
Core i7 3630QM Stock
8GB RAM
1366 x 768 Native Resolution; but test on 1920 x 1080
2GB nVidia GT 650M
My Choice of 5 games:
1. Path of Exile - My Personal Top Pick
Grinding Gear Games
Windows
Free to Play
Now you may look at it as a Diablo III Clone. But the game has already been around in Closed BETA in 2011. Though I actually started playing around that time in 2011, it's only very recently this year that I start to clock WAY lot more hours into this. This was my very first game that I tried in a Closed BETA after hearing about it from TotalHalibut. Then POE went Open Beta long before D3 was launched and it has proven itself as surprisingly an excellent, polished alternative to Diablo III, for one; it is completely free to play. You have to give credit to GGG, and what's more, it's a freaking INDIE GAME!
Content and events for even a F2P game is pretty fucking crazy. Now the environment is you compare between Torchlight (also a dirt cheap and good title) and Diablo III is that it is set in a much Darker Environmental setting. The levelling system is VERY close to that of a sphere grid from Final Fantasy X. It you want to think of a scary levelling system, these 2 grids are the scariest bits of all.
It's not that the levelling system is bad though, and in all honestly actually this grid is perfect. This allows for HUGE customization for your characters that it's not even funny at all. So it's very flexible. And unlike Diablo III, you can create and hold as many characters to your account as possible. So you can play to your hearts content and experiment with different builds.
Users can live by with Intel Integrated Graphics and a low end CPU like a Pentium 4 with HT or a dual core Pentium D. Most of today's low-end video cards like the GT 620, GT 630 and somewhere along those lines are massively overqualified. Think MineCraft in requirements. The game has support for extreme resolution and when in Windowed mode, you can basically enlarge your window as to how big you want, so Ultra HD and 3 screen displays for nVidia Surround and AMD Eyefinity can be set for play. Just be prepared to look at all your screens to monitor your health and MP because each Meter is like from the extreme corners all the way across your left and right screens. My 11.6' laptop GT 650M has no problems running on 1080p on max settings, even going windowed at nearly 3840 x 1080 (Half a 4K Resolution) is still playable, albeit needing to turn the settings down slightly.
It's available as an official platform and also via a Client from Garena. I have both of the games, just PM me at paul.musichaven@gmail.com when you want to join me.
A Completely Free-to-play version of Diablo III, more accessible to entry hardware, and less prone to screwing up by developers. Big big thumbs up and a Value-For-Money nod from me! And content and F2P is the reason why I also pick it as my Top Favorite.
2. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Blizzard Entertainment
Windows / Macintosh OSX
The long awaited sequel of the StarCraft II series, and even though the game has been launched 3 years ago, there is still a tonne of replay value to it, and it's no wonder many tournaments are still held Worldwide. Heart of the Swarm further amplifies it, and new units and upgrades and adjustments opened up a big field of versatility in your gameplay. Single Player missions amount are also pretty damn extensive. And the sorta RPG customization program-ish for your units makes the game a bit more tactical.
In terms of playability, the requirements for the game will meet even Intel HD 3000+ graphics. For Low settings, that GPU is massively overqualified enough to clock 100+ FPS for 1024 x 768 on Low. Even running on HD 4000 allows further room to crank settings to Medium and HD 4600 cranking settings to High at most Laptop's native 1366 x 768 displays. Cranking the system to maximum quality makes the graphics quality drool. But when it comes to multiplayer, if responsiveness of the system is what affects your win-rate in your matches, you may still want to turn down the settings a bit even for a high end video card no matter what resolution you're running the game at. This game doesn't have support from Triple Monitor Resolutions, which is fine for an RTS and something I don't need and I don't find natural while playing.
If Single Player is good, Multiplayer is great. Enough Said if you've been playing StarCraft II for 3 years like me, a testament to how long StarCraft in General is gonna last. And primarily it's the multiplayer games is the reason why Tournaments are still strong in the land of StarCraft since the first Installment.
3. Crysis 3
Electronic Arts
Windows, XBox 360, PS3
You play as the character Major Lawrence AKA Prophet, a Character somehow returning to life after commiting suicide in Crysis 2 and then his soul was assimilated to the suit to integrate with Pte. Alcatraz. As to how this sorta came about I have no idea. But let's cut the storyline and go straight to gameplay.
Like the last title, you're given a choice to go either stealthy or aggressive in your play. Your suit is your weapon; your strength, your armor, and your agility. So if you've played all the titles you'll know exactly what I mean.
This is a game that is heavily GPU bound and will bring many high end systems right to their knees. Gameplay is beautiful. To get the most out of the pretty epic storyline, my recommendation is to play all these Crysis Titles in Order whether you buy em', torrent em' you name it. Crysis 1, Crysis WarHead, Crysis 2, and then Crysis 3. The entire series even Crysis 1 is flipping notorious of even stressing even cards like the GTX 680 and GTX 770 even though the game is like several years old. Even for low settings at 720p you'll be needing a pretty good GT 640 to run it.
However, even at minimum settings, Crysis 3 still looks beautiful considering, in fact looks better visually than Battlefield 3/4 at High Settings.
The reason why this game remains popular is because this game is meant to be used as a platform to benchmark many systems. And of all the 5 titles in this line up, Crysis 3 takes the crown as being the most hardware demanding title. There were more GPU intensive titles like Company of Heroes 2, but Crysis 3 formed the basis of heavily intensive games on the market today; Performance Demon Endorsement.
4. Bioshock Infinite
Windows, OSX, PS3, XBox 360
This is totally spin-off from the original series of Bioshock and set in Columbia. You play as the Protagonist Booker Dewitt
Now basic requirements for a single screen gaming are very basic. As long your graphics is better than a HD 4000, even 4600 is fine for low, you can run this game on 1024 x 768 at low to medium settings. Most high end graphics card like the GTX 680 and GTX 780 and R9 280X and R9 290 can crank the settings up a bit at surround and Eyefinity modes. nVidia however has a lot of driver support for this game in general, even lower end GPUs like the GTX 660, or the GTX 650 Ti or even the GTX 560 can still allow HD 1080 resolutions and Ultra settings to be tuned to the game.
As to the cost of the game, I can't judge because I had a spare copy of Heart of the Swarm lying around so I swapped out for Bioshock Infinite.
5. Plants vs Zombies 2: It's about Time
Electronic Arts / PopCap Games
iOS, Android
Free-To-Play
Plain to say, the PvZ series is a fantastic Tower Defense-somewhat platform game. The first installment was great and widely available to all sorts of gaming platforms (PC, iOS, Android) and for the cheap price you pay, it was undisputed winner in its own right. Now few years later, EA collab-ed with PopCap and published the sequel in August 2013. And the new patch for the game has made it gone a LOT tougher, and a lot more challenging. The gameplay is more for tablets and smartphones with some of the new tweaks and powerups applied, which is the reason I understood why it's not released for the PC. Because Gameplay is a lot faster and a lot meaner than PvZ 1.
Great thing about this title as compared with PvZ 1 is that is totally free to play. You can complete all the challenges without paying additional money needed for some plants. Plants like the Squash and the Imitator are unlocked by buying for a small amount of real cash but these guys are definitely game changers which to me totally justifies the cost. However the Free-to-play content is already extensive enough and warrants my Value-For-Money Endorsement.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
1. Battlefield 4
Electronic Arts
This game receives an honorable mention instead of being of a top 5 because the game is plagued with tonnes of bugs and problems be it either from the game or from the server. And EA support for server repairs and patching systems is practically non-existent. If technical support is a TONNE more on the ball all around the clock and if the game was a lot more stable, this would have definitely be in my top 5 because the gameplay itself is really dynamic, and really damn good.
Adding much more vertical height battles really mixes things around and make fights and engagements a lot more matching to reality. And the reason that Battlefield 4 holds a soft spot in my heart because of this general gameplay look and feel and storyline.
Hardware requirements aren't too much of a change compared to Battlefield 3. Even my Aftershock X11's GT 650M within a 1366 x 768 11-Inch screen can still turn the settings to medium high with Textures at Ultra and still be playable with reasonable frame rates. This game benefits more with Intel and AMD Quad-core CPUs but an older non-K one (e.g. i5 2500 and i7 920) paired with a GPU like a GTX 780 can still perform great at Ultra. Furthermore, it's been proven that the difference of using an i5 2500K compared to something like a 4960X is way too small to be noticed at all.
There are reason why FPSes normally appear at my top few but never my Top Pick:
Because in Multiplayer,........IT'S TOO FUCKING HARD!
If only Electronic Arts can do something about all these problems... the game would have otherwise be perfect for all I know. We'll have to wait and see, with nVidia G-Sync already here and AMD Mantle coming soon, I sure hope that things improve from there. So for now, an honorable mention.
2. Defense of the Ancients 2 (DoTA 2)
Valve / STEAM
Windows via STEAM
Free to Play
Now this choice is hard because of Bioshock Infinite 2 and Path Of Exile that is about as good as this. And having played DOTA 2 for quite a while is a testament of how good the initial thought process from IceFrog for the First DOTA in WarCraft III was. Because of DotA, a new genre of games is born. MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) AKA Action RTS.
Now the community is great too. Now as to why it receives an Honorable Mention is that I've been playing this in April 2012 even before 2013. This would have gotten a Top 5 if I started playing this year and I clocked a lot of hours in it and I always die however which is sad. Moreover, I like RPGs and FPSes more than MOBAs even though I spent a lot of time in this. It still receives my Value-For-Money endorsement because it's free to play and quite fairly enjoyable.
People with Basic Intel HD 4000 graphics and GPUs will be more than able to run DoTA 2. You can view the benchmarks here.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dota-2-performance-benchmark,3481.html
1. Desktop
Core i7 2600K OC 4.4GHz
16GB RAM
1920 x 1080 Resolution
3GB nVidia GTX 780 GHz Edition
2. Laptop / LAN Party Machine
Core i7 3630QM Stock
8GB RAM
1366 x 768 Native Resolution; but test on 1920 x 1080
2GB nVidia GT 650M
My Choice of 5 games:
1. Path of Exile - My Personal Top Pick
Grinding Gear Games
Windows
Free to Play
Content and events for even a F2P game is pretty fucking crazy. Now the environment is you compare between Torchlight (also a dirt cheap and good title) and Diablo III is that it is set in a much Darker Environmental setting. The levelling system is VERY close to that of a sphere grid from Final Fantasy X. It you want to think of a scary levelling system, these 2 grids are the scariest bits of all.
It's not that the levelling system is bad though, and in all honestly actually this grid is perfect. This allows for HUGE customization for your characters that it's not even funny at all. So it's very flexible. And unlike Diablo III, you can create and hold as many characters to your account as possible. So you can play to your hearts content and experiment with different builds.
Users can live by with Intel Integrated Graphics and a low end CPU like a Pentium 4 with HT or a dual core Pentium D. Most of today's low-end video cards like the GT 620, GT 630 and somewhere along those lines are massively overqualified. Think MineCraft in requirements. The game has support for extreme resolution and when in Windowed mode, you can basically enlarge your window as to how big you want, so Ultra HD and 3 screen displays for nVidia Surround and AMD Eyefinity can be set for play. Just be prepared to look at all your screens to monitor your health and MP because each Meter is like from the extreme corners all the way across your left and right screens. My 11.6' laptop GT 650M has no problems running on 1080p on max settings, even going windowed at nearly 3840 x 1080 (Half a 4K Resolution) is still playable, albeit needing to turn the settings down slightly.
It's available as an official platform and also via a Client from Garena. I have both of the games, just PM me at paul.musichaven@gmail.com when you want to join me.
A Completely Free-to-play version of Diablo III, more accessible to entry hardware, and less prone to screwing up by developers. Big big thumbs up and a Value-For-Money nod from me! And content and F2P is the reason why I also pick it as my Top Favorite.
2. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Blizzard Entertainment
Windows / Macintosh OSX
The long awaited sequel of the StarCraft II series, and even though the game has been launched 3 years ago, there is still a tonne of replay value to it, and it's no wonder many tournaments are still held Worldwide. Heart of the Swarm further amplifies it, and new units and upgrades and adjustments opened up a big field of versatility in your gameplay. Single Player missions amount are also pretty damn extensive. And the sorta RPG customization program-ish for your units makes the game a bit more tactical.
In terms of playability, the requirements for the game will meet even Intel HD 3000+ graphics. For Low settings, that GPU is massively overqualified enough to clock 100+ FPS for 1024 x 768 on Low. Even running on HD 4000 allows further room to crank settings to Medium and HD 4600 cranking settings to High at most Laptop's native 1366 x 768 displays. Cranking the system to maximum quality makes the graphics quality drool. But when it comes to multiplayer, if responsiveness of the system is what affects your win-rate in your matches, you may still want to turn down the settings a bit even for a high end video card no matter what resolution you're running the game at. This game doesn't have support from Triple Monitor Resolutions, which is fine for an RTS and something I don't need and I don't find natural while playing.
If Single Player is good, Multiplayer is great. Enough Said if you've been playing StarCraft II for 3 years like me, a testament to how long StarCraft in General is gonna last. And primarily it's the multiplayer games is the reason why Tournaments are still strong in the land of StarCraft since the first Installment.
3. Crysis 3
Electronic Arts
Windows, XBox 360, PS3
You play as the character Major Lawrence AKA Prophet, a Character somehow returning to life after commiting suicide in Crysis 2 and then his soul was assimilated to the suit to integrate with Pte. Alcatraz. As to how this sorta came about I have no idea. But let's cut the storyline and go straight to gameplay.
Like the last title, you're given a choice to go either stealthy or aggressive in your play. Your suit is your weapon; your strength, your armor, and your agility. So if you've played all the titles you'll know exactly what I mean.
This is a game that is heavily GPU bound and will bring many high end systems right to their knees. Gameplay is beautiful. To get the most out of the pretty epic storyline, my recommendation is to play all these Crysis Titles in Order whether you buy em', torrent em' you name it. Crysis 1, Crysis WarHead, Crysis 2, and then Crysis 3. The entire series even Crysis 1 is flipping notorious of even stressing even cards like the GTX 680 and GTX 770 even though the game is like several years old. Even for low settings at 720p you'll be needing a pretty good GT 640 to run it.
However, even at minimum settings, Crysis 3 still looks beautiful considering, in fact looks better visually than Battlefield 3/4 at High Settings.
The reason why this game remains popular is because this game is meant to be used as a platform to benchmark many systems. And of all the 5 titles in this line up, Crysis 3 takes the crown as being the most hardware demanding title. There were more GPU intensive titles like Company of Heroes 2, but Crysis 3 formed the basis of heavily intensive games on the market today; Performance Demon Endorsement.
4. Bioshock Infinite
Windows, OSX, PS3, XBox 360
Now basic requirements for a single screen gaming are very basic. As long your graphics is better than a HD 4000, even 4600 is fine for low, you can run this game on 1024 x 768 at low to medium settings. Most high end graphics card like the GTX 680 and GTX 780 and R9 280X and R9 290 can crank the settings up a bit at surround and Eyefinity modes. nVidia however has a lot of driver support for this game in general, even lower end GPUs like the GTX 660, or the GTX 650 Ti or even the GTX 560 can still allow HD 1080 resolutions and Ultra settings to be tuned to the game.
As to the cost of the game, I can't judge because I had a spare copy of Heart of the Swarm lying around so I swapped out for Bioshock Infinite.
5. Plants vs Zombies 2: It's about Time
Electronic Arts / PopCap Games
iOS, Android
Free-To-Play
Great thing about this title as compared with PvZ 1 is that is totally free to play. You can complete all the challenges without paying additional money needed for some plants. Plants like the Squash and the Imitator are unlocked by buying for a small amount of real cash but these guys are definitely game changers which to me totally justifies the cost. However the Free-to-play content is already extensive enough and warrants my Value-For-Money Endorsement.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
1. Battlefield 4
Electronic Arts
This game receives an honorable mention instead of being of a top 5 because the game is plagued with tonnes of bugs and problems be it either from the game or from the server. And EA support for server repairs and patching systems is practically non-existent. If technical support is a TONNE more on the ball all around the clock and if the game was a lot more stable, this would have definitely be in my top 5 because the gameplay itself is really dynamic, and really damn good.
Adding much more vertical height battles really mixes things around and make fights and engagements a lot more matching to reality. And the reason that Battlefield 4 holds a soft spot in my heart because of this general gameplay look and feel and storyline.
Hardware requirements aren't too much of a change compared to Battlefield 3. Even my Aftershock X11's GT 650M within a 1366 x 768 11-Inch screen can still turn the settings to medium high with Textures at Ultra and still be playable with reasonable frame rates. This game benefits more with Intel and AMD Quad-core CPUs but an older non-K one (e.g. i5 2500 and i7 920) paired with a GPU like a GTX 780 can still perform great at Ultra. Furthermore, it's been proven that the difference of using an i5 2500K compared to something like a 4960X is way too small to be noticed at all.
There are reason why FPSes normally appear at my top few but never my Top Pick:
Because in Multiplayer,........IT'S TOO FUCKING HARD!
If only Electronic Arts can do something about all these problems... the game would have otherwise be perfect for all I know. We'll have to wait and see, with nVidia G-Sync already here and AMD Mantle coming soon, I sure hope that things improve from there. So for now, an honorable mention.
2. Defense of the Ancients 2 (DoTA 2)
Valve / STEAM
Windows via STEAM
Free to Play
Now the community is great too. Now as to why it receives an Honorable Mention is that I've been playing this in April 2012 even before 2013. This would have gotten a Top 5 if I started playing this year and I clocked a lot of hours in it and I always die however which is sad. Moreover, I like RPGs and FPSes more than MOBAs even though I spent a lot of time in this. It still receives my Value-For-Money endorsement because it's free to play and quite fairly enjoyable.
People with Basic Intel HD 4000 graphics and GPUs will be more than able to run DoTA 2. You can view the benchmarks here.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dota-2-performance-benchmark,3481.html
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