I'm also waiting for it in Canada. I bought GC2 via digital download but I don't have a credit card anymore and Paypal is a huge PITA in Canada, it takes 8 business days to transfer money from my bank account. Besides, I like having the box and manual but getting direct download + physical media direct from Stardock is way too expensive.
Have you read the sequel to Mote, The Gripping Hand? If not, do so immediately. There are so many great sci-fi books, I can't even begin to list them. Look up the Hugo and Nebula awards -- you can't go wrong with books that have won (or even been nominated) for them.
A $50 air cooler will OC a quad about as far as it can reasonably go. You need to spend a ton on watercooling to get a meaningful improvement. And tdp of the Q6600 is 95W now, the old B3s were 105. Even in apps that dont' fully support quadcores, you get a bit of a performance increase clock-for-clock over a duo because you've got twice the cache and aren't giving up any cpu cycles to the OS and background processes. The Q6600s OC so well that they'll come within a hair of OC'd duos
Possible new beta today, Sins should be in stock here tomorrow, new 10Mb internet getting installed this afternoon . . . my entertainment cup runneth over :D
[quote] but... does anyone really need 8 processing cores? what does that benefit?[/quote]3d modelling, animation, and video editing apps will use as many cores as you have, often limited not by the app itself but by the license -- although for the workstation this is often done on a per-socket basis, since just considering the number of cpu cores, a dual quadcore machine would require a render farm license in some cases otherwise. [quote]but on PSUs, it's good not to run your PSU at 10
In TA, stealing Germ Warfare does not allow you to research Spore Weapons. In my next game I'll have to see if I can buy some spore ships. I normally exterminate the Korath first thing because they always beeline for Nightmare Torpedo and get very, very tough very fast.
[quote] It future proofs your pc far more than a dual core does. [/quote]Exactly. Let's postulate 2 gaming enthusiasts, one with a duo and one with a quad, both heavily OC'd to around 4ghz. Let's say widespread support for quadcore in games doesn't show up for another 2 years. Now let's further suppose that 2 years from now two (of today's)cores at 4ghz is getting to be a bit on the slow side. The guy with the duo will be forced to upgrade. The guy with the quad will effectively
An interesting data point regarding PSUs . . . a test of the new Intel "Skulltrail" platform with a pair of QX9775 quadcores, 2 8800GTXs in SLI, 4 gb of ram, 2 big Zalman coolers and 2 hard drives, drew [B]589 watts from the wall at 100% system load. [/B] And yet, if you believe the manufacturers' recommendations, you need a 750w psu for a system that's basically half of that. And some people are spending incredible amounts of money of 1000 or 1200w PSUs for single-processor system
[quote]Instead of clocking-back cores[/quote] What do you mean by clocking back? A Q6600 has the same clockspeed as an E6600. A QX6850 is the same speed as as an E6850, and so on. There is no "clocking back". Furthermore, max overclocks of Core2 duos and quads of the same stock speed are virtually identical. Pardon the expression, but you are totally talking out of your ass here. [quote]I like to keep my money in the bank, where it might actually do something for m
[quote] It does make a big difference in benchmark scores and that has to count for something. [/quote]It counts for something with benchmarks. The point is, benchmarks have jack to do with real world gaming. If, in any real world situation, a factory OC card does not allow you to increase detail settings or resolution while maintaining a playable framerate, what the hell does it matter if you get a few hundred extra 3dmarks? What return have you got for your extra money? Absolutely nothing
I think factory overclocked cards are a waste of money. You're paying a big premium for little, if any return. A standard card will OC nearly as far as the factory OC version, and while the difference might be apparent in benchmarks, it's probably not going to be noticeable elsewhere. From the HardOCP overclocked 8800GT roundup: [I] The real question is, “Do any of these OCed card versions truly give you a better gaming experience?” The fact of the matter is that we can’t see
Since when is a [B]pdf[/B] key reference card premium content? When the game comes in a nice metal box, that's premium content. A t-shirt, artbook, or spiral bound manual are premium content. Withholding the keycard from the non-collectors edition is just insulting.
[quote] so i told him i'd re-sell this one for 80% of then-current market value. the 8600's are going for about $180 still; i'll offer $150 and see if he bites at that number.[/quote]Do you mean you're thinking of paying $150 for a second 8600 for SLI? This is a poor choice IMO. You can get a single 8800GT for under $200 that will outrun SLI 8600s.
Thanks. I've never liked an RTS before but this looks interesting. I've had such a good experience with Stardock and GalCiv2 that I'm willing to buy Sins just on general principle :)
Does anyone know if Canadian Walmart stores will have Sins, and when?
Sites that test with canned benchmarks (or even by running cutscenes) are showing the X2 crushing the 8800 Ultra. Sites that use real gameplay are finding it quite a bit slower. I think an 8800GT will give you about 80% of the performance of the 3870X2 and cost less than half as much. The GT is definitely the sweet spot for high performance/value right now. Save a couple hundred bucks and put that into your monitor fund ;)
Did you sell your old card to recoup some of the cost? Even if that 20% in 3dmark carries over to gaming (I think 3dmark is pretty useless unless you like competing for 3dmark scores), 20% isn't nearly enough for me to justify a new card. More like 100% is necessary or I get severe buyer's remorse :D That's why I don't upgrade video very often unless there's a huge leap from one generation to the next, like when ATI came out with the 9700.
[quote]Also, they need to "turn on" spying on Minor Races. When you get the Jagged Knife event, or even a powerful Minor, you should be able to spy on them. RE: The Thalans I really hope these guys are getting some new stuff, because they are missing: 2. No access to "battle stations", even though Battle Stations 2 is in the Hyperion Starbases branch I found them to be completely unplayable. [/quote] +1 for espionage again
The new GTS didn't have much of a supply problem like the GT did. There's nothing really new about the G92, it's just a die-shrink and slight refresh of the old cards. nvidia doesn't have anything really new in the pipeline right now, ATI isn't pushing them very hard. Even the upcoming 9000 series is just more rehashed\renamed 8800s.
I destroyed the Korath and got the message that their ships had joined a number of other races. However, there are several Korath ships that still say they belong to the Korath. They sit immobile but respond when attacked. Savegame mailed.
There are 8800GTs, some with nice coolers, available for [link="http://www.ncixus.com/products/27328/88YFF6HUFEXX/Galaxy%20Technology/"]well under $200[/link] if you shop around and look for rebates. I don't know why so many people seem to be married to Newegg, there are often better deals to be found. Ncix's service is second to none and they pricematch :CONGRAT:
It was always influence. In fact I sent in a savegame and bug report a few months back because someone put a spy on my Innovation Complex and it seemed to reverse the influence bonus. My planets were in revolt even though no one else had any appreciable influence in the area.
[quote] Dagnabit . . . why not just delay the map editor, as many won't care about it anyway? You know what, we can't make all of you happy. We're not out to deliberately upset anyone so you have two choices: (1) be unhappy (2) deal with it. Your call. [/quote] Guess I should have put a smiley face, I thought using the word "dagnabit" was enough of a tongue-in-cheek indicator. I'm a crochety old fart, but not quite old
Stardock Forums
[quote] I turn down offers to buy Stardock several times a year. [/quote] I'll give you $5.39 (Canadian) and a lifetime subscription to [I]Cat Lover[/I] magazine. [size="1"] waits expectantly[/size]
Stardock Forums
Use SDC's archive function. Burn the archive to a disk.
GalCiv2 Forums