To the PC gamers: are your PC's up to snuff for B2?

[Blue Lightning]

Bioshock 1 reduced my crappy Pentium D CPU to tears. Everytime I ran Bioshock, the varible speed fan for my CPU went into hyper-speed to run the game. My video card is powerful, but my weakness was the CPU. And I think the Unreal engine is more CPU dependant, than it is GPU (vid card) dependant.

Now after 1 1/2 years, I cant really run the game anymore and get better than say 6 to 10 frames-per-second. As you know, PC's slow down over time because they get cluttered. Defragging only helps a little. So it is time for me to get that new PC I have been wanting.

Are your PC's ready for Bioshock II? My guess is that B2's demands will probebly be even higher than Bioshock 1's were.

[Fhtagn]

Intel Q6600 and a Radeon HD4850. I'm fine.

[Maelias]

I have an 8 core Xeon workstation and I can always swap the workstation video card with my NVidia from the quad core system, so if I do play it on the PC, I'll be fine. I'll probably buy it for the PS3 though, as I'm not a fan of PC games when it comes to playing and collecting.

[JimmyTheCannon]

Pretty sure I'm fine... I bought this laptop in February, specifically for gaming.

[Unstoppable]

quad core, 3 gigs crucial ballistix ram, radeon 4870, should be good to go once I purchase it.

[Drow]

If Bioshock 1 ran pretty well on your computer, then I'm confident it will be the same with second one, since UE3 is generally known for pretty low system requirements [compared to other engines on similar level].

[Skaopivy8]

I don't think they will update BS2 so much as to strain your computer more than BS1 did. Of course it will look nice, but BS1 in itself looked more amazing (atmosphere, feel, texture, graphics) than any game I have ever played before on my PC. I think they will try and make it as playable on as many computers as they possibly can.

[rootbeertapper]

My PC can't run BS1 without the shader 2.0 Patch other than that it runs fine. Push comes to shove I will just wait until the public releases a similiar patch for BS2.

[zchri9]

Bioshock kills my PC, as is my pc is ****. Q6600 going to be up and running later this year. Might be better then my 3500+

Blue Lightning, Format your PC and reinstall windows, should help with the slow-ness

[The Dukenator]

Bioshock kills my PC, as is my pc is ****. Q6600 going to be up and running later this year. Might be better then my 3500+

If I recall, you have an Xbox 360.


My PC won't run either BioShock 1 or 2, so therefore I'm straying away from PC gaming and going directly to console gaming.

1.7Ghz Sempron 2400, GeForce 3 (don't ask, got it free in a trade), 512MB RAM.
No chance in hell I'm gonna upgrade.

[NinjaPanda]

I have a 2.8 GHZ AMD X2, 2 gigs of ram, and an Nvidia 9800 with 512 VRAM. I'm fine. I might get more ram before then though, but thats cheap.

[501105]

c2d e8500 @3,4ghz and a 8800gt extreme edition, the pc is ready for it

[CherryIcee]

Intel Core i7 2.93GHz Quad overclocked to 3.8GHz with a Noctua 120mm CPU Cooler
6GB of G.Skill DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit
ASUS P6T6 Revolution X58 Mobo
(2) GTX285 SLI
SILVERSTONE TJ10-BW Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower
ABS Tagan 1100W PSU (Modular)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Build 7057

And that's about all my wife would let me spend on my new pc with our income tax money lol

**The rest I parted from my last pc**

[G1B50up]

Q6600 Quad Core @ 3 Ghz with 6 GB of Ram. Vista 64, 8800 GT Video Card.

Yeah, I think it will handle it.

[Onyx]

Core 2 Duo E6750, 8800 GT and 4 GB of RAM. I think I'll manage.

[Fountainhead]

i have... a mac... ill stick to xbox360 for this one

[Atlas.]

Looking forward to seeing the specs when its released. I doubt my laptop will be able to handle this one though. Currently i can push playing Bioshock on high settings but i do get a bit of lag, sometimes freezes for a bit and loading screens take ages. Works fine on medium though. If Bioshock 2 is reasonably similar in spec then i may get away with medium (hopefully) Gotta get some screenshots

My spec should be ok other than the graphics card which is the problem thats causing the lag on high. My specs are:

3GB RAM
Core 2 Duo Processor T5750, clocked at 2 GHz
250GB SATA Hard Drive
Graphics card - NVidia GeForce 8400M GS (256MB dedicated, up to 1535MB avaliable)
Windows Vista Home Premium

Shame bout the graphics card. I thought it was better than it was, found out later. Can just push it to run Bioshock on high so might have a chance at medium hopefully...


but saying that im planning on getting a new PC at some point, so that may happen before Bioshock 2 comes out. Gonna pick a reasonably good one so can use it for games too

[Blue Lightning]

Bioshock kills my PC, as is my pc is ****. Q6600 going to be up and running later this year. Might be better then my 3500+

Blue Lightning, Format your PC and reinstall windows, should help with the slow-ness

Yeah I know, but I was thinking of how I had to turn Bioshocks graphics down even when the PC was clean, this Pentium is just too slow and its time anyway for an upgrade. Best Buy is finally carrying gaming rigs (took them long enough to get to that ), and their Gateway FX rig has the new Intel i7- 920 CPU with an ATi 4850 set up and 3 gig of RAM. They also offer a Alienware - Aurora Desktop with AMD Phenom™ X4 9550 Quad-Core Processor which looks good. I dont know what to get.

Here is what they have. (If I'm not allowed to post this link, please remove it instead of banning me. I dont know if I'm allowed to post it or not.)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&type=category

Anyway I like a plug and play system, so I would buy my new PC there.

[CherryIcee]

If you can go with the Intel Core i7, it gives better performance when put up against the same clock speed as a Phenom II (which aside from a new fab and a few tweaks isn't much different than the original Phenom.) However, that isn't to say that the Phenom II's aren't still a good deal given that they are cheaper, but if you can spend a bit more and go with a Core i7, it will be a better gaming cpu. Another thing I like about the Core i7's is that they are fantastic overclockers whereas the Phenoms aren't (although the Phenom II improves upon that.) But, if you are buying a prebuilt pc off the shelf then chances are the BIOS will be locked anyway, so you wouldn't be able to overclock regardless of cpu choice.

Another thing to consider is that a Core i7 pc is going to be more expensive anyway because the X58 motherboards are pricey and except for a few mobos, you'll need to go with DDR3 which is also pricier than DDR2 obviously lol. So not only is the Intel more expensive, so are the other required components. I guess it comes down to budget. You'll usually get more pc for your money by going with a Phenom II rig and performance isn't that far behind.

Heh Alienware pcs are so overpriced, it doesn't even come with a Phenom II

[Fhtagn]

Please, please, PLEASE. Anyone considering a new computer, take the time to look into buying the parts off of something like Newegg. It isn't that hard to put a computer together and it's certainly less expensive half over. When I built my current rig it cost me about $800, and Alienware wanted like $3000 for an inferior setup.

[japester]

I built my first custom rig 2 years ago (using mostly Newegg parts), and loved every minute of it. I prefer to play older games and get the most bang for my buck, so I bought midrange parts for the time.

Core 2 Duo: e6300 (with a slight overclock)
2GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT (again, slight overclock)
Win XP

I played BioShock with high details just fine, and I'm sure my relatively ancient hardware will play BS2 decently well. 9800GT's are fairly cheap, so I might upgrade before then.

[Blue Lightning]

If you can go with the Intel Core i7, it gives better performance when put up against the same clock speed as a Phenom II (which aside from a new fab and a few tweaks isn't much different than the original Phenom.) However, that isn't to say that the Phenom II's aren't still a good deal given that they are cheaper, but if you can spend a bit more and go with a Core i7, it will be a better gaming cpu. Another thing I like about the Core i7's is that they are fantastic overclockers whereas the Phenoms aren't (although the Phenom II improves upon that.) But, if you are buying a prebuilt pc off the shelf then chances are the BIOS will be locked anyway, so you wouldn't be able to overclock regardless of cpu choice.

Another thing to consider is that a Core i7 pc is going to be more expensive anyway because the X58 motherboards are pricey and except for a few mobos, you'll need to go with DDR3 which is also pricier than DDR2 obviously lol. So not only is the Intel more expensive, so are the other required components. I guess it comes down to budget. You'll usually get more pc for your money by going with a Phenom II rig and performance isn't that far behind.

Heh Alienware pcs are so overpriced, it doesn't even come with a Phenom II

Thanks for the info. If you look at the link I posted, I like all 5 of those gaming rigs...but I am leaning toward the Gateway FX because it does have the i7 CPU, and 3 gig of level 3 memory. It also sports an ATi 4850 HD GPU, which I think is a pretty serious card from what I hear. Is it enough? It only has 512 MB, but I think it has 32 lanes so I am thinking it will be plenty fast. BTW Cherry, Should I consider an extra 4850 and have em put it in for a crossfire setup?

Honestly I dont know what the other Best Buy rigs offer in the way of GPU's. I would assume they have either ATi or nVidia setups since they are gaming rigs. Ahh, the days of buying a mom and pop PC at Best Buy, with a generic Intel chipset as a vid card, are over.

[CherryIcee]

Thanks for the info. If you look at the link I posted, I like all 5 of those gaming rigs...but I am leaning toward the Gateway FX because it does have the i7 CPU, and 3 gig of level 3 memory. It also sports an ATi 4850 HD GPU, which I think is a pretty serious card from what I hear. Is it enough? It only has 512 MB, but I think it has 32 lanes so I am thinking it will be plenty fast.

Honestly I dont know what the other Best Buy rigs offer in the way of GPU's. I would assume they have either ATi or nVidia setups since they are gaming rigs. Ahh, the days of buying a mom and pop PC at Best Buy, with a generic Intel chipset as a vid card, are over.

The 4850 is an excellent midrange card and should handle BS2 easily at a decent resolution (although we won't know for sure until we get some actual specs from 2K.) 512MB of VRAM should be just fine. If you were going to play at resolutions over 1920x1200 then you may want to either upgrade the card or add another for crossfire if the mobo supports it, but otherwise I'd say you were good to go. The gateway pc has great specs for the price. My only concern would be that gateway is owned by MPC now and they filed for Chapter 11. I know because I work in the IT department for our local government and before moving to Dell, we used Gateway and they have stopped honoring the warranty on all of the city employee Gateway pcs. All of that money that was paid for support and replacements is now null and void. I don't know how or if that affects regular Gateway customers but it might be something worth asking about. I've read comments from newer Gateway owners that some have had great difficulty in getting their warranties honored (although it may be different going through bestBuy instead of Gateway directly.) Anyway, like I said, it may be worth asking about at least. Other than that, I think it looks like a great machine for the price.

[Blue Lightning]

Ah ok I will ask the geeksquad about that warrentee. Also, I assume that if the 4850 is an excellent midrange card, the highend ATi would be the 4870? I found an review done on the two, here is a piece of that review which makes me feel a lot better...

The subjective opinion, playing Supreme Commander, Portal, Half-Life 2, Telengard, Dawn of War, CoD4 and UT3 is that these cards are damn fast. My informal game playing involves going into a game and turning everything up to the max, then playing for a bit. If it is playable, it is playable. If it starts stuttering, we back off a bit on a few things in a semi-scientific way until the low frame rates are gone.

With the 3870s, you would get some bogging here and there, not bad, but it did happen. None of it required backing off more than one notch on the settings tabs in any of the games. But in a week playing with the 48xx cards, we got none of that. Even with the most torturous in-game settings, these cards never let us down. We could probably have gone into the ATI control panel and forced the issue, but with the in game settings, well, it just powered through things.

So I am feeling pretty confident about the 4850 right now, but I will ask if the MOBO accepts a crossfire setup (I would think it would). The only thing I worry about with crossfire is conflicts. I remember for a while a year back or so, players who were using a crossfire setup for HL2 in 64 bit Vista were having conflicts and problems running the game.

[Fhtagn]

Another good reason to construct your own gaming PC.

http://kotaku.com/5176299/these-gami...heir-own-cases

Apparently those Acer Predator systems have shoddy wiring and well...
ZAP 'EM AND WHACK 'EM! THE ONE-TWO PUNCH, BOYO!

[Hyplex]

E8500 @ 3.8Ghz
ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB @ 800Mhz/925Mhz
4GB of RAM

Should work okay.

[KonnA]

9800GT

E6550

4Gb RAM

I'm safe on medium, I'd say.

[FuKuy]

Are your PC's ready for Bioshock II?

Yep.

Mi PC rig is 2 years old, BUT still rocks EVERY PC game.


intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
4x 1024 MB OCZ XTC Platinum DDr2-800
XFX GeForce 8800GTX 768Mb

[dandano]

Even my more than four year old PC can play BS1 on high at 1920x1200. I should be fine for BS2.

Opteron 185 (dual core 2.6GHz)
Nforce4 A8N-SLI Deluxe
2 GB DDR 400
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series

It does slow down a bit when you get a lot of NPCs. But always better than 30 fps.

I would *never* pay for a geek squad warranty. Shady outfit. Invest the money you would have used to buy their "warranty" and buy a better computer. And build it yourself. It's not that hard.

[japester]

Even my more than four year old PC can play BS1 on high at 1920x1200. I should be fine for BS2.

Opteron 185 (dual core 2.6GHz)
Nforce4 A8N-SLI Deluxe
2 GB DDR 400
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series

LOL!

What part of that computer is 4 years old? The case?

[Target]

I was planning on building a new pc in june...so it should be fine for BS2

Current build:

AMD 4600 X2 dual core
4gb ram
9600gt

next build:

amd Phenom 9950 Black Edition quad-core
4gb ram
9800GT/GTX/something else, havent decided yet!

[japester]

I'm seeing a lot of quad cores--are any games taking advantage of the extra two cores? I remember everyone scrambling to put them in their gaming rigs when they first came out, and testing showed they were worse than a dual core. And only a few games were even taking advantage of the dual core design.

Now it seems like most games utilize the dual, but I haven't looked into the quad for a while. Has it caught on? (Or is it still just hardware bragging rights?)

[Target]

i play (or used to, until my internet went bad..) a lot of Supreme Commander with friends, and that uses as many cores as it can get its hands on!

Not sure about many other games though, but my reason for wanting one is...so i dont have to upgrade for a few more years - had my 4600 X2 for 2 years or so, and its time to update it!

[Maelias]

I'm seeing a lot of quad cores--are any games taking advantage of the extra two cores? I remember everyone scrambling to put them in their gaming rigs when they first came out, and testing showed they were worse than a dual core. And only a few games were even taking advantage of the dual core design.

Now it seems like most games utilize the dual, but I haven't looked into the quad for a while. Has it caught on? (Or is it still just hardware bragging rights?)

I don't believe many games actually support quad cores fully. I have an 8 core, but it's obviously used for work. I can only see the use of so many cores for design software that is CPU intensive such as 3D work.

The main workhorse when it comes to eyecandy in games is the video card. I can still run the original Bioshock on my fiance's dual core intel with full settings because of the video card on it. When I tried running it on my rendercow quad core, it didn't run much better using the same video card. (I haven't tried it on the 8 core, nor do I expect some mindblowing difference. It will probably perform worse because it has an NVidia Quadro FX 5600, which is not meant for gaming at all.)

[501105]

Might get a quad core especially for bioshock 2 (if there is improved water)

[AngelGraves13]

* Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit Edition
* Antec Nine Hundred + Antec Signature Series 850W Power Supply
* ASUS P6T Deluxe + Intel Core i7 940 + Zalman CNPS9900 LED w/ Arctic Cooling MX-2 + 12 GB Corsair Dominator i7 DDR3-1600
* eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 55mm & Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
* Dual Western Digital RE2 500 GB in RAID 0
* Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard + Razer Mamba Gaming Mouse + Destructor Professional Gaming Mat w/ ExactRest & Razer Mako 2.1 THX Speakers + Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset
* Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ + NVIDIA 3D Vision Glasses
* LG BH08 Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc Rewriter

I should be fine!

[vitiis]

My PC is wicked awesome and will have no trouble running it

[Blitzkrieg]

I'm seeing a lot of quad cores--are any games taking advantage of the extra two cores? I remember everyone scrambling to put them in their gaming rigs when they first came out, and testing showed they were worse than a dual core. And only a few games were even taking advantage of the dual core design.

Now it seems like most games utilize the dual, but I haven't looked into the quad for a while. Has it caught on? (Or is it still just hardware bragging rights?)

I think we'll see game companies start to utilize all 4 cores soon enough. If you've heard of a game called Alan Wake (from Remedy, the guys who brought us Max Panye), that game will need a quad core system to run it.

My Specs are:
Intel Core 2 Q6600
4GB RAM
2.4GHz
9800GTX

I think I can run Crysis on High to Max settings.

[Tremula Metacarpi]

I am terrified my PC won't be able to run it but we'll see I guess.
I'd definitely like to add some more RAM before.

[Blue Lightning]

You look terrified! (avatar) LOL what are your specs?

I tried to play Bioshock yesterday...it hung up every few seconds, and I was getting around 5 FPS and less. No way it will run B2.

I almost have enough for that new PC now...