New video card on the way... what games?

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W.O.T. Stang

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
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363
Upgrading from a 7600GT to an 8800GTS 512mb, and I'm looking for some game demos to put it through it's paces now that I can play them in all their glory.

So far I have all 3 F.E.A.R. demos, hellgate london, crysis, UT3, Farcry, 3dmark, Bioshock, Test Drive Unlimited, HL2, World Of Warcraft, and a bunch of older games.

Any other suggestions of game demos / benchmarks / diagnostic tools to download that are worthwhile to try?

Thanks!
 
Don't install the hellgate london demo. Please. For your own sake, it is so terrible I felt like I had betrayed my pc by installing it.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
 
Much appreciated. Keep 'em coming!

I'm having trouble finding demos for STALKER and Oblivion, but i'll keep searching.

Is "The Witcher" a good game? It's bundled with my video card and looks interesting. That's another i'll have to try out. :)

Btw, what's so horrible about the hellgate london demo? I've tried it on this video card, and it ran ok for the most part unless i was in an open area (especially the one with the snow).
 
heh heh. I do EXACTLY the same thing whenever I get a new graphics card.

I think I used Serious Sam 2 to check out the 7800GS when I first got it.
 
mikeczyz said:
heh heh. I do EXACTLY the same thing whenever I get a new graphics card.

I think I used Serious Sam 2 to check out the 7800GS when I first got it.
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Yeah, it's awesome to see the games you've been missing out on in high detail when you could only play them at low-medium settings at a resolution that you need a microscope for :)

I cant wait! All my older systems have always been lacking either processor speed or gpu speed.. now I have both, and it's going to be great!
 
There is another thread in this sectione about the same thing.
A guy has a 8800gts 512mb on the way and wants to know the best games.

His thread is 3 pages long. Go check it out and see what you like.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1293240

My recommendations are:
Call of Duty 4
Gears of War
Half-Life 2 (mostly episode 2)
and ofcourse you gotta experience how crysis looks with that card.
 
Ron FTL said:
There is another thread in this sectione about the same thing.
A guy has a 8800gts 512mb on the way and wants to know the best games.

His thread is 3 pages long. Go check it out and see what you like.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1293240

My recommendations are:
Call of Duty 4
Gears of War
Half-Life 2 (mostly episode 2)
and ofcourse you gotta experience how crysis looks with that card.
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Excellent, thank you! I guess I should have looked before I posted. Downloads on all of those are in progress as I type. Is there a GoW demo? Or is it a retail only thing?
 
W.O.T. Stang said:
Much appreciated. Keep 'em coming!

I'm having trouble finding demos for STALKER and Oblivion, but i'll keep searching.

Is "The Witcher" a good game? It's bundled with my video card and looks interesting. That's another i'll have to try out. :)

Btw, what's so horrible about the hellgate london demo? I've tried it on this video card, and it ran ok for the most part unless i was in an open area (especially the one with the snow).
Click to expand...

Witcher is a great game but I would wait until they release a huge update/patch for it which should be sometime soon.
 
Theres nothing really exciting graphics wise on pc atm, other than Crysis...but you have to contend with the game itself first... ;)

I'd install Need for speed most wanted....still looks amazing and is fun as hell.
 
infect0 said:
Witcher is a great game but I would wait until they release a huge update/patch for it which should be sometime soon.
Click to expand...

QFT. I kind of wish I waited to buy THe Witcher instead of when it first came out. The new patch about to come out makes it sound like a whole new (better)experience
 
W.O.T. Stang said:
Much appreciated. Keep 'em coming!

I'm having trouble finding demos for STALKER and Oblivion, but i'll keep searching.

Is "The Witcher" a good game? It's bundled with my video card and looks interesting. That's another i'll have to try out. :)

Btw, what's so horrible about the hellgate london demo? I've tried it on this video card, and it ran ok for the most part unless i was in an open area (especially the one with the snow).
Click to expand...

That's because there are no demos for STALKER or Oblivion. But as soon as you start playing them, you won't play anything else.

I think most demos have been covered by now. I'll only add Enemy Territory Quake Wars to the list of demos, if you want to try a team-based multiplayer game.
 
Just made the jump after seeing the MSI card with the witcher for 194 after rebate.

I'll finally get to share the joy of owning an 8 series card lol. *Now that a newer generation is out ha*
 
N3mi5is said:
Just made the jump after seeing the MSI card with the witcher for 194 after rebate.

I'll finally get to share the joy of owning an 8 series card lol. *Now that a newer generation is out ha*
Click to expand...

I dont really count the 9 series a "new generation".. just a few slower and a few faster 8 series cards, and one with built-in SLI.
 
W.O.T. Stang said:
Upgrading from a 7600GT to an 8800GTS 512mb, and I'm looking for some game demos to put it through it's paces now that I can play them in all their glory.
Click to expand...

LOL! I'm on the same upgrade path. The new 8800GTS 512MB is on the way ($206.99 after $30 rebate from the Egg). I've played Bioshock, GOW, and COD4 on my 360 so I guess I'll have to pick up some other games. The last game I played through on my PC was HL2. Maybe I'll pick up Orange Box.
 
Don't waste your time on the third FEAR demo, the demo and game (PerseusMandate) were really cheap rip-offs of the original.

I'd spend money on everything else and play Gears of War last or on a console. I bought it for the PC and felt there was very little improvement over the XBox 360 release. The game was kind of buggy as well and would crash on ocassion which is very unusual for my system.

UT III demo might be a good recommendation, it will show off the unreal engine pretty well for you.
Consider buying Bioshock or D/L it from Steam......it's a very fun game, patch it before you play it.
 
Golden Monkey said:
LOL! I'm on the same upgrade path. The new 8800GTS 512MB is on the way ($206.99 after $30 rebate from the Egg). I've played Bioshock, GOW, and COD4 on my 360 so I guess I'll have to pick up some other games. The last game I played through on my PC was HL2. Maybe I'll pick up Orange Box.
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Your in for one huge surprise. 2 weeks later, and I'm still amazed at the differences I see! Just from a standardized performance standpoint, i picked up 5800 3dmarks in 3dmark '06. I think my CPU is actually bottlenecking me at this point before the videocard ever will.

Enjoy it! I know I am. It's sorta nice knowing you have the graphics horsepower to run practically anything you want.. especially since in the last 5 years i've only owned a geforce 2gts, geforce 3, the 7600GT, and now this!

Anyway, to keep the thread on topic, definitely pick up any demos of the recent games people have been listing above. Quite a few of them are very worth purchasing, it just depends on what you like.
 
Far Cry...I know it's old, but you can run it with HDR...awesome.
Don't get your hopes up too high about Crysis, I enjoy the game, but it bothers me that with my Q6600 and the 8800GTX, I still have most things set to medium except physics and shaders...never mind trying to get it to run at 19x12...forget it.
 
IMO if I hadn't played any pc games recently this would be my shopping list:

Call of Duty 4
Orange Box
The Witcher
Company of Heroes

And if you enjoy slower paced style RTS games:

Sins of a Solar Empire
Supreme Commander

There are a lot of good solid titles out but those IMO are must plays.

As for Unreal Tournament 3 I'd say skip it unless your a hardcore fan. Its solid but the player base (at least on the PC) seems really tiny (Like I've had problems finding a good full game of CTF Facing Worlds forexample) and outside of graphics and tweaks its not that much different from previous UT's.
 
I was saving a bunch of games to play on my G92 card as well :D I didn't see Timeshift recommended yet. Even though it's an oldie, check out CoD2 if you aren't burned out on WW2 shooters (and also MOH:A if you're still not burned out). CoD2 posted some pretty crap numbers with video cards upon release but it's a lot better with horsepower. If you have not played Condemned: Criminal Origins, I would highly recommend it.
 
W.O.T. Stang said:
Just from a standardized performance standpoint, i picked up 5800 3dmarks in 3dmark '06.
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You only got 5800 with the 8800gts? I got 7407 with my x2 4000 and my 8800GS o_O
Also think my 8600gt got 5183 :/
 
TopGun said:
You only got 5800 with the 8800gts? I got 7407 with my x2 4000 and my 8800GS o_O
Also think my 8600gt got 5183 :/
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I should have clarified that. I gained 5800 points upgrading from 7600GT to 8800GTS 512. 3300 before, just over 9200 now.

Also, i know they are old, but Quake 4 and Doom 3 with everything maxed is another suggestion.
 
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