|
Can Your Old Athlon 64 Still Game? |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Chris Tom
|
|
Monday, 27 October 2008 11:42 |
|
Tom's asks if your old Athlon 64 can still game. It certainly can as we have found out at Tek Republik as we went from single core Athlon 64s, and 7900GTs to dual core, and then to the 9600GT earlier this year. We are happily playing Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, and more. There is no clear-cut answer to the question about how much CPU is needed for gaming. It depends on the individual game and desired detail levels. Different games, and even levels of detail in a game, will stress difference components of the system, so it’s important to have a balanced system if you hope to enjoy a wide range of games. Buying too much GPU is a waste of money if the CPU is holding back your performance. Likewise, not enough GPU will limit the resolution, detail levels and eye candy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_candy you can enjoy. |
|
Written by Chris Tom
|
|
Tuesday, 14 October 2008 12:04 |
|
OCZ now has 64 bit Vista drivers for their neural impulse actuator. You can find the details here. After much anticipation from Gamers and Enthusiasts, the 64-bit Windows Vista drivers are now available for OCZ’s ground-breaking Neural Impulse Actuator (the nia). New drivers have been in constant development since the release of the nia, and with this latest availability gamers using 64-bit Vista can now fully integrate the nia into their systems as a revolutionary new gaming device. |
|
Written by Chris Tom
|
|
Friday, 03 October 2008 09:22 |
|
Eve Online has gone 64 bit. They dev blog here about a new stackless IO tech that increased their concurrent pilots playing, but that introduced a new problem. They needed more memory so they migrated their network technology to 64 bit. Ok, so it is over 5 years after 64 bit came out, but we will cut them some slack. I have played some Eve, and it was fun, but man, I don't have the time for more than one MMO, and currently that MMO is Warhammer Online. CCP porkbelly wrote a dev blog three years ago entitled "64 Bits" where he described our first attempts at compiling the EVE server as a 64-bit program and the main reason for doing so: Access to more memory. At that time we were not able to complete the 64-bit migration since the old network technology did not work correctly as a 64-bit program. Having replaced the old network technology with StacklessIO we were in the position to continue that work.
And we started it, completed it and deployed EVE64 last week! Yes, we pulled it off in a single week! That might almost sound recklessly fast to some but this was achieved with a strike team that stepped up to the challenge. There is a lot of enthusiasm within CCP today to tackle the lag monster now that we have this new platform to build on.
The EVE server runs on a cluster of blades and is divided into proxy nodes and server nodes. The EVE clients connect to the proxy nodes, which act as dispatchers and are also an outer layer of defense for the server nodes that run the solar systems simulation. |
|
Free 7 Day Warhammer Online Trials At Tek Republik! |
|
|
|
|
Written by Chris Tom
|
|
Monday, 29 September 2008 11:35 |
I have been playing MMOs for a long time. How long you ask? Well since Ultima Online came out. Of course we are in Austin where the MMO was created by Richard Garriot at team at Origin. Since that time I almost had a job there after two interviews back in college, and I've been fortunate enough to interview Lord British at the Austin Game Conference. From Ultimate I went on to Everquest, and Dark Age of Camelot, to World of Warcraft. Each time I played a bit less since real world responsibilities. I've also dabbled in other MMOs like Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, Eve Online, City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa, and Age of Conan.
I have been playing Warhammer Online as of late. I preordered, and Mythic has done a good job. I played DAoC for a couple of years, and it was solid, and it is clear Mythic built on that for Warhammer. The best part is you don't have to grind killing rabbits, or zombies, or whatever. You can actually do player versus player, realm versus realm, public quests, or just your normal quests starting off at level 1. I have level 10 swordmaster on Saphery server, and so far I'm liking it. It isn't perfect, and I can't say what it will be like at level 40, but with the free 7 day trial we are offering at Tek Republik, which is Austin's only, and best gaming center and computer shop. It is a no brainer to try it out. We have a number of our World of Warcraft players liking it.
If you want a free trial here is how it works. You first need an account at the Mythic site. Then you get a code from us for the free 7 day trial. You do not need a credit card, and there is no level cap. If you decide you want to keep your characters then all you have to do is buy the game, and add that key with the full game to your account. Then you can keep whatever you did during the trial. If you like the idea of a free 7 day trial at launch for a major MMO then please Digg it here so that EA knows that this is a good program, and continues to do it for future titles. Please understand this is the first time a free trial of this type has been made available at the launch of a major MMO. This is big news, and I hope to see more of it. |
|
Last Updated on Monday, 29 September 2008 11:57 |
|
