Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

I haven’t been doing much gaming lately.  For the past two weeks I have been quite hooked on the Winter Olympics (Yay Canada!) and haven’t really been interested in gaming.  With the games closing this past Sunday however, I was back to the PC to get some gaming on.

I turned on the PC and soon after I heard a grinding noise.  I recognized the noise instantly, and knew it was my video card.  A few weeks after getting the card, the grinding noise would appear now and then.  It sounded like something was hitting the fan.  I took the card out and checked for any obstructions, but saw nothing.  I then did what any sensible person would do and blew on the card, put it back in the system, and powered back on.  The noise disappeared for about a month, until I heard it again the other night.

Once again, I took out the card, checked for obstructions, saw nothing, and put it back in the PC.  This time, after turning the PC back on, the noise was worse than ever.  It’s now a constant grinding noise which begins at system start up, and doesn’t stop.  I’m not going to lie, there was much cursing that ensued.  I just wanted to play a quick game, my chances to do so having become ever so rare, and my video card decided to annoy me.

That now leaves my gaming PC out of commission for however long it takes the RMA process to occur on the video card.  Sometimes I really hate computers.

It’s 2010 now and still no spaceships or hover-boards in sight.  It just doesn’t seem right.

I decided to ring in the new year with some good ol’ fashioned computer game playing.  My daughter was spending the day with the grandparents so I was free to do as I pleased.  I’ve neglected my PC somewhat over the last little while in favour of my Xbox 360.  Approaching six years old now, my PC isn’t quite up to snuff on the newer games, but it still chugs along well enough.  I suspect I’ll be getting a new PC some time this year, but in the mean time, this old beast will need to keep chugging for a little while longer.

Anyway, I fired up Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (received as a Christmas present) and settled in for some shootin’.  About five minutes in my PC froze up and I was left looking at a screen full of oddly coloured artifacts.  After a quick reboot, I re-launched the game.  A few more minutes and another crash.  One more reboot, one more crash.  Damn.

I launched Unreal Tournament III to see if it would run okay, hoping to determine if the crashes were because of Call of Duty or because of the video card, and UTIII crashed in a similar matter.  The difference this time however, was after rebooting, even my desktop was full of graphical artifacts.  The problem was no longer restricted to 3D games.  Crap.

Long story short, my video card is now toast.  The real sucky thing about it is that my PC still uses the AGP bus, which means my options for video cards are very limited at this point.  I’ll be heading out tomorrow to see if I can find a store with an AGP card in stock, and failing that, I guess I’ll have to buy online.  I’m currently looking at either the Radeon HD 4650 or the Radeon HD 3850.  Some quick Internet browsing is telling me that the 3850 is better for games, but really, at this point all I’m looking to do is prolong the life of this PC until I get a new one.  I’m under no delusions that this thing really qualifies as a “gaming PC” any more.

Off to a roaring start to the year!

After much begging and pleading (I’m not ashamed to admit it), I was finally able to break my wife down to the point where she cracked and yelled at me to, “just buy a stupid new monitor already.”  You see, for probably about six years now, I have been using a ViewSonic A90f+.  It was a fine monitor that served its purpose well, but it was definitely time to upgrade.  I mean, it was a CRT for crying out loud, taking up far too much real estate on my desk.  Its screen was a paltry nineteen inches.  Forget all those claims that “size doesn’t matter”.

After some quick research I settled on the Samsung Syncmaster T220.  It was gorgeous, not just in physical appearance, but the picture display itself.  The colours seemed perfect, and so much more clear and vibrant than my poor old ViewSonic.  I was very happy.

When my evening of gaming was done, I slid my keyboard tray back into the desk, and heard something.  My new monitor was rattling.  I pulled the keyboard tray out again, and heard it again.  I gently tapped the top of my desk, and from within the monitor housing, I could hear what could best be described as a metallic vibration.  After a few more “shake and tap” tests, I concluded that there must be a loose part in the monitor.

I went back to the store the next day and exchanged it for another.  I took it out of the box and gently tapped the top of it.  The rattle was in this one too.  I scoured the web looking for others who experienced this rattle but didn’t find anything.  I thought long and hard about it, but eventually concluded that I wouldn’t be able to live with this rattle; it would drive me nuts.  “Just don’t shake your desk,” my wife said.  Seems logical, but even sliding my keyboard tray in as gently as possible produced the rattle, and just knowing that it was there would eat away at me for the remainder of my days.  It had to go back.

Back once more to the store, this time for a full refund.  I checked the stores display model of the T220 and was able to reproduce the rattle.  I drove to three other stores (yes, I’m that nuts) all with display models that had the rattle.  I guess it’s normal.  It’s too bad too, because it was a fantastic looking monitor.

Some further research led me to pick up another Samsung, the Syncmaster 2232GW.  It had decent reviews and seemed to be a favourite amongst gamers.  I found the picture to be just fine, but not quite up to the T220 standards, although it was about $80 cheaper.  It would do just fine.

About an hour into my first gaming session with it, it turned off.  On its own.  Without being touched.  The power button did nothing.  I ended up having to physically unplug it, then plug it back in to bring it back to life.  Interesting.  I checked all the cables and made sure they were tight.

The next evening it shut itself off again.  Without being touched.  What…the…hell?  My patience with Samsung was done with.  Back to the store I went after yet more research.

While at the store – a different store that I hadn’t yet been to, I checked out their T220 display model, and once more produced the rattle.  I felt vindicated.  In the process I accidentally hit the power button (not really a button, but a “pressure area”) and turned the monitor off.  When I tried to power it back on, I got no response.  I tried and tried, pushing the “pressure area” over and over like a monkey poking at a piece of its own poop.  The monitor was dead, confirming my suspicions that I am The Bringer of Monitor Death, and reaffirming my decision to stay away from Samsung.

I ended up getting an LG W2284F.  It has a nice appearance and similar specifications to the T220.  Things did not start well however, when I opened the box and saw that the DVI cable was missing.  I hadn’t taken back the last Samsung yet so I just used the cable from that.  After one night of gaming on it, I’m quite pleased.  It’s got a fantastic picture and hasn’t rattled or shut itself off on me yet.  I’ve got my fingers crossed.

When I bought my PC about four years ago, I went as high-end as I could afford, anticipating it would last a solid five or six years, and it’s done quite well up to this point. It was only when I started playing Oblivion that I started to pine for a new video card despite being able to run the game smoothly at mid-range settings. I’ve never had a problem running Everquest 2 on the “balanced” setting, and it’s always looked nice enough for me, but I still wanted more. Having an older motherboard with an AGP bus had severely limited my video card upgrade options until the announcement of the Radeon X1950 PRO, and I wanted one instantly.

After several consecutive years of abysmal failure in the annual hockey draft I enter, I came through this year and took top prize. With my winnings, I decided to purchase the Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO to replace my Radeon 9800XT. EQ2 was the first game I launched after installing the card, and out of curiousity I cranked the settings up to the max. Surprisingly, I found the game to be quite playable (and gorgeous) depending on which zone I was in. I was grouped with my wife in Ruins of Varsoon and got a consistent 40 frames per second. East Freeport was another story however, and the game became a slideshow in that zone. I now run the game at high quality most of the time, knocking it back down to balanced for larger raids. I did notice that balanced on the new card looks much better than balanced did on the old card. The colours seem more vibrant, the view distance seems greater, and there are lots of little details that show up now that didn’t before. I’m definitely quite happy with the upgrade.

Of course, I had to try out all my other games that I no longer play just to see how they looked. Half Life 2 looked and played amazingly at maxed out settings; so much so that I’m going to try and play through it again at some point. I reinstalled Doom 3 and got a constant 60 fps while running at max settings. The only problem with Doom 3 was that I thought the game sucked, so once I saw how it looked and played, I uninstalled it. Oblivion looks absolutely amazing and runs quite well also. I’ll definitely be spending some time in that world over the next little while. I’m very curious to see how much of a difference it’ll make in Vanguard. I bought the game the day it came out, but I haven’t installed it yet (a story for an upcoming post).

All in all, I’m hoping this new card adds another couple years onto my computers life, and so far it’s looking pretty good. I’m also pleasantly surprised at how quiet the card is. I read a few reviews that said the fan on it can get quite loud while running, but it’s actually quieter than my old card, so colour me happy. Now, I have no idea what pixel or vertex shaders are, but I do know that my games all look and play beautifully.

Just for the curious, my system is as follows:
Intel Pentium 4, 3.4 GHz
2 GB 400-MHz DDR SDRAM
Sound Blaster Audigy 2