Nameless Voice on 18/5/2009 at 11:18
Quote Posted by SneakyJack
Understood :) My current rig had a block of memory die and now is down to 512 MB of RAMBUS RD Ram (remember when that stuff was the wave of the future? Yeah, thats when I bought this system!) so I think 4 GB (and 8 GB when I pop the other two sticks in) will be a big difference to me. I've been suffering for a bit now :laff:
2.5gb is still a lot better than 0.5! :D
Windows XP 32 can address a maximum of 4gb, but 512mb is reserved by the operating system (so you only get 3.5gb).
I think that your video memory (1gb in your case) also comes out of that addressable space, so you're left with 2.5gb.
SneakyJack on 18/5/2009 at 20:19
I appreciate the suggestions on a different system but I already ordered the original one I posted ;)
Just needed to know if the one I had chosen would also play thief 2.
bikerdude on 18/5/2009 at 21:12
Quote Posted by Brethren
For the record, this is the rig Bikerdude setup for me, and it runs Thief 2 beautifully. I've since upgraded to a Radeon 4890 and a 500w power supply. Running Vista ultimate 32 bit.
Er brethern, what PSU did you 'upgrade' too.. as i spent a while looking for the right one for you..as that PSU I specc'd was bloody powerful for its wattage..
Quote Posted by SneakyJack
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA770-UD3 Motherboard - AMD 770, Socket AM2+, ATX, PCI-Express 2.0
Processor: AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad Core Processor Black Edition, Unlocked 2.50GHz, 4MB Cache
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Video Card - 1GB GDDR3
Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X 4096MB PC8500 Memory - DDR2 1066MHz Dual Channel
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200, 16MB
Case: CoolerMaster CM690 ATX Mid-Tower Case
Power Supply: Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan
DVD Drive: LG GH22NS40R DVD Burner - 22x DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 22x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 16x DVD-ROM
Operating System: Vista 64
Grand Total: About 650 dollars.
I plan on adding another 4 GB of memory
er..
the mobo your looking at is inferior to the one I specc'd
the cpu your looking at is inferior to the one I specc'd
the PSU your looking at is possibly inferior to the one I specc'd
And finally, you do know that opening a can-o-worms with thief and Vista64....
SneakyJack on 18/5/2009 at 21:28
I'll be fine, thank you :D
Renault on 18/5/2009 at 21:38
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
Er brethern, what PSU did you 'upgrade' too.. as i spent a while looking for the right one for you..as that PSU I specc'd was bloody powerful for its wattage..
I was getting squealing sounds (referenced in (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126309) this thread), and it sounded like it was coming from the PS. So, I RMA'd it, and figured what the hell, I'll get a little more power too. Ended up with the same brand and everything, just like you picked out (PC Power and Cooling), but 500w instead of 420w. The difference was only about $25. I was kinda going on the premise that it can never hurt to have more power. It also has two six pin power connectors for the video card, unlike the 420w model where you need to splice together two of the four pins connectors.
bikerdude on 18/5/2009 at 22:55
Quote Posted by Brethren
Ended up with the same brand and everything, just like you picked out (PC Power and Cooling), but 500w instead of 420w. I was kinda going on the premise that it can never hurt to have more power. It also has two six pin power connectors for the video card, unlike the 420w model where you need to splice together two of the four pins connectors.
Ah good man, PcP&C make v-good Psu's. Hmm I could have sworn the 420 had 2x 6pin pcie power connectors - my bad..
Hiatus on 20/5/2009 at 18:02
ATI DX10+ chips (HD2xxx and up) have a massive fps drop issues* in DE games (and many older D3D games - below D3D8), especially in WXP (particularly when there are particle-like effects visible effects on screen - like rain/smoke/water/snow etc etc) - so you've been warned (Nvidia DX10 chips are not much better, if any in that regard).
*) fps can drop even below 20 fps (when it should be hundred fps normally): thus making the games unplayable - many with these chips are forced to use older ddfix 1.1 version because of this (and ddfix 1.1 has numerous bugs/issues/side effects).
(ddfix 1.1 and lower essentially make DE games D3D9 apps - hence no slowdown with crappy new ATI/NV drivers/chips).
of course using ddfix (any version) is mandatory for T2/SS2 on these chips (DX10+ from both ATI/NV) because they have dithering support broken, making the games look terrible (if they even run at all) - see screenshots (+ no stars in the sky etc etc).
(
http://timeslip.chorrol.com/ddfix.html)
ps I'd stick with Intel CPU because its single thread performance (for DE games etc) is much higher of the current AMD ones, and with DE games being so CPU limited/intensive (engine wasn't really designed with scaling with GPU perf. in mind, and so relies on CPU instead) having higher single thread perf. per clock is important. And 1st gen AMD Phenom CPUs are particularly crappy in that regard.
Renault on 21/5/2009 at 04:52
Quote Posted by Hiatus
ATI DX10+ chips (HD2xxx) have a massive fps drop issues* in DE games (and many older D3D games - belo D3D8), especially in WXP (particularly when there are particle-like effects visible effects on screen - like rain/smoke/water/snow etc etc) - so you've been warned (Nvidia DX10 chips are not much better, if any in that regard).
I don't think this is true, unless I'm misunderstanding you . I'm getting 60 fps no matter what level I'm playing in Thief 2. I'm even getting fog in Vista.
Hiatus on 21/5/2009 at 15:54
what ddfix ver do you use?
don't have time to search more examples than these:
(
http://ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122596)
(
http://ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122684)
and note, I was talking about XP drivers mainly (Vista ones are better). And, maybe it got (partially) fixed/bettered recently (at least on Vista, ATI doesn't care about its XP drivers any more from my observations), as it has been a known issue for years now (since HD2xxx launch).
still, using ddfix is mandantory because of broken/lost dithering support (otherwise the games look very ugly).
@SneakyJack: oops, didn't read you had already ordered it (didn't have the time to read the thread thoroughly). Please be sure report back how it plays T2 etc - I'm curious if recent ATI drivers helped with fps/fog/lag/whatever.
A bit shame you went for 1st gen Phenom, not 2nd gen (and, optimally, Intel). Still, you should be fine.
SneakyJack on 23/5/2009 at 17:19
I got the game up and running after doing the single core fix and such in Vista 64 - it runs very smoothly in the highest resolution and whatnot but looks very ugly. Right now im in the "getting that damn ddfix to work" stage.
I tried the GUI version, didnt work. I tried the manual version - but hex editing the thief.exe is impossible due to there being no trace of DDRAW.dll to be changed to DDFIX.dll, so for now im stuck with ugly thief until I can find a solution.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post advice, it is appreciated :D
I'm now off to read a bunch of the vista ddfix stuff to see if I can find something that works - the GUI version just crashes and there is no value to manually hex edit in my copy of thief, so this might get interesting.
Edit: Success!
(
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=76531)
Found an already patched exe there that was hex edited and it allowed me to use the ddfix. Thief 2 is lookin' fine once again. Installed both the Enhancement Pack and the Sound Enhancement Pack and I'm back in thievin' heaven. :D
Edit 2: And got fog working in vista! :D
