How's this for a new mything computer?

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

In desperate need of one. I get 12 fps max, 2-4 fps on water maps and in heavy carnage games. my usb ports all are shot, and cant use a mouse. duct tape is holding my lcd case together, and the middle of my screen is a convex-looking valley where my screen bashed off the metal poles underneath my bar.


Dell Inspiron 17"

SYSTEM Inspiron 17R
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Bluetooth Dell Wireless 365 Internal Bluetooth (V2.1 + EDR)
PROCESSOR New 2010 Intel® Core™ i3-370M (2.4GHz, 4Threads, 3M cache)
BATTERY OPTIONS Lithium Ion Battery (6-Cell) – Up to 3 hours, 37 minutes of battery life*
DISPLAY 17.3" HD+ (1600 x 900) WLED Display with TrueLifeâ„¢
SOUND OPTIONS HD Audio 2.2 Support SRSâ„¢ Premium Sound with Subwoofer
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive) - w/ Roxio Burn 1.0
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless DW1501, 802.11 g/n 1x1 Half Mini Card
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
ACCIDENT AND THEFT PROTECTION 1 year LoJack for Laptops Standard Theft Protection

MEMORY & HARD DRIVE 4GB DDR3 Shared Dual Channel Memory + 500GB 5400RPM HDD edit
VIDEO CARD 1G ATI Mobility Radeonâ„¢ HD5470 edit
SERVICE PLAN 1 Year Basic Service Plan


total is $699.99

it comes stock as 599.99 with integrated video card, but i am opting for the 1gb ati radeon card.

i dont need it for much else, though i'd need to install microsoft office at some point, but for basic essentials, and to run myth, is this a pretty good deal? and what kinda fps would i get on this kinda setup?

[capital]

Perhaps one of myth programmer will chime in if i'm wrong, but the AMD/ATI graphics cards don't seem to mesh as well as those from nvidia for hardware rendering. Consider an nvidia card instead.

[Pyro]

Fixes along the way have been made to deal with past issues with AMD/ATI stuff. So I wouldn't worry about that as long as you have the latest drivers installed.

I don't know how that computer will take Myth, but if I had to guess by looking at the list of parts it should do more than fine. At the very least better than what you were used to.

[Melekor]

Perhaps one of myth programmer will chime in if i'm wrong, but the AMD/ATI graphics cards don't seem to mesh as well as those from nvidia for hardware rendering. Consider an nvidia card instead.

NVidia undoubtedly has the best OpenGL drivers of any vendor, so in absolute terms nvidia will give you the best fps/$ in Myth under OpenGL. Since we added the DX11 renderer in 1.7.2 though, ATI should be competitive again.

And realistically, any non-ancient hardware should run either GL or DX at 60fps. We even tested 1.7.2 on some netbooks and got ~50fps with detail textures. In fact I feel that "mything computer" is a bit of an oxymoron because just about everything should be able to run Myth (issues with super-ultra-highres-HD sprites aside).

[punkUser]

Agreed with Melekor. Basically anything not ancient should run it fine nowadays. Water maps will still slow netbook-class machines somewhat in hectic moments (wight explosions and such), but the machine you're talking about is a "proper" laptop... no doubt it will easily run >60Hz everywhere.

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

opengl has crappy graphics compared to direct3d though. i want good fps with direct 3d. so an nvidia card would work better? it doesnt give the option for it, so mb i need an aftermarket one.

[Pyro]

OpenGL is better than Direct3D unless you have old hardware that was before OpenGL's time or you didn't upgrade the drivers for the graphics card. Unless you meant the new DirectX option which will only show up on Vista and 7 if your card is directx 10 or 11 compatible.

[punkUser]

Yeah let me lay this out clearly...

Direct3D: bad, old, missing lots of features, slow. Only use if absolutely necessary... I'd seriously consider even using software over this.

OpenGL: good, new, portable, fast, includes all features on all operating systems.

DirectX 10/11: same as OpenGL except only supported on Windows Vista/7 and with newer video cards. Performance may be slightly better or worse than OpenGL depending on your system - try each if you can. Quality will be basically identical.

i.e. use DirectX 10/11 or OpenGL. Everything is else outdated badly now.

[Melekor]

opengl has crappy graphics compared to direct3d though. i want good fps with direct 3d. so an nvidia card would work better? it doesnt give the option for it, so mb i need an aftermarket one.

LOL, that's a good one Krok. Direct3D 5, the API from 1997, has better graphics than OpenGL. Right.

(I really hope you are joking/trolling/etc, otherwise you need to get your eyes checked - You might need coke-bottle glasses.)

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

no, the graphics when i use direct 3d are the best for me. they are absolutely terrible on software, even on maximum settings, and even slower on software. openGL is rough and doesnt work any faster for me.

no im not trolling, im not a freaking computer nerd so i dont know any of this shit. i dont know what the fuck direct x 11 means or opengl rendering or w/e

[GodzFire]

Krok......trust me, you must be doing something wrong then.

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

how am I doing ANYTHING wrong? im putting on the proper settings. direct 3d is the best graphics i get. open gl comes close with all options checked, but its still blocky and resembles software.

[punkUser]

Can you post screenshots? There's no way D3D should ever look better than OGL. Particularly since OGL supports detail textures.

[ThreeTigerSilverWind]

On my laptop, Myth also looks much better on Direct3D than OpenGL. I have an old Dell with an ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 (with updated drivers). On Direct3D I get 60 fps and much better graphics. On OpenGL, the terrain is more grainy, the units are not as sharp, and my fps is lower.

I did try playing Myth on some newer i7 laptops and the graphics were better on OpenGL than Direct3D on those machines.

[vinylrake]

i can believe krok's ancient graphix card renders better in direct3d than openGL, openGL didn't really work that great for me until i got a newer than 10 year old mac.

the moral krok: you don't have to know what the gfx experts are talking about, just know that even though you CURRENTLY get better rez using direct3D on your ancient PC, when you get your NEW PC, OpenGL is going to be what you will be using - so just get a gfx card that does OpenGL well and you;ll be fine.