New Vegas. New PC.

[SimuLord]

So I got New Vegas on launch day and have spent my free moments over the past three days playing it---and what jumps out at me (besides the fact that this is as close to answering the question of "what if Fallout 2 used Bethesda's iteration of Gamebryo?" as I've seen) is that my computer REALLY doesn't like it when there are too many NPCs on the screen (a certain early-game quest in Goodsprings really drove this point home).

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and get myself a new gaming PC. Dell Studio XPS 9100. Core i7, Radeon HD 5670, 9 GB of RAM, yeah...it'll last a while. Cost me $1200 (because I don't mind paying a couple hundred extra bucks to let someone else build it for me and provide 2 years' warranty support, plus Dell's excellent credit terms mean I have a year to pay it off with no interest).

It'll get here on November 8th. In the process, an old Dell XPS 410 (which I bought in 2006) will be retired and is a lock for first-ballot Hall of Fame of Electronics induction---that old desktop served me very well and could probably have had a few more months of service squeezed out of it had FNV not come along.

For Discussion: What's the most recent game that made you upgrade to a new PC in order to play it?

 

[Woodsey]

Err...

The NPC thing could be a problem with the game, not your PC. Seriously, rockpapershotgun mentioned it in their review.

"there?s a pretty awful bug with Windows 64 bit that dropkicks your framerate if you?re standing close to several people at the same time."

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/10/21/wot-i-think-fallout-new-vegas/

Anyway, I won a Radeon HD 5770 (brilliant card) from PCG the other month so that was my last major update since getting the PC 2 years ago (I doubled the RAM earlier this year though).

I've now been enjoying Crysis: Warhead, since it wouldn't run with my last card at all (even though Crysis ran on High/Very High with it). Great frame-rate, Enthusiast settings.

I came.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Sounds like a good PC, if a bit pricey.

I believe the most recent was a fair while back... Battle for Middle Earth 2 if memory serves.

 

[Imp Poster]

I actually did that for Mass Effect 2, but I really needed an upgrade as well. I still had a dual core cpu. There are some good deals with pre-made Dell computers at Costco and such.

 

[BenzSmoke]

I don't think that New Vegas [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8241-Experienced-Points-Obsidian-Does-it-Again] is worth getting a new PC for. But, hey, to each his own.

OT: I got my new laptop to play Bioshock. However, I've been playing Minecraft more.

 

[Vrach]

I'd suggest trying this little thing out:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34778

I had some lag at start so looked around a bit. That little .dll sorted it just fine, runs perfectly smooth now

 

[Agayek]

So I got New Vegas on launch day and have spent my free moments over the past three days playing it---and what jumps out at me (besides the fact that this is as close to answering the question of "what if Fallout 2 used Bethesda's iteration of Gamebryo?" as I've seen) is that my computer REALLY doesn't like it when there are too many NPCs on the screen (a certain early-game quest in Goodsprings really drove this point home).

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and get myself a new gaming PC. Dell Studio XPS 9100. Core i7, Radeon HD 5670, 9 GB of RAM, yeah...it'll last a while. Cost me $1200 (because I don't mind paying a couple hundred extra bucks to let someone else build it for me and provide 2 years' warranty support, plus Dell's excellent credit terms mean I have a year to pay it off with no interest).

It'll get here on November 8th. In the process, an old Dell XPS 410 (which I bought in 2006) will be retired and is a lock for first-ballot Hall of Fame of Electronics induction---that old desktop served me very well and could probably have had a few more months of service squeezed out of it had FNV not come along.

For Discussion: What's the most recent game that made you upgrade to a new PC in order to play it?

The primary reason behind your lag is most likely to be terrible coding on the part of Obsidian. The game simply does not operate at an acceptable level, regardless of hardware, on Windows Vista or 7 systems. Whenever more than 1-2 NPCs show up on screen, the framerate drops to the single digits.

As for the discussion question, the last game I upgraded my PC for was Crysis. I went all out and splurged on the thing, and it can still run any (not terribly optimized) games at max settings with little to no problems.

 

[stiffy]

After some installation trouble.....it first booted at 1am, the night MASS EFFECT 2 came out.
i7 CPU 950, 6.00 GB OCZ ram, ATI Radeon HD 5850, Gigabyte X58A-UD3R motherboard ~$1300

I re-started a new game(and replayed everything I own!) and haven't looked back sense....say goodbye to you former social life.

Btw...your new will rig smoke on New Vegas....I've experiences a couple of crashes, but nothing notorious like the console versions. A friend has played the PS3 version too and said, on a good pc, the visuals are far superior
....just made it to Novac

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Never upgraded PC for a game. However, I have made a PC upgrade that turned out beneficial in my gaming [guess that's a given though].

 

[SimuLord]

I'd suggest trying this little thing out:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34778

I had some lag at start so looked around a bit. That little .dll sorted it just fine, runs perfectly smooth now

I'll give that a shot.

(but really, I just wanted an excuse for a PC that would run new games on Ultra High again like this old dog used to back in '07-08.)

 

[Asdalan08]

I'll never upgrade my PC for a game NEVAR! Although I do wish I could play Portal in full screen without it lagging like hell... I have to play it at about a 36th of the screen in order for it to stop lagging in the Final Battle... stupid Neurotoxin effects...