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Post by Shell on Apr 14, 2007 0:24:10 GMT
That sucks Kate..*Shakes fist at your graphics card* I'll keep my fingers crossed for your birthday wish
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Post by arinthea on Apr 14, 2007 11:48:06 GMT
Sorry to hear that Kate, hope you get another one for your birthday.
PC's can be a handful sometimes :hissyfit: On my previous graphics card, my fan broke. So my card kept overheating, that was a nightmare. My PC kept shutting down, right in the middle of things. I don't think I've ever bugged my husband as much as I did then.
Hope your folks take pity on you and get one before your birthday :tup:
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 13:04:25 GMT
Thanks for your messages guys! I'm making sure that whenever I'm sitting down with my parents I drop my Birthday present into conversation - just to let them know with subtle hints that a Graphics card is what I really want! Speaking of which.....how long have you had your graphics card? just wonderin cuss I was planning on getting the same one. ;D I upgraded my computer about two years back, so that means it's two years old. Possibly more, my memory is always a little fuzzy. But I have to say before you purchase my card, you have to know that it's not the best card in the world - the only reason my Graphics look so great is because I don't use the in-game picture taking and use Fraps to take my pictures, and then resize them in Photoshop. The prices on ATI Gfx cards have gone down considerably recently because of the release of the latest nVidia 8800 series - possibly the best cards on the market at the moment. But boy, they're expensive! Being an ATI fan-girl I'm toying between these two cards for my Birthday: www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119956OR www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119729They're the latest ATI Gfx cards, and have had raving reviews from everyone. My friend has one and can't stop raving about it - however, my best friend has one of the new nVidia cards and hasn't stopped raving about that. But ATI wins hands down everytime for me, being I'm such an ATI fan girl. But I suppose one day I will go over to the nVidia side. I understand you might not have the money to buy such a card like the one I want - I think the second card would be about 250$ ? However, before you go buying mine, I want to let you know that there are BETTER cards on the market. Ok, they might not be as cheap as the X850's - but buying a card that is a few steps up would work out better in the long run. For instance, check out these (I'm sorry, British prices... but I'm sure if you search the name of the cards on Google you'll get some American stores up): www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/118618/rb/26922356359^ I think this card is one step down from the X1950's, it may be a little on the pricey side but it's probably second best! www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/118281^ That's a mighty fine contender - I'd probably recommend that. The only reason I'm saying this Anti is because my card - the X850 - compared to what is on the market at the moment is much out of date and soon everyone will have the nifty X1950's and you'll probably want to upgrade again relatively soon after getting the X850. Buying a card which is a couple of steps up from the X850 will probably keep going for a while yet! The Gfx-card market is a very clever one - no sooner have you brought the most expensive, latest model on the market, they bring out a flashier one!!! However, it's all very well saying this but you need to make sure all of these cards are able to go into your computer - so check your motherboard details! I'm thinking of purchasing a new processor for my computer, and luckily I can remember all my motherboard information so I know what I'm looking out for. There's nothing worse than buying something which is all singing, all dancing, then to find that when you install it that it doesn't work! DOH! Anyways, enough of my blabbing. I hope I've advised you a little - but if you want to disregard my advice I don't mind. All this comes from having two friends who are complete and utter GEEKS when it comes to computers... as well as my dad, he knows everything. EDIT: Meh, cant' spell - and that isn't good when I'm trying to be geeky!
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Post by hawkeye on Apr 14, 2007 16:00:01 GMT
awwwwwwwwwwwwes well Kate, thats lame I hope you get the card as a gift *resisted making a lame joke* but good luck on the exams!
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Post by Antilife on Apr 14, 2007 16:25:19 GMT
hahaha! yeah, I understand kate. but, the thing is.....in america those graphics cards are about 250-400 dollars. So, it would be awsome to get those really nifty ones....(in fact I think I can get a really nice graphics card for about $100...but it would have to be on sail) Another porb. is that our compy is about 6 years old. It's extremly crappy.....not at all what i need to play the sims at the level I want to.
Compared to my graphics (which I belive if you took the lowest model on the market right now.....it would be about 10 times lower than that....yes! it's thatr out of date!) your's is amazing! I never knew that the out-of-game screen shots were that great! how the heck do you take them? But, yeah.....I guess that would be something to think about. You are the only one who's graphics I've ever really thought about getting. But, i guess there are others that could be better out there. I'll check some of them out......Thanx, kate!
PS: How does the X1650 stand in the running of GCs?
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 17:00:26 GMT
Here's my guide to the way I take screenshots: 1. Open Fraps. This is a program which allows you to take pictures in game - much like the print screen button but without all the hassle. You set it up to be assigned to a button, and when you're in game and you see something you want to take a picture of, you just hit that button, and it automatically saves the image to a specific folder. 2. Load TS2 and go into a lot, any lot! 3. It's basically the same procedure as using the in-game button to take screenshots - but instead of hitting that button, I hit the button that's assigned to Fraps. 4. Once I've finished in game, I quit and then hit my desktop. From there I load up Adobe Photoshop and navigate to my folder for Fraps - which I'll call "Fraps images". 5. In Photoshop I choose the size I want for my pictures - I use 600x450 for large pictures, 420x315 for my Legacy-sized pictures. 6. Once it's created a new Photoshop document, I open a screencap from my "Fraps images" folder and use the "scale" tool, and normally set it to 40%, 50% or 60%, depending on what I've got in the picture. 7. Once I've done that, I usually cut the newly scaled image and paste it into the new Photoshop document I made earlier, moving it around and such until I get a composition that I'm happy with. 8. I flatten the layers and then hit save - I usually save my images as high quality .jpg's. And that's it! It's kind of a long winded way, and I do sometimes get bored with the amount of pictures I have to resize - doing 75+ is the death of me - but to hear people saying (like you) that my graphics are really good it makes it feel worth it. Anyway, if your computer is 6 years old, I would perhaps suggest going for the whole shabang and updating everything - some of the new things these days aren't made with older models of components in mind. Is your computer shared with the rest of the family? Or do you have your own? Which ever way I think you should talk it over with your parents and see if they would be prepared to splash out on a whole new computer - as you said prices in America are almost double what they are here, being as the dollar is so low. So I can understand what may look like a relatively good deal to me may be really expensive for you. As for the X1650 I was reading a thread over at the tech support boards at S2C and someone recommended this: Arrrgh click here, the link is longIt's an AGP card which would require an AGP slot on your motherboard. This card would be useless if you have a PCI slot - however I'm probably thinking you have an AGP slot if your computer is 6 years old. Do you know if you have an AGP or PCI slot?
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 17:04:05 GMT
awwwwwwwwwwwwes well Kate, thats lame I hope you get the card as a gift *resisted making a lame joke* but good luck on the exams! Oh, and by the way I'm intrigued - what was the "lame joke"?
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Post by Antilife on Apr 14, 2007 17:25:25 GMT
Thanx, kate! Where do you get frapps? And do you download Photoshop from their site or do you own a copy. Cuss, whenever I download photoshop from their website (I might not be dwonloading the right one, actualy) it says that what i'm loading up is a messed up file. (so, I think I'm not downloading the right thing.....)
Hmm....I think I'm going to seariously think abou getting the x1650. Currently at best buy it's going for about $120-$150 I think. Which is a really good price range for me. Kinda odd, actualy. The x800 (not the x850, mind you0 goes for about $250. CRAZY!!! :mindblow: So, if they were even selling the x850 is would be insainly prised.
Actualy, our compy is sooooo old it has a pci....not even an agp. It might have gone differently in the uk....but for some reason they started off with the pci....then went to agp....then with back to pci and gave the express. *shrugs* oh, well. Poeple in america are insaine!
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 17:31:42 GMT
Nono, PCI-express is good - slowly AGP is being phased out into PCI. It's better to have PCI. I've got PCI-E. I gave a link to Fraps above - click on the word "Fraps" next to my number 1. As for Photoshop I own a copy - that's an advantage of having a dad who "knows" a lot of people. Hehe.
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Post by Antilife on Apr 14, 2007 17:45:36 GMT
haha! Yeah, But I think that PCI express cards still won't go into our computer. I belive (i'm probably not right) that express cards require a newer form of PCI compatability slots. oh and thanx for the think.
BTW: where did you get your Photoshop?
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 18:09:16 GMT
My dad knows a guy who gets things cheap - how, I do not wish to enquire - but this guy gave my dad a free copy.
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Post by Antilife on Apr 14, 2007 18:33:46 GMT
Awwww.....I sure wish my dad knew someone who got things from stealing in the mafia. Oh, wait, did I just say that? I meant a guy who is filthy rish and doesn't what to do with his money but buy things fro his frineds. No, that's not it either! Either way, you're a lucky girl (or man....aprently from dizzy's thread....)
Oh well. I'm currently downloading creative suites 3 (I think that's what it's called). It sure is taking forever. *sigh* but, I'm sure it will be worth it. ;D
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 18:43:03 GMT
Hahahaha, I'm not really a man. Another program that is well worth a download is Corel Paint Shop Pro - used that before I went over to the Photoshop side. Top notch!
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Post by Antilife on Apr 14, 2007 18:46:15 GMT
Yeah, that would be one thing to consider now that I just found out (after about 10 minutes of downloading) that our compy cna't run photoshop. it wasn't actualy cs3.....don't know why I thought that. it's actualy photoshop premier elements 3.....*sigh*
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Post by Kate on Apr 14, 2007 18:50:50 GMT
Photoshop CS3?! Damn, I didn't even though that was coming out! I've got CS2 and have no want of trying out CS3 as of yet.
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Post by Antilife on Apr 14, 2007 19:00:00 GMT
Hmmm.....i'm wondering why this thread hasnb't gone to the next page yet...wait, never mind.
Wow! you cs2??? that thing is like $1000?!!! Yeah, so i would have tried to download cs2 but not ionly does my coputer not suport it, but they got rid of like all of their cs2 downloads and they're waiting on their cs3 downloads to be finished. *sigh*
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Post by Piñacolada on Apr 14, 2007 22:04:10 GMT
Aww no! Here I was coming back for my update I missed yesterday.. and I find this?! Poor you Kate! So sorry to hear about your computer! Must be dreadful.. Though I do agree it's good it's not there to distract you during your exams! I can't believe I've managed to get some work done and not be tempted into playing.. if only I could stop myself from leaving the house to get away from it so often I'd be sorted! Anways, like everyone else, hope you get your birthday wish and it all gets sorted soon
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Post by Kate on Apr 15, 2007 7:00:36 GMT
Thanks Katie! :hug: ~*~*~*~*~ Just another update. I have been recently having computer problems, which unfortunately ended in having to reformat my computer. I've lost all of my data, so that means I'm going to have to start my game all over again. I'm unsure of whether I'm going to start another Legacy, and if I do it won't probably be until late June - when my exams have finished. Sorry to do this to you again guys Guess I don't have much luck with legacies. Keep rocking. :rnrs:
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