Valve HQ upgrades computers; puts everyone elses to shame.

[largon]

I have no idea how this is news. Or relevant, let alone interesting, for people not working at Valve.

[Syn.]

Why? They only develop games that you could max out with hardware less than half as powerful as the 780i rig, nevermind the i7.

Just because they publish games with lower requirements it does not mean they do not need a beefy desktop to develop them.

they had those computers and they put out l4d with last gen graphics.
wtf.

Do you need any better graphics? Would that have made L4D a better game? Those are questions that Valve has worked through using this:

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

Its not a question of what PC they have but what PC's customers have.

[TheKarmakazi]

I have no idea how this is news. Or relevant, let alone interesting, for people not working at Valve.

+1 lol

[saaya]

they are using the 780 chipset for workstations? hahahahahahahah

now THAT must be fun... this might actually explain why valve takes forver to get their games out and why they had so many delays with hl2 and all the episodes haha

Im surprised they are upgrading to 940s now, with 950s for the same price just around the corner, and 920s overclocking the same as 940s reaching much better performance than even a 965...

cpu and memory wise they are at the current absolute highend and 2010 mainstream level, but am i the only one who is wondering about the graphics selection? thats current mainstream...

i wish theyd work on sli and xfire sytems to make sure their new titles work well with multi gpu systems.

[Levish]

I'd prefer multi cpu focus over multi gpu

[STaRGaZeR]

Im surprised they are upgrading to 940s now, with 950s for the same price just around the corner, and 920s overclocking the same as 940s reaching much better performance than even a 965...

They don't overclock.

but am i the only one who is wondering about the graphics selection? thats current mainstream...

GTX285 and HD4870 1GB mainstream? Do you live in heaven or something? That's absolutely not mainstream

[saaya]

if 4870 1gb is highend then what is a 4850x2? extreme highend?
and a 4870x2? ueber high end?
and 4870x2 xfire? mega supa dupa ultra highend?

4870 1gb cards cost around 200$, hows that not mainstream?
you think a 200$ card is highend?

[STaRGaZeR]

4870 1gb cards cost around 200$, hows that not mainstream?
you think a 200$ card is highend?

200€ cards are in the perfomance level, not mainstream. You're talking from a XS user perspective and that's just wrong.

[MaxxxRacer]

dam... and all I have is a 2.4GHz P4 single channel system with onboard everything and 512mb of RAM with a 15" CRT. Granted, if I had one of those systems mentioned above I wouldn't be doing much work.

if 4870 1gb is highend then what is a 4850x2? extreme highend?
and a 4870x2? ueber high end?
and 4870x2 xfire? mega supa dupa ultra highend?

4870 1gb cards cost around 200$, hows that not mainstream?
you think a 200$ card is highend?

LOL Sascha. 200 dollars is not mainstream. up to and less than 100 dollars is mainstream. Clearly you never worked at a computer store. When I told customers who wanted a video card that a good one starts at 175+, they about crapped themselves, and this was when the U.S. economy was doing great. Your average consumer thninks that a 75 dollar videocard is great and will do everything they want. When it doesnt, they just turn down the resolution and eye candy and deal with ti. Members of XS, and sites like it are the exception to this rule, spending obscene amounts of money in a never ending e-pennis measuring contest.

[initialised]

X* EVGA X58 3X SLI Intel Motherboard x38 ASUS
X* Intel Corei7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core Processor Q6600 tomorrow
X* 12GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz ram (Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam) 4GB GSkill PI 850MHz
Y* 1 x NVidia GTX285 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card 4870x2 OC
Y* 1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD 500GB Samsung
Y* (Seagate, Western Digital) 1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD 750GB Hitachi
Y* Lian Li P60-F Case Customised Cosmos
Y* Intel CPU Cooler Custom Water Cooling
Y* 850W Antec power supply Antec 850 Quattro
Y* 1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors 50" Samsung PDP
Y* Windows Vista 64bit Same

So not too far off, but I play Left4Dead all the time so I represent their target audience.

[MaxxxRacer]

X* EVGA X58 3X SLI Intel Motherboard x38 ASUS
X* Intel Corei7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core Processor Q6600 tomorrow
X* 12GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz ram (Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam) 4GB GSkill PI 850MHz
Y* 1 x NVidia GTX285 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card 4870x2 OC
Y* 1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD 500GB Samsung
Y* (Seagate, Western Digital) 1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD 750GB Hitachi
Y* Lian Li P60-F Case Customised Cosmos
Y* Intel CPU Cooler Custom Water Cooling
Y* 850W Antec power supply Antec 850 Quattro
Y* 1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors 50" Samsung PDP
Y* Windows Vista 64bit Same

So not too far off, but I play Left4Dead all the time so I represent their target audience.

As far as absolute computing power of the i7 940 absolutely smokes the Q6600, up until the Q6600 hits 3.8GHz.

[saaya]

200€ cards are in the perfomance level, not mainstream. You're talking from a XS user perspective and that's just wrong.

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

[STEvil]

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

I'm on an 8800GTS due to power issues at the moment but I didnt pay $200 for it when I bought it.. darn buying things new lol.

I think Stargazer needs to change perspectives.

[[XC] Lead Head]

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

I still game on my $150 x1800 GTO

[V2-V3]

That would explain a thing or two about how they develop such wonderful games

a developer with computers more than capable of playing their games to the fullest!

[MaxxxRacer]

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

You need some perspective my friend. I have no payed over 200 dollars for a videocard in years.

Futhermore, I am gonna get a GTX260 55nm 216SP for 199, which is just under 200 dollars. For a SUB 200 dollar card it is rediculously powerful, as is the 4870 1GB. The 200+ dollar cards that are out right now are for those who have nothing else to spend their money on. If you can not get a satisfactory gaming experience from a GTX260 or 4870 1GB, there is something seriously wrong with you. And if you are one of those fold who games at 2500x1600, you dont even belong in this conversation.

[strange|ife]

I think they just sit around playing games all day

outside of making them also

deerr

[BranNutz]

Well I work for one of the leading aerospace companies in the world and we still are running windows 2000 on half our systems LOL.

[Pinacolada]

and who gives a sh..... about this PR stunt ? The better stop ripping off european customers with 1euro=1dollar scam

[Cooper]

Does this mean EP3 coming right up ?

[cmay119]

Does this mean EP3 coming right up ?

Doubtful.

[iddqd]

Crysis is not crappy

I was with you until the "not". After that, you were just clearly wrong.

[Jacky]

I have no idea how this is news. Or relevant, let alone interesting, for people not working at Valve.

+1 lol

I found this pretty interesting actually.