Hello guys.
What is the recommended minimum requirement for 'ultimate' video settings (all effects on)?
I have a Linux rig, so NVidia is the only option I will consider.

Additionally my setup has to cater for video HD playback @1920x1080 and passive cooling is a must! (silence is golden).
I consider Nexuiz to be the flagship game of choice for my installation, so 3D performance
is based on its requirements.

In practice, I am too close to my large hdtv to game at 1920x1080 (but playability kudos could apply! ), so a windowed resolution (1280x960) would be plenty fine.
I was thinking maybe a Geforce 95 to 9800GT (PCIe) would be great (DVI + SPDIF to HDMI).

Obviously I would expect the above cards to be good anyway, but smooth 60FPS at max
settings? What do ya reckon?

Well, its really hard to cool down a graphic card with that kind of horsepower and STFU at the same time.
However the 9800 GTX+ Dark Knight has enough power to almost make it all the way and has a nice fan. I for one can sleep with the thing on, while it crunch numbers for Boinc/GPUGRID. So it should be quiet enough for ya.

+ Smooth sailing at high settings (60 fps) Thats capped of course.
+ VDPAU support (for HD decoding, with mplayer whatever.) as most modern nvidia cards.
+ Moar bang for buck.
+ STFU

- Big motherfucker

I just got a new computer with a 9800GT and it can manage nexuiz on ultimate with around 70fps most of the time. But I dont run ultimate because I like to have smooth framerates, so I run ultimate with lowered particles and no HDR. HDR really murders the frame rate.

Please don't forget about the fact that Nexuiz also needs CPU power. Maybe this fact is much more important than the GFX.

I have a 9800GTX+, a C2D E6750 and I'm able to play most of the maps at >100fps. However, If I go on FFA servers with some other players or play local matches with more than 2 bots, things get bad rapidly.

There are maps where you get about 15fps on an FFA server even when you run with a GTX260 and a C2D E8600.

I'd say that a 9xxx nvidia gpu is the lower limit if you want to run at such 'high' resolutions. The 8800m gtx in my laptop really has a hard time at 1920x1600 but at lower resolutions its quite ok. But i too prefer high and stable fps so i play at low(er) settings

Thanks guys, your experiences have been good to note.

@Urmel: I'm running a E8400 Core2Duo CPU and 4GB DDR2 Corsair RAM. I'm not overly fussed about overclocking my rig (have had cores @ 3.4Ghz).

@Sepelio: Isn't anything over 60FPS a bonus? (I'm no pro, btw )

@Paperclips: Interesting choice. I like the idea of a GTX+ as it has the 55nm GPU (runs cooler). The GT(X) I believe has the 65nm and runs a bit hotter.
The heatsink is a good size. If neccessary I could use another fan or undervolt it to a few hundred RPM less to reduce noise further.
It also comes with SPDIF cable which is nice.
I will have to make sure about its size though, as I have a mATX case and also might add a soundcard later, so access to a slot (post GPU install) is desired.
I'm seriously tempted though!

For (near) silent running I have a Nexus (Nexuiz? lol) all copper CPU heatsink (XIR-3500), fan not needed! .
For juice I have a 500W (near) Silent PSU (NX-8050). I'm even trying to reduce my HDD whine with padding (I know, watch the temp!). Obsessed? Maybe.

Addendum:- Thx, esteel also. It's not imperative for all effects, just aiming for a good all round high performance.

Well 60 sounds like ok but you have to consider that there might be drops, and also turning.. usually you turn quite fast, lets say 1/4 second for 180°. that 60 / 4 = 15 frames for 180° = you turn by 12° steps.. that can feel quite bad.

esteel wrote:Well 60 sounds like ok but you have to consider that there might be drops, and also turning.. usually you turn quite fast, lets say 1/4 second for 180°. that 60 / 4 = 15 frames for 180° = you turn by 12° steps.. that can feel quite bad.

Thanks for the explanation

Having just read the 2.5 release anouncement, my choice of graf card has even more imperative
After much deliberation, I have decided on this:-
https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-250

A GTS250 no less. It's the same as a 9800GTX+, but with 1GB of memory and is slightly cheaper! lol

Btw, as a recent convert to Nexuiz (too fucked to play intensively) I'd like to say well done for the 2.5 release. This game really is a shinning testiment to you skilled buggers who code selflessly for open source..

My next planned personal remaster is gonna be one DVD of great goodness. Windows? Mac? Pah! Lol

Thats funny... I ordered my 9800gt from novatech!

Just for reference, I'm running a Phenom II X3 as my processor @ 2.8ghz. Black edition. Runs at 30ish degrees on load

I'm able to get pretty good framerate on a 9600 GT at highish settings at 1280x1024, sometimes it drops under 60 but not very often. Only when there is alot of action going on, which might be some cpu limitation, I'm using a Phenom X3 8750 overclocked to 2.8. I like to run anti aliasing in most games but in this game, the performance hit is pretty steep, and besides, anti aliasing isn't really THAT important in this game anyway .

Sepelio wrote:Thats funny... I ordered my 9800gt from novatech!

Just for reference, I'm running a Phenom II X3 as my processor @ 2.8ghz. Black edition. Runs at 30ish degrees on load

Yeah the Phenom II X3's run ice cold, even the regular Phenom X3's ran pretty cool, mine at full load is around 43c. Great chips.

Having 2.2 dual core intel does not make nexuiz playable even on lowest settings with integrated graphics card.

Alien wrote:with integrated graphics card.

Those usually have bad performance and i bet in most cases the default windows drivers are installed. Those are really really bad at opengl (thats the 3d library Nexuiz uses for graphics). Please see if there are 'official' drivers available and install those. Chances are they have better/good openGL support!

On Linux they are official cause Intel maintains its drivers both in xorg, mesa and kernel.

Thank you people, I purchased a Palit NVidia GTS250 (512MB GDDR3) card in the end.
I can say I'm very happy with Nexuiz performance now.

Video smoothness is also way better (not always perfect ), hence I've overclocked my 3Ghz cores to 3,6Ghz to maximize playback quality (especially Flash player stuff). I've left the card clocks alone as I want to run it quieter.

Addendum:
Nexuiz was playable at medium (no frills) quality using the IGP (Geforce 7100/630i) quite happily at 800x600/1024x768, but my new card definately raises the bar.

string6 wrote:A GTS250 no less. It's the same as a 9800GTX+, but with 1GB of memory and is slightly cheaper! lol

Not exactly. There are different GTS250's as graphics cards are now a complete mess. Some are simply rebadged 9800GTX+'s which are identifiable by having two 6-pin PCI-E inputs. Don't go for these. Others (mostly 1Gb) are a redesigned board that's slightly shorter with a single 6-pin PCI-E power connector. These have lower power consumption due to redesigned power circuitry.

You can run one passively although rather hot with an Accelero S1. Adding a slow running 120mm fan can make it a lot cooler.

Ed wrote:Not exactly. There are different GTS250's as graphics cards are now a complete mess. Some are simply rebadged 9800GTX+'s which are identifiable by having two 6-pin PCI-E inputs. Don't go for these. Others (mostly 1Gb) are a redesigned board that's slightly shorter with a single 6-pin PCI-E power connector. These have lower power consumption due to redesigned power circuitry.

You can run one passively although rather hot with an Accelero S1. Adding a slow running 120mm fan can make it a lot cooler.

Interesting. It would seem I have neither then!

My board is 9" long as stated in GTS250 spec, but it does have two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors.
The lengh of the GTX+ board is 10.5". This indicates that I do have a post GTX+ specification board.
As for power savings, most of this comes from the GPU core being on a 55nm die. Both the GTX+ and GTS benefit from this over the 9800GTX. However, the GTX+/GTS are overclocked due to extra headroom on power dissipation (150W for GTS250, 141W for 9800GTX+ and 140W for 9800GTX -- All max ratings). Minimum system power requirement is 450W for each board.


http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800_gtx_plus_us.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800_gtx_us.html


As for cooling, the Accelero is the premier choice in my view also. Just got to get hold of one!

Good news is that you can monitor the GPU temp from the NVidia config GUI, to gauge fan requirements.