I’m a few days away from building my new machine, and I’d like to get something to show off its graphic-y and processor-y goodness. The game I’m most looking forward to is a bit retro (the Black Mesa mod), but that’s not likely to test the hardware very much. I’m a big fan of FPS with a bit of strategy/plot mixed in. Most recent games I’ve played in addition to HL are Bioshock and Fallout 3. Flying shoot-em-ups can be fun, but I’m not much for simulators (given limited time to play, I’m not so keen on spending hours on getting off the ground). Oh, Dirt 2 comes with the graphics card, but I’m not all that into racing games.
I’m out of the loop/target demographic for advertisers, so I don’t really know what’s coming. Basically, what’s the Next Big Thing in terms of eye- and physics-candy (that’s playable enough to actually get to/care about the candy)? Preferably something coming out this holiday season.
Thanks,
Rhythm
Just in case the specifics of the build matter: [ul] [li]Asus P6T [/li][li]Intel Core i7-920 [/li][li]2X Gigabyte 5770s in CrossFire [/li][li]6GB G.Skill RAM[/li][li]Crucial 128GB SSD [/li][/ul]
Maybe start here … but about 6 months from now 
Flight Sim X will put a strain if you turn all video settings to max and set the target frame rate to 200FPS. I have a box I built a few months ago with slightly inferior specs (processor is a Q9550, not a Nehalem, but is OC’ed to 3.2GHz) and it runs everything I throw at it like a beaut. I don’t know that anything on the market is really going to need to harness CrossFire given the ample CPU and RAM you have available.
In any event, are you running a 64 bit OS? I have 8 gigs in my machine here and it kind of makes me sad to know that only 4 are being addressed by Winblowz. I ran with Win7/64 for a week but got tired of not being able to run most of my programs.
What programs are those? Outside of legacy and or 16 bit software you shouldn’t have any issues.
Work-related programs utilizing USB drivers the vendor has only made available for 32 bit Windows.
As for games to flex your GPU/CPU muscle on… there aren’t many. You’re essentially future proofing, but not much else.
The consoles of this generation have had a slowing effect on general graphics goodies for PC games. Sure they still look and run much better on PC than on the consoles, but, with only a few exceptions, are not taking advantage of the graphics powerhouse that is a modern CPU + GPU. Just in terms of transistor count alone a modern GPU has something in the order of 2 billion transistors, while the PS3 and xbox hover around 300 million. Nevermind the architectural and API advancements of the past 5 years.
Indie devs have been the most aggressive with graphics enhancements. Stalker and the expansion will love your video cards. Dirt 2, will take advantage of some of the API advancements in DX11, but the engine was built to play on the consoles too, so it’s definitely not all it could be. Crysis is still a great looking game at high resolution and with graphics filtering on.
Wow, 200 FPS? Does that make a difference in flight sims? Over fifty to eighty and I’m not sure I’m not just seeing the placebo effect of high numbers, but there are generally a lot less things going on (I think) in a standard zombie fest.
I’ll have the 64 bit Win 7 in there – we run our own business so no need for legacy support, just Office 2007 and CS 4 apps. And games 
I like building for a couple years or so ahead, but not too far. The CrossFire was definitely a splurge, as was the SSD (but our accountant made us!). The CrossFire was just $150 more, so that’s not too bad, the SSD was an ugly penny (compared to regular storage, that is).
I remember the console/PC thread (no console here, so I had nothing to add to it), and find it a shame that though there are some things that will take advantage of the hardware, I’m still somewhat throttled back to (relatively) ancient technology.
Stalker looks good, but again it’s a couple years old. Wait, it looks like Stalker III just came out. So Crysis and Stalker now – and then later, with maybe Alien v. Predator or something coming out shortly.
Any word on a new set of Portal maps? What about Duke Nuke 'em? 
There are not many games out that are taking advantage of the 64 bit OS.