Built a new PC and need some Torture test games

Artoria

I know the dreaded "recommend me some games" thread but this one has a bit of a twist.

I just built a new computer with the following specs

2.7 GHZ Intel Core I7
12 GB ram
516 MB Nvidia Gforce 250 GTS
2 TB HD
DVD burner and all the other standard stuff blah blah blah..

Windows XP Pro X64

And well I need a or some games that will absolutely push this thing to it's limit (or beyond) so I can see what it is capable of.

I am into most types of games except, RTS, Sim anything and MMOs

So what should I try?

freakish light

The go-to push your system game is usually Crysis or :Warhead. Burnout Paradise is also pretty, along with Assassin's Creed and Batman: AA with PhysX turned on.

slash000

Question: Why did you get such high end parts, and then get like a mid-tier video card?

Honest question. I ask because you're on overkill with RAM and have an impressive cutting edge CPU and a crazy amount of HDD space, but the video card seems out of place in a system like that.

chrono_traveller

You're going to set games alight with a torch?

I'd just look at some video card benchmarking site, like tom's hardware, and look and see what games they use.

Dehumanized

GTA4 will push any current CPU to its limits. Part of that is because it's poorly optimized at best, part of that is because there's simply a lot of shit going on most of which is CPU-intensive.

SoulGate

I'd suggest the first Crysis. Even though it was released like 2 years ago, It's still the 'go-to' game for testing any gaming pc.

Also, your graphics card is lacking.

psychotix

slash000 wrote: »

Question: Why did you get such high end parts, and then get like a mid-tier video card?

Honest question. I ask because you're on overkill with RAM and have an impressive cutting edge CPU and a crazy amount of HDD space, but the video card seems out of place in a system like that.

Maybe it isn't just for games?

SoulGate

psychotix wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

Question: Why did you get such high end parts, and then get like a mid-tier video card?

Honest question. I ask because you're on overkill with RAM and have an impressive cutting edge CPU and a crazy amount of HDD space, but the video card seems out of place in a system like that.

Maybe it isn't just for games?

But he's asking us for game recommendations to torture test his system, so we'd have to assume it is for games.

Darlan

It's a weird time to get a new pc. I just got one too, but I have to admit Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain are looking like the most beautiful games upcoming games.

Crysis isn't half bad for a "testing new rig" game, but I did find myself going back to L4D and Fallout 3 pretty quickly. The best thing to do PC wise seems to be sitting and eagerly anticipating running Diablo 3 and Starcraft II at max settings.

slash000

Crysis, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, [strike]World in Conflict[/strike], Stalker, GTA 4, Resident Evil 5, Flight Simulator X, and [strike]Empire Total War[/strike] are the games that benchmark sites seem to be using.

webguy20

he could have a small monitor too. a 250GTS will push games fine with a 19" LCD at 1440x900

Darlan

I recently got a similar video card with my new rig: it runs everything fine at high settings for now, and we can really splurg on a video card when games start needing DX11.

12 GB of ram is crazy, though. :P

Darmak

Crysis has already been mentioned, also try Supreme Commander maxxed out, then build a fucking gigantic army and pit it against another gigantic army and see if there's any/much slowdown. It's a graphics and CPU hog so it's a pretty good tester game.

slash000

I ask because he basically spared no expense on CPU, motherboard (to support that cpu), RAM, HDD, and then relatively skimped on the video card. Why over-spend on every component, and then skimp on video? Especially with games being so GPU-intensive right now. And with the release of better bang/buck performance CPU setups than the very costly i7 setups. And that 12 gigs of ram won't help him with games; most games don't get performance increases when you go over 3 or 4 gigs...

The fact that there's so much RAM and so much HDD makes me think that this is a server computer, but someone (maybe the OP) decided to just go out and get a decent mid-tier graphics card to put into it for the sake of games.

Either that or he bought a budget card so that he could upgrade as soon as the DX11 cards all come out.

Bartholamue

I have to recommend Resident Evil 5. It looks very nice.

Kris_xK

Since he hates RTS, go with Crysis. Farcry2 is decent at it as well.

Also, Torture. Come on man.

Rohan

I thought XP x64 is supposed to be very unstable...? If I were him, I would have installed Windows 7 X64 RC as a test bed, then buy the OS on release and there, a nice system (apart from the odd choice of graphics card).

And here I thought my system with 8GB was too much! 12GB? Bloody hell.

Dr_Keenbean

Rohan wrote: »

I thought XP x64 is supposed to be very unstable...? If I were him, I would have installed Windows 7 X64 RC as a test bed, then buy the OS on release and there, a nice system (apart from the odd choice of graphics card).

And here I thought my system with 8GB was too much! 12GB? Bloody hell.

I thought I was going to be the first to comment on this aspect.

Send XP x64 back to the pit from whence it was abortively vomited into existence.

slash000

Rohan wrote: »

I thought XP x64 is supposed to be very unstable...?

XP x64 is plenty stable in its most recent form.

It's the driver support that sucks.

Fortunately, major manufacturers provide XP x64 drivers for the basic important stuff, such as mobo drivers and video drivers. But any peripheral or less common stuff, getting an XP x64 driver is going to be hard, such as for a wireless network card.

I personally ordered the $50 upgrade to Win7 Premium back when that was offered so that when it comes out in a week or so I'll be up to date OS wise.

travathian

dragonsama wrote: »

Windows XP Pro X64

That's like putting a fart pipe on a Ferrari. For shame.

psychotix

slash000 wrote: »

I ask because he basically spared no expense on CPU, motherboard (to support that cpu), RAM, HDD, and then relatively skimped on the video card. Why over-spend on every component, and then skimp on video? Especially with games being so GPU-intensive right now. And with the release of better bang/buck performance CPU setups than the very costly i7 setups. And that 12 gigs of ram won't help him with games; most games don't get performance increases when you go over 3 or 4 gigs...

The fact that there's so much RAM and so much HDD makes me think that this is a server computer, but someone (maybe the OP) decided to just go out and get a decent mid-tier graphics card to put into it for the sake of games.

Either that or he bought a budget card so that he could upgrade as soon as the DX11 cards all come out.

It didn't seem like a gaming rig to me.

Those large drives are only in 7200rpm flavor. If it was a gaming PC you'd see raptors or ssd's. 12gb of RAM = bad for gaming. When you fill all the banks in the channels like that you can't run the RAM at some of the faster speeds and over clocks go down.

Artoria

Well i built it to be an all around computer. Something that I could play games on, edit video/Music, as well as net surfing, youtube ect.

12 GB of Ram is much? the board can take up to 24. I went with the 250 mainly so I can get a DX11 card later.
Also I have a 17 inch Viewsonic CRT right now it still looks as sharp and clear as new so I don't plan on changing it for a little while as well.

It seamed pretty reasonable to me considering I was using an Athlon 2400, 3 GB RAM and 128 MB vid card up until now. I went with Win XP 64 mainly so I could utilize all of my hardware (win XP 32 only goes up to 4 GB RAM) and I wasn't a fan of Vista. If 7 comes out and works well then I might upgrade to that.

Also I was trying to build this to last a while as well.

Kris_xK wrote: »

Since he hates RTS, go with Crysis. Farcry2 is decent at it as well.

Also, Torture. Come on man.

Well I don't hate RTS I was never much of fan. I tried Starcraft (64) and couldn't get into it. But then I played Halo Wars and loved it. Weird I know. and I should clarify that I don't hate MMOs but the only one I tried and liked was FFXI and I am pretty sure that won't push the hardware very hard at all.

and Fixed

thanks for all the recommendations so far.

stigweard

webguy20 wrote: »

he could have a small monitor too. An 8800GT will push games fine with a 19" LCD at 1440x900

Kris_xK

If you're open to RTS, try Company of Heroes and/or World In Conflict. Both are a lot smaller in their scope compared to other RTS' and both feature pretty explosions and should give you a decent test of your PC, CoH especially.

Win7 works really well, I'd recommend you get that as quickly as possible.

And 12 gigs of ram is crazy high.

TychoCelchuuu

All of these games are on Steam and many have demos so you might want to check that out first:

Assassin's Creed
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Bioshock
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Crysis and Crysis: Warhead
Dawn of War II
Dead Space
Empire: Total War
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Mirror's Edge
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion