[dcmo]

So how is everyone benchmarking their cards? Are you just using the benchmarking tools that come on certain games, or are there other free benchmarking tools? I've seen some of the ones that the pro reviewers use, but what I've seen costs money and I don't really want to pay for that.


Thanks.

 

[DaveFi]

Most of the better cards come packaged with a benchmark of some sort. At least one of mine came with 3DMark 11. I use that.

 

[dcmo]

Well for the time being I only have a 4850. I'm just getting into PC games so I'm pretty new to this. I think the disc that came with mine was already outdated, running windows 7.


I don't know if that benchmark would do what I want though. What I really want is to be able to run it during the game, would you just open that up and run it in the background while you were playing?


What I need is something to tell me the frames that I'm getting, so I can play a game at as high of level I can while still maintaining a good frame rate.


I'm in hopes of getting a 6950 in the very near future, and really looking forward to Witcher 2 and Battlefield 3.


Thanks.

 

[MSmith83]

 FRAPS can display your frame-rate while playing via an in-game overlay.

 

[dcmo]

That's awesome, thanks a lot. Now I just need that toxic 6950 and cross my fingers I can get the shaders unlocked.

 

[DaveFi]

As you say, a lot of decent games have built in benchmarks of some sort. The benchmark in Just Cause 2 for example is excellent.


There are some free game based graphical benchmark tool you can check out- Super Street Fighter, Resident Evil V, Lost Planet 2 and HAWX 2 all have standalone benchmark tools you can d/l for free. The free version of 3DMark 11 is good enough to fool around with too.

 

[pcweber111]

Good luck with the card, here's hoping you don't brick it lol.

 

[darklordjames]

FRAPS is exactly what you want. Listen to MSmith.

 

[DaveFi]

You don't need to pay for FRAPS. The new Beta version of MSI Afterburner does everything FRAPS does and more for free.

 

[dcmo]



Quote:
Originally Posted by pcweber111 /forum/post/20835978


Good luck with the card, here's hoping you don't brick it lol.

It should be fine, I've done a lot reading on this and thankfully there is a lot of good instruction on it. I've been using MSI AB to overclock and GPU Tool to test the stability.


Even if the worst were to happen, it's only a 4850. I'm going to be getting a Toxic 6950 (really just waiting for the 7000's to come out, but I have to have something now to handle the current games and upcoming one's. The 6950 with shaders unlocked and overclocked should be good enough for 1920 X 1080) so the one I have is something to learn on.

 

[dcmo]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveFi /forum/post/20837646


You don't need to pay for FRAPS. The new Beta version of MSI Afterburner does everything FRAPS does and more for free.

I could be wrong, but couldn't I just use the unregistered version. It's free as far as I know; if I ever do need to upgrade that program I should just be able to uninstall the one I have and re-install the current one.


I found the one you were talking about in MSI, took me a little playing with it to figure it out. Does it do any benchmarking like Fraps does (like the min-max fps)?


I'm new to PC gaming so I need to run some tests over the quality settings. Witcher was on sale for 4.00 so I bought it (already have witcher 2 on the way), even if I don't care for this it was basically free and gives me a head start on figuring out how to make quality adjustments for PC games.


Thanks again for you help.

 

[darklordjames]

"You don't need to pay for FRAPS"


Right, you don't need to pay for FRAPS. Because it's free to begin with. The guy isn't asking to record video for reviews, so he doesn't need the pay version. The free edition will do everything he wants.


It's like you're arguing against FRAPS simply because you aren't the one that recommended it. Then again, you are the one that recommended he use 3DMARK when the guy simply wanted a counter to tell him his framerate in games that he, you know, plays.


dcmo - Yes, free FRAPS does exactly what you want. I told you to listen to MSmith for a reason!

 

[pcweber111]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dcmo /forum/post/20837958


It should be fine, I've done a lot reading on this and thankfully there is a lot of good instruction on it. I've been using MSI AB to overclock and GPU Tool to test the stability.


Even if the worst were to happen, it's only a 4850. I'm going to be getting a Toxic 6950 (really just waiting for the 7000's to come out, but I have to have something now to handle the current games and upcoming one's. The 6950 with shaders unlocked and overclocked should be good enough for 1920 X 1080) so the one I have is something to learn on.

Ah I was referring to the 6950 as I you mentioned the shader unlock. I know it's been hit and miss with the non-reference 6900 cards.

 

[Jim S]

Just read the reviews on Newegg, they will usually mention if its unlockable. The Toxic appears to be one of those. I have one of the early reference 6950's and for under 230 bucks AR it's now basically an overclocked 6970 after unlocking the shaders.

 

[DaveFi]

The new beta version of MSI Afterburner comes with a companion program that does everything FRAPS does and some other stuff, that's why I suggested it. It's pretty a pretty neat little tool.

 

[sgvroadster]

I use the MSI Afterburner an 3D Mark for benchmarks... in game benchmarks such as Mafia 2 is usually a little tweaked to give better performance to a particular brand - Mafia 2 usually give better scores to Nvidia cards...