A long time ago (near the start of the year) I talked about how hard it is to run Crysis at or near maximum settings. The game was out for two or three years before a computer was available at a reasonable price that could play it at maximum settings. To run my project properly (and obviously for other reasons) I've custom built myself a $3000 computer. I spent tens of hours researching all the components that make up a computer, how they all work together and how they affect performance in applications and games. The parts that make up a computer are:
CPU: The Central Processing Unit handles all non-graphical calculations. It is like the brain of the computer.
Motherboard: It's a printed circuit board that all other parts plug into. It's like the nervous system, it connects all parts together so they can communicate with each other.
RAM: Random Access Memory stores temporary information (info being used by the current application or game). The memory is wiped blank every time the computer is shut down.
HDD: The Hard Disk Drive is where permanent information is stored such as the operating system, games, photos, etc. Unlike the memory, the info on the hard drive is permanent and will not be erased when the computer is restarted.
GPU: The Graphics Processing Unit is a processor with far more calculation power than the CPU but it specifically handles graphics calculations. This is the most important component for running my project.
Other: There are many other components such as the power supply (for supplying the computer with power obviously), DVD drive, monitor, etc. The items listed above are the main performance influencing components.
As far as my computer is concerned the parts are:
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 running at a speed of 2.8Ghz
GPU: I actually put two graphics cards in my computer. There are two EVGA GTX 460 Overclocked cards (overclocked means they run faster than normal but they cost more).
RAM: G.Skill 6Gb DDR3 (double data rate version 3) running at a speed of 1333Mhz.
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO supports SLi (dual GPUs) and Core i7 processors.
Power Supply: SilverStone 1000w
Monitor: Asus 27" LCD
Basically what all that tech means is that the two powerful graphics cards are able to calculate all the graphics calculations that make Crysis so hard to run at very quick speeds. Games work the same as movies, with individual still images being displayed at very fast speeds so that, to the human eye, the images look like one continuous motion. The graphics cards do their calculations and draw the new images many times per second to the monitor. My cards are powerful enough to draw an average of 60 of these pictures to my screen every second (called frames per second or fps). This gives perfectly smooth motion when playing Crysis or using the SandBox2 editor to make my SDI project. If a computer is not able to run a game with more than 30fps, it becomes jerky and the motion no longer looks smooth. This is because the images are not being drawn to the screen fast enough and the human eye starts to see individual still images. Once the frame rate drops below 15fps, the game becomes almost unplayable. On the computer I was using previously for my Crysis map, at maximum settings I would have been getting less than 1fps. That shows the level of improvement.
This has been a very long blog post but I'm trying my best to explain very technical information that directly affects the way I can run my SDI project. I have kept it very basic. I could talk for much longer and go far more in-depth (I had to research very in-depth to understand this computer). There are things called cores in the processor and the memory can't have more than 1.6v of power if it is to work with Core i7 processors and I needed about 80 amps on the 12 volt rail of my power supply. On top of that you have CUDA cores for PhysX calculations in the graphics cards and I used EVGA precision to mega overclock my graphics cards so the core speed is 880Mhz, the Shader speed is 1700Mhz and the memory clock is 4200Mhz. What am I trying to say by all this ridiculous tech jargon? Basically, it took me tens of hours to understand it all and the way the seperate components interact with each other but it is so incredibly complicated and vast that I could never simplify it all down to a point where you could understand it. Sorry.
Once I researched the computer, I used shopbot.com.au to find the cheapest deals. I then ordered the parts from several different websites. It took me many hours to build and set up the computer (yes I build it too, I put all the parts together and wired it all up) but at the end of it I spent $3000 to custom-build a computer that is at least twice as good as ones I've seen for sale in Harvey Norman for $8000.
