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PC Games and Gaming: The Software and the Hardware - Page 1

Last updated on 12 November 2009

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An introduction to PC gaming

If you are only looking for highly-rated reviews of PC games, visit Page 2 of this article. If you want to learn about PC and console gaming, read on...

Computer games can be played from the gaming consoles that support them or from a suitably-equipped desktop or laptop PC. The versions that can be played on a gaming console canot be played on a PC and vice versa.

In addition to PC gaming, many consoles have online playing, even Xbox 360 competitions for cash exist online.

A powerful PC versus the current gaming consoles is no contest. None of the current games consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube) can come anywhere near to matching the gaming performance of a PC built as a gaming machine. Moreover, the new generation of games consoles (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 3 Slim, Xbox 360, Wii) are unlikely ever to have the processing power to become the best PC gaming machines.

An up-to-date gaming PC plays the latest PC games with almost overwhelming graphical detail and surround sound.

To get the best out of games, a gaming PC needs to have more than a powerful video/graphics card. The monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse are the external components that have to be carefully chosen. The internal components that require careful choosing are the video/graphics card, the processor, the power supply unit, and the RAM memory, which is 2GB in most current (July, 2007) gaming PCs that run Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate. Note well that a 64-bit version of Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 requires twice as much RAM memory as a standard 32-bit version.

That said, to derive the most enjoyment from most games, you'll also need to use a good games controller.

Arcade and action games games can be controlled by using just a keyboard and mouse, but the experience is enhanced by using a joypad. Likewise, flight simulators are much more enjoyable when used with a joystick, and driving games are more thrilling when played with a steering wheel and pedals.

However, some PC games are designed to be played using a keyboard and mouse. In that case, using a gaming mouse allows the player to aim more accurately and therefore to build up better scores.

Visit the Desktop PCs section of this site for information on how to buy, build, repair, fix, and protect the various types of desktop PCs.

Visit the Laptop/Notebook PCs section of this site for information on buying and protecting them, and fixing problems with them. Some suitable laptop PCs can be used for PC gaming.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is available. PlayStation 3 (PS3) is now available in the USA and Europe. In Europe, PS3 was made available on March 23, 2007, when the original release date was in the spring of 2006. The latest version, PlayStation 3 Slim, is a cheaper, slimmer version of its PlayStation 3 games console. It went on sale in the UK on September 1, 2009.

Sony reveals the PS3 Slim -

"Sony has unveiled a slimmer version of its PlayStation 3 games console as it seeks to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo." -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6049750/

PlayStation 3 Europe - http://eu.playstation.com/ps3/

PlayStation 3 USA - http://www.us.playstation.com/.../index.php

Sony offers emulation reassurance -

"Sony has provided a list of all PlayStation 2 games that will work on its PlayStation 3 console in Europe." - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6471649.stm

Factfile: The PlayStation 3 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6132212.stm

Visit http://www.whatconsole.co.uk/ for information on all of the available consoles.

The latest games are easily the most demanding software that is likely to be run on a home computer. Therefore, to experience the full graphical special effects of computer games, you should be wary of computer specifications that boast of an extra-fast processor and video/graphics card, but which skimp on the amount of RAM, or the quality of the motherboard, the monitor, the hard disk drive, the keyboard, and the mouse.

A gaming PC's video/graphics card is its most important component. (Some systems use dual SLI (nVidia) or CrossFire (ATI) cards.) As the graphics card ages, it struggles to play the latest PC games at their highest screen resolution and graphics-detail settings.

The processor in a desktop or laptop PC is the next most important component in a gaming machine.

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: August '09 -

"In this, our second installment of the Best Gaming CPUs For The Money, we roll out another batch of recommendations, plus add a couple of other attributes readers wanted to see last time, such as platform longevity and overclockability." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-gaming-cpu,review-31666.html

Unless it had enough RAM to be able to run wholly from it (about 2GB, which is 2028MB), a gaming computer with a fast processor and a good gaming video card that had a slow hard disk drive, working at say only 5200RPM, would be a bit of a joke.

That said, the graphics card is the most important component involved in displaying the visual special effects of computer games.

Midrange video cards, such as those that are built around the ATI Radeon 9600 graphics chip, can all play the latest games, but you won't experience the same level of graphical detail as you would with a state-of-the-art card, such as those that are built around ATI's Radeon and nVidia's GeForce high-end graphics chips.

For example, with a Radeon 9600 video card displaying on a 17" LCD monitor, set to its native resolution of 1280x1024, you would have to turn down the game-detail settings (such as the colour depth from 32-bit to 16-bit colour), or switch off the card's post processing image enhancement capability. But none of those restrictions would apply if the video card used a Radeon 9800 XT chip.

The more cutting-edge technology a video/graphics card is, the more post processing it supports, and therefore the better and faster it renders a game. However, the better a video card is at rendering graphics and the more inbuilt RAM it has, the more expensive it is.

Post-processing graphics technology includes full-screen anti-aliasing, which smoothes all of the jagged lines at the edge of visual objects. Anisotropic filtering is graphics technology that increases the quality and sharpness of the textures involved in creating a game's scenery.

If your PC's video/graphics supports post-processing features to find the settings for them in Windows XP and Windows Vista, right-click on an empty area of the Windows Desktop, click Properties in the menu that comes up, click the Settings tab of Display Properties, then click the Advanced button => Direct3D tab.

Alternatively, in Windows XP open Display in the Control Panel. In Windows Vista, Display Settings is in the Control Panel under Hardware and Sound.

Note that when you click the Advanced button of Display Properties, the PC's graphics driver can have its own tab that provides the 3D settings.

The frame rate at which a particular PC game can be played at is important, because, if the game is being played on a relatively slow computer, the frame rate determines if the game can be played or not.

Frame rate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate

Click here! to go to a list of current well-rated video cards on Page 2 of the Video and Graphics section of this site.

The link provided below is a good one to visit to find out what kind of gaming rigs other people are using.

Post your Gaming Computer Specs here! -

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=154410

PC Games: Updates, patches, upgrades and tweaking

The manufacturers of computer games often provide updates, patches, and upgrades for their games, which are made available as downloads from their websites, or from sites such as the following one that provides them.

Games: updates, patches and upgrades -

http://www.softwarepatch.com/games/index.html

The Software Patch site also provides updates for Windows XP/Vista, device drivers, such as graphics-card drivers, and updates to application software. If a Windows security update from Microsoft Update fails to install, which happens all too often, you can locate it on the site and install it manually.

Gaming Guides -

"Game tweaking is not just about squeezing every bit of performance possible, but also getting everything running harmonically in your system, troubleshooting & fixing bugs, and obviously getting the best visual quality at the lowest cost of performance." -

http://www.techspot.com/guides-gaming.shtml

The Windows Game Advisor

One of the major problems associated with PC gaming is determining whether or not a system's hardware, such as its processor, memory, and graphics card are capable of playing a state-of-the-art PC game. The Windows Game Advisor, provided from Microsoft's site, allows PC gamers to find out how their systems stand with regard to particular games up with the click of a mouse button.

Windows Game Advisor -

"Take the guesswork out of finding games that are right for you and your computer with the Windows Game Advisor." -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/.../gameadvisor/default.mspx

Windows Vista

Visit the Using Windows Vista page on this site for information and links to articles on the new version of Windows, which will have ceased to be so on October 22, 2009 when the versions of Windows 7 for the home user become available.

PC gaming with Vista's DirectX 10 graphics support is spectacular. DirectX 10 requires three elements to function at its full potential, an operating system, a single graphics card (or dual-card system), and games that all support DirectX 10.

New Gaming Computer - Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows XP Pro? -

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/236709-44-gaming-computer-vista-ultmiate

Note that you can now also obtain DirectX 10 for Windows XP, which wasn't the case until recently; DirectX 10 could only be used with Windows Vista. Download pages can be found by using a search term such as windows xp directx 10 in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled.) Here is a download page I found using it:

Download DirectX 10 for Windows XP from Alky Project -

http://www.technospot.net/blogs/...

Is Vista Good for Gaming? - Three reasons Windows Vista is terrible for gaming ... and six reasons why it's great -

"In some ways, debating whether or not Windows Vista is good for gaming is a moot point. A futile argument. Water under the bridge. That's because, like it or not, Microsoft Corp.'s shiny new operating system is here to stay. By the end of 2007, a whole new generation of games for Windows Vista will be here as well. At that point, if you're a Windows gamer, you'll have no choice but to upgrade to Vista -- unless you're ready to throw in the towel on PC gaming and buy an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii instead..." -

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

Gaming PC specifications and benchmark tests

Post your Gaming Computer Specs here! -

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=154410

If you want to perform benchmark test to find out how suitable your PC is for playing the latest games, try running a free benchmark testing program such as these:

3DMark06 Basic Edition Build 1.0.2 -

3dMark06 is the latest in the 3D benchmarking series. The program is one of the most prefered methods of testing hardware and software performance for all PC configurations. User reviews - 4.5 stars out of 5. A more advanced paid-for version that costs $20 is also available. - http://www.download.com/.../3000-2121_4-10492453.html

Fresh Diagnose -

"Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard / motherboard information, and much more..." - http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html

With an LCD monitor with a pixel repsonse time of 8ms or under set at its native screen resolution of 1280x1024, a high level of detail enabled, and an anti-aliasing setting of 4x, a gaming PC should be easily capable of a benchmark speed of over 50fps (frames pers second) when playing a graphics-intensive game such as Doom 3. However, a game such as Call of Duty 2, is even more graphics-intensive, so that it requires an additional level of anisotropic filtering enabled. Only the best gaming PCs can produce a playable frame rate of 25fps, or above, at those tough settings.

If you have an elderly PC, the following tip on this site is worth reading:

A fix for choppy video and audio and skipped frames when playing DVD movies, etc.

An example of a gaming PC with a quad-core processor and dual graphics cards

The review that starts on the following page deals with a Gateway FX530XT computer, designed for PC gaming, that has a Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor, the four cores of which run at 2.66GHz. The other specifications are a RAM memory FSB that has an effective speed of 1066MHz FSB, and a 2x4MB cache. The graphics cards are two ATI Radeon X1950 cards set up to use ATI's CrossFire technology. Each card has 512MB GDDR4 of memory and supports DVI HDCP, VGA (via adapter) and TV-Out connections.

Gateway Goes Gaming: FX530XT Review -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gateway-goes-gaming-uk,review-2077.html

The following page of the review shows the analog D-Sub VGA and the digital DVI connection ports on the 24" LCD widescreen monitor:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gateway-goes-gaming-uk,review-2077-5.html

More reviews of graphics cards are provided further down this page.

Build your own budget gaming PC

If you're interested in building a budget gaming PC, read this article:

Build Your Own Budget Gaming PC - How to buy & assemble the right components & peripherals for less than $2,500. -

http://computershopper.com/feature/build_your_own_budget_gaming_pc

Build a kickass gaming PC

Kickass Gaming Rig Guide -

"Please note that this Hardware Selection Guide for building a KICKASS Gaming Rig is updated frequently to reflect the new computer trends. This insures that this guide is always current and accurate. Please check back to insure you are looking for the right gear." - http://www.3dgameman.com/content/view/7803/40/

The quality of the RAM memory in a gaming computer

A gaming computer should be running DDR, DDR2, or DDR3 RAM of the best quality. Crucial makes the best RAM. You can make use of the UK and US Crucial Memory Advisors below to locate the RAM that is supported by a brand-name PC, notebook, or motherboard.

The memory requirements of the versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista

Most of the standard 32-bit versions of Windows Vista require more RAM memory to run optimally on a computer that doesn't use memory-hungry applications than Windows XP. A video-editing application is an example of memory-intensive software. Only Windows Vista Home Basic has a recommended minimum amount of memory of 512MB, which is the same amount recommended for Windows XP. Windows Vista Home Premium, the most popular version, and Windows Vista Ultimate require a minimum of 1GB (1024MB) of memory, which is twice the minimum amount of memory recommended to run Windows XP. However, 512MB is the minimum recommended amount of memory for a standard Windows XP workstation PC. A gaming computer running Windows XP runs best on 1.5GB of memory, and a gaming PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate editions runs best on 4GB of memory or more. Read the information on the RAM pages of this site for more information and to find out if you should buy memory for use in single-channel or dual-channel modes.

Note well that a 64-bit version of Windows XP/Vista/7 requires twice as much RAM memory as a standard 32-bit version.

Paul Mullen, the highly-respected computer guru of the Helpfile at ComputerShopper.co.uk - "I have recently been buying my memory only from Crucial Technology. I would rather pay the extra cost than waste time trying to track down the obscure program faults that bad memory can cause."

For example, if your computer has an Asus motherboard, open the menu, scroll down to ASUS, and click GO. If, say, you have a Dell computer, scroll down to DELL, and do likewise. You will be taken to the relevant information on Crucial's website.

If you don't know the make and model of the motherboard installed in your computer, here is a good free utility - Belarc Advisor - that creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look under FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.belarc.com/. Another utility that also provides detailed information on the memory itself is CPU-Z.

Five-star and four star gaming PCs as reviewed by Computer Shopper

Five-star and four-star desktop PCs as rated by Computer Shopper

You can read the available reviews for desktop and laptop PCs that can go back twelve months here:

Desktop computers -

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk//archiveproductsearch/2/Desktop-computers

Reviews of laptop/notebook computers -

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk//archiveproductsearch/9/Laptops

The reviews should give you a good idea if a desktop or laptop computer is suitable for use as a gaming machine or actually tell you if it is. The more performance a computer delivers the better it will be as a gaming machine, because PC games are some of the most demanding software that a computer can run. High-performance laptops are fully capable of playing the latest games.

Alternatively, visit http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/ to read the the current reviews under PRODUCT REVIEWS, or enter the make and model in the site's Search For: box.

To find alternative reviews and sellers, enter the make/model in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Take it for granted that every PC comes with an optical DVD writer that supports all of the popular CD and DVD formats, including double-capacity Dual Layer (DL) discs (CD-R,CD-RW,DVD-R,DVD-RW,DVD+R, DVD+RW,DVD+R DL, etc.) If you use DVD-RAM discs check if the drive supports it, because not all drives do. Not many PCs come with a Blu-ray writer yet, so, if you want one, check if a particular PC has one.

What to do if you experience graphical glitches while playing graphically demanding games

If you experience glitches during gameplay, if it isn't doing so already, the graphics card (or cards) should be using its latest device drivers, which can usually be downloaded from the card-manufacturer's site, or from the ATI or nVidia sites, depending on which of those manufacturers made the particular card's processing chip. The drivers for laptop graphics chips should be obtained from the manufacturer's site, because they are usually customised for each laptop.

The game developer's website will provide any software patches that should be installed to remove bugs that have been discovered.

Overheating of the graphics card(s) or the processor can be the cause of such glitches, so check to make sure that their fan units are working and that nothing inside the case is preventing the flow of air around the case. You can add one or more additional case fans, but you must make sure that if there is more than one case fan that they don't oppose each other. They must optimise the flow of air in the case, not impede it.

Games consoles

The most popular games consoles have not changed for several years. Nintendo's GameCube and Game Boy Advance, Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2), and Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 still dominate the market. Relatively speaking, even though they are much more powerful than any of the consoles, personal computers as a gaming platform still account for only a niche audience. Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) is being released slowly in the US from November 2006 and is expected to be launched in Europe in March 2007. Nintendo's GameCube is the cheapest console to buy and supply with games.

The latest game console is the Wii, made by Nintendo. The new games console became available on Friday December 8, 2006, in the UK. It allows the player to engage physically and interactively with games such as ten-pin bowling, golf, and boxing.

Click here! to go to the links on this page to the Game Reviews, Guides & Resources on Yahoo! for all of the gaming platforms named above. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point on the page.

If you want a computer that can play the latest games, it must have a PCI Express or AGP graphics video accelerator card that is capable of running the latest DirectX and OpenGL software device drivers.

You really should have a computer capable of running an 8x AGP or a PCI Express video card, because a PCI card is old technology that runs at a speed of only 33MHz, and is therefore not up to running the latest games. However, the AGP standard is capable of running at the same frequency/speed as the motherboard's front side bus (FSB), which is now 200MHz on most recent computers.

Certain video texturing effects are only possible with an AGP or a PCI Express video card. Visit the Video and Graphics pages on this site for more information on graphics cards.

You should also check the card's website for the latest software drivers for the device, because if you install a new version of DirectX or OpenGL, it might not be compatible with the video accelerator's driver, and as such would probably cause problems.

Indeed, for this reason, it is always a good idea to download the latest versions of all of the drivers for the devices used by your computer - video card - sound card - cable or analogue modem - network card - IDE busmaster drivers for the hard disk drives, AGP driver, USB Controller (the last three are usually available from the brand-name PC manufacturer or the motherboard's websites) - and the updates and patches issued by Microsoft for your operating system.

Remember, always install updates one at a time so that you can determine if one particular update is responsible for any problems.

Video card and video chipset manufacturers

Since 3dfx was taken over by nVidia, there has been only two major manufacturers that produce the graphics chips used on video cards (made by them, or other manufacturers) that are capable of running the latest games properly. They are ATI and nVidia. Their chipsets will be found on graphics cards manufactured by themselves and other companies such as Asus, MSI, Leadtek, PNY, Gainwad, Gigabyte, Crucial, and Sapphire.

Benchmark tests show that it is the card's chipset that counts in performance, not the manufacturer of the video card.

The prices of cards with the same chipset can vary significantly, so it is a wise policy to purchase the cheapest card with a particular chipset.

There is currently very little difference in performance between the chipsets and video cards (on the same level) that are produced by these two companies.

There is no need for me to go into all of the ever-changing technical details of the video cards that are currently available when there are so many specialist sites that do so. Click here! to go to the section on this page that provides excellent links to video-card reviews. Use your browser's Back button to return here.

If you are in doubt about the kind of graphics card you should have installed to play particular games, having registered as a user, enquire at the gaming forums at Sysopt.com and Lockergnome.com, where you are sure to be well advised.

Remember that if you can't buy a particular video card new, you should be able to obtain it via and auction site such as eBay.

Why programs and games designed to run on a Windows 95/98/Me system can often not run well, or not run at all on a Windows XP/Windows Vista system

Because Windows 95/98/Me and Windows XP systems have completely different architectures, some programs written for Windows 95/98/Me simply won't run at all or won't well under Windows XP, no matter what you do to rectify the situation.

However, there is a way of making such programs run properly under Windows XP - run the Program Compatibility Wizard.

I used it when MS Excel 97 and MS Word 97 wouldn't work. After running the wizard, they worked as they had done under Windows 98. I chose Windows 98 as the operating system to emulate.

To run the Program Compatibility Wizard in Windows XP, follow this path:

Start => All Programs => Accessories => Program Compatibility Wizard.

In Windows Vista, open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking Start => Control Panel => Programs => Use an older program with this version of Windows.

Is Vista Good for Gaming? - Three reasons Windows Vista is terrible for gaming ... and six reasons why it's great -

"For what it's worth, Donahue also noted that Windows Vista is way ahead of where Windows XP was in the same time frame in terms of graphics performance and backward compatibility. Unfortunately, this is small consolation for gamers who can't get their favorite titles to work properly....

One of the biggest complicating factors in getting legacy XP games to work in Windows Vista is the new operating system's User Account Control functionality. This new security feature forces users to work using restricted "standard" accounts, as opposed to defaulting to all-powerful "admin" accounts. According to Donahue, the resulting new model for installing applications and files in write-protected directories is one of the biggest sources of backward incompatibility. The answer is to specify another directory -- one that a standard user account can write to -- rather than the Program Files folder when installing games..."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

For information on using another method, visit this relevant Q&A on this site: How can I get an old program that requires 256 colours (US: colors) to work in Windows XP?

If you require more information on how to make Windows 95/98/Me programs and games run better under Windows XP, visit the following pages on the Microsoft site. The information there also applies to virtually any program that anyone might want to run under Windows XP.

Compatibility Resources and Information -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/compatibility/default.asp

Using Program Compatibility Mode -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gethelp/appcompat.asp

Gaming laptops/notebooks

To play the latest games with performance coming close to the performance that high-end desktop computers (that are designed for gaming) can deliver requires a laptop computer running a desktop processor and powerful video chip (graphics card with its own RAM memory), because raw processing power is required.

The most powerful power-saving mobile processors that Intel and AMD have created for laptops can be used, but they can't perform as well as the most powerful desktop processors, because they're designed to keep cool and to save battery power.

Therefore, a laptop designed for playing the latest games, such as Crysis, gives off plenty of heat. Consequently, large heatsinks have to be used, and that results in a bulky case.

Battery power won't last very long if a non-power-saving desktop processor is installed in a laptop. Consequently, the user will probably want to carry the mains power adapter around with the laptop. But doing that isn't going to be very comfortable with the bulkiest gaming laptops, because they usually have matching bulky brick-sized mains adapters.

Many PC gamers if they use a gaming laptop prefer using an external monitor instead of the laptop's display. If you want to do that, you need a LCD monitor with the fastest available pixel response time, which is now down to as low as 2ms (2 milliseconds). A monitor with a pixel response time of 25ms or even 16ms is too slow to display high-frame-rate, rapid-motion video undistorted or without ghosting.

Visit http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ and have a look at the comprehensive specifications for the LCD monitors, which includes their pixel response times. For example, the Samsung SM-940BF 19" LCD Monitor has a 2ms response time.

The following articles compare two high-end gaming laptops:

SLI & Centrino 2: Gaming Laptops Battle -

"Roundups of any sort are always tricky. Matching apples to apples is rarely possible, and the brand loyalists are always quick to defend their build of choice. So we made this roundup easy. We reached out to some of the most prolific names in gaming notebooks and asked them to send us their best and brightest example of a gaming machine. Price be damned, we wanted to see some stunning performance numbers."

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-notebook-roundup,review-31344.html

Alienware m15x: True Gaming Portability? : Been Here, Done This? -

Compares the Alienware m15x and Dell XPS M1730 gaming laptops. The specifications of each machine are provided and compared in a table on the first page of the article. -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/dell-alienware-notebook,review-31219.html

Here is a review of an Intel-based quad-core laptop:

First Look: Asus G71V quad-core gaming laptop -

"The G71V is one of the first quad-core laptops on sale in the UK. It's equipped with an Core 2 Extreme QX9300 processor, which is Intel's first quad-core processor designed specifically for mobile computing." -

http://www.computershopper.co.uk/news/241011/...

It is advisable to search the web for reviews of a laptop before you make a purchase. As an experiment, you can try finding reviews for the Dell machine by entering Dell XPS M1730 in the Google search box provided at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

The Laptop PCs section of this site provides useful information on laptop /notebook computers, including gaming laptops.

Widescreen laptop/notebook computers

Laptops/notebooks with LCD/TFT widescreens that have an aspect ratio of 16:9 (width:height) have now replaced screens that have a standard aspect ratio of 4:3.

A widescreen has an aspect ratio (the ratio of its vertical and horizontal aspects) that allows widescreen movies to be displayed as they are on a widescreen TV. Visit the Monitors and Laptops pages on this site for more information on PC monitors and laptop PCs.

All of the games designed for a screen that has a standard aspect ratio seem to be ruined when played on a widescreen. The characters appear short and fat, dials appear elliptical instead of round, and when online quite a few lines of the screen disappear so that scrolling is necessary.

A screen with a standard aspect ratio and a resolution of 1024x768 is the equivalent of a widescreen with a resolution of 1200x768, where 1024 and 1200 represent the width of the screen in pixels respectively.

A widescreen display is just what someone wants in order to display a spreadsheet, because it can display more columns. It is also what is necessary to display widescreen television and DVD movies.

Some newer games support widescreen resolutions, which means that they'll display without any distortions. However, if a widescreen causes distortions, you should look at the options for the display driver in the Device Manager. If there is an option to disable video stretching, it adds black borders to each side of a widescreen that effectively reduces it to a screen with a standard aspect ratio.

Read the Q&A on aspect ratios on the Video and Graphics Problems pages on this site called: Why do some PC games look stretched on my widescreen LCD monitor?

Video/graphics cards suitable for PC gaming

The video card in a gaming PC is the most important component. If you have a suitable gaming video card in your PC, you will also have the kind of motherboard that can run it and such a motherboard will be powered by a suitably fast processor, power supply, and a sufficient amount of RAM.

The monitor is another important component. A 17" CRT or LCD flat-panel monitor is the minimum screen size a gaming PC should have. Most video cards and monitor combinations can play the latest games using a screen resolution of 1024x768, which is the the native screen resolution of a 15" LCD flat panel monitor. Playing PC games at a screen resolution of 1280x1024, which is the native screen resolution of a 17" and a 19" LCD flat-panel monitor, requires a powerful graphics card. In short, the higher the screen resolution the more powerful the video card has to be to render PC games at an acceptable frame rate.

Connecting a gaming PC to a TV set or projector - The Component out port

Note that if you want to connect your gaming PC to a TV set or projector, you must make sure that the video card has an output port that matches the TV set's or projector's input port. Most video cards suitable for gaming have standard analog D-sub VGA, digital DVI, and S-video outputs, but some TV sets and projectors only have what is called a Component input port that requires a Component output port on the video card. Only some AGP video cards have a Component out port, however, most PCI Express cards have one.

The warranty

Most video-card manufacturers provide a one-year or two-year warranty for their products, but it is worth noting that Asus, Leadtek, PNY, Gainward, and MSI provide excellent three-year warranties.

****

Affordable four-star and five-star video cards suitable for gaming as rated by Computer Shopper

To find vendors and reviews, enter the make and model enclosed within double quotation marks in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Visit http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper to read full reviews of the latest video cards under PRODUCT REVIEWS.

Click the make/model to visit the manufacturer's website.

How to avoid getting the wrong graphics card

If you're building your own computer or upgrading the motherboard and video/graphics card of an existing computer, you could easily buy an AGP card when the motherboard you have requires a PCI Express card, or vice versa. The computer's motherboard's manual will tell you all the information you need to know about the adapter card slots on the motherboard. If you don't have one, you should be able to download a copy from the manufacturer's website.

Note that you should always match the video card to the rest of the system. If you have a computer running on 128MB of RAM and a Pentium 3 processor, using it with an nVidia GeForce 6800Ultra (8x, AGP) video card is a waste of money. In a PC game, the video card creates the scene and makes the action take place, but it is the main processor that instructs the video card what to do. The processor can be likened to the conductor and the video card to the orchestra, so if you have a slow conductor the orchestra is going to play the game slow even if it can play it at its full speed.

Click here! to go to information about the new PCI Express standard on this site. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point.

ISA video cards

ISA video cards are no longer sold new. Nevertheless, 16-bit ISA video and sound cards are still quite capable of running office applications and accessing the Internet. Having an ISA video card is also handy in the event of a BIOS failure that wipes out the main file and as such forbids access to the operating system. This is because the special recovery area of the BIOS itself can only support a 16-bit ISA video card. An ISA video card can also be useful to test the system in the event of other system failures, so, if you have one, keep it while you have a motherboard that has one or more ISA slots.

Note that most of the latest motherboards have only PCI slots and an AGP or PCI Express slot for a video/graphics card. If that is the case, having an old PCI video card can come in handy for troubleshooting problems if the video main video card doesn't deliver a picture to the monitor.

Note also that motherboards are available that have two PCI Express slots for two video cards running in tandem that use nVidia's SLI technology. ATI has responded with its CrossFire dual-card technology.

A new standard of PCI bus called PCI Express (abbreviated to PCIe or PCI-E) has almost replaced the PCI standard and almost completely replaced the AGP graphics standard. Since it can be bridged to the PCI bus, it can be used to run the the same kind of adapter cards that are presently run on the standard PCI bus (PCI Express dial-up modems, sound cards, etc.) - and can also run the fastest PCI Express video cards.

PCI Express video cards that use system RAM

With the new PCI Express motherboard bus there is little or no loss in performance if a video chip integrated into the motherboard that shares system RAM is used.

Indeed, because of this, inexpensive video cards that use only system RAM instead of their own RAM are now available. An example of such a PCI Express video card is the Palit GeForce 6200 TurboCache.

****

nvidia's SLI and ATI's CrossFire dual video card technology

Click here! to go directly to more information on the new PCI Express standard on the Video and Graphics section of this site. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point on this page.

Information is provided there on the dual video card technology from the two major graphics chip manufacturers, nVidia and ATI, in which two high-end video cards are installed in tandem on a PC gaming computer's motherboard. nVidia's dual-card technology is called Scalable Link Interface (SLI), and ATI's similar but not identical technology is called CrossFire.

Video card drivers

Apart from the drivers for notebook/laptop computers, driver development is now being exclusively exclusively by the manufacturer's of the graphics chips (ATI, nVidia, etc.), not by the manufacturers of the graphics cards (Gainward, Crucial, etc). Nonetheless, regular visits to a graphics-card manufacturer's site is a good idea, because you could still download updates for utilities and tools, or download a newer version of the BIOS for the card.

The drivers on the CD that comes with a new video card (or new computer) will probably already be out of date by the time you buy it. Therefore it's a good idea to download the latest drivers from the chipset manufacturer's site. Newer games tend to have problems with older drivers. The same is true for Microsoft's DirectX, which you should also keep up to date. Newer games often ship with the runtime installer of the current version of DirectX, which you run while online to install the latest version.

More information on DirectX is provided further down this page.

Is Vista Good for Gaming? - Three reasons Windows Vista is terrible for gaming ... and six reasons why it's great -

"The bad news is that it's going to take time for developers to figure out the most effective way to write drivers for this new [device driver] model [used by Windows Vista]. Today's performance slowdowns are largely a result of driver developers having to relearn the delicate process of writing the most efficient code for graphics processors. Unless you want to roll your system back to Windows XP, the simple answer to this problem is to keep updating your video card drivers -- graphics card manufacturers ATI (now owned by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) and nVidia Corp. are constantly releasing new and improved drivers. Thankfully, with each driver iteration released by the companies, gaming performance for DX9 cards in Windows Vista has improved. In another few months, it's highly likely this will be a nonissue. In the meantime, however, gamers will suffer."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

Here is a list of the most important graphics-card driver links:

ATI-based graphics cards (Radeon, All In Wonder, IGP):

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Intel integrated graphics (chipsets i865G, 915G) - http://downloadfinder.intel.com/

NVIDIA-based graphics cards (GeForce, nForce) -

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

S3-based graphics cards (Deltachrome) - http://www.s3graphics.com/drivers.jsp

SIS integrated graphics - http://download.sis.com/

XGI-based graphics (Volari) - http://www.xgitech.com/sd/sd_download.asp

LAPTOP VIDEO CARD DRIVERS

The following quotation comes from the ATI website:

"You MUST use the drivers supplied with your laptop or notebook computer, or obtain a driver update from the manufacturer of your laptop or notebook computer."

In other words, because the video chips used in laptop/notebook computers have an architecture that is customised to to a particular laptop/notebook computer manufacturer's monitor requirements, etc., as opposed to the standard architecture of the chips used in PCI and AGP video cards and motherboard video implementations, ATI does not update the drivers. To do so would be uneconomic for ATI (and the other video-chip manufacturers that supply the chips for laptops/notebooks), and therefore the computer manufacturer is the only source of updated drivers.

Obviously, if the laptop/notebook manufacturer does not update the drivers, then there is no other source for them. - This is clearly yet another factor to be borne in mind when purchasing a laptop/notebook computer, because updated drivers are often required in order to be able to install updated versions of DirectX and OpenGL that are in turn required in order to run the latest games.

Omega drivers

If you buy a laptop/notebook computer advertised as a gaming machine from a manufacturer that is not a brand-name manufacturer that has the computers made cheaply in the Far East, and, as a consequence, it won't be creating updated drivers for it, you might not be able to play games that require updated drivers.

Many laptop/notebook computers use ATI video chips. If this is the case and updated drivers are not available from the manufacturer, you should be able to use the Omega drivers that are created by Angel Trinidad in his spare time. The drivers are based on the official ATI drivers, and are modified for gaming performance. Installers are provided that cover all of the ATI video chips, including the Mobility series. The drivers install easily and provide mobile and overclocking options.

They can be obtained from: http://www.omegadrivers.net/.

Read this Q&A on this site for more information on the problem: I can't update the device drivers for my Tiny notebook/laptop computer.

Fixing device-driver problems

Installing the latest drivers for a particular device can sometimes cause problems, or even render the device or the whole system unusable.

If this is the case, in a Windows 9x system, uninstall the device in Safe mode (Safe Mode in Windows XP) by pressing the F8 key at startup to bring up the boot menu, and then choose it from the list. Open the Device Manager and remove the device, then allow Windows to reinstall the drivers, and, if necessary, install an earlier version.

Windows XP has a Roll Back Driver feature in the Device Manager that allows you to roll the system back to the state it was in before you installed a new driver file. You can also use its System Restore feature to roll the whole system back to a former state.

The Q&A on this site called PC Game crashes with a blue screen and Windows XP produces a Stop 0x0A (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) error message covers a problem that is usually caused by faulty device drivers.

How to fix problems with device drivers in Windows XP

Although the information on the following page is specific to Windows XP, much of the advice is relevant to the earlier versions of Windows. Click here! to read Troubleshoot Device Driver Problems.

Case modding

Case modding is term used to describe adding all kinds of fancy add-ons and gizmos to a computer case. You can add fancy coolers, fans, fan controllers, neon lights, etc., and you can buy fancy cases that have exotic features such as see-through areas so that you can see inside the case, etc.

The overclocking and [case] modding forum: To visit it, go to http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper and click on the Forums heading that appears under the Interactive heading in the left-hand navigation bar.

UK-specific sites that offer offer case modding equipment are:

http://www.aria.co.uk/

http://www.thecoolingshop.com/

http://www.scan.co.uk/

US-specific sites are: http://www.xoxide.com/ and http://www.newegg.com/

Others can be found by entering a search term such as "case modding" + uk (or + us) in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Connecting an Xbox to an LCD monitor

In order to connect an Xbox to an LCD monitor you need a VGA converter unit that is compatible with the monitor. For example, if the VGA converter has a maximum vertical refresh output of 50Hz, you won't be able to use it with an Iiyama ProLite 481S LCD monitor, because it only accepts vertical refresh rates of between 56Hz and 80Hz.

Connecting a xbox 360 to an lcd monitor [Video] -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xRgL-cE95SI

You should also be able to use an external TV tuner to connect an Xbox to an LCD monitor.

The majority of external TV tuners have an auxilliary video input connection, usually via composite video connection, or via an S-video connection on the more expensive units. You connect the Xbox to one of those inputs and the signal should pass through to the LCD monitor.

Note that the cheaper units might cause a slight delay, which wouldn't spoil the quality of video output, but it might reduce gaming performance. However, AVermedia claims that its AVerTV TV Tuner products are ideal for use with an Xbox.

SCSI hard disk drives

The faster the hard disk drive can access data, the better the gaming performance. SCSI hard drives are still quite a lot faster than both parallel and serial IDE ATA drives. Being used on mission-critical systems, they also come with five-year warranties. However, the fastest and biggest SCSI models have much less disk space and are much more expensive than the fastest and biggest IDE ATA drives.

Click here! to go to information about these drives on this site.

Sound in a gaming PC

Sound is an important factor in gaming.

Internal PCI and PCI Express (using a x1 PCI Express slot on the motherboard) and external USB sound cards are available.

Visit the Sound page for more information on the subject on this site.

Gaming PC monitors

See the Monitors pages on this site for information on CRT and LCD TFT monitors.

First Look: Zalman 3D Monitors -

"Most PC games are set in three dimensional virtual worlds. Unfortunately these 3D environments must then be reduced to a 2D image for display on a PC monitor. So we were excited to see Zalman's new range of monitors, which are capable of tricking your brain into seeing the 3D information inherent in games..." -

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/news/141099/first-look-zalman-3d-monitors.html

Hands on with Zalman’s 3D gaming screen -

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1432&blogid=18

Gaming PC keyboards and mice

The kind of keyboard and mouse used in gaming can make a difference. For instance, the slight response lag with wireless mice can be a problem for gamers. Moreover, the batteries they use need to be well charged for the best performance.

For the dedicated gamer, optical mice are the best choice, because they don't require cleaning. Some gamers prefer the wireless models because they don't like the cable getting in the way of any movement. But the gamers who don't like having a wireless mouse run out of battery power in mid-game prefer a wired optical mouse. However, it's possible to get the best of both situations by using a wireless optical mouse that uses rechargeable batteries that can be charged via a cable (instead of a cradle) while being used.

Keyboards and mice specifically designed for PC gaming are available.

Have a look at http://gamingmouse.com/ to see some interesting gaming mice, some of which don't have moving parts and don't require a specific driver.

"A typical conventional gaming mouse has more than 30 moving parts that will wear, break and cause mouse failure.The R2 gaming mouse with Membrane Switch™ technology has ZERO moving parts to wear or break... A conventional gaming mouse requires special disc based drivers go be loaded on the machine for operation. The R2 gaming mouse uses the host machine's embedded HID drivers -- no special drivers to install ever...A typical conventional gaming mouse has more than 30 moving parts that will wear, break and cause mouse failure. The R2 gaming mouse with Membrane Switch™ technology has ZERO moving parts to wear or break."

Other examples of gaming mice and keyboards are made by Saitek.

Mice have a resolution that is measured in dots per inch (dpi). The higher the resolution is, the more sensitive the mouse is and the less it has to be moved in order to cover a given distance on the screen. A mouse with a relatively high resolution (e.g., 1,600dpi) allows quick and accurate responses of the kind that are required in many action and shooter games. If the response is too fast, you can use the Mouse feature in the Control Panel to adjust the settings. It can also be used to increase the response time of a mouse with a relatively low dpi specification.

Microsoft Hardware - Visit the following page to access the following products - Mice and Keyboards - Gaming Products - Webcams and Headsets - Mobile Products (mice) - Presenter Products - Media Center Products (wireless keyboard and mouse sets) -

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/default.aspx

The Logitech G9 and Microsoft Side Winder Face-Off -

"Here is something we at Tom’s Hardware would like to see more often. Two giants, Logitech and Microsoft, are head to head in the very specific area of high performance mice for gamers. We thought we had seen everything in this market where the firms’ engineers’ imaginations usually run wild. We have to concede, though, that the models we tested have pushed the envelope and have left their predecessors in the dust..." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Logitech-Microsoft-G9,review-29800.html

Why Buy a Gaming Keyboard? -

"When it comes to video game input devices, the keyboard is probably the furthest from ideal. Let’s face it, keyboards were not designed to serve as game peripherals. However, PC gamers have bent their gaming habits to fit the restrictions of the standard keyboard for so many years that most prefer keyboard controls to a gamepad." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/why-buy-a-gaming-keyboard,review-29601.html

See this Build a PC page on this site for information on keyboards and mice.

Game controllers (Joysticks, etc)

For reviews of game controllers, such as joysticks, etc., visit the section on the Computer Shopper site devoted to Input devices:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/archiveproductsearch/8/Input-devices

Special PC cases

Computer cases that have extra vents, internal lights, and stylish dials are popular with gamers. They might look fancy or make a computer sound more like a humming motor vehicle, but the fans, dials, and temperature sensors are also almost always very functional. For instance, a knob or thermostat that controls the speed of a fan is useful since it allows a gamer to reduce the noise by turning them down of off when the computer isn't being used to play games.

Note that most warranty cover won't include any special neon tubes installed in a gaming computer, because they count as light bulbs, which the user has to replace.

Gaming routers

Click here! to go to information on routers on the Networking pages this site.

Overclocking

Overclocking means setting one or more of a computer's components to run faster than the manufacturer's recommended default setting. A practice that should be fully researched before it's indulged in, because applying settings that are too high for a particular device can make the system unstable and prone to errors, or even damage or render it useless.

Click here! to go directly to the Overclocking section of the third of the four Links pages on this site.

Because it loses them sales, overclocking is usually greatly disapproved of by RAM, processor, and video-card manufacturers, but, because it gains them sales, most of the major motherboard manufacturers (apart from Intel - the company that manufacturers processors and motherboards) try to make their motherboards as overclockable as possible. For example, many of the motherboard manufacturer's currently provide utilities that allow a user to increase the FSB speed - the key setting involved in overclocking a system - from the comfort of the Windows desktop.

That said, some manufacturers that were firmly set against the practice are becoming more friendly towards it. For example, ATI now supplies a utility from its site that can overclock its Radeon 9800 XT video card to gain about a 5% increase in performance.

However, apart from the processor, which, depending on its make and model, can often be overclocked by as much as 50% or more with the correct cooling employed, and by increasing the FSB and the clock-multiplier settings, you are only likely to see about a 5% increase in performance by overclocking most of the other components, including a graphics card.

To be worthwhile to a user, overclocking the components obviously has to result in a noticeable increase in performance. Research done by Intel suggests that a computer's overall performance has to be increased by at least 10% to be noticeable.

This level of performance increase is unfortunately easier said than done. With heavy-duty cooling measures employed, you may make the processor run 50% faster, but it won't be noticeable because the other components such as the RAM, video card, and hard disk drive cramp its style, so to speak, in such a way that the overall increase in performance is usually much less than the 10% that makes it noticeable.

Personally, I think that the results obtained by overclocking are mostly in the mind, and, since it stresses the components beyond the tolerances they were tested for, I don't ever bother with overclocking. If you want the fastest available system, unfortunately, as usual, you have to be prepared to pay the high prices for all of the fastest components.

Video cards featuring home movie video editing and connectivity to VCRs and camcorders

You can now purchase video cards that are very reasonably priced and which allow a user to edit movies, connect to video recorders (VCRs) and camcorders, and support DVD authoring and burning.

In January 2004, ATI Technologies released three new All-In-Wonder graphics cards directed at video editors and computer gamers.

The All-In-Wonder 9600XT features a graphics engine clocked at 525MHz and 128MB of memory running at 650MHz, FM-On-Demand for receiving FM radio signals, and DVD authoring and burning. This card is priced at $299. Costing $199, the All-In-Wonder 9600 card is the company's value offering. It includes home multimedia networking support in addition to support for DirectX 9.0. The budget card is the All-In-Wonder 9200. Costing $149, it is powered by ATI's 9200 graphics chip. This card is aimed at the user interested in home movie video editing, featuring connectivity to VCRs and camcorders, and support for DVD burning.

DirectX

DirectX is a kind of super software device driver. It is Microsoft's graphics software that is used by games developers in the creation of their games. The set of controls that are used to create the 3D effects in most modern games are defined by DirectX. It is the the software that Windows XP/Vista uses to ensure compatibility between computer hardware and PC the games that support it.

Note that not all games use DirectX. Some games, such as Doom 3, use OpenGL instead of DirectX.

Windows Vista comes with DirectX 10, which supports more advanced graphical effects than the previous version, which is DirectX 9.0c. Windows Vista also comes with DirectX 9.0Ex, which is a tweaked version of DirectX 9.0c that makes Windows Vista backward-compatible with older DirectX games.

Note that you can now also obtain DirectX 10 for Windows XP, which wasn't the case until recently; DirectX 10 could only be used with Windows Vista. Download pages can be found by using a search term such as windows xp directx 10 in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled.) Here is a download page I found using it:

Download DirectX 10 for Windows XP from Alky Project -

http://www.technospot.net/blogs/...

Is Vista Good for Gaming? - Three reasons Windows Vista is terrible for gaming ... and six reasons why it's great -

"Incompatibilities are awful, but perhaps the greatest flaw with Vista gaming is the fact that, as of March 2007, not a single DirectX 10 game has been released. And none are close to being released. The sad truth for gamers is that it will take at least six months for Windows game developers to finish the DX10 titles that are currently under development. Crysis is one of the titles gamers are most excited about, but it's not scheduled for release until late 2007...

"Without a doubt, Vista's support for DirectX 10 is the primary reason why gaming in the Windows environment will transcend gamers' wildest dreams and far exceed the visual quality of even the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. 'When DX10 games come out, the end result will be a significant increase in visual fidelity,' said Microsoft's Donahue..."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

To make the best use of DirectX 10 requires playing DirectX 10 games on a PC that has a graphics card that supports DirectX 10.

The Asus EN8800GTS graphics card supports DirectX 10. Here are its main specifications: 640MB - GDDR3 memory - Two DVI ports - TV-out - Uses one PCI Express power adapter from the power supply, but takes up the space of two slots. It was given a five-star review and a Most Wanted award by Computer Shopper, and was priced at £300.00 in January 2007.

Another graphics card that supports DirectX 10 is the nVidia GeForce 8800GTX card.

DirectX 10 is not backward compatible with previous versions, as is the case with the previous versions, which are backward compatible with previous versions. However, DirectX 9 is emulated in DirectX 10, which means that it can run DirectX 9 games. At the time of writing this DirectX 11 was not yet available.

DirectX - "Shows which versions of Windows support which versions of DirectX. Windows XP only supports up to version DirectX 9.0c. Windows Vista suports DirectX 10 and 11 and the unreleased Windows 7 supports DirectX 11" -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

Visit Miscosoft's website called Games for Windows for DirectX 10. -

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/aboutgfw/Pages/directx10-a.aspx

DirectX 11: A look at what's coming -

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2008/09/17/directx-11-a-look-at-what-s-coming/1

Windows 7, DirectX 11! -

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/windows_7_directx_11

OpenGL 3 & DirectX 11: The War Is Over : Introduction -

"We were expecting a lot from OpenGL 3, and as you can tell by reading this article, we’re disappointed—both in the API itself (with the disappearance of promised features) and in the way it’s been handled (a year-long delay and a lack of clear communication on the part of the Khronos group). With this version, OpenGL barely keeps up with Direct3D 10, and at a time when Microsoft has chosen to publicize the first details of version 11 of its own API." - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/opengl-directx,review-31330.html

Visit this site - http://www.mvps.org/directx - for technical information and ideas about DirectX.

****

A standard software device driver usually just makes it possible for the programs or applications that use a hardware device, such as a video or sound card, to be able to do so. DirectX does that, but if the hardware is found to be lacking it can also emulate the missing hardware capabilities in its software. This feature is known as the program's Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).

The current version of DirectX has five main components: DirectX Graphics, its main component, DirectX Audio, DirectPlay, DirectInput, and DirectShow.

DirectX Graphics is the most important component, and is itself made up of components such as Direct3D, a sophisticated graphics rendering engine, Direct3D Acceleration, DirectDraw Acceleration, and Texture Acceleration.

DirectInput provides the software for joysticks and gamepads used in gaming. It allowed software developers to move beyond the original PC COM game port and use more precise joysticks and other custom input gaming devices. Before DirectInput became available, game players had to choose between using imprecise game-port joysticks that work with every game, or custom input devices that only work with the games that support them. DirectInput allows joysticks to connect via USB ports, and adds new features such as force-feedback that enhance game playing.

DirectPlay is a recent addition to DirectX and provides capabilities for online gaming. DirectPlay is built into the Xbox in order to make multiplayer games possible.

To make 3D video acceleration possible, developers of 3D software need a standard language in which the 3D output is programmed. Such a standard, or API (Advanced Programming Interface) determines which operations a graphics chip must support.

Currently, the dominant 3D standards are OpenGL and Microsoft's Direct3D, which is a component of DirectX. Most PC games are designed to use Direct3D, so when Microsoft releases a new version of DirectX, most of the new functions are soon incorporated into OpenGL.

If the video/graphics card supports it, Windows 95/98/Me/XP/Vista installs the version of DirectX that is on its CD.

You can obtain the latest version for Windows XP and Windows Vista directly from http://www.microsoft.com/directx. As reported earlier on this page, you have to use a third-party website to obtain DirectX 10 for Windows XP, because Microsoft only developed it for Windows Vista.

DirectX cannot be installed if your video card does not support it, because the installation process interrogates the video card to find out if its chipset supports it.

You do not need DirectX to use office applications, or access the Internet for non-gaming purposes. Indeed, if you do not play games, and you have a spare ISA or PCI video card that you could use for fault diagnosis, but which does not support DirectX, you should remove DirectX, because a video card that does not support it will probably not function if it's installed. There is no way within Windows to remove DirectX, because it doesn't appear in Add/Remove Programs, or in Start => Programs, but there are third-part utilities that can remove it, such as DX Extractor and DXBuster.

Note that in Windows Vista, there is no option in the Control Panel called Add or Remove Programs that appears in all of the previous versions of Windows since Windows 95. That feature is now found under the Programs category in the Control Panel.

Of the latest games, Forsaken and Incoming use DirectX (now at version 9.0) and Quake I, II, and III use OpenGL.

Note that not all video cards support both DirectX and OpenGL, so if you want the greatest gaming flexibility, make sure that the card that you are purchasing, as an upgrade or in a new PC, supports both programming interfaces.

DirectX is currently being reworked to integrate it with the new .NET programming languages - C# and VB.NET. This means that not much development is taking place with the existing COM model, with only letter updates being issued by Microsoft. Version 9 of DirectX has only had the 9.0b and 9.0c updates released so far. See below for information on version 9.0c.

The DirectX diagnostic tool - dxdiag

Once installed, DirectX is almost completely hidden from the user. But there is a way to access its diagnostic tool, which also provides information on the program and its contents. To access it, just enter dxdiag in the Start => Run box. It allows the user to run several useful diagnostic tests on the video and sound system. There is more information about it in the next section on this page.

DirectX removal tools

Microsoft doesn't provide a way of removing DirectX, so, if you need to remove it to install an earlier version, ect., you'll have to use a third-party utility such as those that can be obtained from the following links:

DX Extractor (removes DirectX 9.x from all versions of Windows) -

http://www.geocities.com/clb92001/

DXBuster (removes some versions of DirectX) - http://www.dxbuster.de/index_e.html

Have a look at these two DirectX Removers on the Major Geeks site:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2935.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download509.html

If those links don't work, they might be elsewhere on the site. If you can't use those links, to find the available removers, enter directx remover in the Google seach box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). Enter a version if you want a removal tool that works with a particular version.

The DXDiag diagnostic utility

If you do need to install the latest version of DirectX in order to play one or more games, you should note that it comes with a diagnostic program that can be helpful in diagnosing video and sound faults. With DirectX installed in a Windows 9.x system, just click Start => Run and type dxdiag in at the dialogue box, and you will be able to test your video and sound systems.

You should download the latest versions of the device drivers (and utilities) you use

If you can't identify the video card (or any other device) in your system, you can use the following free utility to identify it and the other hardware (and software) on your system.

The Belarc Advisor - http://www.belarc.com/

If it fails to identify hardware on your computer, click here! to go directly to free identification program links on the second of the four Links page on this site, under Identify your hardware and software.

If your video and sound cards support DirectX, make sure that your system has the latest version installed before you update the video and sound drivers. Windows 98/98SE installs version 6.x, and if you haven't updated the system, it might be incompatible with the latest video and sound card drivers. Install it before you install the video card update.

I have successfully upgraded from DirectX 8.1 to DirectX 9.0 on a system using an 8MB ATI Rage Pro Turbo video card.

Remember that if the video card installed in your computer does not support DirectX 9.x or Direct X 10, the installation routine should inform you of that and refuse to install, but as with everything related to computers, nothing is guaranteed.

Apart from DirectX, the most important driver updates are for the motherboard's chipset (IDE Busmaster, AGP, and USB Controller updates), the video card, and the sound card, all of which can be downloaded without charge from their manufacturer's sites, or third-party drivers' sites.

Where possible, you should also update your games. Doing so can remedy audio playback problems or other irregularities. Check the developer’s website for the latest game patches.

PowerStrip - Shareware - $29.95

"PowerStrip [at version 3.6 in May 2006] provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest ATI X1900 Crossfire and NVidia Qual-SLI 7900. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of XP. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls. A powerful application profiler can detect when programs are launched and respond by activating specific display settings, gamma adjustments, performance switches and even clock speeds - returning everything to normal when the program closes. In-game gamma hotkeys let you light up the darkest hallways during game play, and hardware control over refresh rates - with floating point precision - ensure you're never stuck at just 60Hz no matter what OS you're using. A quick setup wizard gets you up and running with minimal fuss, extensive context-sensitive help is available for all controls, and live updates are supported to ensure you're always running the latest release. Finally, an assortment of system and productivity tools - among them, extensive diagnostics, PCIe and AGP device configuration, EDID decoding and jig-free updating, desktop icon management, a system idle thread, Windows resource monitoring, an anti-burn-in orbiting option, physical memory optimization, an on-screen display, and the most advanced monitor support in the industry - round out the compact 800kb package." - http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm

Microsoft's "Windows XP Game Advisor"

"Want to find out more about the cool new games coming out? Want to make sure those games will work on your Windows computer? With the Windows XP Game Advisor, you select the type of game you're interested in and the age range of the person who'll be playing, and you get a list of games you'll love - or gift ideas that will leave your favorite gamer breathless with anticipation of high scores to come." -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/games/gameadvisor/default.asp

The services run by Windows XP and Windows Vista

Windows XP and Windows Vista run many services by default that can be disabled. These services are loaded at system startup. Other services, not run by default, can be enabled. It is possible to run an optimal services' setup for the dedicated gaming machine, etc. If you want to optimise (US: optimize) the services in Windows XP or Windows Vista, you can find sites that provide the information by entering a suitable search term in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). A example of a suitable search term for Windows XP is: optimize xp services.

Obtain the XP Services Guide here -

http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp_services/index.shtml

One of the main reasons for Vista's slowness is that, like Windows XP, it runs many programs called services in the background. These services load when Vista starts up and then run in the background, even when the user is not using the computer. Running them consumes a significant part of the computer's memory and processing power. A user has to know which services are safe to disable, otherwise problems can arise. You can educate yourself about which services are safe to disable by reading information on the web on websites such as BlackViper, or you can use a good free utility that does the work for you, such as the freeware utility, Vista Services Optimizer (VSO).

VSO allows computer users without the required knwoledge to disable unnecessary Vista services and provides information on the services that are safe to disable. Most people should use VSO's Automatic TuneUp option that asks questions about your computer. The program then reboots your computer and disables any services that it determines, based on your answers, are not required.

The program is available from http://www.snapfiles.com/get/vsoptimizer.html.

VIDEO CARD & GAMES REVIEWS

Video-card and games reviews from Computer Shopper

Video/Graphics card reviews:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/archiveproductsearch/5/Graphics-cards

Games and leisure:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/archiveproductsearch/21/Games-and-Leisure

Click here! to go to a list of games on Page 2 that Computer Shopper (UK) gave five-star and four-star ratings. It provides links to the game-manufacturers' sites where you can read all about a particular game and the kind of system it runs on. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point on the page.

Games' pages on Yahoo!

PC GAMES: Game Reviews, Guides & Resources -

http://uk.gamesdomain.yahoo.com/pc

PLAYSTATION 2 Game Reviews, Guides & Resources -

http://uk.gamesdomain.yahoo.com/ps2

XBOX Game Reviews, Guides & Resources -

http://uk.gamesdomain.yahoo.com/xbox

GAMECUBE Game Reviews, Guides & Resources -

http://uk.gamesdomain.yahoo.com/gc

Yahoo! Games - Download your Video Games For Free -

http://uk.download.games.yahoo.net/index.php

A good example of how difficult some games-related problems can be to diagnose

Problem

A friend asked me to format and reinstall Windows 98 on his Packard-Bell, Pentium III, 500MHz, 192MB RAM computer. His main problem was that games that once ran on the machine (and were presently running on his laptop using Windows XP), weren't running any longer even after uninstalling and reinstalling them. I discovered that his video card was no good, but even after changing it to a GeForce 4X 64MB, and doing the format and reinstall, we still have the same problem. I reinstalled DirectX 9.0 in Safe mode, uninstalled DirectX 9.0 and reinstalled 8.1, reinstalled the new video card and drivers, reinstalled Windows on top of Windows, and last but not least, I upgraded the system to Windows XP. All with no improvement. The games will install, but when it comes time to play, they won't run. The screen goes black (in the case of Windows 98, the screen actually turned off and necessitated a reboot), and then nothing happens. The games all ran at one time on the computer. These are also NOT the latest heavy duty graphics games. When entering dxdiag in the Start => Run box, the DirectDraw test jams on full screen mode, and the Direct3D renderings don't work at all. That's why there was the mucking about with DirectX at the beginning. I am at my wits' end. Does this sound at all familiar to anybody? Is it possible that a bad sound card would cause the games to hang?

Replies

1) My GeForce 2 MX used to do that - at first I thought it was just my crappy old monitor, but changing the Detonator drivers to a different version sorted it out. Guru3D has loads, I recommend the 30.82s, or failing that just try them all until one works.

2) I had a motherboard blow the north bridge chip (that takes care of AGP, the memory controller, etc.). Anyhow it would work fine until I tried anything 3D at all. Which means all games. They wouldn't run at all - the same black screen crash. Happened after a not so nice "pop" sound when gaming. All the capacitors were OK and no visible damage other than under the north bridge chip. It looked like it had once gotten hot. I used the same parts - just replaced the motherboard, and everything was dandy again. I'm saying that it could be the motherboard.

3) My initial thought would be an inadequate or faulty power supply, and/or an overheating problem due to inadequate cooling inside the case. [Always check that the heatsink and fan unit is working properly when software that used to work fails to work.] Given the computer's specs, I suspect it may be a few years old. Perhaps it would be a good time to open the case, clear out any dust bunnies with a can of compressed air, and replace any dust-jammed fans.

4) I would try playing those games on another computer with that particular video card installed to make sure that it isn't the video card. Just because two video cards were used doesn't mean that both of them weren't faulty.

In this particular case, replacing the motherboard solved the problem, but any of the above suggestions could solve a problem of this kind.

sodaplay

The site greets the visitor with, "welcome to sodaplay the home of creative play". There is the sodaconstructor, where you do the construction, and there is the sodarace, which is described as, "human v machine create and compete in the league". -

http://www.sodaplay.com/

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