Skrym: Old School RPG?
When it comes to computer gaming there are a few different styles that exist. Most of the press in the enthusiast market is placed on FPS gaming as it is the easiest to judge hardware performance with. There is also simulations, strategy, RTS and casual, but the gaming style that probably has some of the deepest roots is Role Playing. In fact RPGs along with strategy and simulation gaming make up the original core of computer gaming. Today however these types of games feel like they gate a back seat at the gaming table.
In the case of RPGs the game style has evolved over the years and eventually morphed into what we know today as an MMO. This evolution came with some good and bad traits. The good was that the worlds where open ended, well at least a lot more so than solo RPGs and they where easy to get on and play with friends, a solid social aspect. The bad news was the deep storyline of a great RPG was lost due to the need to simplify the system for the broadest base of appeal.
Bethesda is a company that has been bucking this trend with their Elder Scroll series. They have created a series of games based on the old school RPG standard of great plot and backstory and then tried to open the world for the players to feel they where in control, not moving down a rail of storyline that limited deviation. What we will be looking at today is the latest edition of the Elder Scroll series, Skyrim.
The premise of the story is based in the world of Tamriel, the basis of the entire Elder Scroll series. You awake after having been captured as you tried to cross the border of Skyrim, a region of the planet. You seem to have stumbled into a raid that captured a group of Skyrim separatist along with their leader and a horse thief. Your adventure begins as you await the executioners axe.
Now for many RPG fans the start may seem a bit contrived without more detail of a background but this it the open nature of the game. Everything about this game is about you and the way YOU want to play. This open story give you the room to create ANY backstory you want.
As the story progresses you discover you are a person of myth, known as Dragonborn. This means you have some mystical connection to Dragons and when they die you “capture” the essence of their soul. As in old school RPG you somehow stand above the norm but again the method choice for this from a story point of view is very open, leaving you with a lot of option.
The game system itself uses a DX9 based gaming engine specifically designed for the game. The graphics are actually very good and the game runs surprisingly well even on older systems. The screen shots in this review will give you idea of what you will see in game. A lot of reviews I have seen has actually pointed to the DX9 engine usage as a flaw or failure in their eyes. Personally I think the engine provides some great images and while not state of the art is still more than enough for a great gaming experience.
The game engine however does more than put graphics on the screen, it also makes the world around you seem alive. I am not talking about scripted events, which the game has as well. What I am referring to is called the “Radiant Story”. This system keeps track of your actions and then uses those actions to create new, random encounters for you to deal with as well as “leveling” your encounters based on your character at the time. This means you are less dependent on following a set storyline path and have more room to wander the world.
To say I am impressed with this system is an understatement. Doug and I in our testing have seen some amazing encounters pop up that obviously where not scripted and in some cases seem to exist solely based off our long term actions. In some cases it has taken what appeared to be disconnected actions and connected the dots to create a resulting encounter. This means the world feels more alive around you, because it. People are not wandering aimlessly in the game. They have patterns for sure but then again so do we with work and such and these are the kinds of patterns the NPCs seem to follow.
A interesting result of this is a term near and dear to RPG enthusiast, dungeon clearing. What I mean is you stumble upon a ruin that you decide to explore. Inside you find a den of thieves and you spend some time clearing them out, okay killing them. Now under most RPG systems one of two things happen. The den is left cleared out until the end of the game or the den respawns the same group of thieves. This system however takes a different approach. Over the next few weeks game time a new group of thieves will possibly, not always, move into the ruins and take up residence. This is NOT the same group and going back will not lead to the same encounters. The boss might be different as well as the guard number and patterns. Also the longer you let this go on the more it fills. In other words this has a reaction that is almost realistic in it’s scope.
This living work is not limited to just the people, NPCs, but the fauna as well. One of the coolest encounters I had was when out hunting, yes you can do mundane stuff as well but more in a minute. I was slowly working toward a large Elk when something spooked the Elk and he started running. As I watched a herd of Elk can leaping across the river near him with two saber tooth cats close on their tails. They ran for a bit before the cats broke off, not able to catch the Elk. I watched as the cats returned to the other side of the river and noted that a Mammoth was cresting the hill. The cats saw it as well and alter course going after the mammoth. I could not bring myself to move as I watched the mammoth beat the snot out of the cats and then lumber off injured. When I got the corpses of the cats I was able to skin them for some nice pelts. I found the mammoth a little ways farther on now dead 
obviously from it’s injuries.
Now I have seen a lot of wild encounters so I know this was not scripted. Especially considering it happened in the middle of nowhere. What was amazing was the fact I was riveted to watching this entire event unfold despite it having nothing to do with my character or the quest I was on at the time. This I think speaks volumes for how well the Radiant Story system works.
The character creation system in game might seem simplistic to many but I have to tell you I really like it. There is not a slew of classes to choose from, you essential pick your race and create the look you want, then you are done. The game offers four different “human” cultures to choose from as well as an orc, three elf, a lizard and cat person as well. Each of these come with bonuses in certain areas of game play, as well as something special in the way of a talent or skill. There is not any kind of class system with the game being skill based in advancement. There are 18 base skills that encompass tasks your character can perform. As you perform these tasks you get better with them, as in real life. Now this does not mean you can grab a bow and shoot it 100 times and suddenly be a master. The system is setup that certain things must happen as you use the skills and the requirement for an advance gets harder as you skill up. As you skill up each skill has a “perk” tree in it that lets you make the skill more useful. It is possible through game play to earn up to around 80 perks with 240 available. This means there is no way to max out a character in everything.
While this system might seem strange to RPG enthusiasts, it actually makes a lot of sense. The old pen and paper game Runescape used a skill leveling system based on use. This means the character you get is based on what you do and how you play, not an artificial limited created by the game designers. This design is in my opinion a great thing. It is possible to create a character the way you want him to be and only in EVE have I seen this kind of character play flexibility.
Now as I said before a lot of the RPG world has morphed to the MMO play style and with it the weaknesses that it brings. Well Elder Scrolls takes some of the better elements and brings them into Skyrim. You have the ability to exist with your character in this world without the need to quest. You can for example mine ore and sell it or use it make things. You can hunt for food or skins and then use them for crafting, yes you can cook. You can also gather various components for alchemy or enchanting of items. Where in most MMOs this is done for cash income or to hand to lower level characters, in Skyrim this can be used to effect your character directly. Alchemy is a great skill for a thief or assassin to use by making poisons. Smithing will let you upgrade equipment or make new as will enchantment, you can even invest in local businesses and be a trader if you so choose.
There are some downsides to Skyrim however, all is not perfect. The game has a few bugs ranging from jerky mouse movement for some, to issues with the sound being out of whack when facing a sound source straight on. There are some issues with occasional crashes of the game and some of Bethesda’s classic glitches like flying animals or watching a mammoth spawn in mid air and fall to it’s demise. There is a patch due to possibly release next week to address some of these, but we do not have a lot of details at this time. Also the game lacks any kind of multi-player option to enjoy with your friends, you are totally on your own.
Even with these glitches Skrim is a game that has capture me. The openness of the game and the mechanics have captured many of the elements I loved best in MMOs but taken aware the weaknesses. The character creation and advancement system is amazing with the game being about the way I play and not me adapting to the game. The game world feels alive and you feel like you are a part of it. Your actions have consequences that might show up at any time and anywhere, without feeling like you have been riding a rail car down the plot.
It has been a long time since I have truly felt the thrill of the RPG experience like I did in the old days with pen and paper. Computer based RPG was fun but you always felt like you where just along for the ride in the story. Skyrim has rekindled that old flame and stoked it to a bon-fire. While it may not have state of the art graphics I am kind of glad. Rather than giving the game mindless eye candy like MOST titles today do, Bethesda focused on the mechanics under the game to bring the game world to life and providing a deep, rich world to enjoy. We have seen some really good gaming titles release this year but with no doubt Skyrim is at the top of the list. If you are an RPG play then this is a MUST buy and if not, then you should buy it anyway and discover RPG play as it should be done.
Excuse me now as I return to Skyrim, there so much to see and do and so little time….. hhmmmm… wonder if I can declare a Skyrim holiday for a week or so…darn still not enough time..
Show segment as aired live 26 November 2011
Being Thankful For All Of You
This has been an exciting year here at Computer Ed Radio. We have undergone a number of expansions which have resulted in a some amazing things. We have a new home at Monster Radio AM 1150 WGGH and with that new home comes a fairly large increase in the range the live radio transmission travels. However even bigger for us, this move has put us in a place where for the first time we feel we have a true home and family that has our back as we grow.
With the move we have been able to expand from our one hour format to a full three hours and have moved from Sundays to Saturdays. This means we get to cover more computing each show and can put more depth into our segments. The result has been a massive outpouring from our audience that has been supportive and encouraging. Everyone seems happy with this move and so are we.
Finally though we have not stopped expanding. As we settle into our new three hour home we have begun exploring syndication of Computer Ed Radio and have some encouraging nibbles as we dangle the line out there. This means the future of Computer Ed Radio is bigger and brighter than ever.
However none of this would be possible without all of you, our loyal listeners. It does not matter if you listen live or wait for the recording it is you that makes this show what it is. With this in mind we have been expanding our giveaways and worked to make sure there are a number of ways for live interaction during the show. Because in the end this show is about all of you and helping you enjoy computing as much as Doug and I do. So with that in mind I would like to extend from myself, Doug and our families our thanks for all of you out there and our prayer that you and your families have as much to be thankful for as we do.
Happy Thanksgiving from Computer Ed Radio!
Steelseries Sensei; A mouse with a brain
First let me welcome Steelseries to Computer Ed Radio. When we approached them about doing some reviews they sent us a goody pack that was nothing short of amazing. With that in mind I decided to delve right in with their Sensei Mouse. Right on the front of the box it lists the Sensei as, “The worlds most customizable mouse. ” So with a name like Sensei and that kind of proclamation it was like Steelseries was daring us to not like this mouse. Opening the front flap showed them daring us even more with statements like, “Winning is everything” and testimonials from some of the professional gamers that helped designing this mouse. There is a lot of confidence in this packaging.
As I opened the box and started taking out the contents I was a bit skeptical. The mouse has a metallic, shiny looking surface to it that is very 
smooth, also it has an ambidextrous design. These concerned me because of the way I use mice. You have to understand I have big ole mitts that do not grip a mouse, I maul it. I was concerned the metallic and smooth finish would be slick. My experience with ambidextrous designs have not left me with a good impression as they tend to not fit my hand well. So I was prepared for the worst as I got ready to start using this mouse.
A look at the packages content found a Steelseries sticker for your PC case, a manual and a Steelseries catalog. I was surprised to not find a driver CD in the package. The cable has a nice braided covering which will make it quite strong and a gold plated end for the USB. I must admit to being taken aback by the minimalistic approach to the package contents.
The mouse design is very straight forward with a symmetrical, rounded mouse design, nothing fancy, really a very basic design. The mouse has the left and right buttons, scroll wheel with button as well as 2 buttons on each side. Behind the scroll wheel is a small button for changing the mouse sensitivity on the fly. By default the mouse is set with two levels, 1600 and 3200 CPI.
The mouse has three light zones; the trim along the scroll wheel, a light behind the wheel to indicate which CPI level is selected and then a Steelseries logo on the butt of the mouse. By default these have a yellow lighting with the sensitivity light on when in 1600 mode and off in 3200 mode.
Flipping the mouse over we see the laser sensor that is the business end of the mouse. This does not light up, well at least visibly when in use. Below it is a small LED screen that by default has the words Steelseries on it. THIS is where the fun is, but more on this in a moment.The lack of a driver CD seems to be on purpose as the manual directs you to the Steelseries website to download the latest software for the mouse. This is not really a driver, as drivers are not needed for this mouse to function, rather it is control software for configuring this mouse, remember the claim we mentioned above. The update also includes the latest firmware for the mouse and updates it as you install the software.
I have used a few macro programs in my life and so thought I knew what I would see, man was I wrong. The base screen provides the button configuration for your macros or just basic functions. There are some default profiles loaded with the software as you can see from Evil Geniuses and Fnatic. There are also three basic Sensei modes, plus you can of course create your own profiles as well, as you can see the Computer Ed profile is in place already.
The mouse of course has some default functions for the buttons already set but these can be easily switched out to whatever you choose to use. For example the left keys have function set on them but I found that when I used the mouse I was accidently pressing those left buttons all the time. No problem, it took all of about 30 seconds to go in and turn off those buttons for my profile.
However the claim is that the Sensei is the most customizable mouse. Well setting a few buttons is not that big of a deal. However looking a little deeper into this software shows where the claim comes from. The next screen I am showing is the Settings tab in the software. Here you can change the level of sensitivity to just about any level you want. This allows you to not just set the default level but BOTH levels that you can use with the on the fly setting change button.
We also see control of some of the special features Steelseries has put into this mouse. FreeMove is a technology that helps stop jittery mouse movement. Most mice today use something like this but the Sensei allows you to adjust the aggressiveness, setting this to high will allow some great straight-line movement and lowering it will give you the most precise movement with your hand. This feature is really nice if you are working on picture files and need to be able to move straight, this is not just great for gaming.
ExactAccel is a dynamic CPI system, the faster you move your mouse the more it moves. This means a quick jerk can be used to move over a distance faster. Again increasing the aggressiveness of this setting means the affect is more pronounced.
ExactAim is the opposite of ExactAccel, as you move the mouse slower the CPI dynamically lowers to allow for more precise movement. This is awesome for sniper style players that need the quicker mouse movement for most of their game play but want that slow, deliberate movement for fine tuning their aim.
ExactLift sets the amount of distance the mouse must come up off the surface before it loses tracking. Keeping the value low means that the mouse must be close, this means picking 
up the mouse to reposition will not move the mouse. Set the number higher allows you to lift the mouse a bit more and still have control.
The Polling Rate is about how often the mouse sends data to the PC for updates. The higher this rate the more of your computer this uses, the lower the rate the less precise the movement translates on screen but it uses less of the computer’s resources to keep track.
Finally we come to the fluff, but fun, stuff. The color settings allow you to change the LED colors of the lights on the mouse. You have independent control of the LEDs for the scroll wheel, LOGO and sensitivity indicator. The pull down has 10 base colors but you have a much bigger selection available. The independent control of the lights mean you can create the look that is all you for the mouse. Last on that fluff list is the ability to create your own text or even image on the LED at the bottom of the mouse. Yeah I know this is not a big deal for using the mouse but it looks really cool. The bitmap has to be 128×32 to work but you would be surprised at what you can make fit in that area and look good. I was able to get Computer Ed Radio to go on like it does on our logo.
Now all this control is really cool, and of course we know you can have a lot of profiles, after all you can store and load them as you need right? But how about being able to have the profiles you use on ANY computer you hook the mouse too? The Sensei has non-volatile memory which allows it to store up to 5 profiles on the mouse. Remember what I said about the mouse not needing drivers, well it doesn’t. The software is for configuring mouse profiles and that is it, the mouse can store profiles on it and switch between them by using the sensitivity switch. Just hold it down for 10 seconds and the profile options appear in the LED and you can pick the one you want.
All of this control is possible because the mouse actually has its own CPU inside. That’s right a 32 bit ARM processor rests at the heart of the Sensei and is what allows for this incredible flexibility. This processor is about as powerful as an old Pentium 75MHz CPU, an awful lot of horsepower for a mouse!
Okay so we have a deep feature set but how does it work? Well you will recall I had some concerns when I first saw the mouse, let me address those first. I was worried the shiny finish on the mouse would be a finger print magnet and slick making it hard to grip. I could not have been more wrong. The surface seems to actually repel dirt with my mouse looking fresh and clean after a few weeks of use. While the surface is very smooth, with no texture on it at all, it is far from slick. My hand has no trouble staying right where it should.
I also expressed some concerns about the ambidextrous design and how it would fit in my hand. I had some issues early on with the mouse buttons on the side. I use the mouse in my right hand and my ring finger would bump the two side buttons fairly often. however this took about 30 seconds to fix with a quick trip into the software and turning off these buttons in my profile. With that problem resolved it only took a couple of days for my hand to adapted to the shape of this mouse. It fills my palm grip well and the side buttons on the left are perfectly placed. My thumbs rests below them so no accidental hits there and a simple lift to my thumb gives me easy access to the buttons.
As for movement the mouse has three large Teflon pads that let the mouse glide across the two moussing surfaces I tested. A really neat feature is that Steelseries has made replacement pads easily available for extending the life of your mouse. The button pressure is spot on with the buttons not being to hard to press or to easy and causing accidental presses.
The level of control you have on the mouse’s function is amazing and with a little effort you can create a truly personalized mouse that is perfect for the way you use it. The ExactAim is
a feature FPS players will love. While not playing an FPS I am playing Skyrim in FPS mode and this is amazing to use when sniping with my bow. I have tested against a regular gaming mouse and the difference IS noticeable.
The color change feature might not effect performance but is still really nice. I love the fact I am able to customize the LED look to fit the color scheme of my computer. Add to this the very cool feature of adding a custom graphic to the LED at the bottom and this is a mouse you want to pimp. I still find myself turning over the mouse a few times a day to admire my Computer Ed Radio logo on the bottom.
Finally I am in serious love with the ability to keep the profiles on the mouse and it working where ever I go. I test a lot of software and move between computers more than I like. This way no matter what computer I am at I have my mouse, it truly is my mouse in settings and looks as much as possession.
Steelseries bills the Sensei as the, “worlds most customizable mouse”. I have to say I think they might be safe making that claim. While it may lack the external tweaking that the R.A.T. brings to the table the simple design of the Sensei means it will fit most hands just fine. However they go way over the top with the ability to tweak the way the mouse functions and that in my opinion is a lot more useful at the end of the day.
At the end of the day the best praise I can give the Sensei is to say that is has replaced my Sidewinder mouse. Since the release of the Sidewinder I have used no other mouse for longer than just reviewing it but the Sensei has finally uprooted it from my grip. At this point I have found no other mouse that lets me create as good a mousing experience as the Sensei.
The Sensei mouse is aptly named, it is truly the current master mouse that others can learn from.
Sensei Review Segment as aired live 19 Nov 2011
FXing on a Budget
With the release of the FX processor we and others began taking some serious look sat the 900 series motherboards, they are after all the high end of the AMD board lineup and so it only makes sense. However the FX was not just released at the high end but at the low end as well with the 4100 chip. There where also some lower cost 900 series motherboards released, using the 970 series chipset. Budget oriented solutions may not be as sexy as the high end but lets be real, they represent a more common purchasing choice. For our first look at a 970 based motherboard we turn to our friends at Gigabyte and the 907A-UD3 motherboard.
Price at $109 this board is right in the ball park of a higher quality budget board. While this might be a budget board in pricing thought it is more expensive in it’s features, something we have come to expect with Gigabyte budget boards. This board packs in Gigabyte’s On/Off Charge USB tech which allows the USB ports on the board to be used as a charging station for your portable devices. Add to this an all solid capacitor design, a solid onboard audio solution, SATA and USB 3.0, also an internal USB 3 header as well as Gigabytes traditional extra copper in the board foundation and you have a board that has a rich feature set.
While the board has two full size PCIe slots, only one of them is capable of x16 speeds, the second is limited to x4. This is a limitation of the 970 chipset, as it does not provide as many available PCIe lanes and the 990 chip. This means this board will not support Crossfire or SLI like the 990FX chip, there has to be a reason for some savings in cost after all.
While this board might be light for multi-card solutions it is not coming up short on SATA capabilities with full SATA 3.0 support and six ports to allow for some nice RAID options if you so choose. Thankfully we do not see any standard ATA hookups anymore taking up board space. We do have 4 DDR3 slots allowing form up to 32 Gigs of RAM if you want to pony up for the 8 gig sticks.
While this might be a budget board in price it is far from a budget board in build quality and that shows with the 8+2 Phase power that is onboard. This means the system is going to get a nice clean and stable power flow and well as better overclocking possibilities. To further enhance this we see some consideration for better heat removal from the board with some well placed and designed heat sinks.
Working around to the back of the board we see eight USB 2 connectors as well as two connectors for USB 3.0, meaning your USB devices have plenty of places in the back for your USB devices. You also get a gigabit LAN connector, PS2 port, Firewire and the full range of sound connection options. This is something we have come to expect with gigabyte boards and the 970A delivers, USB connectivity is not an issue. This is further enhanced with 3 connection headers for USB on the motherboard as well as an internal USB 3 header.
So we know we have a solid, feature rich and well constructed board at a reasonable price, but how does it perform? Well after updating to the latest BIOS we drop an FX 8150 into the board and hit the power. Right out of the gate it came up and correctly IDed the 8150, so far so good. We put in 8 gigs of RAM, put a 6850 in for video and began running the same test we ran when we looked at the 8150 on two different 990FX based boards.
At stock speeds the 970A delivered exactly what we have come to expect, the same performance as the more expensive boards. People get caught up in thinking that the more expensive boards deliver better performance. This is NOT true at stock settings. A 970 board with the same CPU, RAM and GPU will perform just like a 990FX. The savings does reduce your options by not allowing multiple GPUs but for more budget oriented users this is not a big deal.
As we move to overclocking we see where the lower costs boards begin to hit their limits. The 970A has some solid options in it’s old school BIOS but at the end of the day it just does not offer the features for the open overclocking that the 990FX boards we have seen offer. I was able to get my 8150 to 4.2 Ghz with little effort but the chip seemed to stall there. I tried a few quick tricks but did not push to hard. This means the the 970A was unable to match the simple overclocking level of the 990FX boards.
What this means in the end is that if you are looking to buy an FX processor, or for that matter any of the Phenom II lineup and running at stock speeds then the 970A-UD3 is a great option that cane saver you some money and deliver performance that the extra money will not buy you with other boards. If you are planning on a budget build then this baord NEEDS to be your first stop on the shopping list. Buying the 970A with an FX 4100 or a Phenom II and a solid single card solution like a 6870 and you will get a good AMD based build that will meet most computing experience needs.
Sure for some extra money you could move to a higher end board but unless you are planning on spending some time tweaking for overclocking and running multiple cards you will not gain ANYTHING that justifies the extra cost. For most people this is the current board they should look at if they are building a budge AMD platform based system. Gigabyte has delivered through the last few generations with the x70 based boards and the 970A continues in this excellent tradition.
Well I might be Computer Ed at the end of the day I am just like the rest of you and crap happens. The SD card in the camera that held all of our review pictures of this board decided to die on us. The 970A is currently in use with a Noctua cooler on it for testing and rather than disassemble it and get you fresh pictures I am using the stock pictures provided by Gigabyte.
970A-UD3 Review as aired 12 November 2011
AMD FX: Round 2
It ha been almost a month since the launch of the FX processors from AMD. During that time AMD has been taking a beating on the review sites and even here we found the chip less than inspiring in it’s performance. But looking back at our review I realized we had strayed from our normal review formula. Rather than taking a more subjective look at the performance of the FX we had instead gone with a traditional benchmarking approach. Now the reason for this was time limitations on getting the review done as well as this being a totally new chip designing and my desire to a comparison of the new design to the old. With this in mind shortly after the first review was completed I began our normal subjective batter of tests.
First a quick refresher, the FX processor is AMDs new “Bulldozer” based chip that uses a modular core design putting two cores on a module. The modules share various resources including the FPU. This design is aimed squarely at heavy multithreaded applications an multitasking usage.
Okay now to the testing, the first thing we look at at was what to make the comparison against in our subjective testing. The chip we have in the lab is the FX 8150, while this was supposed to go for a lower cost the current cost of this chip is near $280. This puts it from a cost view point very close to the 2600K. The FX 8120 which is the same chip with a lower clock speed is going for $219 and is from a cost view point the direct competition to the 2500K. With that in mind I spoke to some people and AMD and was assured that I could adjust the speeds down to equal those of the 8120 and get results that would be identical to buying an 8120 chip.
For testing I wanted to put the systems on equal footing and so I chose for both systems to use a 6850 video card, 8 gigs of Kingston Hyper X 1600, and both systems ran at stock speeds. For desktop settings I choice 1080 as the working resolution and both systems had a clean install of Windows 7 Professional x64 with the latest drivers and updates.
For the first round of subjective comparison I chose the most common usage of a computer, I played with internet browsing. I did everything from Hulu and Netflix to watch video to Pandora for music and even pushed things by using Office Live and Photoshop Online. The idea was to spend some time on each system, essentially doing the same tasks and seeing what the results would be. Using a few other people to do this same test as well with them having no idea which system was which I compared the findings and drew my conclusions. Round one was a solid tie with neither system leaping out and showing us anything outstanding. Even when pushed with heavy multitasking, i.e. several instances of IE running as well as Office applications in the back both systems delivered smooth and strong performance.
For round two we did some more advanced work with photo editing and resizing as well as file compression, opening and creating various compressed files. For purposes of this test we used the built in Windows compression tool for zip files and opened other compression formats using 7-Zip. Now I left the other testers to their own personal methods to replicate a true real world usage for this testing. I also added some batch picture editing, 10 at a time as well as some larger compression jobs, 750 meg of files. The results where identical to the first test with no one being able to really see a difference in everyday usage of the systems. Even my harsher testing which is still closer to everyday use than benchmarks typically are could not reveal any difference in actual use.
I threw in another round here that was purely me but then again I do not know many people that do a lot of audio editing. Using Adobe Audition I did a series of file conversions and editing on some of the show archives. This ranged from changing the audio format to applying various filters and adjustments to the entire hour long archived files. The 8120 clocked FX was again in almost a dead heat with the 2500K.
The final round of subjective testing was gaming, for this we used Champions-Online, Supreme Commander, Demi-God, Dirt 3, Dragon Age and a game that is in beta and cannot be named. All of the games where set to 1080 resolution and then to high on their detail settings in game. With the games all setup we fire them up and went to playing. Again with all the games the game play was smooth, no stutter, and the experience very enjoyable.
Now reading this you might think, god this is the most boring review I have ever read, I do not blame you. However I think there is a solid point to be made from these findings. The FX processor may not win any races but it does not completely crap our. For a bonus round I bumped the FX speed back to those of the 8150 and redid some of the testing and found the same results, so these results are not all good for the FX lineup. In actual use, the way most people will use a PC the FX lineup is just middle of the road, it does not deliver any BANG.
I wanted to try and get more insights into AMDs direction with the FX processor so I request on interview be taped where we could discuss the chip and what the target was for todays show. I was greeted with an enthusiastic response early in my request and waited for the for the scheduling of the interview to get done. After over a week of waiting I was surprised to be told that AMD was declining my offer for an interview. I was however allowed to email in some questions to get answers. I put together four base questions to get the conversation started. I am tempted to post the responses here but I am not going to, the reason is they where none responsive responses.
You see the questions I posed where about the target the chip was aimed at for sale, what needed to happen for the FX chips potential to be seen, why pushing overclocking and not actually support it and finally the fate of the Phenom II. The responses I got where boiler plate PR BULLSHIT! Yes I said the word! I had asked for a chance to do a candid interview and they declined that and then offered a written one and instead of candid I got the typical PR crap. I did some follow up questions but a week later those have gone unanswered. So I will not insult my listeners and readers with the answers given, you deserve better.
That I think sums up the entire FX lineup at this point. We have had a lot of PR hype and promises of the moon but what we got was a decent chip. This is a shame because if AMD had not put the hype machine into full gear I think the reviewers would have been a little less harsh but the hype builds expectation and when you purposefully build expectation and cannot deliver then people are going to call you on it.
Based on the results of my subjective testing as well as our initial testing I stand by my original positions. If you already have a Phenom II X4 based system, say a 955 or better, or you have an Intel i5 first generation or better then this chip is NOT an upgrade, it is a sideways step into the future AMD hopes will come to pass. It is NOT worth the cost to move from what you already have. However the good news is that there really is no reason even from Intel to move from what you already have. While the newer chips show great in benchmarks in real life usage they are not getting the big gains people crave, save your money and hold tight, see what the future brings for now your computing experience should still be outstanding.
If you are using an older system or want to build a new system the waters are a bit muddier. AMD historically has done a solid job of not throwing out the baby with the bath water every time they make a new chip. This means the AM3+ platform may have another generation of potential in it. I have tried to get AMD to discuss if this platform was going to move as others have through a generation or two at least but cannot get a response. While the Intel offerings look awful attractive against the FX they carry with them the burden of the Intel toss the whole thing, buy again marketing strategy. These waters are further muddied by the fact that AMD is still making the Phenom II processors, which have some very attractive price offerings and still deliver a great computing experience.
At the end of the day we are left with an FX chip that looks to the future but is lackluster in the present having to fight against a solid champion of the present, the i5 and a solid value of the present the Phenom II. The gamble is will the future that the FX is designed for be coming soon? If you are worried about benchmarks and saying you have the biggest and baddest then the i5s from Intel are the way to go. If you want the best value then the Phenom II still rocks the house. If you want to buy an FX then you can get a solid computing experience and a decent machine but for right now I would look in other directions if today is your focus.
