Half a Life gamers love ye olde Nvidia

[Gorgon]

www.theinquirer.net Article:

FOLLOWING ON from our earlier story, an INQ reader with Half "a" Life too, points us towards this survey at Valve Corporation’s Steam site.
According to the survey, the most typical gamer has a 256Kbps internet connection, a PC with between 256MB to 512MB of RAM, a single 1.7GHz to 2.0 GHz Intel processor, and runs OpenGL games at 1024x768 but only at 16-bit colour.

Perhaps this low colour depth, and relatively low resolution, is because a whopping 58.43% of the half million gamers surveyed are using older Nvidia products, most of which – some 39.9% - are still using Nvidia GeForce MX and GeForce 4 family 3D graphics ‘accelerators’.

This - the survey suggests - is more than double the 25.70% of ATI gamers.


For more Cool info visit: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14594 :sniper:

 

[Maxi]

Uh there have already been countless threads about this survey, this is like what? the fourth?

 

[PvtRyan]

A strange conclusion, because I run nothing at 16-bit (desktop 32-bit, Steam HL 32-bit and I think HL normally at 24-bit but I doubt the survey looks at that) yet the survey said I was running 16-bit. I have no idea where it got that 16-bit from.
I think that more people had that.

And I can go higher than 1024x768, but I don't, it's enough for me and I rather turn up the details or IQ improvers like AF.

But it's true that a surprisingly large amount of people are still running old hardware (Geforce 4 MX and below). I think Valve is ahead of the competitors in this low spec area with it's well scalable engine.

Uh there have already been countless threads about this survey, this is like what? the fourth?

Countless? Four? You mean you can't count any further than four, if four is countless?

 

[Letters]

Developers really should pay attention to this sort of thing, though. Don't make games that only look good for 5% of all the people who'll play it...

 

[Edcrab]

Yeah, but by the same token we don't really want dev's confining their games to MX's for all eternity in an attempt to be 100% user friendly... I've still got a 440MX and I fully accept it won't be able to run HL2 at any great quality level.

 

[jonbob]

Maybe there are a lot of people using old flat panels?

 

[Jadewolf5675]

And as we all know, the inquirer is one of the most reliable and pretigious sources.

 

[OCybrManO]

Are you thinking of the National Enquirer or the Inquirer?

 

[Bicka]

Well I think the survey was a bit pointless tbh.
I play cs in 800x600 because I find it easier to get headshots with but I wouldnt be seen dead running around halflife2 at 800x600!

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

1280*1024 is my fav res! Ill probably be getting a new gfx when hl2 comes

 

[The Dark Elf]

*moved to general gaming*

didn't really have anything to do with HL2

 

[snark^]

A strange conclusion, because I run nothing at 16-bit (desktop 32-bit, Steam HL 32-bit and I think HL normally at 24-bit but I doubt the survey looks at that) yet the survey said I was running 16-bit. I have no idea where it got that 16-bit from.
I think that more people had that.

Same here. Just wondering if their query software is asking the right questions of ATI cards?

 

[Ginger]

1280*1024 is my fav res! Ill probably be getting a new gfx when hl2 comes

No! 1280x1024 is a horrible resolution! It means everything is squashed vertically on your monitor. You should be using 1280x960, which is a 4:3 resolution, the same ratio as your monitor.

 

[Pressure]

I'm one of the few people with a 9800 pro. I'm so lonely.

 

[jonbob]

I used to use 1600*1200@32 bit for everything - including games. But health concerns made me switch to an LCD running 1280*1024@32 bit for everything. I miss the desktop space but I prefer things this way.

Don't feel too bad, Mr. Pressure; you aren't alone.