Powerful Computer Upgrades
I received my new HIS video card and memory from NewEgg.com yesterday (I switched from ZipZoomFly to NewEgg to get free shipping). Installation was a snap. Our Dell XPS G5 boxes open right up without any screws (just a latch that you pull up), and the whole side swings right out on a hinge. It was the easiest hardware upgrade that I?ve ever done. I installed Chrissy’s two gigabytes of RAM first, and then started over on my machine.
It was pretty easy to install the video card, although it took me a few minutes to release the old one from a restraining bar that held it in place. After popping in the new memory chips, I booted it back up and replaced the video drivers. ATI packs a lot of stuff in with their drivers. My machine was notably faster when it came back up, but then again, it now has triple the amount of RAM that it had yesterday.
I ran the Transformers game with FSAA (full screen anti-aliasing), the highest resolution (1600x 1200), and all video settings cranked to max, just to see what it would look like, and I was blown away. Everything looked better, moved faster, and was much more enjoyable. I had never turned on the FSAA before, since it was too intensive, but it makes a huge difference. I wish that I had started playing it this way from the beginning. I might need to play Oblivion all the way through again, just to see how much prettier it can be.
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