| The 10 Most Graphically Demanding PC Games Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:07 PM PST 
High-end PC games that will give your gaming rig a workout At Maximum PC we love pushing our PCs to their limits by testing high-end games at maximum settings. To reach these limits, you'll need to fire up the most über-demanding games. What are the most graphically-demanding games you ask? We've thrown together a list of the 10 gnarliest PC games that will give your precious gaming rig a kick-ass workout. Testing Methodology: We tested each game at maximum settings on a 1920x1080 display. Our modest mid-range test rig consisted of an i7-2700K CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz, a GTX 680 video card overclocked to 1140MHz, and 8GB of G.Skill DDR3 RAM. We first started out disabling motion blur, which is a frame rate crutch, and cranked up all of the other settings as high as they would go. Another setting that was crucial to disable was V-Sync, so that our frame rate was not capped with our 60Hz refresh rate. We played each game for 15 minutes, and recorded its average frame rate using FRAPS. Each frame rate listed below is that of our play through and may not be exactly repeatable because the frame rate averages were captured with real-world dynamic testing, which may vary from play through to play through, even on a rig with the exact same hardware. Still, our tests should provide an accurate measure of relative performance between titles. The rankings are listed from least taxing to most based on average frame rate count. Call of Duty Ghosts: #10 Game Engine: IW Engine 
The latest installment of Call of Duty isn't too taxing to run as we experienced an average frame rate of 67.9 FPS. In our gameplay session we floated through space and ran around inside a few burning buildings during the game's first mission. COD games aren't very challenging to run because they still use the same game engine as COD 4, which came out over 6 years ago. To put it into perspective, the old engine is easy enough for last gen consoles to run at 60 FPS. Maybe the next installment in the series will finally change the game's outdated game engine so it can rival the graphical capabilities of other modern military shooters. Battlefield 4: #9 Game Engine: Frostbite 3 
We were surprised by the fact that Battlefield 4 landed in ninth place because it's generally considered one of the most demanding shooters out there. To be fair, Nvidia is the original culprit behind BF4's initial low ranking. Since its newer 331.82 driver, we saw a whopping 18% improvement in performance over its older driver. If we had used the older Nvidia driver we would have seen our frame rates at around 47 FPS and BF4 would have been ranked at number six, but instead we experienced a solid 59 FPS, knocking it down to number nine overall. We played through the game's first mission and saw our cover blown up by grenades, bullets, and mortars, causing our frame rate to dip to around 45 FPS at times, but we also saw it go as high as 80 FPS. Crysis: #8 Game Engine: CryEngine 2 
When Crytek made Crysis they wanted to make a "future proof" game and we can say that six years later, they have successfully done so by garnering the 8th spot on this list as we only garnered an average frame rate of 58.2 FPS. What's to blame for the relatively low frame rate for such an old game? Particle effects are hot and heavy in Crysis and they caused our frame rate to dip while testing, throw in some extreme physics (not to be confused with PhysX), and some realistic water effects, and you get a six-year old game that's even hard to run even on an overclocked GTX 680. Hitman Absolution: #7 Game Engine: Glacier 2 
We tested Hitman Absolution by sleuthing around the first level killing foes covertly snapping necks with our bare hands. We then got into a firefight with few of the security guards and killed several dozen more enemies before finishing our benchmark run. The end result was a frame rate that was 53.8 FPS and made Hitman our number six game overall. Hitman is quite CPU heavy, so our relatively low frame rate could have been due to getting bottlenecked by our 2700K CPU not being able to muster physics calculations fast enough to keep up with our overclocked GTX 680 GPU. GTX IV: #6 Game Engine: Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) 
Yes, we're upset as anybody for the lack of a PC version of GTA V, but even the fourth game in the series (released in 2008) made our mid-range machine struggle. We only saw an average frame rate of 53.21 FPS, while driving around crazily through Liberty City, where we would eventually end up picking fights with random pedestrians. It's hard to believe that this game came out almost five years ago! GTA IV, however, doesn't look very impressive by today's gaming standards and we blame the game's demanding hardware performance on poor PC optimization. The engine behind the game's demanding performance uses an amalgamation of three different engines, including Rockstar's RAGE engine, Euphoria engine, and Bullet Physics Library. Hitman Absolution, by comparison, looks much better than GTA IV and has almost the same frame rate. Click the next page for the top five most graphically demanding PC games!
Far Cry 3: #5 Game Engine: Dunia Engine 2 
We started our play through in Far Cry 3 running through a tropical forest and then proceeded by stealing an abandoned dirt-splattered car. Once we were done joyriding around the island we went for a swim in the ocean and went to visit a neighboring island. We then got into an epic battle with some of the locals blowing up explosive barrels and stabbing our foes straight through the chest with our machete. Far Cry 3 lands at number five on our list with its 41 FPS and this score is likely due to its large amount of particle effects when explosive barrels are, well, exploded, and also due to the fact that there's tons of vegetation to be rendered as you walk around the various islands. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: #4 Game Engine: REDengine with Havok Physics 
The Witcher 2 gave us a heavy helping of medieval combat throwing us into a bloody gladiator arena where we faced hordes of enemies. We found one setting enabled which caused our frame rate to be cut down to a meager 32.62 FPS, which was the game's Übersampling option. What's Übersampling? It's Super Sampling Anti Aliasing meaning that The Witcher 2 made our rig render the game at 4K, and then downsize that image to fit our 1920x1080 display. When we turned off Übersampling the game ran at a buttery smooth 60+ FPS. Crysis 3: #3 Game Engine: CryEngine 3 
Like other Crysis games, Crysis 3 does much of the same as its predecessors giving users a heavy dose of particle effects, high-resolution textures, and tons of crazy physics. We ran around the game's first level, which had us going through a rainstorm, while quietly assassinating our foes with a silenced pistol and tactical bow. Exploding barrels of gasoline killed our frame rate in Crysis 3 just like in Far Cry 3 making it dip to an abysmal 13 FPS. In the end we were only able to get 28.08 FPS out of the title, putting it at number three on our graphically-intensive list. Tomb Raider (2013): #2 Game Engine: Modified Crystal Engine 
Crystal Dynamics brought everyone a Tomb Raider game that rebooted the franchise, and gave gamers stunning hair effects with AMD's TressFX setting. We tested Tomb Raider thinking that TressFX would be the reason behind its super low frame rate, as we barely were able to scrape together 24.8 FPS. We looked at the game's settings to find that it uses Super Sampling just like The Witcher 2 which made our GPU work extra hard to render the game at 4K to have it then downscaled to 1920x1080. Our benchmark run consisted of killing many rabid wolves with our bow and arrow, while running through a dark, dense green forest. We tested the game with 2xSSAA and found our frame rate was increased to 45 FPS. The lesson learned from our testing is that SSAA is very demanding and by disabling it, yes, you'll get some jagged edges, but you can receive a massive performance boost by either disabling it or scaling it back just a bit. Metro Last Light: #1 Game Engine: 4A Engine 
When the first Metro game came out it was a difficult title for PCs to play and made frame rates drop hard and fast. The second title, Metro Last Light, isn't very different, as it takes the top spot for the Most Demanding PC Game on our list. The game's extreme PhysX effects and vast amount of tessellation are the culprits behind our low frame rate, which was an unplayable 22.3 FPS. With PhysX turned up, we saw tons of particle and water effects, which made everything sluggish, as we ran through the Russian swampland of the first level in Metro Last Light. We maxed out AA to 4XAA on top of that, which amplified how many times PhysX was rendered and ultimately this led to the demise of our rig's precious frame rate. Benchmark Chart: 
Here's a bar chart measuring average frame rate for each title. Conclsion: We've seen some interesting results with our tests and came away surprised by how graphically intensive an old game like Crysis still is. Tomb Raider also surprised us with how taxing it was too. It's worth noting that PC gaming willl likely get a large graphical leap with the recent release of the next-gen consoles. The next few months look promising with a plethora of graphically demanding titles coming out which include Watch Dogs and Titanfall. It will be interesting to see what titles populate this list in the years to come. |
| How to Fix a Broken Steam Install Posted: 03 Feb 2014 01:53 PM PST 
7 steps to repair your Steam games Have you ever downloaded a large 20GB+ game on Steam only to find out that it won't run due to corrupt or missing files? Fortunately for you, we've created a brief how-to guide on how to resolve these issues so you don't have to come up with an intricate work around or have to re-download your games. As a matter of fact, there are only seven easy steps to fixing this issue! Note: These steps may not fix every broken Steam install, but it will fix a large amount of them quickly and easily. We also recommend backing up your game saves through the Steam Cloud or onto a flash drive before attempting to fix it. Step 1: Launch Steam 
Step 2: Go to the Library tab in Steam and select the game you want to fix 
Step 3: Right Click on the game and click on Properties 
Step 4: Select the Local Files tab 
Step 5: Click on Verify Integrity of Game Cache 
Step 6: Wait for Steam to validate your game's install if it finds anything wrong with it those files will be re-downloaded and installed. 
Step 7: Click play and Steam will re-install and launch your game. Voilà! 
Verifying the Integrity of your Game Cache will fix your install if there are corrupted or missing files in your game. When you try to launch the game again, the game will be fixed if Steam finds anything wrong with it and should be fully operational! |
| Samsung's 12.2-inch Galaxy Note Pro Tablet Available to Pre-order for $850 Posted: 03 Feb 2014 12:09 PM PST  A big screen tablet with a large price tag
One of the things that helped drive down the price of Android tablets is the proliferation of smaller size displays in the 7-inch range. This is partially what allowed companies like Amazon and Google to undercut the competition at a time when the market was flooded with 10-inch tablets for $500 and up. This correlation in price also works in reverse, as evidenced by Samsung's 12.2-inch Galaxy Note Pro commanding $850 at Office Depot. Office Depot is currently offering the big size slate for pre-order on its website; it's due to be released on February 13, 2014, a day before Valentine's Day, in case you're looking for gift ideas that fall out of the realm of chocolate and flowers and teddy bears. 
The 12.2-inch display sports a 2560x1600 resolution. Other specs include a quad-core processor clocked at 1.9GHz, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of onboard storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, USB 3.0 port, 2MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear-facing camera with LED flash, 9,500mAh battery, and Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Backblaze Builds a Data Center It Hopes to Fill with 500 Petabytes of Data Posted: 03 Feb 2014 11:40 AM PST  Building a data center in the cloud
Cloud backup company Backblaze has a secret and it's a big one. How big? Try an exabyte. That's how much data Backblaze hopes to be able to store at its relatively new data center in the Sacramento area. We didn't know about it because Backblaze never revealed any details about the facility until now. It's located just outside of Sacramento and away from any earthquake fault zones and flood plains. It's also considered to be an area that's "very low risk" for tornadoes, so that's one less thing to worry about. Furthermore, the data center has SAS 70 Type II and ISO 9001 certifications and is PCI-DSS compliant, in case you're interested in counting bullet points. Backblaze says it's been a year since the Sacramento data center first began accepting customer data, and by September 2013, all new customer accounts were being serviced there. At the time Backblaze started looking for a new data center (August 2012), it was hosting 40 petabytes of data. 
"We expect to be able to store about 1/2 an exabyte (500 petabytes) of customer data at our new data center," Backblaze said. "That should last us a little while but just in case the operations folks are already scouting locations in Lake Tahoe for the next data center." Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Corsair Obsidian 900D vs. Cooler Master Cosmos II Posted: 03 Feb 2014 11:37 AM PST Corsair Obsidian 900D vs. Cooler Master Cosmos II The Cooler Master Cosmos II debuted in 2011 to much fanfare. Indeed, it was the chassis of our dreams. It housed our precious Dream Machine that year, and was easily the best "super-tower" available. In 2013, the Corsair 900D came on the scene boasting a similarly mammoth stature, and was itself chosen for Dream Machine 2013 duty due to its water-friendly nature and towering physique. Both cases represent the pinnacle of PC case design, so they must do battle. 
Corsair's new Obsidian 900D "super-tower" is tall and roomy, but much less beefy than the Cosmos II. ROUND 1 Size and Weight Both cases are big, but it's how they carry their bulk that makes all the difference. The Cosmos II weighs 48 pounds, while the 900D weighs 41 pounds. The Cosmos II is 27.7 inches tall while the 900D is 27.2 inches, so the two are very close in size. To be honest, we originally felt that the Cosmos II was too heavy because it's built like a tank. Then we lifted the Corsair 900D out of its box and were a bit let down by its relatively light weight. It just feels too lithe for a case of its size, and there's no easy way to move it, whereas the Cosmos II has built-in handles, which makes transport much easier. Therefore, we give the Cosmos II the nod, because we wish the 900D had a bit more heft to it and an easier way to move it than squat and grunt. Winner: Cosmos II ROUND 2 Total Capacity It's safe to say you'd need to have a drug cartel's bankroll to ever outgrow either of these cases, but it's still important to gauge overall capacity. For starters, the Cosmos II has 13 3.5-inch drive bays compared to the 900D's nine bays, though you can buy two more three-drive cages for a total of 15. The 900D has one additional 5.25-inch drive bay to its credit—four total. Both cases hold ATX and E-ATX mobos, as well as smaller boards, but the Cosmos II holds several larger variants, such as XL-ATX, SSI CEB, and SSE EEB. The Corsair 900D has room for dual PSUs, however, mounted vertically, whereas the Cosmos II can hold only one. Both cases have more than enough room for any combo of GPUs your bank account can tolerate. Since both cases are very evenly matched in this category, and can easily swallow even a Dream Machine, with room to spare, this one is a tie. Winner: Tie ROUND 3 Build Quality When you drop $350 smackaroos on a chassis, you expect top-notch build quality, and unfortunately only one of these cases lives up to that expectation, and that's the Cosmos II. Though both cases are made with a steel frame and feel extremely solid, the fit and finish of the Cosmos II seems much more polished than that of the 900D. With the Cosmos II, everything that moves glides smoothly, doors and latches lock into place tight and secure, and you never get the feeling that any part of the case is brittle or untrustworthy. The 900D, however, has two glaring weak spots—its disappointingly flimsy lower bay doors, and it's flaccid 3.5-inch drive-bay assemblies. Both of these rickety contraptions feel out of place on a chassis of this class, and require too much fumbling for our well-heeled tastes. The lower drive-bay doors are surprisingly wobbly, with a magnetic retention mechanism that barely works. Winner: Cosmos II ROUND 4 Cooling Options If you're running air-cooling, both of these cases provide more mounting locations than you can shake a heatsink at, though they are modestly outfitted out of the box with just a handful of 120mm spinners. When it comes to liquid-cooling opportunities, though, the Corsair 900D is the clear winner, providing ample radiator mounting options on almost every surface of its spacious interior. Not only can you mount a 480mm radiator on the top and the bottom, you can put a 360mm rad in the front too, or two of them in the bottom if you're cray cray. The Cosmos II can handle a 360mm up top but there is no way to mount a radiator to the front of the chassis. You can also mount just a single 240mm rad down below due to the PSU's horizontal orientation, plus the Cooler Master provides mounting rails for only one radiator. Winner: Corsair 900D ROUND 5 Modularity Cases such as these are not mere storage containers, but rather canvases that allow you to express your inner geek via expansion, modification, and customization. To that end, both cases are fairly modular, allowing you to remove fans and drive cages to install cooling components or to manage cables. The Corsair 900D lets you remove and rearrange pretty much everything, including the lower and upper drive bays as well as the PSU location. The Cosmos II, on the other hand, offers fewer options due to the PSU's location and the steel shelf that divides the chassis's lower quadrant. You can still remove the upper and lower drive cages, but your options for moving the drive cages around are limited. You also can't change the location of the power supply, nor can you add a second one if you need to, which is a situation we confronted while building this year's Dream Machine. Winner: Corsair 900D 
The Cosmos II is one of the largest cases ever made, and has a shipping weight of 50 pounds. And the Winner Is… As we come to the finish line both cases are tied, so the winner is not immediately apparent. After searching our souls, examining our PC fantasy builds, and consulting with our shaman we arrived at a winner—the Corsair 900D. It's the winner for one simple reason: It offers more flexibility for ambitious builders who want the option to expand their builds in the future, including running liquid-cooling, for which it's the best case around, period. |
| Declaring a Winner in the Browser Wars is Complicated Posted: 03 Feb 2014 09:51 AM PST  The industry needs a better way to survey software
Now that January is in the rear view mirror, we're presented with our first opportunity to see which browsers are off to a promising start in 2014 and which ones are destined to be also-rans. The problem with attempting to do so is the lack of reliable data. To show you what we mean, let's first look at data from NetApplications, which has Internet Explorer in a dominant position with a 58.21 percent share of the browser market. Looking at the numbers, IE is pretty much untouchable. Two years ago, IE accounted for around 53 percent of the browser market, according to NetApplications, which relies heavily on data provided by its HitsLink network. In that same time period, Firefox's share has decreased from around 21 percent to just over 18 percent. Chrome has also gone down in the past two years -- it closed out January with a 16.28 percent of the browser market compared to around 19 percent two years ago. Based on these figures, it's clear that IE has won, having fended off the best efforts of Google and Mozilla. This is where things get complicated. If we direct our attention to StatCounter, which relies on tracking code installed on more than 3 million sites around the world representing billions of page views, then Chrome is suddenly the untouchable one with a commanding 43.67 share of the browser market, up from 28.4 percent two years ago. In that same time, IE dropped from 37.45 percent and first place to 22.85 percent for a distant second place finish just ahead of Firefox at 18.9 percent. So much for declaring IE the clear winner. Yet another source of browser market share is W3Counter, which generates its data based on the last 15,00 pages views to each of the more than 71,000 websites it tracks. According to W3Counter, Chrome is on top with a 34.1 percent share of the browser market, followed by Internet Explorer at 20.3 percent and Firefox at 18.3 percent. W3Counter's rankings are the same at StatCounter's, but the figures are pretty far part. So that's what the various browser bean counters have come up with for the first month of 2014. What about you -- which browser is your favorite these days? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Acer's WQHD (2560x1440) S7 Ultrabook Family is Headed to the U.S. Posted: 03 Feb 2014 08:35 AM PST  High performance Ultrabooks from Acer boast WQHD IPS displays
It took some time for Ultrabooks to come down in price after they were first introduced, and now that affordable models are fairly commonplace, let's not forget that there are still high-end features waiting for anyone willing to spend a premium. Acer's new S7 line with Wide Quad High-Definition (WQHD) displays are prime examples. Priced at $1,500 (S7-392-6425) and $1,800 (S7-392-9430), Acer's S7 Ultrabooks boasts some top shelf components, including a 2560x1440 display. Both are 13.3-inch laptops measuring just 12.72 inches (L) by 8.78 inches (W) by 0.51 inches (H) and weighing 2.9 pounds. The real selling point is obviously the display, which features an In-Plane Switching panel with excellent viewing angles, 10-point multi-touch support, and a 2560x1440 resolution that allows you to make the most out of the available real estate. Beyond the display, the lower priced model comes equipped with an Intel Core i5 4200U processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB solid state drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, memory card reader, Windows 8.1, and a 4-cell battery that's good for up to 7 hours of run time. The higher priced model features all the same specs except for the CPU, which is upgraded to an Intel Core i7 4500U processor. According to an email Acer sent Maximum PC, you should be able to find both models this week at a variety of online and retail outlets. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nearly 6 out 10 Android Devices Run Jelly Bean, Less than 2 Out of 100 Have KitKat Posted: 03 Feb 2014 07:59 AM PST  The newest version of Android is tied with Froyo (Android 2.2) for market share
A quick visit to Google's Developers Dashboard for Android reveals that mobile device makers and wireless carriers alike are dragging their collective feet when it comes to embracing Android 4.4 KitKat. After three months, KitKat has inched its way onto 1.4 percent of all Android devices, barely edging out Android 2.2 Froyo, which claims a 1.3 percent share of the market. Meanwhile, Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.x to 4.3) is picking up most of the slack with a 59.1 percent share. What that effectively translates to is Jelly Bean being installed on around 6 out of every 10 Android devices and KitKat being found on a little more than 1 out of 100 handsets and tablets. The good news here is that Jelly Bean is an excellent build. Even better news is that this is Android we're talking about, and in most cases, if you have the time and desire, you can root your handset and plop a third-party KitKat ROM onto it. Rooting Android isn't quite mainstream yet, though it's closer than ever thanks to the efforts of the CyanogenMod team and their aftermarket firmware for almost every Android device under the sun. If you're not interested in rooting, the advice is the same -- hang tight, provided your handset maker is planning an update to KitKat. HTC One owners, for example, should see a KitKat update soon, if not already (try manually checking if your handset didn't pull it out of the air automatically). Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Dell 24-inch LCD Monitor, Corsair HX Series 650W Modular PSU, and More! Posted: 03 Feb 2014 07:26 AM PST  
Top Deal: When lifting heavy objects, it's important to bend at the knees with your feet shoulder with apart and lift with your legs. Keep your back straight and tighten your stomach muscles, too. This advice will prove valuable when your rid yourself of that color stained CRT monitor that you've been clinging to since before multi-core processors became the norm. You deserve a better monitor, and if you don't want to spend a fortune on a flat panel display, then have a look at today's top deal for a Dell E2414H 24-inch LCD for $145 with free shipping (normally $160 -- use coupon code: [EMCPWGP58]). This is a Full HD 1080 (1920x1080) monitor with a 5ms response time, 250 cd/m2 brightness, and D-Sub and DVI-D connectivity. Other Deals: Corsair HX series HX650 650W Modular Power Supply for $105 with free shipping (normally $110 - use coupon code: [EMCPWGP33]; additional $25 Mail-in rebate) Seagate Hybrid Drive 4TB MLC/8GB NCQ 3.5-inch Desktop SSHD for $200 with free shipping (normally $218 - use coupon code: [EMCPWGP32]) WD AV-GP 2TB IntelliPower 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCPWGP27]) Asus VE278H Black 27-inch 2ms LCD Monitor w/ Built-in Speakers for $210 with free shipping (normally $250 - use coupon code: [N82E16824236295]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) |
| Net Applications Analytics Show Users Still Hanging On to Windows XP Posted: 02 Feb 2014 05:39 PM PST  Users still aren't upgrading to Windows 8
This seemed fairly apparent to all of us by now, but according to a Web analytics company (by way of PC World), January made it fairly apparent that there's some stagnancy on users' ends when it comes to moving away from Windows XP or finally upgrading to Windows 8. December saw Windows XP's user share plummet, while Windows 8's user share tended to rise. Net Applications' data noted that Windows XP found an increase in its user share by an entire quarter of a percentage point in January, growing instead of shrinking as you might think, since the operating system is 13 years old by now. While computer users should for all intents and purposes be looking to the future (namely, Windows 8), it still appears that Windows XP users make up a third (32 percent) of Windows PCs. That's a staggering amount, considering the many times Microsoft has reached out to PC owners that they need to upgrade before pulling the plug on support for security flaws in the OS. |
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