I plan to buy and build a new PC from scratch in the near future, but I wanted to wait until near when Diablo 3 would be released or for when/if I got into the beta. This way I would have the most powerful machine I could get for the best price, and hopefully run other games like Skyrim. But now I am concerned that my chance of being selected for the Diablo 3 Beta might be affected by how shitty my laptop is, its about 4 years old now. The hope/desperate plea that I get the into the beta is the only thing that has allowed me to remain patient this long for release... Anyone know if my concerns are warranted? Should I buy the new PC asap and update my beta profile before beta arrives? Bashiok? (:
Thanks for any input
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"We all need mirrors to remind ourselves of who we are"
-Memento
I believe the beta invites are mostly random. If anything, I'd think an older PC would give you a better shot at getting in as its a good real world test of how it will perform on someones aging hardware. No one questions that the game will run on a state of the art gaming machine, but a 4 year old laptop would be a great test. If I were a developer, thats where my interest would be in selecting beta participants.
I've thought about this question myself. It's all speculation unless it comes from Bliz, but here's my take:
One of the main reasons Bliz has a beta is to test a large variance of computer hardware/driver/os/software combinations. The older the machine, the more people there are who will likely have something similar. Therefore, you will have no control getting into beta, it'll be luck.
If you want to up your chances and be hand-selected, you want to have a unique machine with unique/untested hardware and drivers make your system more attractive. The reason is, the effects of unusual (read: new) hardware/driver combination will be unknown, or at least less known, to developers.
The more "systems" developers test, assuming their methods of defect tracking and bug fix cycles are appropriate to handle the data, the more stable the code. Also, if the drivers you're running are old and mature, they're well understood by developers. Hardened feature sets tend to be very stable, so a machine like that won't be as attractive to developers who are looking for unique and unexpected systems to test the robustness of their api's.
Short answer, a brand new machine with fresh drivers, IMO, is more likely to get you into beta.
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"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I'd say anything Xfired or Sli'd will probably give you a higher chance, as well as having very old hardware. Some games actually fail at optimization for Dual, Tri, and quad GPU support and actually have setbacks that reduce FPS. So I could see Hpnot1q getting it because he has a very rare quad GPU system that will blow out anygame, all just to see how the xfire scaling works with diablo. But me with a single 6950 oc'ed to 6970 settings won't do me very good at getting in because they know i'll probably run it at extreme settings without a hitch just like SC2.
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
Ophion if u put it that way, nowadays i cant play allot of games that i could with my old gear cause my video card drivers r still in beta and games dont recoginise them, but if you put it in a unique way then i gues im one of the very very very very few that applied for beta with 2 x amd 6990, and if they based on uniquer hardware my chances would be pritty good, and i realy hope they do not so much for me playing d3, but for them to tes the game on my hardware so they can fix problems they see and when the game comes out it would recognise my vid cards :-o
I dont know how it works on usa, but here in brazil (where prices are really high) you can often see a gamer using a dual 6990 with 12gb ddr3 (3x4). (at least 8 friends of mine have a system with that)
Only reason im NOT using two, its because the 6970 from my wife crashed so shes using mine.
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About the topic, like it was said before, i dont think they take into consideration what system you have, but if they do im sure its about how unique its (ppl with a mid-end setup, ppl with 8800 or 4870x2 to see how the game plays on older systems).
But thats just what i think, i dont think we'll ever know based on what they give beta keys away.
edit: Again, sorry about my english, its easier to speak than to write.
I dont know how it works on usa, but here in brazil (where prices are really high) you can often see a gamer using a dual 6990 with 12gb ddr3 (3x4). (at least 8 friends of mine have a system with that)
Wow o.O are all of your friends rich or something? I don't think my city has more than 5 people with a high-end dual-GPU setup purely for gaming. I mean there are like 5 games out there that a high-end single GPU (not counting cards like the 6990) can't max (2560x1600, maximum settings, 4x AA) at 30 FPS minimum, and they are games like Metro and Battlefield with insane graphics, and I don't quite understand why someone (that doesn't have a ton of cash) would pay the extra for a second GPU just to max those games. I have to assume that Brazil is not an accurate representation of the mainstream player xD
Well, they're kinda of rich, each one of those cards goes for 1400/1500$ here in brazil. (i got both cards as a gift from my brothers, it sucks that i dont have a good cpu like hpnot, so in some games my performance doesnt match the video power i have)
Sorry to go offtopic, just felt like answering this one.
Heres a question, I'm running xp bootcamped on a aluminum body MacBook (not pro) which, of my memory serves, they stopped making like 3 months after they released and u could only buy them in pro. Do i have a better chance of a beta key if i update my beta profile with the bootcamped xp os, or the current set-up i have with the mac os. (I figure if my beta profile shows mac i'd have a better chance bt idk, maybe they are looking for something unique and idk how unique having xp bootcamped on a laptop that was only sold for 3 months is)
any advice would help
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D3anonymous
@Upgradez I could've faceplanted on the keyboard and still killed everything in act 1.
It is pretty insane, perhaps more insane than anything Blizzard themselves have in their HQ
On the same topic. I agree with Hpnot1Q that they won't be looking at how powerful their system is. What is important to them is not how well you can run it, what matters is that you CAN run it, and run it properly (without glitches).
I think that opinion might be a bit short-sighted. A brand new PC has brand new hardware which means brand new chipsets, drivers, and that will be very attractive for Blizzard to test. They would want to test new PC's (by their very nature, powerful) not because they want to test performance, but because they want to test compatibility.
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"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
Thanks for any input
-Memento
One of the main reasons Bliz has a beta is to test a large variance of computer hardware/driver/os/software combinations. The older the machine, the more people there are who will likely have something similar. Therefore, you will have no control getting into beta, it'll be luck.
If you want to up your chances and be hand-selected, you want to have a unique machine with unique/untested hardware and drivers make your system more attractive. The reason is, the effects of unusual (read: new) hardware/driver combination will be unknown, or at least less known, to developers.
The more "systems" developers test, assuming their methods of defect tracking and bug fix cycles are appropriate to handle the data, the more stable the code. Also, if the drivers you're running are old and mature, they're well understood by developers. Hardened feature sets tend to be very stable, so a machine like that won't be as attractive to developers who are looking for unique and unexpected systems to test the robustness of their api's.
Short answer, a brand new machine with fresh drivers, IMO, is more likely to get you into beta.
-Thomas Jefferson
I dont know how it works on usa, but here in brazil (where prices are really high) you can often see a gamer using a dual 6990 with 12gb ddr3 (3x4). (at least 8 friends of mine have a system with that)
Only reason im NOT using two, its because the 6970 from my wife crashed so shes using mine.
-----------------------------------
About the topic, like it was said before, i dont think they take into consideration what system you have, but if they do im sure its about how unique its (ppl with a mid-end setup, ppl with 8800 or 4870x2 to see how the game plays on older systems).
But thats just what i think, i dont think we'll ever know based on what they give beta keys away.
edit: Again, sorry about my english, its easier to speak than to write.
Well, they're kinda of rich, each one of those cards goes for 1400/1500$ here in brazil. (i got both cards as a gift from my brothers, it sucks that i dont have a good cpu like hpnot, so in some games my performance doesnt match the video power i have)
Sorry to go offtopic, just felt like answering this one.
ah.... if I had a penny for every time I thought this...
Mostly concerning balancing issues though haha!
-ZTZaorish
any advice would help
@Upgradez I could've faceplanted on the keyboard and still killed everything in act 1.
-Funny troll tweet
I think that opinion might be a bit short-sighted. A brand new PC has brand new hardware which means brand new chipsets, drivers, and that will be very attractive for Blizzard to test. They would want to test new PC's (by their very nature, powerful) not because they want to test performance, but because they want to test compatibility.
-Thomas Jefferson
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