I know I'm going to get a lot of flame for this but:
I do not like the idea that the new versions are going to require forge. Go to pretty much any mod topic, you will find at least one person complaining about how forge doesn't work or interferes with some other mod, etc. Bad idea.
If every mod used forge, there wouldn't be any interference/conflicts (except maybe with item id's)...
To be honest I agree with you...forge doesnt beat the simplicity of just dragging it to the .jar and also forge slows minecraft down so yeah...
With the 1.6 update, forge now comes with a one-click installer, and then all mods using forge are simply placed in the mods folder...
Could it be any simpler...
If every mod used forge, there wouldn't be any interference/conflicts (except maybe with item id's)...
With the 1.6 update, forge now comes with a one-click installer, and then all mods using forge are simply placed in the mods folder...
Could it be any simpler...
Yet have you've forgotten it causes lag on some cases? Just a thought for you to ponder on..
I know I'm going to get a lot of flame for this but:
I do not like the idea that the new versions are going to require forge. Go to pretty much any mod topic, you will find at least one person complaining about how forge doesn't work or interferes with some other mod, etc. Bad idea.
If every mod used forge, there wouldn't be any interference/conflicts (except maybe with item id's)...
With the 1.6 update, forge now comes with a one-click installer, and then all mods using forge are simply placed in the mods folder...
Could it be any simpler...
Yet have you've forgotten it causes lag on some cases? Just a thought for you to ponder on..
I've never had any issues with Forge, it has loaded mods for me that aren't even on the tested list..
On the downside, some of Rigasumi's mods no longer work with forge, sad, but I can see why he would make it so only his modloader works and not forge.
Forge is becoming so popular, easy to use, and makes GREAT logs! I can see why he would want to move to it. It is the way of the future.
No messing with JARs (you still can, and use forge), but just because you can do it without issues, 85% of others can't. Forge & MagicLauncher / MultiMC fills in the gap.
I for one welcome forge!
Plus, I've never had lag, or ran into slow MC because of forge? Ever! My slowdowns are related to texture packs and Optifine loading them..
I checked, there's no internal shader pack. Plus, the FPS drop is there when None is selected, rather than Internal.
I have Max FPS set, and based on various tests, chunk loading doesn't make any difference in performance. It may be because of my processor and RAM, but my FPS doesn't change between having chunk loading off and on 5. The only difference is that the chunks load faster on 5 lol.
Also, when I change Advanged OpenGL Off, it actually lowers my FPS by like, 2. Nothing noticeable, but still odd.
And I just updated to the latest drivers a few days ago and it gave me an extra 2 or 3 FPS. From 10, that's exactly the performance boost advertised by NVidia using these drivers lol.
Thank you for your patience. Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my video card soon, but in the meantime I have my resolution set to 1280x720 and I'm getting 20 FPS. I would still like to find out why I have such bad FPS when there's not even a shader loaded though....
The jumping shadows are caused by their resolution, the default is 1024, the max is 8192 (causes major lag). You edit the shadow res in composite.fsh, just make sure that the SHADOW_RES AND SHADOWRES values are the same. 4096 should be high enough.
This is how I have it set up in Magic Launcher. You can see that I even updated both Optifine and GLSL Shaders at one point.
This is my RAM allocation and java stuff; I've found the 32 bit Java works better with Minecraft than the 64 bit Java.
This is the High Performance Shader Pack.
This is Sildur's Shader Pack
This is when I have NONE selected in the Shaderpack folder. One thing I just noticed: There is still a very slight shading effect.
And THIS is without GLSL Shaders installed at all.
Now here's the strange part.
Now that I'm taking screen shots, I'm not getting the 90-150 FPS that I used to be getting. But either way, movement is a ton smoother with that 10 extra FPS it did give me.
I highly doubt that my RAM allocation would determine that, considering it's at 2 GB now and is usually at 6 GB. Minecraft usually doesn't use that much anyway.
ALSO, I got ahold of karyonix. His reply:
ShadersMod changes rendering pipeline to defered rendering and calculate more information to be sent to GPU. Even if you do not select any shaderpack it still work mostly the same.
It is not easy to fix.
In other words, I need a new graphics card, which I was looking at a good one anyway. But now that I see I'm not actually getting the high FPS I thought I was, maybe it's time for me to make that push.
Any help on how to further increase my FPS would still be appreciated though. All in game settings are how they should be, so it would end up taking a more complex route, and I'm aiming to get Sildur's working with at least 20FPS.
This is how I have it set up in Magic Launcher. You can see that I even updated both Optifine and GLSL Shaders at one point.
This is my RAM allocation and java stuff; I've found the 32 bit Java works better with Minecraft than the 64 bit Java.
This is the High Performance Shader Pack.
This is Sildur's Shader Pack
This is when I have NONE selected in the Shaderpack folder. One thing I just noticed: There is still a very slight shading effect.
And THIS is without GLSL Shaders installed at all.
Now here's the strange part.
Now that I'm taking screen shots, I'm not getting the 90-150 FPS that I used to be getting. But either way, movement is a ton smoother with that 10 extra FPS it did give me.
I highly doubt that my RAM allocation would determine that, considering it's at 2 GB now and is usually at 6 GB. Minecraft usually doesn't use that much anyway.
ALSO, I got ahold of karyonix. His reply:
In other words, I need a new graphics card, which I was looking at a good one anyway. But now that I see I'm not actually getting the high FPS I thought I was, maybe it's time for me to make that push.
Any help on how to further increase my FPS would still be appreciated though. All in game settings are how they should be, so it would end up taking a more complex route, and I'm aiming to get Sildur's working with at least 20FPS.
Thank you
Good point getting a hold of Karyonix for an update, that's good to know, because the Q has been asked before :)! I never had a proper answer until now!
RAM allocation is completely irrelevant until you start getting into massive amounts of MODS, or using high-resolution texture packs. 350MB is generally good if using the stock TP (regardless of mods). I use MultiMC, but it basically says minimum memory allocation 350MB, and maximum memory allocation 2GB.
Also, I have noticed that if you are taking screens with the F3 OSD running the whole time, the FPS is less. If you leave the F3 OSD off, press ESC until the chunk-updates are 0, go back to the game, hit F3, and then hit F2 for the screenshot it will report way higher (cheating, but hey ;)).
I would highly recommend Chocapic's shaders, you should be able to get away with Medium or High. Based on SEUS 10 RC6 just like Sildur's are. Amazing water reflections, love the water color too!
It'll tide you over until you can get a new card. The nVidia 700's are out, but that will inevitably drive the cost of the 600's down. The 660/670/680 are amazing cards, and run SEUS 10 RC7 (the most demanding shader pack ATM) at 40-60 FPS. I would stay away from the 700's just because the price vs performance against the previous-generation high-end 600's you probably won't be able to beat. Just my 2 cents ;)!
In other words, I need a new graphics card, which I was looking at a good one anyway. But now that I see I'm not actually getting the high FPS I thought I was, maybe it's time for me to make that push.
There's a nice one out there, I have no clue if it's the one you're looking at, but this one is around $140 and has a PassMark score of 3,524, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, It's a high-end GPU and it's considerably cheap. It's not another Titan, but it's up there.
If every mod used forge, there wouldn't be any interference/conflicts (except maybe with item id's)...
With the 1.6 update, forge now comes with a one-click installer, and then all mods using forge are simply placed in the mods folder... Could it be any simpler...
The problem with this is that every mod doesn't use forge and never will! For example: Optifine, the most useful mod in the world is only compatible with certain versions often has glitches and other problems. And you say how easy it is to install, "Could it be any simpler?", well yes it could! What is easier than just selecting it with magic launcher like all my other mods! Why would I want another mod, that has a separate install, just to run a mod that I could run without it before!?
The problem with this is that every mod doesn't use forge and never will! For example: Optifine, the most useful mod in the world is only compatible with certain versions often has glitches and other problems. And you say how easy it is to install, "Could it be any simpler?", well yes it could! What is easier than just selecting it with magic launcher like all my other mods! Why would I want another mod, that has a separate install, just to run a mod that I could run without it before!?
You can select it with MagicLauncher just super saiyan.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"You don't know what you're up against,"
"Yeah I do." "Oh."
Good point getting a hold of Karyonix for an update, that's good to know, because the Q has been asked before ! I never had a proper answer until now!
RAM allocation is completely irrelevant until you start getting into massive amounts of MODS, or using high-resolution texture packs. 350MB is generally good if using the stock TP (regardless of mods). I use MultiMC, but it basically says minimum memory allocation 350MB, and maximum memory allocation 2GB.
Also, I have noticed that if you are taking screens with the F3 OSD running the whole time, the FPS is less. If you leave the F3 OSD off, press ESC until the chunk-updates are 0, go back to the game, hit F3, and then hit F2 for the screenshot it will report way higher (cheating, but hey ).
I would highly recommend Chocapic's shaders, you should be able to get away with Medium or High. Based on SEUS 10 RC6 just like Sildur's are. Amazing water reflections, love the water color too!
It'll tide you over until you can get a new card. The nVidia 700's are out, but that will inevitably drive the cost of the 600's down. The 660/670/680 are amazing cards, and run SEUS 10 RC7 (the most demanding shader pack ATM) at 40-60 FPS. I would stay away from the 700's just because the price vs performance against the previous-generation high-end 600's you probably won't be able to beat. Just my 2 cents !
I feel like I've tried Chocapic's shaders before. They come highly recommended for machines that can't power through high graphics. But I'll look into it again just in case I procrastinated.
There's a nice one out there, I have no clue if it's the one you're looking at, but this one is around $140 and has a PassMark score of 3,524, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, It's a high-end GPU and it's considerably cheap. It's not another Titan, but it's up there.
are you for real.. you're saying he should buy a graphics card from 2010-2011 for $140..
lmao
I'm actually looking at an AMD card on Newegg. It's the Radeon HD 7770 for... Wait for it... $104!
It's on sale though so if I don't get it soon I'd have to pay $130 for it. Which still isn't bad, but I've heard that the 7750 has a better price to power ratio.
I feel like I've tried Chocapic's shaders before. They come highly recommended for machines that can't power through high graphics. But I'll look into it again just in case I procrastinated.
<snip>
I'm actually looking at an AMD card on Newegg. It's the Radeon HD 7770 for... Wait for it... $104!
It's on sale though so if I don't get it soon I'd have to pay $130 for it. Which still isn't bad, but I've heard that the 7750 has a better price to power ratio.
Chocapic's Ultra are fairly demanding, and look amazing! He has a wider range of performance options (Lite, Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). Until SEUS came out with K25/M6, Chocapic was my preferred shader .
The AMD cards are great, good performance vs price, which is why I have bought their cards for the last 10 years. I flipped to AMD after the 8800-series nVidia cards, never looked back.
I will warn you, most of these shaders are designed with an nVidia core to them, so some of them will not work on AMD cards (you get composite / final loading errors -- parts of the shaders will be missing). SEUS L-Series, and M1 are prime examples. Never had any issues with Sildur/Chocapic/SEUS 10 RC7.
Good luck with your purchases, you won't regret it !
The problem with this is that every mod doesn't use forge and never will! For example: Optifine, the most useful mod in the world is only compatible with certain versions often has glitches and other problems. And you say how easy it is to install, "Could it be any simpler?", well yes it could! What is easier than just selecting it with magic launcher like all my other mods! Why would I want another mod, that has a separate install, just to run a mod that I could run without it before!?
Optifine rarely has issues with Forge, and basically every release is compatible with the latest version of Forge at the time. It's not Optifine that is causing the Forge issues, it's Forge updating, which breaks stuff in Optifine (like the latest ladder issue). Optifine will update, fix the problem, and then Forge may break something else...that's not Optifine's fault.
I have used Forge since the beginning, and have never had Forge break a mod by updating (other than this ladder issue -- none at all on 1.4.7/1.3.X/1.2.5 or prior). I use 63 mods ATM (totally bloated, but like selection and options :P). Just an example.
Sounds like someone just has a hate on for Forge.. Forge just makes things easier. You can install forge, and keep on modding through minecraft.jar ... whatever floats your boat.
Karyonix is updating because it will make things easier for himself through newer MC version changes, and also for whomever (Sonic Ether at this point) takes over the project. It is a HUGE leap, he can use forge hooks as a coremod to make the GLSL Shaders more universal. That's amazing! There may come a time where Optifine isn't even needed anymore, who knows..
Point is, embrace the future, because it's coming! If you don't like it, step out from infront of the bus!
This is a known issues with GLSL Shaders 1.46, it is because of the way that Karyonix and SonicEther got the Normal/Specular maps working. Karyonix is also in the process of re-writing the texturenm algorithm, along with porting to forge.
If you want to use these mods, roll back to 1.45.2 (in my sig) along with Optifine 1.5.2 UD2. You'll lose Normal/Specular maps (meaning no Bump Mapping or Parallax Mapping).
I tried this to use the new M release of Sonic's Shaders, but I just got a black screen. I'm using Optifine 1.5.2 UD2 and the 1.45.2 shaders....did I misinterpret your comment? Or am I perhaps running into a different issue?
I tried this to use the new M release of Sonic's Shaders, but I just got a black screen. I'm using Optifine 1.5.2 UD2 and the 1.45.2 shaders....did I misinterpret your comment? Or am I perhaps running into a different issue?
For the version of Karyonix's shaders ShadersMod-mc1.5.2-ofud3-1.46 , What you need is defined in the filename.
MC1.5.2 => Minecraft 1.5.2
ofud3 => Optinefine Ultra D3
ShadersMod => this is version 1.4.6
Hope that helps you get things running.
Just make sure you are putting the "M" version shaders in the correct place for them to work, there are plenty of tutorials on how to install this all if you need help.
I tried this to use the new M release of Sonic's Shaders, but I just got a black screen. I'm using Optifine 1.5.2 UD2 and the 1.45.2 shaders....did I misinterpret your comment? Or am I perhaps running into a different issue?
For the version of Karyonix's shaders ShadersMod-mc1.5.2-ofud3-1.46 , What you need is defined in the filename.
MC1.5.2 => Minecraft 1.5.2
ofud3 => Optinefine Ultra D3
ShadersMod => this is version 1.4.6
Hope that helps you get things running.
Just make sure you are putting the "M" version shaders in the correct place for them to work, there are plenty of tutorials on how to install this all if you need help.
The M-Series shaders from Sonic Ether depend on the GLSL Shaders SE 1.46 that Sonic Ether packages with the shaders themselves.
If you want to use GLSL Shaders 1.45.2 (to keep compatability with mods), you need to use L2 or L3 (nVidia only), otherwise K25 or K26 (nVidia or AMD).
This is assuming that you have already had shaders (Chocapic or SEUS 10 RC7) working in 1.45.2?
Chocapic's Ultra are fairly demanding, and look amazing! He has a wider range of performance options (Lite, Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). Until SEUS came out with K25/M6, Chocapic was my preferred shader .
The AMD cards are great, good performance vs price, which is why I have bought their cards for the last 10 years. I flipped to AMD after the 8800-series nVidia cards, never looked back.
I will warn you, most of these shaders are designed with an nVidia core to them, so some of them will not work on AMD cards (you get composite / final loading errors -- parts of the shaders will be missing). SEUS L-Series, and M1 are prime examples. Never had any issues with Sildur/Chocapic/SEUS 10 RC7.
Good luck with your purchases, you won't regret it !
One of my friends has a 6770, he says everything works perfectly with the right settings (OpenGL Fancy, Chunk Loading Default, etc.) and his favorite shaderpack is SEUS Ultra. He runs that at a solid 20fps, sometimes even 30. But I don't like its water shader simply because it makes it look like everything is always distilled water everywhere.
So I think this'll be a good purchase, despite the fact that I'll have to upgrade my PSU along with it.
Eons ago, there was only void. Then came the big bang. Voxels colliding with voxels, cubes with cubes. Blocks were forming, each texture unique from the rest. That was when our universe was born.
One of my friends has a 6770, he says everything works perfectly with the right settings (OpenGL Fancy, Chunk Loading Default, etc.) and his favorite shaderpack is SEUS Ultra. He runs that at a solid 20fps, sometimes even 30. But I don't like its water shader simply because it makes it look like everything is always distilled water everywhere.
So I think this'll be a good purchase, despite the fact that I'll have to upgrade my PSU along with it.
I've got a 6950 with the unlocked cores. Works great, and I get about 30-35 FPS on average with SEUS 10 RC7 (not the ~60 FPS that the nV670 users are getting, but you can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 anyways!).
I edited the water to give it a greenish-blue hue, brighter color, less red. Much better, kind of like M6 (except I did mine before M6 came out, :P).
I'm quite happy with Sonic Ether's latest work, his new public shader release is going to really going to knock the socks off of people ;)!
I personally think you're making a good choice, price vs performance has always been the way to go for me, but I've got a wife and 3 kids to take care of. I keep an eye out for the sales & MIR's ... plus working in a computer shop from time to time helps (consulting / contracting) ... discounts :D! My day job is I.T. & Networking.
If every mod used forge, there wouldn't be any interference/conflicts (except maybe with item id's)...
With the 1.6 update, forge now comes with a one-click installer, and then all mods using forge are simply placed in the mods folder...
Could it be any simpler...
Yet have you've forgotten it causes lag on some cases? Just a thought for you to ponder on..
I've never had any issues with Forge, it has loaded mods for me that aren't even on the tested list..
On the downside, some of Rigasumi's mods no longer work with forge, sad, but I can see why he would make it so only his modloader works and not forge.
Forge is becoming so popular, easy to use, and makes GREAT logs! I can see why he would want to move to it. It is the way of the future.
No messing with JARs (you still can, and use forge), but just because you can do it without issues, 85% of others can't. Forge & MagicLauncher / MultiMC fills in the gap.
I for one welcome forge!
Plus, I've never had lag, or ran into slow MC because of forge? Ever! My slowdowns are related to texture packs and Optifine loading them..
You're very welcome!
For your shadow problem, try this:
What do you use to install Forge/Optifine/GLSL?
MultiMC/MagicLauncher? Can you post a screenshot?
This is how I have it set up in Magic Launcher. You can see that I even updated both Optifine and GLSL Shaders at one point.
This is my RAM allocation and java stuff; I've found the 32 bit Java works better with Minecraft than the 64 bit Java.
This is the High Performance Shader Pack.
This is Sildur's Shader Pack
This is when I have NONE selected in the Shaderpack folder. One thing I just noticed: There is still a very slight shading effect.
And THIS is without GLSL Shaders installed at all.
Now here's the strange part.
Now that I'm taking screen shots, I'm not getting the 90-150 FPS that I used to be getting. But either way, movement is a ton smoother with that 10 extra FPS it did give me.
I highly doubt that my RAM allocation would determine that, considering it's at 2 GB now and is usually at 6 GB. Minecraft usually doesn't use that much anyway.
ALSO, I got ahold of karyonix. His reply:
In other words, I need a new graphics card, which I was looking at a good one anyway. But now that I see I'm not actually getting the high FPS I thought I was, maybe it's time for me to make that push.
Any help on how to further increase my FPS would still be appreciated though. All in game settings are how they should be, so it would end up taking a more complex route, and I'm aiming to get Sildur's working with at least 20FPS.
Thank you
Good point getting a hold of Karyonix for an update, that's good to know, because the Q has been asked before :)! I never had a proper answer until now!
RAM allocation is completely irrelevant until you start getting into massive amounts of MODS, or using high-resolution texture packs. 350MB is generally good if using the stock TP (regardless of mods). I use MultiMC, but it basically says minimum memory allocation 350MB, and maximum memory allocation 2GB.
Also, I have noticed that if you are taking screens with the F3 OSD running the whole time, the FPS is less. If you leave the F3 OSD off, press ESC until the chunk-updates are 0, go back to the game, hit F3, and then hit F2 for the screenshot it will report way higher (cheating, but hey ;)).
I would highly recommend Chocapic's shaders, you should be able to get away with Medium or High. Based on SEUS 10 RC6 just like Sildur's are. Amazing water reflections, love the water color too!
It'll tide you over until you can get a new card. The nVidia 700's are out, but that will inevitably drive the cost of the 600's down. The 660/670/680 are amazing cards, and run SEUS 10 RC7 (the most demanding shader pack ATM) at 40-60 FPS. I would stay away from the 700's just because the price vs performance against the previous-generation high-end 600's you probably won't be able to beat. Just my 2 cents ;)!
There's a nice one out there, I have no clue if it's the one you're looking at, but this one is around $140 and has a PassMark score of 3,524, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, It's a high-end GPU and it's considerably cheap. It's not another Titan, but it's up there.
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Curse PremiumThe problem with this is that every mod doesn't use forge and never will! For example: Optifine, the most useful mod in the world is only compatible with certain versions often has glitches and other problems. And you say how easy it is to install, "Could it be any simpler?", well yes it could! What is easier than just selecting it with magic launcher like all my other mods! Why would I want another mod, that has a separate install, just to run a mod that I could run without it before!?
You can select it with MagicLauncher just super saiyan.
"Yeah I do." "Oh."
I feel like I've tried Chocapic's shaders before. They come highly recommended for machines that can't power through high graphics. But I'll look into it again just in case I procrastinated.
I'm actually looking at an AMD card on Newegg. It's the Radeon HD 7770 for... Wait for it... $104!
It's on sale though so if I don't get it soon I'd have to pay $130 for it. Which still isn't bad, but I've heard that the 7750 has a better price to power ratio.
Chocapic's Ultra are fairly demanding, and look amazing! He has a wider range of performance options (Lite, Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). Until SEUS came out with K25/M6, Chocapic was my preferred shader
The AMD cards are great, good performance vs price, which is why I have bought their cards for the last 10 years. I flipped to AMD after the 8800-series nVidia cards, never looked back.
I will warn you, most of these shaders are designed with an nVidia core to them, so some of them will not work on AMD cards (you get composite / final loading errors -- parts of the shaders will be missing). SEUS L-Series, and M1 are prime examples. Never had any issues with Sildur/Chocapic/SEUS 10 RC7.
Good luck with your purchases, you won't regret it
Optifine rarely has issues with Forge, and basically every release is compatible with the latest version of Forge at the time. It's not Optifine that is causing the Forge issues, it's Forge updating, which breaks stuff in Optifine (like the latest ladder issue). Optifine will update, fix the problem, and then Forge may break something else...that's not Optifine's fault.
I have used Forge since the beginning, and have never had Forge break a mod by updating (other than this ladder issue -- none at all on 1.4.7/1.3.X/1.2.5 or prior). I use 63 mods ATM (totally bloated, but like selection and options :P). Just an example.
Sounds like someone just has a hate on for Forge.. Forge just makes things easier. You can install forge, and keep on modding through minecraft.jar ... whatever floats your boat.
Karyonix is updating because it will make things easier for himself through newer MC version changes, and also for whomever (Sonic Ether at this point) takes over the project. It is a HUGE leap, he can use forge hooks as a coremod to make the GLSL Shaders more universal. That's amazing! There may come a time where Optifine isn't even needed anymore, who knows..
Point is, embrace the future, because it's coming! If you don't like it, step out from infront of the bus!
What year it's from doesn't matter, it's how effective it is.
I tried this to use the new M release of Sonic's Shaders, but I just got a black screen. I'm using Optifine 1.5.2 UD2 and the 1.45.2 shaders....did I misinterpret your comment? Or am I perhaps running into a different issue?
For the version of Karyonix's shaders ShadersMod-mc1.5.2-ofud3-1.46 , What you need is defined in the filename.
MC1.5.2 => Minecraft 1.5.2
ofud3 => Optinefine Ultra D3
ShadersMod => this is version 1.4.6
Hope that helps you get things running.
Just make sure you are putting the "M" version shaders in the correct place for them to work, there are plenty of tutorials on how to install this all if you need help.
The M-Series shaders from Sonic Ether depend on the GLSL Shaders SE 1.46 that Sonic Ether packages with the shaders themselves.
If you want to use GLSL Shaders 1.45.2 (to keep compatability with mods), you need to use L2 or L3 (nVidia only), otherwise K25 or K26 (nVidia or AMD).
This is assuming that you have already had shaders (Chocapic or SEUS 10 RC7) working in 1.45.2?
One of my friends has a 6770, he says everything works perfectly with the right settings (OpenGL Fancy, Chunk Loading Default, etc.) and his favorite shaderpack is SEUS Ultra. He runs that at a solid 20fps, sometimes even 30. But I don't like its water shader simply because it makes it look like everything is always distilled water everywhere.
So I think this'll be a good purchase, despite the fact that I'll have to upgrade my PSU along with it.
I've got a 6950 with the unlocked cores. Works great, and I get about 30-35 FPS on average with SEUS 10 RC7 (not the ~60 FPS that the nV670 users are getting, but you can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 anyways!).
I edited the water to give it a greenish-blue hue, brighter color, less red. Much better, kind of like M6 (except I did mine before M6 came out, :P).
I'm quite happy with Sonic Ether's latest work, his new public shader release is going to really going to knock the socks off of people ;)!
I personally think you're making a good choice, price vs performance has always been the way to go for me, but I've got a wife and 3 kids to take care of. I keep an eye out for the sales & MIR's ... plus working in a computer shop from time to time helps (consulting / contracting) ... discounts :D! My day job is I.T. & Networking.
Have you read any of the last 4 pages? Maybe you should take a look ... just keep an eye out for the huge red letters.
Or just down down another 2 lines.......