The Power Gamer
I was in Fry's on Sunday. They have a long 'cattle chute' you walk through before you reach the registers. It queues everyone up single-file, then you get sent to the first available register. This chute is essentially in the shape of a fish hook--a long straight section, then it turns back briefly at the end.So I'm walking down the chute holding my prized copy of Jimmy Hendrix Polka Vol. 5. I reach the end of the shank of the line and start to turn at the fish hook. Behind me, this guy casually vaults the railing and cuts in front of me instead of continuing down the chute. At first, I figure I must be imagining it, but a lady behind me said "Can you believe somebody is in that much of a hurry?"
I took a look at the fellow. He could have played the lead in The George Michael Story (scruffy beard era). He also had this posture that I can only describe as smug.
I resented him for two reasons. First, he cut in line. Two, he was able to easily vault the railing that enabled him to cut in line. I'm so brittle that I can turn one use of a chip clip into a third-degree wrist sprain.
Mr. Smug-Wham-Vaulter gets sent to a register, and I get sent to the register next to him. As I walk by I hear him say 'Doom Three' to the cashier. It's then that I look at what he's buying:
The Diamond Stealth S60.
That's built on the Radeon 7000 chip, in case you're wondering. The 7000 was the slowest card on the market--eighteen months ago. The 7000 is where framerates go to die.
Don't believe me? Go here: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/vgacharts-04.html. Take a look at the performance benchmarks for UT2003. Out of thirty cards, it will be sucking wind there at the bottom, hoping that someday it can take down the mighty Geforce MX.
So this guy was jumping the line in his rush to buy a new graphics card that would enable him to play Doom 3 in 640x480 at roughly five frames per second. Tops.
Good luck with that upgrade, dude.
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