rec.autos.simulators

by **GUCCIPHI** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

I have a Celeron 266 with 64Mb RAM, ATI Rage Pro graphics card with 2Mb video
RAM. Is my PC spec not good enough for this game?

What would be the most cost effective and "must-have" upgrade if I want to play
this game with decent performance?

by **Victor Cha** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Celeron II and a video card with at least 32 MB of memory. Anyway, you should wait for
some first experience before you make your decision. What if the game is poorly coded
like F1 2000 and it won't even run well on a 1 GHz system and a $300 video card? :-)

by **Andrew Busc** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Probably not as it is.. the video card at least will need an upgrade..

overclock your celery as fast as you can get it to go - probably around
333 or so, perhaps higher if you're lucky (you might need a new fan or
something else to keep it cool). Then go out and buy a cheap 3D graphics
card, maybe a voodoo3 or TNT2 of some variety. That *should* let you run
GP3 if what microprose says is true, but of course you won't get top
graphics performance out of it. Otherwise, cough up another few grand and
go get a killer system ;)

regards,
Andrew

by **N..** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 04:14:08 GMT, "Victor Chan"

Have you seen specs that say it needs 32mb of video memory? The
Voodoo3 seires has 16mb and I'm sure it would run fine on that card.

--
Nos

by **SKur** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

celery 266, i run the same cpu at 448 mhz, by increasing the bus speed, but be wrned
ya fry it, yer done

Martyn_D

> > I have a Celeron 266 with 64Mb RAM, ATI Rage Pro graphics card with 2Mb video
> > RAM. Is my PC spec not good enough for this game?

> Probably not as it is.. the video card at least will need an upgrade..

> > What would be the most cost effective and "must-have" upgrade if I want to play
> > this game with decent performance?

> overclock your celery as fast as you can get it to go - probably around
> 333 or so, perhaps higher if you're lucky (you might need a new fan or
> something else to keep it cool). Then go out and buy a cheap 3D graphics
> card, maybe a voodoo3 or TNT2 of some variety. That *should* let you run
> GP3 if what microprose says is true, but of course you won't get top
> graphics performance out of it. Otherwise, cough up another few grand and
> go get a killer system ;)

> regards,
> Andrew

by **Victor Cha** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Come on, we all know that meeting the game's hardware requirement does not mean anything
at all. :-) 32 MB is better since it will avoid texture memory trashing all together.
You really don't want the game to slow down just because your video card runs out of
texture memory.

> On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 04:14:08 GMT, "Victor Chan"

> >Celeron II and a video card with at least 32 MB of memory.

> Have you seen specs that say it needs 32mb of video memory? The
> Voodoo3 seires has 16mb and I'm sure it would run fine on that card.

> --
> Nos

by **Phil** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

You will only be able to run gp3 in software mode with a 2mb v/card. 3d
hardware support requires 8mb minimum.
Cheers Phil

by **A Thoma** » Mon, 17 Jul 2000 04:00:00

> > I have a Celeron 266 with 64Mb RAM, ATI Rage Pro graphics card with 2Mb
video
> > RAM. Is my PC spec not good enough for this game?

> Probably not as it is.. the video card at least will need an upgrade..

> > What would be the most cost effective and "must-have" upgrade if I want
to play
> > this game with decent performance?

> overclock your celery as fast as you can get it to go - probably around
> 333 or so, perhaps higher if you're lucky (you might need a new fan or
> something else to keep it cool).

Bear in mind that the Celeron didn't have on die L2 cache until 300mhz so
this chip won't scale so well with o'clocking . He'll also need a mobo with
100mhz FSB . A newer chip with on die cache would help if his system can
handle it

Andrew

by **Loosa** » Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:00:00

A faster videocard with on board T & L , such as the GeForce2 will make a
bigger difference in your frame rates than overclocking your celeron, in all
likelihood. If you look at the benchmarks for older videocards(i.e. TNT or
TNT2) versus GEforce2 , you will see that slower cpu's are sometimes actually
faster with a state of the art videocard than a state of the art cpu is with an
older videocard, and that's not even taking on board T&L into consideration. I
have little doubt that my 600 mhz p3 will be able to run GP3 acceptably with a
GeForce2 or whatever newer cards debut over the next few months. Cpu speeds are
becoming less and less important compared to videocard advances. A Sega
Dreamcast can produce graphics that are as good as anything you will see on a
top notch 1GHZ PC, and yet it only runs at 200MHZ.

by **Victor Cha** » Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Hmmm..........you mean GP3 supports NV T&L API? If not, T&L won't do a thing for GP3.
He still needs a faster CPU and a faster video card. He can't have just either one since
having either one would bottleneck the system.

by **GUCCIPHI** » Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Or would I be better off just getting a brand new system instead of doing
individual upgrades? I'd figure this may be "cheaper" in the long run. What's
the cheapest system you would recommend right now?

by **Victor Cha** » Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Well, you may ask the wrong person here. :-) I only bought a system once as a newbie.
As you can see, I build my own. I am sure you can look for Dell or Gateway for a new PC.
However, I would suggest you to buy a new system from vendors like www.pcnut.com because
they use conventional or retail hardware. Cheaper in the long run? Don't think of PC is
expansive. Look, if you go by the AMD K7 Athlon system, a K7 700 costs about $150. A K7
motherboard using the KX133 chipset is about $130 to $150. I am sure you can use your
memory if it is PC100. Add another 64 MB would be better. You can use your current hard
drive and monitor. Then, you need a video card. A GeForce DDR would be nice and cheaper
now (less than $200) since GeForce 2 is out. So, you are looking at about $580 to $600
(K7 700 + motherboard + GeForce DDR + 64 MB of memory). You can still use your monitor,
CD-ROM drive, hard drive, and etc.

A Pentium III 700 may cost you a bit over $210. But the board is a lot cheaper. $95 to
$130 the most.

To check for price, try www.pricewatch.com

by **SKur** » Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Bah BS Loosay, Geforce2 will run like sht on a celery266, its not fast enough to
take advantage of the vid card. At the very least he has to look at new video card
and clocking the cpu. The cheapest alternative would be a V3 and clock the cpu.
If the mb won't support 100 mhz+ FSB, then he might as well price out a new MB and
cpu combo as well as Video card

Martyn_D

> A faster videocard with on board T & L , such as the GeForce2 will make a
> bigger difference in your frame rates than overclocking your celeron, in all
> likelihood. If you look at the benchmarks for older videocards(i.e. TNT or
> TNT2) versus GEforce2 , you will see that slower cpu's are sometimes actually
> faster with a state of the art videocard than a state of the art cpu is with an
> older videocard, and that's not even taking on board T&L into consideration. I
> have little doubt that my 600 mhz p3 will be able to run GP3 acceptably with a
> GeForce2 or whatever newer cards debut over the next few months. Cpu speeds are
> becoming less and less important compared to videocard advances. A Sega
> Dreamcast can produce graphics that are as good as anything you will see on a
> top notch 1GHZ PC, and yet it only runs at 200MHZ.

by **Loosa** » Wed, 19 Jul 2000 04:00:00

Based upon numbers I have obtained from Sharky Extreme and Thresh's Firing
Squad.

a 1GHZ Athlon with geforce2 = 87 FPS
a 450 MHZ celeron geforce2= 69 FPS
a 1GHZ athlon with geforce1 = 52 FPS
As you can see a 450MHZ celeron not only can run at nearly as high a frame rate
with a Geforce2 at high rez as a 1GHZ athlon. With a superior videocard a 450
celeron can actually run higher frame rates than a 1GHZ cpu. The videocard is
far more important than the CPU in most cases. It is not inconceivable that a
266MHZ celeron could run 20+ FPS with a Geforce2 or a future Geforce 3 in games
such as Quake 3 or Nascar 4 if you ran at 640X480 and turned off some of the
details.
For some of us, 640x480 and 20+ FPS is a reasonably playable and enjoyable
minimum, before upgrading to a whole new system.Additionally, Geforce 2's will
no doubt drop significantly in price by the time Nascar 4 is out. Admitedly, a
266 celeron is a long way from ideal,and decently fast cpu's and motherboards
are dirt cheap compared to 2 years ago, but my point is that too many of us
dismiss last years entry level systems as being virtual doorstops, implying
that you would be lucky to get a 7 FPS slideshow even with the latest
videocards available.
Next year some people will be relegating 1GHZ cpu's as being barely adequate
for a minimal *** system, and alot of those opinions will be born of
commercial hype and user egos,rather than hard numbers.

acceptable playing environment, but I fully enjoyed playing GP2 on my 100MHZ

at hi rez and full details on my 600MHZ P3. The actual differences in gameplay
are not that huge even though the P3 is at least 15x as fast in theory, and the
differences between a 1GHZ Athlon and a 266 Celeron are much less. Go the
videocard upgrade route first, before investing in a complete upgrade. It may
be acceptable enough to allow you to wait a bit longer and buy that 2GHZ P4.

by **Victor Cha** » Wed, 19 Jul 2000 04:00:00

That's because Q3 supports T&L API. That's why you see a very acceptable framerate on a
Celeron 450 and a GeForce 2.

> Based upon numbers I have obtained from Sharky Extreme and Thresh's Firing
> Squad.
> Quake III: Arena Test - Normal,

> a 1GHZ Athlon with geforce2 = 87 FPS
> a 450 MHZ celeron geforce2= 69 FPS
> a 1GHZ athlon with geforce1 = 52 FPS
> As you can see a 450MHZ celeron not only can run at nearly as high a frame rate
> with a Geforce2 at high rez as a 1GHZ athlon. With a superior videocard a 450
> celeron can actually run higher frame rates than a 1GHZ cpu. The videocard is
> far more important than the CPU in most cases. It is not inconceivable that a
> 266MHZ celeron could run 20+ FPS with a Geforce2 or a future Geforce 3 in games
> such as Quake 3 or Nascar 4 if you ran at 640X480 and turned off some of the
> details.
> For some of us, 640x480 and 20+ FPS is a reasonably playable and enjoyable
> minimum, before upgrading to a whole new system.Additionally, Geforce 2's will
> no doubt drop significantly in price by the time Nascar 4 is out. Admitedly, a
> 266 celeron is a long way from ideal,and decently fast cpu's and motherboards
> are dirt cheap compared to 2 years ago, but my point is that too many of us
> dismiss last years entry level systems as being virtual doorstops, implying
> that you would be lucky to get a 7 FPS slideshow even with the latest
> videocards available.
> Next year some people will be relegating 1GHZ cpu's as being barely adequate
> for a minimal *** system, and alot of those opinions will be born of
> commercial hype and user egos,rather than hard numbers.

> acceptable playing environment, but I fully enjoyed playing GP2 on my 100MHZ

> at hi rez and full details on my 600MHZ P3. The actual differences in gameplay
> are not that huge even though the P3 is at least 15x as fast in theory, and the
> differences between a 1GHZ Athlon and a 266 Celeron are much less. Go the
> videocard upgrade route first, before investing in a complete upgrade. It may
> be acceptable enough to allow you to wait a bit longer and buy that 2GHZ P4.

rec.autos.simulators

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?

GP3 demands system upgrade?