I am currently running SCC and NR03 on 2.4 chip with a gig of RAM and
GForce 128 mg video...works OK but would like better. Anyone have a
suggestion of how far up I need to go to get real improvement?
If a CPU description is too much for you I'd recommend taking it to your
local PC upgrade shop.
If the motheboard you can go up to a P4EE 3.73GHZ if you want to spend the
mony. Do you have AGP or PCI-Express video card slot. The Gforce cards
are the fastest, but if you have some older games there are fewer issues
with the ATI cards. Fastest ATI AGP card is the X850XTPE. For PCIExpress,
the fastest ATI card is the X1800XT.
My local shop has the X1900XTX in stock as of yesterday...ATI take the speed
crown again for a while...
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
You didn't mention how much memory (RAM) you have either. If you have less
than 512Mb I'd certainly upgrade that as well.
Andrew McP
Yeah, true. A 2.4GHz CPU isn't too bad but a FX5200 is excruciatingly slow.
> Yeah, true. A 2.4GHz CPU isn't too bad but a FX5200 is excruciatingly slow.
Steve-I do have a shop to take it to...but as a non hardware savvy guy
I was just looking for a bit of direction so I know what to ask
for...and not be at the mercy of the shopkeeper.
So, if I am understanding (I am just not much of a hardware guy-so I
appreciate any advice) the first thing I might want to try is to
upgrade the video card? The 'hardware guy' I do most of my business
with is not really a gamer so he and I need a little direction as to
which way to go. I have been really happy with the GForce cards I have
had...is there a GForce anyone would specifically recomend.
And thanks in advance to all for all the help and advice...
Running with everything up is kind of lame.. In fast pace games
anyways.. You rarely sit and stare at your surrounding. You are either
blowing people away if its fps or your driving insanely fast if its
simulator. My point is that you sacrifice performance for still images
you never really pay attention to.
On the other hand.. If your settings are pure performance the game looks
like shit, no joke. It all depends on the person I guess.. But I enjoy
my extra frames when things might get real messy.. Like for instance
when everyone is camping somewhere in Half-life(1 or 2) mods, and the
comp lags up trying to do many things at once.
> Steve-I do have a shop to take it to...but as a non hardware savvy guy
> I was just looking for a bit of direction so I know what to ask
> for...and not be at the mercy of the shopkeeper.
> So, if I am understanding (I am just not much of a hardware guy-so I
> appreciate any advice) the first thing I might want to try is to
> upgrade the video card? The 'hardware guy' I do most of my business
> with is not really a gamer so he and I need a little direction as to
> which way to go. I have been really happy with the GForce cards I have
> had...is there a GForce anyone would specifically recomend.
> And thanks in advance to all for all the help and advice...
Andrew McP
Andrew McP
*A typo, but I hereby coin the phrase "ungrade" to describe an upgrade
which costs a lot and provides disappointing results. ;-)
>> AMD is going to come out with very interesting things
>> in the next year..
> Tomorrow is always faster & cheaper! :-) Ok, that's not strictly true
> now, because CPU performance is going sideways rather than upwards it can
> be hard to work out when an ungrade's* worthwhile. Until software starts
> using multi-core processors properly life's going to be messy for the
> upgrader who doesn't like parting with more cash than necessary to stay in
> touch with leading edge performance.
> Andrew McP
> *A typo, but I hereby coin the phrase "ungrade" to describe an upgrade
> which costs a lot and provides disappointing results. ;-)
Depending on motherboard, your GFx card options are your best Bang for the
buck. now your motherboard (Which I admit... could be better than mine) but
Mines limited to operating at, 4x agp, and 500mhz {called front side Buss
speeds) via Intel p4 468 pin CPU socket. Now then, IF you have a decent
Powersupply, and case, you could use them (that is about all) in your
upgrade quest if a GFX card wont do what you hope (didnt help me as much as
I had hoped).
I moved from the more powerfull ti4600 (more powerfull per se than the 5200
you have) to the 4600gt (128 meg version) which costs about 150 now, I
should have at least tried to save and get the 256 meg version, or better
yet the 6800 card.
If I were you, I would probably pull the plug on this old goat, depending on
the cash situation, me I try and nickel and dime my self through upgrades,
but just about like the 486 to pentium, or Vesa to AGP slot days, not as
long ago, the platforms and other advantages outweigh the benifit per dollar
spent ATM.
Im going for this type of system right quick...
If I pick a similiar board as the DFI sli deluxe ( SLI means has 2 PCI-e
slots that can be populated with 2 vid cards to process ***) I am going
to do this... {'AMD' type processor board BTW} 3800 AMD chip, at least 1
gig memory (512 in 2 slots so I get dual channel I think it is) 2 6600 PCI-e
cards, everything else is Onboard. Oh an of course somtime I'd prolly get a
new Serial ATA harddrive, although my old regular IDE-ATA 300 gig'r at 7800
rpms will suffice for a while...
Or there there is the precursor of the SLI boards about 50 bucks cheaper
from same retailer for same MFG, a single PCI-e board with a nice 7800 256
card (about the same or close $ as 2 6600's) and same memory and HD options.
I like the specs though of the DFI lanparty, saves me buying soundcards too.
I like the SLI idea myself, as i could start with 2 6600gt or 6800gt's sli'd
then move up to one 7800gt, then maybe find another 7800gt later, giving me
more room to grow I hope...
Remember you could try the AGP card upgrade in your current PC, if so, jump
as high as possible is an 6800gt AGP cards, 256 meg, prolly about $509? wow,
or plain old 6800 agp for 230 (I wouldnt do it either, Im saving up) again
2 6600gt's in sli about 300. wouldnt be bad IMHO.
BTW, Asus boards are as good (or maybe better too) what I hear, heres
everything but the vid cards and drives:
Abit AN8-SLI NVIDIA NF4 SLI Chipset Socket 939 2Ghz DDR400 SATA 150 RAID 2 x
PCI Express X16 IEEE 1394 Audio NV GbE LAN USB 2.0 ATX With CPU - AMD Athlon
64 4000+ 1MB 90nm Rev. E San Diego Cpu Heatsink & Fan --- $529 & ship? via
pricewatch. you still have to pick a Vid card but IMHO a 6600gt (even in
single mode) would probably work more efficient on here than it does on you
old machine (meaning more performance)...
so let me know how you decide.
tlgtr enlightened us with: