question about upgrading...

**BioMechanoid75** · 08-06-2001, 07:08 PM

here are my current system specs:

Falcon Northwest
Athlon T-Bird 800 Mhz
Asus A7V Mobo
128 MB Crucial PC133 RAM
Annihilator 2 GeForce 2 GTS 32 MB video card
Soundblaster Live! Value soundcard
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM
30 GB 7200RPM hard drive (i forget who the manufacturer is)

anyway, i've noticed the quite a few of my recent games run like crap on the system. i don't know what the problem is, but some games (namely Alice, which runs at about 5 fps, and Undying, which refuses to run at anything higher than 800x600 and even then is still relatively choppy) are pretty much unplayable. Then there's Diablo 2 which runs at a pretty consistent 10-16 fps, unless i go to the pause/menu screen in which case it bumps up to over 100+ fps.

what i'm intending to do in the very near future is double the RAM and purchase a GeForce 3 card. could someone tell me if these upgrades will result in a substantial improvement? i'd really like to play Max Payne, but i hate to think how it would run on my machine. will the power of the GeForce 3 be bottlenecked by my 800 Mhz processor, or should it still run significantly better than my geforce 2? i plan to upgrade my processor sometime soon as well, but first i'd like to increase the RAM and get a nice video card. upon reading this post, it seems like this is sort of an unanswerable question, but if someone could help or give me any input at all, i would much appreciate it. thanks.

**mush** · 08-06-2001, 07:39 PM

I dont know much about your setup... but i have the exact same Graphics Card (Creative Geforce GTS 32MB DDR), with my AMD 1.2Ghz. And I must say I am very please with its performance... Alice as a matter of fact ran silky smooth at 1024x768 @ 32bit - not a single slowdown. If i was you i wouldn't invest in a Graphics Card - Not just yet anyway.

Like i said i cant say much about your setup, but here are a couple of usual suggestions... get all the latest motherboard drivers, the AGP drivers, the Graphics Card drivers etc. And also try to overclock your CPU - it should atleast 1Ghz easily, and with that you should see a substancial improvement in Games as in general.

Hope This Helps,
Mush.

------------------

AMD 1.2Ghz @ 1.33Ghz (133x10)
(49C idle - 51C full load)
Taisol 760 (6800rpm Delta Fan)
ASUS A7V133 Motherboard
Crucial PC133 SDRAM
IBM 60GXP 40.2GB (UDMA 100)
GeForce 2 GTS (32MB DDR)
SB Live! 5.1 (PCi)
Creative SoundWorks (Digital)
Pioneer 106 DVD
Rioch 8x8x32 CD-RW
GlobalWin 802 Case (2x80mm Fans)
300 Watt Macron PSU
19" iLyama Display (.26)
3DMark 2001 Score = 3668

**Raptor2150** · 08-07-2001, 04:54 AM

That's definitely odd... I can still play Alice and Undying on my tnt2 ultra

08-06-2001, 07:08 PM	#1
BioMechanoid75 Sushi Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Casper, WY, USA Posts: 1	question about upgrading... here are my current system specs: Falcon Northwest Athlon T-Bird 800 Mhz Asus A7V Mobo 128 MB Crucial PC133 RAM Annihilator 2 GeForce 2 GTS 32 MB video card Soundblaster Live! Value soundcard Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM 30 GB 7200RPM hard drive (i forget who the manufacturer is) anyway, i've noticed the quite a few of my recent games run like crap on the system. i don't know what the problem is, but some games (namely Alice, which runs at about 5 fps, and Undying, which refuses to run at anything higher than 800x600 and even then is still relatively choppy) are pretty much unplayable. Then there's Diablo 2 which runs at a pretty consistent 10-16 fps, unless i go to the pause/menu screen in which case it bumps up to over 100+ fps. what i'm intending to do in the very near future is double the RAM and purchase a GeForce 3 card. could someone tell me if these upgrades will result in a substantial improvement? i'd really like to play Max Payne, but i hate to think how it would run on my machine. will the power of the GeForce 3 be bottlenecked by my 800 Mhz processor, or should it still run significantly better than my geforce 2? i plan to upgrade my processor sometime soon as well, but first i'd like to increase the RAM and get a nice video card. upon reading this post, it seems like this is sort of an unanswerable question, but if someone could help or give me any input at all, i would much appreciate it. thanks.

08-06-2001, 07:39 PM	#2
mush Goldfish Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: England Posts: 67	I dont know much about your setup... but i have the exact same Graphics Card (Creative Geforce GTS 32MB DDR), with my AMD 1.2Ghz. And I must say I am very please with its performance... Alice as a matter of fact ran silky smooth at 1024x768 @ 32bit - not a single slowdown. If i was you i wouldn't invest in a Graphics Card - Not just yet anyway. Like i said i cant say much about your setup, but here are a couple of usual suggestions... get all the latest motherboard drivers, the AGP drivers, the Graphics Card drivers etc. And also try to overclock your CPU - it should atleast 1Ghz easily, and with that you should see a substancial improvement in Games as in general. Hope This Helps, Mush. ------------------ AMD 1.2Ghz @ 1.33Ghz (133x10) (49C idle - 51C full load) Taisol 760 (6800rpm Delta Fan) ASUS A7V133 Motherboard Crucial PC133 SDRAM IBM 60GXP 40.2GB (UDMA 100) GeForce 2 GTS (32MB DDR) SB Live! 5.1 (PCi) Creative SoundWorks (Digital) Pioneer 106 DVD Rioch 8x8x32 CD-RW GlobalWin 802 Case (2x80mm Fans) 300 Watt Macron PSU 19" iLyama Display (.26) 3DMark 2001 Score = 3668 __________________ [] AMD 1.2Ghz AXIA @ 1.4Ghz (140x10) (51C idle - 53C full load)[] Taisol 760 (6800rpm Delta Fan)[] ASUS A7V133 Motherboard[] 512MB Crucial PC133 SDRAM (CAS 2)[] IBM 60GXP 40.2GB (UDMA 100)[] Leadtek Ti4200 (128MB @ 300/513)[] SB Live! 5.1 (PCi)[] Creative SoundWorks (Digital)[] Pioneer 106 DVD[] Rioch 8x8x32 CD-RW[] GlobalWin 802 Case (3x80mm Fans)[] 300 Watt Macron PSU[] 19" iLyama Display (.26)[] Running WindowsXP Professional 3DMark2001 SE = 8359

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08-07-2001, 04:54 AM	#3
Raptor2150 Hammerhead Shark Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,507	That's definitely odd... I can still play Alice and Undying on my tnt2 ultra