Author Topic: What do I need to upgrade to run AH2? (Read 443 times)

peregrin · « **on:** May 15, 2004, 03:00:25 AM »

I assumed there were still major bugs in the beta, but I guess my 0fps is going to be permanent. I have:

1000Mhz Athlon
Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Model 64
128MB Ram

should I be getting 3 seconds per frame update, or is there something else wrong? Right now it looks like I'll have to quit AH when AH2 goes live.
--Peregrin.

moot · « **Reply #1 on:** May 15, 2004, 03:16:02 AM »

It's probably the video card. You ought to get a GF2, it's dirt cheap, 40-50$ on pricewatch.com.
That or the drivers are too old.
If your RAM is as old as your vidcard, 128MB to get you to the min. 256MB recommended is probably only 25-30$.

Look at the minimum reqs the devs just posted:
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=116666

Orig · « **Reply #2 on:** May 15, 2004, 06:45:10 AM »

You'll almost definately need a new video card, and the min specs released in the news announcement include 256 meg ram so you should get another 128 meg ram. I wouldn't buy more memory than necessary however since that's a pretty old system and you can get a brand new Dell or something that would run AH2 quite nicely for only about $500.

See the news and announcements forum for AH2's min requirements.

oboe · « **Reply #3 on:** May 15, 2004, 07:58:02 AM »

I'm not sure a brand new $500 Dell runs AH2 nicely. These lower priced systems generally have the video card integrated on the mobo, and even if the other systems specs are impressive the graphics processing power is weak.

I'd post exactly what you were looking at and ask for opinions/experiences with AH2 before I bought anything.

Orig · « **Reply #4 on:** May 15, 2004, 10:22:33 AM »

Dell dimension 2400 series, with the cheapest possible options, runs just a bit under $500. Then get a PCI FX5200 card for $50or less and you're in business. They throw in a 17" LCD monitor for free which could even be sold for enough to buy a video card since he already has a monitor.

My point wasn't to suggest this was the best course of action, just that it was possible and an alternative to spending hundreds of dollars upgrading a legacy system and that upgrading to be able to run AH2 isn't impossible.

If it was me, I'd go with something like this:

ABIT NF7-S motherboard - $130
AMD Athlon 2500+ (Barton) - $80
256 meg crucial DDR PC2700 SDRAM - $57
GeForce FX5700 - $98

Reuse all the other parts. The motherboard has decent onboard sound and LAN.

Might need a new power supply and case, but those can be had for well under $80, $100-120 for high quality parts.

For the absolute cheapest, he could get either a PCI or AGP FX5200 card (under $75) or GeForce2, or GeForce 4MX, and one more stick of 128 meg memory for under $50. The kids in my old neighborhood were charging $15-$30 for mowing lawns so it's not impossible.

Manedew · « **Reply #5 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:46:54 PM »

1.2 ghz /9500 ati radeon/ 512 mb ram

i get better fps in AH2 in 16-bit colour .. than AH1 in 32-bit ...

I'd say it was your vid card too....get some ram too ... it's cheap

peregrin · « **Reply #6 on:** May 15, 2004, 06:53:23 PM »

Thanks for the advice. It just didn't seem that long ago I bought this machine. Difficult to accept that it's already obsolete.
--Peregrin.

Karnak · « **Reply #7 on:** May 16, 2004, 12:15:28 AM »

New video card and a bit more RAM and you're fine.

How much can you spend?

peregrin · « **Reply #8 on:** May 16, 2004, 02:11:45 AM »

It's not so much the expence as backing up all files etc to move to a new machine. Current machine is a server for home network etc. So it's just a pain to change.