Author Topic: biggest bang for buck? (Read 432 times)

bockko · « **on:** July 20, 2004, 03:54:15 PM »

Hello all, question for those up on their technology: What componenet upgrade would give me the biggest FPS bang for buck? Having to scale back the detail levels to get decent frame rate and still see hiccups is too irritating...

cpu: 2.4 P4 with 800mhz/hyperthreading
ram: 512 meg, 2x256 meg sticks
vid card: gforce 4 ti-4200 64meg (non 8x agp)

running this on xp.

Thanks!

MOIL · « **Reply #1 on:** July 20, 2004, 04:22:28 PM »

A new vid card would be your best bet.

ATI Radeon series or the Nvidia FX series, both have very good products. Depends on how much you want to spend and how nice you want your games to look.

Hope this helps

Kev367th · « **Reply #2 on:** July 20, 2004, 06:11:41 PM »

Would have to agree.
If only 1 component get a faster vid card.

streakeagle · « **Reply #3 on:** July 20, 2004, 09:12:53 PM »

AH2 is also the first game I have encountered that will benefit from 256MB of video ram as well.

9600XT 256MB or Fx5700 256MB would be a great value.

Personally, I would go with at least a 9800 Pro or 5900 with 256MB since you have the bandwidth to tap their power.

streakeagle · « **Reply #4 on:** July 20, 2004, 09:13:15 PM »

AH2 is also the first game I have encountered that will benefit from 256MB of video ram as well.

9600XT 256MB or Fx5700 256MB would be a great value.

Personally, I would go with at least a 9800 Pro or 5900 with 256MB since you have the bandwidth to tap their power.

streakeagle · « **Reply #5 on:** July 20, 2004, 09:14:07 PM »

AH2 is also the first game I have encountered that will benefit from 256MB of video ram as well.

9600XT 256MB or Fx5700 256MB would be a great value.

Personally, I would go with at least a 9800 Pro or 5900 with 256MB since you have the bandwidth to tap their power.

paulieb · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2004, 02:29:13 PM »

Whoa.... seems there's an echo in here.

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2004, 07:28:41 AM »

from my experience, the ati radeon 9600 pro blows away the ti 4200. The 9600 pro is around 150 nowadays I tink. Or maybe less. We have similar systems, and I hold 60fps rock solid 99% of the time in AH2. What kind of RAM do yu have? Some systems, usually the ones you buy preassembled at a 'too good to be true' price really chump you out on the RAM. They dangle the words 'p4 2.4' and '512 RAM' and 'Hyperthreading enabled' for ony $499.99. Only to discover your RAm is bottom of the line and strangles the whole system regardless of what you try to do . You may have to upgrade your RAM if its pc2100 or something.