desperatly need help!!!!!!!!!

[ringfort]

If anyone could help I would be very greatful.  When playing AH2 my frame rate fluctuates between 9 and 30.  The computer I use has a 2.70 GHz Celeron Procesore, 80 GH hard Drive, 10/100Mbps etherNet for broad band which I have, the broad band I mean.  Please be patient as I am techno phobic and it all seems like goboldy gook to me.  The computer also has 3D Intel Extreme graphics.

Here is my question, if I replace the celaron processor with a Pentium 4 processor  PGA478 3.2GHz (its the best I have found at the moment) will it help the frame rate and the graphics enough to be worth investing in?  There are times when Im on someones 6 and if they drop below the horizon I can see there icon but the plane is very hard to see against tress or mountains etc.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you can help it would be cool

Ringfort
john1doyle@eircom.net

PS I hope to be able to see the bogies soon, I also use FSAutostart control program 1.1.11  

[Airscrew]

Ring, need more info, it may not be a processor issue but I've never used Celeron processers either
1.  What video card are you using
2.  How much memory on your motherboard
3.  What other programs are running on your system while you are playing?
look at your systray for starters

[Mustaine]

your best bet is to go to start/run and type in:

dxdiag


it will take some time to load, but when it is done, there will be a button to save all info.

save that to your desktop, and copy the text into a message here (you only need the first page or so of text)

that will tell the tech guys here all they need to know about your computer.


i can tell you right away the "3D Intel Extreme graphics" is a major downside to the rig you mention. it is at the absolute bottom or below of what can run the game.

[SteffK]

Ringfort,

The issue of Processor speed is nothing to do with you graphics.

Got to Intel and download the updated graphics drivers or invest in a new Graphics Card.

Most will agree that it is personal choice as to what card you use, but my cuggestion is to get one which has 256Mb of onboard RAM (128 would cope, 512 would be even better) but wether you go for ATI, NVIDIA or INTEL is up to you and how much you can afford. You can pay in excess of 500 Euros for a bloody good one. Also, find out if you Mother Board has PCI Express on it, if so get a PCIX Graphics card, if not go for an AGP one.

Personally I have a Radeon (The Maker) ATI X800Pro with 256 Mb of RAM running of the AGP Port, the Drivers I have for it are the ATI DNA Drivers from http://www.dna-drivers.com/

Hope this helps.

[Roscoroo]

replacing the celeron with a prescott  will cause nothing but headaches

they run hotter then hell and spend most of there time throttled back .

Graphics card and ram are were id look for an improvement .

[Pooface]

ring, it sounds like you're on a fairly low end dell PC correct? it will probably be easier to buy an entirely new machine, as i'm not sure the low end dells can even be upgraded memorywise.

but the things that really effect framerate are RAM and video card.

if you can upgrade your PC, get some more ram and a decent vid card. the dell intergrated graphics are just awful lol. i'd know, i used to have a PC just like yours, my aaverage framerate for AH was 10, before all the nice graphics LOL

[humble]

Ringford,

I wouldnt invest in a CPU, as with others above I think your best bet is a better video card. If your running an AGP MB then you need to decide if you want to invest in a VC that has no use beyond the current system. If you have a PCI-E slot then a new VC makes alot more sense. If you've got an AGP slot system I have a Ti-4200 you can have....its an older card but a pretty good one. But in the end your going to need to consider upgrading the box at some point.

[Krusty]

I think Ringfort needs to post his DXDiag first, if he's got a 6-year old PC, that's all integrated, and with no room for expansion, we might not be able to help.

I disagree on the CPU issue. AH is by far a CPU-centric game. The video card you have doesn't matter as long as your CPU can process fast enough.

I went from an old CPU to a new CPU with the same vid card and it made a world of difference, but I must point out it was a 6 year old PC when I upgraded it.

So let's wait for Ringfort to post his DXDiag screen before we suggest plan A or plan B, because perhaps plan C is the best (plan C being "Get a new computer")

[Roscoroo]

Originally posted by Krusty
I think Ringfort needs to post his DXDiag first, if he's got a 6-year old PC, that's all integrated, and with no room for expansion, we might not be able to help.

I disagree on the CPU issue. AH is by far a CPU-centric game. The video card you have doesn't matter as long as your CPU can process fast enough.

I went from an old CPU to a new CPU with the same vid card and it made a world of difference, but I must point out it was a 6 year old PC when I upgraded it.

So let's wait for Ringfort to post his DXDiag screen before we suggest plan A or plan B, because perhaps plan C is the best (plan C being "Get a new computer")

he already has a 2.70 ghz cpu  ... That part is plenty ... its the slug intel graphic vpu thats killing the machine for gaming

ive played with plenty of prescott cpu's to know there a pain in the tail its easier to keep a oced amd cooler then one of those .

[DamnedRen]

I believe the celery has no math coprocessor. Change to an AMD or P4 and your FR will improve.

Gaming is akin to owning a boat. Once you buy one you find out its a big whole in the water you keep throwing money into. It's fun to own but can get costly. When I first got into an online WW2 dogfighting sim a buddy said I needed to plan on staying up with technology. He was right and I regularly upgrade my box about every 2 1/2 years. Here's how I normally do it just to keep costs to a minimum.

For instance, Frys Electronics, located on the west coast (there's one in Las Vegas also) has sales at least 3X a week. They sell MB/CPU combos for around $100-125 that use AMD or P4 CPu's. Now these are not the high cost/high end combos but will do an excellent job for a fraction of the cost. The last one I looked at one of thier ads they had a P4 2.6 Ghz CPU married to an AGP MB for $119.00. In a nutshell all ya gotta do is yank the stuff outa yer old box and plug in the new MB/CPU combo. All the MB drivers come with it and everything but your video card is on board. 5-1, 6-1 on board sound, they have on board video but its not really for gaming. You also have to buy some new faster ram which can set you back another $100 or so for 1GB.

Im running a cheapy motherboard with a 3.4 Ghz P4 and an X800 pro ATI card. Its rock steady at 75FR while using vert sync. If I turn of the vert sync I get 200 or so but you get 1/2 frames. I also have all the sliders to the left. I dropped an old geforce2 agp video card into it as a test and averaged 53 FR with the video sliders centered. Thats what I'd call brute CPU output! BTW, the 2.6 Ghz CPU using an ATI 9800 pro card averaged 65 FR with the sliders centered. Not to bad and absolutely flyable.

Alternatively you can buy a MB/CPU combo with the newer PCIE video cards. I think the video card manufacturers fell all over themselves trying to get the new cards to the market and, as such, some of the higher end agp cards are still equal to or better than alot of the new PCIE cards. Again spend lots and you get a good PCIE card.

I also found if you wait and buy a high end video card about 6-9 months after they come out you can usually pick one up for 1/2 price. This allows to you upgrade one step below the top sellers for a fraction of the cost.

IMHO the 3 main ingredents for solid FR's this game are CPU, Video Card and Ram. But you see for a a few hundred bucks you can upgrade every 2-3 years and be able to move forward with the games as they get better.

I threw out a lot of information just to give you some ideas of all the choices you have out there.

Hope this helps.

[BigR]

There is no doubt his problem is that intel graphics chip. Its not meant for real gaming. Its a terrible chipset and if he has an AGP expansion port, any cheapo 80 dollar card he chooses as a replacement will be lightyears beyond that Intel Extreme chip. This game may be processor intensive but his chip IS fine for this game. Its that freakin Intel Video...too terrible for words.

[ringfort]

thanks man im greatful