Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: kj714 on August 04, 2007, 02:22:47 PM
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I've seen comments posted about the playability of Aces High and how it's too strong for many older machines.
I have a 3 or 4 year old Dell Dimension 4550, nothing stellar, and I was having issues with screen stutters and freezes. I spent $50 on a graphics card from Ebay, Radeon 9250, mid range at best, probably less, and $100 to upgrade my 512k system mem to 1024k and now it's smooth as silk all issues are gone. Being able to load textures into memory makes a huge diff.
Since my initial $50 graphics card investment, I'm considering upgrading again just to see what I get out of it. I've got all the video options enabled and running at a high resolution.
So my point is, some cheap upgrades to your system will probably cure your ills, no need to get a new system, AH2 is still kind to a wide range of CPU's. If I could only upgrade my ACM and gunnery skills at BestBuy life would be perfect.
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You must be flying with 1mb of RAM now! :lol I know you mean 1gb
Is this what your computer looks like? It should be able to run the game. Try lowering your resolution settings and use smaller textures like 256.
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dimension-4550-2/4505-3118_7-20478986.html
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I bet I've got the lowest end machine of anyone playing.
I've got a 7-8 year old Dell, Win 98, 600 meg PIII, 64 meg NVidea graphics card and 512K PC100/PC133 SDRAM.
I've got to leave object detail at min but otherwise everything's turned up. I get 35-40 fps most of the time... not great but not terrible either. Sometimes I'll dip into the teens but not often. I also only use default skins.
I do keep a very clean machine though and I think it makes a big difference.
The only time I have trouble is around massive bomber missions where my fps get killed (3-5 fps when there are 5 or more buff flights together). No real trouble with fire, smoke, clouds or any of the other things I hear affect peoples fps.
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I'm visiting my parents now, have my older computer here, AMD XP1800+ and Radeon9600Pro, works almost as good as my current computer does. No worries. :)
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Originally posted by BaldEagl
I've got a 7-8 year old Dell, Win 98, 600 meg PIII, 64 meg NVidea graphics card and 512K PC100/PC133 SDRAM.
I've got to leave object detail at min but otherwise everything's turned up. I get 35-40 fps most of the time... not great but not terrible either. Sometimes I'll dip into the teens but not often. I also only use default skins.
I do keep a very clean machine though and I think it makes a big difference.
The only time I have trouble is around massive bomber missions where my fps get killed (3-5 fps when there are 5 or more buff flights together). No real trouble with fire, smoke, clouds or any of the other things I hear affect peoples fps.
I'm gonna have to call you on that. I had a 650MHz PIII with 384MB ram, a 32MB (and later a 128MB) GeForce card and had it set to minimum settings, most "goodies" turned off, and it was unplayable...
It got 30FPS at 20k over the water.
Over land? You're down to 20fps. Other cons in the area? Down to 15. CV anywhere withing 10 miles? Bomber? Bomber on FIRE? We're talking 3 FPS.
That's why I upgraded. It wasn't adequate at all. You'll note that even HTC's min reqs are 1.5GHz (last I recall)
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man yall have nice machines. my squadie has an e-machine from walmart. he can not fly with everything at high. he has to fly with 5-20 FPS most of the time. consider yourselfs lucky that you can up grade you computers cause his does not even have an upgrade port for his video card.
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Originally posted by LTARkilz
man yall have nice machines. my squadie has an e-machine from walmart. he can not fly with everything at high. he has to fly with 5-20 FPS most of the time. consider yourselfs lucky that you can up grade you computers cause his does not even have an upgrade port for his video card.
$400 doesn't get you everything. Onboard video is the suck.
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I have an old rig that can still handle AH2 :)
- 700mhz Celeron processor
- 384mb ram PC-133
- 64mb ATI Radeon 7500 PCI
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Sadly i had to leave after AH2 was released, and maybe the break did me good :) Upgrading the laptop was not an option and i only ever buy laptops. When i now got a new one i made sure it is as futureproof as i could make it. So to all you laptop players out there... skip bargains with lots of memmory and get the best cpu and gpu you can affort and put in the ram yourslef and you are good to go. Ram is cheap now so a laptop that uses lots of ram as main selling point may not be smart in the longer run.
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Originally posted by Nilsen
and put in the ram yourslef and you are good to go.
I love going to Best Buy (not really cuz they're mostly a rip) and seeing the Geek Squad signs up for some computer hardware. 'Let Geek Squad insatll it for you.' $39 for any hardware install. $29 for installing AV. $129 for installing an operating system.
:rofl
I undestand a lot of people have computer phobias. But at these prices it's like me going to get my oil changed for $119.99.
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Yeah lol
Installing ram and harddrives (atleast in lappys) is as simple as it can be. Only thing you can possibly do wrong is add some bad static to the chips or system. But that can be avoided with ease.
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In 10 years I've never used an anti-static strap...
knock on wood
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Originally posted by Fulmar
In 10 years I've never used an anti-static strap...
knock on wood
Me neither...
rubs the carpet and fiddles with microchips ;)
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Originally posted by Krusty
I'm gonna have to call you on that. I had a 650MHz PIII with 384MB ram, a 32MB (and later a 128MB) GeForce card and had it set to minimum settings, most "goodies" turned off, and it was unplayable...
It got 30FPS at 20k over the water.
Over land? You're down to 20fps. Other cons in the area? Down to 15. CV anywhere withing 10 miles? Bomber? Bomber on FIRE? We're talking 3 FPS.
That's why I upgraded. It wasn't adequate at all. You'll note that even HTC's min reqs are 1.5GHz (last I recall)
Really. I'm not lying. Why would I?
My machine is what I said it was and if it was unplayable I doubt I'd be able to crack the top 50 like I have a couple of times recently or maintain the stats I do.
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Originally posted by Fulmar
You must be flying with 1mb of RAM now! :lol I know you mean 1gb
Is this what your computer looks like? It should be able to run the game. Try lowering your resolution settings and use smaller textures like 256.
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dimension-4550-2/4505-3118_7-20478986.html
Re-read my post Fulmar, my old beast runs silky smooth with all options enabled and the upgrades to mem & video as meager as they were, max resolution and max textures. That's what I'm saying, this myth it has to be latest and greatest isn't true, just put a little $$$ in the old clunker every once in a while.
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The key to BaldEagl's statement was that 'he keeps a very clean machine'. With proper resource management computers are capable of much more than most people think.
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Originally posted by kj714
I've seen comments posted about the playability of Aces High and how it's too strong for many older machines.
I have a 3 or 4 year old Dell Dimension 4550, nothing stellar, and I was having issues with screen stutters and freezes. I spent $50 on a graphics card from Ebay, Radeon 9250, mid range at best, probably less, and $100 to upgrade my 512k system mem to 1024k and now it's smooth as silk all issues are gone. Being able to load textures into memory makes a huge diff.
Since my initial $50 graphics card investment, I'm considering upgrading again just to see what I get out of it. I've got all the video options enabled and running at a high resolution.
So my point is, some cheap upgrades to your system will probably cure your ills, no need to get a new system, AH2 is still kind to a wide range of CPU's. If I could only upgrade my ACM and gunnery skills at BestBuy life would be perfect.
I have a Dell Demension 4550 (400mhz) from 2002. I was able to play AH1 fine on it with 128mb RAM and the stock video card. When AH2 came out I upgraded to 384mb RAM and a 128mb GeForce 5200 video card. I used that setup fine since AH2 was released.
However I recently upgraded to 2gb RAM, not due to AH, just because I am going on an overhaul to update my PC instead of buying a completely new one.
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Originally posted by kj714
Re-read my post Fulmar
I'll work on my skimming next time.
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Originally posted by Raptor
I have a Dell Demension 4550 (400mhz) from 2002. I was able to play AH1 fine on it with 128mb RAM and the stock video card. When AH2 came out I upgraded to 384mb RAM and a 128mb GeForce 5200 video card. I used that setup fine since AH2 was released.
However I recently upgraded to 2gb RAM, not due to AH, just because I am going on an overhaul to update my PC instead of buying a completely new one.
You're lucky. My machine was purchased in (I think) 1999.
It origionally had 64 meg RAM and a 32 meg NVidea card. When AHII came out I tried to upgrade to a 128 meg video card but the key slots were reversed on the 4x/8x cards (new) and the 2x/4x cards (what I have) so the biggest card I could get to fit was 64 megs. I bought that card (NVidea G-Force MX 440) and was still having some fps issues so I upgraded RAM to 512K (the most I heard that Win98 could handle). That did the trick.
Now, in game, I'm usually using ~50-60% of video memory and ~60-80% of RAM. Close tolerence. Not a lot to spare but it seems to work fine.
I have absolutely nothing that the machine doesn't NEED to run running in the background except my wallpaper changer (changes desktop wallpaper on start-up then sits idle) and my software firewall (which I could probably also turn off as I'm behind a router).
The reason I leave the SW firewall on is so that if I pick up adware/spyware that wants to communicate out it's blocked. I leave all auto-updaters as well as anti-virus/anti-spyware turned off and run them manually once a month. I've never had an issue there but I'm careful what I D/L or open.
I also run disc clean-up, scandisk and defrag at least monthly as well as manually clean up the temp folder and other areas.
System resources are mostly free (93-98%) at all times.
I also upgraded from a 13 gig HD to dual 120's along the way (actually the drives are bigger but Win98 disc defrag will only recognize drives up to 128 gigs so I placed a 120 gig overlay on them).
About the only thing left that I could do to this machine is to upgrade to WinXP so I could bump RAM to 1 gig but I guess I'll probably just upgrade the whole thing next time I need to. I just have to figure out how to afford it.
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I followed the advice on Blackviper's website, set up a gaming profile and cut out the BS, helped a lot. I'm not a computer wizard but the instructions were easy enough. I think I have about 15 processes running to play. I think I have svchost's that boot for programs I end up shutting down, but I don't know which ones and am skeert to close them.
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Also, I maybe could've done better on the mem upgrade, but the guy at Microcenter asked me what front end bus I was running, who the heck knows, so he probably got me some memory that would work, but maybe not the best. I'm pretty happy with my $100 investment though.
My tragedy in all this is that I bid on two x52 systems from ebay, didn't think I would get them, so prematurely ordered an x52 and rudder pedals from newegg. Auctions aren't quite done, but it looks like I will now be the proud owner of 3 x52's, 1 pedals, and the two x45's currently at the house. Will have to invest in more pc's, shades accounts and a better internet pipe into the house to atone for my ebay mistake obviously. I will be my own squad.
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Originally posted by BaldEagl
and my software firewall (which I could probably also turn off as I'm behind a router).
Software firewalls are a waste of disc space..especially if your behind any current $39 router.
Another good little proggy is End It All (http://www.pcmedixwebs.com/enditall.htm). It closes or kills all unnecessary crap running in the background. I use it before any gaming. I also update and run Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/) and Lavasoft Adaware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware) weekly. One seems to pick up adware/spyware that the other misses. I also defrag weekly because if you do a lot of gaming, you end up auto downloading a ton of stuff.
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Originally posted by kj714
and $100 to upgrade my 512k system mem to 1024k
Dang someone beat me to it.. I think that MEG of RAM might still be an issue. :)
Personally I'd run at least a gig, if not a ter...
:rofl
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Originally posted by BaldEagl
I bet I've got the lowest end machine of anyone playing.
I've got a 7-8 year old Dell, Win 98, 600 meg PIII, 64 meg NVidea graphics card and 512K PC100/PC133 SDRAM.
I've got to leave object detail at min but otherwise everything's turned up. I get 35-40 fps most of the time... not great but not terrible either. Sometimes I'll dip into the teens but not often. I also only use default skins.
I do keep a very clean machine though and I think it makes a big difference.
The only time I have trouble is around massive bomber missions where my fps get killed (3-5 fps when there are 5 or more buff flights together). No real trouble with fire, smoke, clouds or any of the other things I hear affect peoples fps.
:rofl BaldEagl has not seen an update of eyecandy in this game since he first downloaded it..... :D
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Originally posted by blkmgc
I also defrag weekly because if you do a lot of gaming, you end up auto downloading a ton of stuff.
If you're installing and unistalling and moving and copying a lot of files every day this is pretty much a waste of time. It's good to defrag, but once a month is sufficient.
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Originally posted by TalonX
Dang someone beat me to it.. I think that MEG of RAM might still be an issue. :)
Personally I'd run at least a gig, if not a ter...
:rofl
What can I say, I'm an accountant not an IT guy!