Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Baine on July 01, 2002, 08:18:41 PM
-
Taking a look at the coming features in 1.10, I'm thinking that it's probably going to mean making some upgrades to my system. I'm figuring the jump from escorting 4-5 bombers to 12-15 is going to hit my system pretty hard as it is, not to mention all the other goodies that are coming.
Not being made of money (all that paper would make walking near an open flame dangerous) I'm looking for the cheapest option. So my question to those in the know: What should I be looking at _ more RAM, a new vid card or _ eek! _ a cpu transplant. I'd hate to get a new vid card to find that my RAM or CPU is causing a bottleneck. My system now manages a respectable 50-65 fps in most cases, dropping to 20-35 in really intense furballs.
Any advice is welcome.
My system
AMD 800
256 mb ram
Voodoo 3 16mb
-
Geforce, enjoy.
-
Yep... GeForce. I'd suggest a Ti4400. If your doing ok now, that card should keep you satisfied.
-
More of everything.
need at least
CPU =/+ 1Ghz
Ram =/+ 256
Video =/+ 64mb ram
For now get GF card, find GF3 ti200 or GF2 pro/gts. Should make you happe for short time, both cheap and fast.
GF4 4x00 would be useless unless you get fast ram and CPU.
------------------------------------
Xp2000+
G7 VRXP (mobo)
GF4 4400
512 Mb Pc2700 cas 2.5 t2
SBLive5.1
420w tower, 3.3+5=220w
USB X36
USB CH Pro pedals
2 HDs, One for WinXPpro, second Win98.
3dMark01 score in 9800's
-
Your biggest performance jump will come with a new video card.
Get memory and/or a new CPU without a new video card and you will see basically no performance increase as your video card is your bottleneck.
My roommate has an Athlon Classic 700, 256mb of RAM and, formerly, a GeForce1 DDR. His CPU was slower than yours and his video card was much faster. He upgraded to a GeForce3 and saw a vast improvement in his system performance. It is not, in fact, staggeringy far behind my AthlonXP 1800+, 512mb PC2100 and a GeForce4 Ti4600. His video card was his bottleneck, even though it was much faster than yours and his CPU is slower. I can't emphasize this point enough. You're in exactly the same position he was and you have the opportunity to make the same simple change for a greater boost in power.
I would recommend getting a GeForce4 Ti4200, or if you can spring for a bit more a Ti4400.
DO NOT get a GeForce4 MX of any sort. They are not true GeForce4s.
www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com/) has GeForce4 4600s listed at $295, 4400s at $218 and 4200s at $122. If you aren't already familiar with it, Pricewatch is a pricing service that links to computer shops all over the US. You can get very good deals using it.
Good luck.
-
nuthin wrong with GF4 mx's, farkin cheap and they perform as good if not better then a gf2 ultra. if u got the cash get a GF3 or GF4...mmmm vertex shaders :)
-
LoGo,
GeForce4 MX is fine for Compaq type pre-built junk, but if somebody actually wants to play 3D games they should stear very clear of them. I have a friend who bought one and its been nothing but problems for him.
At $130 a GeForce4 4200 is way more than worth the extra few bucks it costs over the GeForce4 MX.
-
i OWN one...
i have duron 800@933
256mb ram
asus v8170 (gf4mx)
i play aces high at 1024x768 32 bit mip mapping on and my frame rate sits round 60 and in intense parts doesnt drop below 35fps.
i also play RTCW,GTA3,IL2 and MOHAA with everything maxed out no wuckin furries.. and your tryin to tell me there toejam...
best of all i only paid $250 australian (round $130 american) for it.. i like my toejam :)
Dont get me wrong, if u got the cash a GF3 or GF4 (full blown) are much better cards, by far...
but for those of us who arent rolling in money GF4mx is VALUE+
-
by the way, the cheapest GF4 ive found in australia is $465 ($220 american)
-
Looks like everyone agrees. Your Cpu and Ram are just fine for this game but your vid card is a little outdated. I paid 68.00 US for a Radeon 64 meg 7200 card after rebate at Best Buy. With that upgrade u should be able to play most new games on the market.
-
I still doing ok with my GF1 32 MB DDR
Atlhon 1 gig
-
I was running a dual p3 550 system with a gf 256 sdr card. The framerate was around 50 dropping to 20 or slower when it got intense.
I bought a giga-byte mb (7zx) and a duron 1200 for $90.00 with shipping, and a gf3 ti200 for $95.00 with shipping.
My framerate is around 110, dropping to 50 or 60 when it gets busy. I must say that it was the best upgrade for the small amount of money that I could possible put together.
My advice is to shop around, check http://www.pricewatch.com
you can find some pretty good deals there, just watch out on the shipping charges.
JB66
-
Thanks everyone. Printing out the replies so I can show the wife:
"But Honey, everyone says I need a new video card!"
-
Options depend on how much you want to spend, and if your motherboard is an Athlon board that will take a faster CPU, and if you have a PCI or AGP video connection.
While I agree that a new video card will likely make the biggest difference in your performance, if you don't have AGP, you are going to have a little more difficult a time upgrading. You probably DO, but just make sure, because you might not...
If you have an Athlon board with both AGP and the ability to take a faster processor, you could be in good shape. A 1.4Ghz Athlon runs around $100 these days if you need one.
You can also get a damn good GF3 Ti 200 for $130 - $150. (check newegg.com for the Gainward golden sample Ti450 - best damn card around for the money... and for a lot more money).
It all depends on how much you want to spend...
-
I bought a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 for 199€ (~200$) and this rocks.
I have an Athlon TB 1GHz with 384MB RAM and I play in 1600x1200 32bit with 34 fps on a 22'' monitor. That looks really great :D
-
You should be kicking my ass... but you aren't...
I have a PIII 800, a GeForce2 Ti 200 (overclocked at 230/500), and I run at 1600x1200 32bit and get 50 - 75fps.
Are you using the new drivers, etc.? And what OS?
3dmark that thing and figure out what's up!
-
As a general rule, don't upgrade unless you expect 2x performance.
Upgrade your videocard.
Don't get any more system memory on the current motherboard. SDRAM's a thing of the past.
Likewise, popping a new processor in your current rig won't give you a stunning performance boost, even if you also change the videocard.
That's because odds are your motherboard is some sort of KT133 or other SDRAM beast. Not only will you be tied down by the slow ram (and who knows, you might have ATA/66 on the IDE controller)
If you're going to upgrade the CPU, upgrade the motherboard.
And the Tbird boards that are being built today tend to use DDR RAM, so you'd have to buy new ram.
So, if you want to upgrade the CPU side, you're looking at:
Motherboard $75. 512 megs of memory: $100. Athlon 1800 CPU -- $90, or $265.
A video card is cheaper.
-
see a thread in hardware about 100 fps system
geforce2 mx400 is PELNTY for this game unless you just want to spend alot of money :)
-
@kratzer
I use WinXP and latest drivers 29.42.
-
If you've got an NVIDIA card, try overclocking it. I'm running a GeForce3 (non-Ti) on an AthlonXP 1800+ with 512Mb of DDR. I found a place where I could sit on the runway and get 53 fps. I modestly overclocked the card and my framerate went up to over 100. This was offline, so the situations were as near to identical as possible (same number of objects doing the same things).
If money is an object, I'd recommend the GeForce4 Ti-4200. It is a great deal and many of them overclock almost to Ti-4600 speeds. If you can afford it, go for the Ti-4400 though.
I agree: avoid the GF4 MX cards if you are a gamer. It may not make a difference in AH, but in four to six months there will be games where it will make a difference (UT 2k3 for one).