33 replies to this topic

[The Xevious]

http://www.moongamer...hp?showtopic=15

^Run the app at the bottom to tell us exactly what you have.^ Because you posted two different graphics cards.

Just a note: The Nvidia NForce is a motherboard chipset, not a graphics card.

maybe so, but it apparently also does audio, because thats what runs all the audio things on my computer, and my motherboard is Asus

Perhaps you dont fully know what a chipset is? The chipset of the motherboard is the chips on it containing the North Bridge and the South Bridge. They are generally small chips and have heatsinks on them resembling a waffle-iron. (Best analogy I could come up with). They are what determine the "Front Side Bus" speed, which moves things between your South (PCI and AGP) Bridge and North (RAM, Processer) Bridge. They also control all integrated things. This would include your PS/2, Serial, and Parallel ports (for those who remember those). Also your Integrated Video/Sound plus the USB onboard, or the USB on the front of your case, if applicable.

This is why in Windows on your Device Manager your might see things such as "ASUS API" or "Nvidia NForce". The graphics card compainies such as ATI and Nividia usually make chipsets with integrated graphics capable of Radeon 9200-ish graphics. I used to run 1942 on a Radeon 9200, and it was actually very nice FPS at medium quality. The only issue is with integrated it uses System ram, which is slower and has to pass though the North bridge to get to.

And I bet nobody cared either!

[Santano]

On BF2 my loading times are abysmal. Frequently I will have to wait 7-10 minutes to load a map and start playing. I believe this has something to do with my hardware (which I've been meaning to upgrade for some time now.)

I'm currently running on:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83 GHz
512 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600
NVIDIA nForce

Although I am a bit illiterate with computers, I do know that my stuff a bit slow compared to the newer equipment available now, but I can't afford an entirly new system. Can anybody help me out?

My setup was originally simular.
nvidia nForce 2 asus blah blah
AMD ath 2600+ (2.1 ghz)
512 mb (uped to 1.5 gb)
geforce 4 ti4400 128mb (uped to 6600gt 128mb ddr3)
Ram will be the best increase in loading times and overall game preformance. At the LEAST one gig.

[IronHank]

http://www.moongamer...hp?showtopic=15

^Run the app at the bottom to tell us exactly what you have.^ Because you posted two different graphics cards.

Just a note: The Nvidia NForce is a motherboard chipset, not a graphics card.

maybe so, but it apparently also does audio, because thats what runs all the audio things on my computer, and my motherboard is Asus

Perhaps you dont fully know what a chipset is? The chipset of the motherboard is the chips on it containing the North Bridge and the South Bridge. They are generally small chips and have heatsinks on them resembling a waffle-iron. (Best analogy I could come up with). They are what determine the "Front Side Bus" speed, which moves things between your South (PCI and AGP) Bridge and North (RAM, Processer) Bridge. They also control all integrated things. This would include your PS/2, Serial, and Parallel ports (for those who remember those). Also your Integrated Video/Sound plus the USB onboard, or the USB on the front of your case, if applicable.

This is why in Windows on your Device Manager your might see things such as "ASUS API" or "Nvidia NForce". The graphics card compainies such as ATI and Nividia usually make chipsets with integrated graphics capable of Radeon 9200-ish graphics. I used to run 1942 on a Radeon 9200, and it was actually very nice FPS at medium quality. The only issue is with integrated it uses System ram, which is slower and has to pass though the North bridge to get to.

And I bet nobody cared either!

Like I said a bit earlier, I am sort of illiterate when it comes to all that technical hardware stuff. Thanks for trying to clarify it for me, but all that stuff sorta just made me more confused. Either way I appreciate you trying to help.

[Nifty]

On BF2 my loading times are abysmal. Frequently I will have to wait 7-10 minutes to load a map and start playing. I believe this has something to do with my hardware (which I've been meaning to upgrade for some time now.)

I'm currently running on:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83 GHz
512 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600
NVIDIA nForce

Although I am a bit illiterate with computers, I do know that my stuff a bit slow compared to the newer equipment available now, but I can't afford an entirly new system. Can anybody help me out?

I've read all the replies and actually built ur system outa spares i have here and then tested it with bf2 to see what the problem is. The cpu is fine. Some folks equate Ghz with speed but this is not so.
Your 2 drawbacks are the ram as mentioned and your video card.
IF your motherboard will support it use 2 x 512 ddr 400 ram chips in dual channel mode (did not have ur EXACT motherboard). In dual mode it simulates 2gig of ram. Just make sure both ram chips are exactly the same. If your motherboard won't support dual channel then a doubling of the ram will at least half the load time.
The Video card was ok at lower settings but anything above medium and the frame rate dropped to almost nothing. A DECENT Radeon 9800 agp will significantly increase ur ingame and loading performance simply because it can transfer info that much faster when combined with more ram. Upgrading these 2 items will extend the life of your current system for at least 12 months without spending a fortune.
Hope that helps without confusing you.

[The Xevious]

On BF2 my loading times are abysmal. Frequently I will have to wait 7-10 minutes to load a map and start playing. I believe this has something to do with my hardware (which I've been meaning to upgrade for some time now.)

I'm currently running on:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83 GHz
512 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600
NVIDIA nForce

Although I am a bit illiterate with computers, I do know that my stuff a bit slow compared to the newer equipment available now, but I can't afford an entirly new system. Can anybody help me out?

I've read all the replies and actually built ur system outa spares i have here and then tested it with bf2 to see what the problem is. The cpu is fine. Some folks equate Ghz with speed but this is not so.
Your 2 drawbacks are the ram as mentioned and your video card.
IF your motherboard will support it use 2 x 512 ddr 400 ram chips in dual channel mode (did not have ur EXACT motherboard). In dual mode it simulates 2gig of ram. Just make sure both ram chips are exactly the same. If your motherboard won't support dual channel then a doubling of the ram will at least half the load time.
The Video card was ok at lower settings but anything above medium and the frame rate dropped to almost nothing. A DECENT Radeon 9800 agp will significantly increase ur ingame and loading performance simply because it can transfer info that much faster when combined with more ram. Upgrading these 2 items will extend the life of your current system for at least 12 months without spending a fortune.
Hope that helps without confusing you.

There is nothing wrong with that video card, I use it and manage 99FPS (the max) in Battlefield 1942 and somewhere around 50-60 on BF2 on Medium graphics, full viewdistance, AA off, and dynamic lighting off. With dynamic lighting on, I can get 30fps or so. This is on a Athlon64 3000+, just slightly faster.

[Soldaten]

The cpu is fine. Some folks equate Ghz with speed but this is not so.

Excuse me ? Did I just hear you say that CPU Ghz is not a speed measurement?
If so then I 100% disagree.

-S

[The Xevious]

It's a two-step process to measure speed.

My old Athlon XP 2000+ ran at 1.66 ghz, but performed as a 2 ghz Pentium 4
My new Athlon64 3000+ runs at 1.8ghz, but performs better than a 3ghz Pentium 4

AMD and even Intel now use other methods, bus speeds, L1 cache, L2 cache, etc, plus additional pins, hypterthreading, dual core, 64-bit, etc to help performance past raw speed.

Even so, faster Ghz is still faster. Your 2.8 ghz P4 will run slower than a 3.4 ghz P4.

[Nifty]

On BF2 my loading times are abysmal. Frequently I will have to wait 7-10 minutes to load a map and start playing. I believe this has something to do with my hardware (which I've been meaning to upgrade for some time now.)

I'm currently running on:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83 GHz
512 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600
NVIDIA nForce

Although I am a bit illiterate with computers, I do know that my stuff a bit slow compared to the newer equipment available now, but I can't afford an entirly new system. Can anybody help me out?

I've read all the replies and actually built ur system outa spares i have here and then tested it with bf2 to see what the problem is. The cpu is fine. Some folks equate Ghz with speed but this is not so.
Your 2 drawbacks are the ram as mentioned and your video card.
IF your motherboard will support it use 2 x 512 ddr 400 ram chips in dual channel mode (did not have ur EXACT motherboard). In dual mode it simulates 2gig of ram. Just make sure both ram chips are exactly the same. If your motherboard won't support dual channel then a doubling of the ram will at least half the load time.
The Video card was ok at lower settings but anything above medium and the frame rate dropped to almost nothing. A DECENT Radeon 9800 agp will significantly increase ur ingame and loading performance simply because it can transfer info that much faster when combined with more ram. Upgrading these 2 items will extend the life of your current system for at least 12 months without spending a fortune.
Hope that helps without confusing you.

There is nothing wrong with that video card, I use it and manage 99FPS (the max) in Battlefield 1942 and somewhere around 50-60 on BF2 on Medium graphics, full viewdistance, AA off, and dynamic lighting off. With dynamic lighting on, I can get 30fps or so. This is on a Athlon64 3000+, just slightly faster.

I agree that there is nothing wrong with the video card and did state that it is ok at medium settings. However, The Xevious did ask about upgrading without going to major expense and my reply to his query was more about upgrading than defencies in his video card. If you read my reply correctly then you'll see what i mean.
Your comment about bf 1942 FR's is slightly inaccurate. Your lock point may be set to 99fps. My lock point is set to 400fps and i get 320fps with my dual 256 pcie 7500gtx cards with everything maxed on quality and a screen resolution of 1600 x 1200. In BF2 i get 98fps with the same maxed settings and screen res.
I hope this clarifies my original reply

The cpu is fine. Some folks equate Ghz with speed but this is not so.

Excuse me ? Did I just hear you say that CPU Ghz is not a speed measurement?
If so then I 100% disagree.

-S

I did say that, yes, lol. Mabye i needed to quantify that statement a little bit more. In Intel systems Ghz definitely does equate to speed (providing you take celeron out of the equation). If comparing Amd to Intel then a 1.8Ghz AMD does not equate to a 1.8Ghz pentium.

[IronHank]

There is nothing wrong with that video card, I use it and manage 99FPS (the max) in Battlefield 1942 and somewhere around 50-60 on BF2 on Medium graphics, full viewdistance, AA off, and dynamic lighting off. With dynamic lighting on, I can get 30fps or so. This is on a Athlon64 3000+, just slightly faster.

What kind of RAM are you running though?

Also, where is the easiest place for somebody to buy new RAM? Anything you know of around $100 that will help me out?

[The Xevious]

There is nothing wrong with that video card, I use it and manage 99FPS (the max) in Battlefield 1942 and somewhere around 50-60 on BF2 on Medium graphics, full viewdistance, AA off, and dynamic lighting off. With dynamic lighting on, I can get 30fps or so. This is on a Athlon64 3000+, just slightly faster.

What kind of RAM are you running though?

Also, where is the easiest place for somebody to buy new RAM? Anything you know of around $100 that will help me out?

I am running 1gb of PC3200 DDR.

[IronHank]

Ok thanks for helping me out so far. It seems pretty clear that I need RAM more than anything.

Here's what I'm currently working with:
Slot 'DDR1' is Empty
Slot 'DDR2' has 256 MB
Slot 'DDR3' has 256 MB

What, in your opinions, would be the best way to upgrade for under $150?

[The Xevious]

Ok thanks for helping me out so far. It seems pretty clear that I need RAM more than anything.

Here's what I'm currently working with:
Slot 'DDR1' is Empty
Slot 'DDR2' has 256 MB
Slot 'DDR3' has 256 MB

What, in your opinions, would be the best way to upgrade for under $150?

Put in a stick of 512, or possibly a 1gb. Check newegg.com for good prices too.

[IronHank]

Finally upgraded. Problems went away. Now i have 2x512 (dual channel) and the game runs seamlessly. Thanks for you help.

[deathscythe]

i have a 2.8ghz processor with 512 mb ram 800 mhz bus 80 gb hd ati radeon 300 gfx card and i dont have trouble or lot of time loading or anything