The NG.com I need to update my PC for Doom 3 and HL2 thread

Lagduf

Lagduf

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Okay so my rig is starting to show its age. Doom 3 doesnt run as well as i'd like it to, and i cant have that.

Heres what i've got:

P4 1.9GHZ (400mhz fsb)
512MB DDR RAM (PC 2700)
Geforce 4 TI4600 (128mb)

My soyo motherboard (cant recall the name at the moment) only supports P4s up to the 533mhz fsb and only takes advantage of 4X AGP :(

So what should i do? I don't want to build a new system but i'd like to give my rig a performance boost but not spend a whole lot.

Would i see a significant increase in gaming performance by getting a newer video card? I'm really only familiar with Nvidias cards - perhaps one of the GeforceFX cards? What graphics cards can i get for around $125 (i'm willing to spend a bit more) that will be better then my current card?

Other questions: Should i just opt for a new processor? Maybe a 2.4ghz P4?

Perhaps i should just add another 512 stick of ram and see how my games improve?

thanks.
 
Curt

Curt

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I need to upgrade my video card/processor on my 2.4 GHZ P4, 500 MB ram....

MOBILITY radeon... NOTEBOOK...


Unfortunately I do not think this is possible for notebooks....

I can't wait to run it decently on my Desktop... I will be buying 500 MB additional ram... Totalling 1 gig, but I will probably have to buy 2 500 Sticks...

And A new Radeon....


So much money on this damn game.... It actually runs "respectably" on my Vaio Notebook right now.... 30+ FPS 640x480, low.
 
H

Highlander67

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Your ram and card are good. No real reason to change anything except the processor. Maybe bump it up to a 2.5 processor. That should help. Also make sure to get the most current drivers.
 
Lagduf

Lagduf

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I can get Doom 3 to run over 30 FPS that is until i encounter enemies then i get big frame rate drops. I'm not sure what the problem is as it still seemingly happens regardless of what graphics settings i use (although the frame drops were worse when i set it to high quality). Even on LOW 640 x 480 I still get the frame rate drop.

I have the latest drivers for my card. Whats up?
 
chimpmeister

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Lagduf said:
I can get Doom 3 to run over 30 FPS that is until i encounter enemies then i get big frame rate drops. I'm not sure what the problem is as it still seemingly happens regardless of what graphics settings i use (although the frame drops were worse when i set it to high quality). Even on LOW 640 x 480 I still get the frame rate drop.

I have the latest drivers for my card. Whats up?
Click to expand...

I assume that you closed all other apps that were open, including virus checker, firewall, etc.? Did you go to the tray and/or task manager and kill everything before booting Doom 3?

I know exactly how you feel though. I have a P4 1.8, 1GB DDR, GeForce 3, and I'm afraid to even buy Doom 3 because I pretty much know it will blow on my system. I built the system myself and its been running great, totally stable and fast enough for most stuff including recent FPS games. The motherboard is a Gigabyte Titan, I think it only goes up to P4 2.0, which really limits me there . . .

Anyway I can't really justify upgrading just for this one game and most other recent games (including Painkiller) run well, so I'll probably just wait for Doom 3 on XBox for this one. :annoyed:
 
GregN

GregN

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Wait 1 month.

Doom 3 for Xbox - $50
Xbox - $150 or less
Total - $200

Plus it's more stable.
Nobody cares about beefed up PCs anymore. The .com age is long gone.
 
Lagduf

Lagduf

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GregN. said:
Wait 1 month.

Doom 3 for Xbox - $50
Xbox - $150 or less
Total - $200

Plus it's more stable.
Nobody cares about beefed up PCs anymore. The .com age is long gone.
Click to expand...

Shhhhh...I'll probably get it for the 2 player co-op. But until it comes out i'd really like to get doom 3 to run better.

So serisouly what do i need to updgrade to see the biggest performance boost? My guess at the moment: Processor. Does anyone concur?
 
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Lashujin

Lashujin

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Look into a Radeon 9800 Pro or if thats too pricey, try a 9600 xt They are both good cards. I don't know much about nvidia cards myself, except that they require more juice, so I went with ati since I'm running a shuttle pc.
 
BoriquaSNK

BoriquaSNK

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I concur...a 9600 XT will run DOOM 3 flawlessly on medium setting, plus its dirt cheap (you can probably find it in the $120-160 range. I have a 9800 Pro and D3 works fine on Maximum setting for me. Keep in mind I have a 64 bit cpu, so that might have something to do with it.
 
Halox

Halox

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Add another stick of 512mb ram, and up your processor to the limit motherboard and wallet wise. Then if you have any money left jump on the Radeon 9600xt. That should put you up into the 800x600 medium settings range, with some additional effects turned on.
 
C

Chicago Cheeseburgler Crew

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Yea just get another 512 of ram and see what happens.

I have amd xp2000+ (1.67ghz only)
1gb pc2700 ram
9800 pro card

doom 3 runs great and i'm sure half life 2 will as well.
 
C

Chicago Cheeseburgler Crew

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GregN. said:
Wait 1 month.

Doom 3 for Xbox - $50
Xbox - $150 or less
Total - $200

Plus it's more stable.
Nobody cares about beefed up PCs anymore. The .com age is long gone.
Click to expand...

what a fucking dumb post.
 
kernow

kernow

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why upgrade 500MHz from 1.9 to 2.4 - pointless

people need to learn when to buy a pc darnit.. I bet you didn't need all those gigahertz all that time ago.. now you do.

its hard the old pc gaming
 
E

Electroman

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GregN. said:
Wait 1 month.

Doom 3 for Xbox - $50
Xbox - $150 or less
Total - $200

Plus it's more stable.
Nobody cares about beefed up PCs anymore. The .com age is long gone.
Click to expand...

Where i'm from, beefing up your PC is all the rage. Think Fast and teh Furious for computers.


BTW Doom 3 likes nVidia cards. Try also using vSync. It helps to regulate framerates to the lowest 5 - 10 FPS denomination.
 
H

Highlander67

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kernow said:
why upgrade 500MHz from 1.9 to 2.4 - pointless

people need to learn when to buy a pc darnit.. I bet you didn't need all those gigahertz all that time ago.. now you do.

its hard the old pc gaming
Click to expand...

It isn't pointless Ker. Jumping 500 mhz in speed does make a difference when the game is partly CPU dependant. Jumping does make the difference. I could of suggested to him to jump to a 3.0 gig cip but the cost and the performance for that speed is a bit much. Plus having a 1/2 gig of ram is more then enough to run doom 3 at more then accepetable levels.
 
Loopz

Loopz

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Wait 1 month.

Doom 3 for Xbox - $50
Xbox - $150 or less
Total - $200

Plus it's more stable.
Nobody cares about beefed up PCs anymore. The .com age is long gone.
Click to expand...

1 month? There was an id/Activision conference call story on Gamespot where they said they didn't think the XBox version of Doom 3 was going to make it out this year.

Plus, I have a really hard time buying the idea that Doom 3 is going to look anywhere near as good as the PC version. The math simply doesnt add up. When the game requires 64MB of video card memory, plus at least 384MB RAM (bare-ass minimum), you can't tell me the game is going to look nearly as good on a system with only 64MB total, and half the processing speed (733-PIII vs. the required 1.5 PIV-Athlon).
It just ain't gonna happen.

For a game this good, I want the real deal, Holyfield.
Neo fans of all people should understand this.
 
Lagduf

Lagduf

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Loopz said:
For a game this good, I want the real deal, Holyfield.
Neo fans of all people should understand this.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Thanks for all the help guys.
 
GregN

GregN

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Bahhh.. Good enough for me. You won't have to play it on a tiny-ass 17" screen and sit at a desk. The controls will suck with an xbox controller (I still think the flight stick/track ball combo is ideal for these type of games).

You guys are more concerned with swinging your dick around and cuming on your pimped-out systems than the actual game anyway.

I admit I could usually care less about FPS games, but this game actually has me somewhat intrigued.

I'd rather spend money on more games that I'll still be playing years from now than expensive hardware that'll be outdated in < 4-5 years.
 
C

Chicago Cheeseburgler Crew

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GregN. said:
Bahhh.. Good enough for me. You won't have to play it on a tiny-ass 17" screen and sit at a desk. The controls will suck with an xbox controller (I still think the flight stick/track ball combo is ideal for these type of games).

You guys are more concerned with swinging your dick around and cuming on your pimped-out systems than the actual game anyway.

I admit I could usually care less about FPS games, but this game actually has me somewhat intrigued.

I'd rather spend money on more games that I'll still be playing years from now than expensive hardware that'll be outdated in < 4-5 years.
Click to expand...

congrats on your 2nd idiotic post in this thread.

WINNAR!
 
venomous

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GregN. said:
Bahhh.. Good enough for me. You won't have to play it on a tiny-ass 17" screen and sit at a desk
Click to expand...


Most PCs can display on any TV thru s-video, composite, component, or like in my case, directly thru a DVI connection. So in fact I can play doom 3 on my 36" sony HDTV. I just prefer my tiny-ass 21" PC monitor :rolleyes:
 
brentsg

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Posts
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I can't imagine you can upgrade much of anything within that budget without still being bottlenecked majorly by other components.

You can't upgrade the CPU enough to make a difference without needing a different motherboard and RAM. Even if you could your RAM and videocard would be a bottleneck.

If you upgrade the videocard the CPU and RAM will hold you back.

You could buy RAM but it'll be throwing more money into a component that will go on the scrap heap when you do finally upgrade.

It's all relative but my friends with 512MB RAM and ATI 9800 cards are unhappy with the performance they are getting. One has a P4 3.2 and the other has an AMD Barton overclocked to 2.5GHz.

B
 
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