Performance enhancing ideas

[Piggus]

Ok so what I want to do is upgrade my computer so my games run at higher fps and the ingame effects are better, but I dont know exactly what to upgrade. When I play Halo or BF1942, whenever there are a lot of people in front of me on screen the game will slow down to as much as 10 fps. I would also like Halo and Max Payne 2 to display reflections and more advanced character shadows than just a blob.
Here are my computer specs:

1.7 ghz Intel Celeron processor
40gb hard drive
256 mb of DDR ram
128mb NVidia GeForce MX 440se
ECS Elitegroupe P4VM32 mainboard
All the latest drivers.

If I upgrade ram it will go to 768 mb.
These are the cheap Video cards I am concidering:

256mb GeForce FX 5200
128mb Geforce FX 5200 Ultra
256mb RADEON 9200se
128mb GeForce FX 5600xt

These are the more expensive cards:

128mb RADEON 9600xt
128mb GeForce FX 5700
128mb GeForce FX 5900se

Please let me know what kind of upgrade I should get and what Video card I should get as well (please recomend both a cheap and more expensive card). The higher power cards are all under $200 and the low ends are about $100.

Thanks for any help you can give me! :wink2:

[Neil]

The problem with Halo in particular is that it uses a rendering technique named Pixel Shader(PS). The "reflections" you talk about cannot be shown on a Geforce MX, as it's a budget card and nVidia didn't add Pixel Shaders to it. Max Payne 2 really deserves to be viewed with the graphics up full, and you ain't gonna be able to do it on an MX.

Out of the cards you suggested, and the games you're trying to play, I highly recommend the ATi Radeon 9600 XT. It's got very impressive performance over all of lower end of the Geforce FX range, especially in PS games. Plus, it also comes bundled with a voucher for a free copy of Half Life 2.

I've got a Geforce FX 5600 256mb, and I must say, I'm really disappointed with it. It's really slow and the giant RAM size doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Stay away from all of the Geforce FX cards unless you're going to spend $500 on a 5950.

Hope this helps...

[Piggus]

Yes thank you Neil it cirtainly does help! I was about ready to go out and buy the 5900 but now il look into the RADEON.

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

I am also looking to buy the 256mb RADEON 9200se but im lookin to see if i can find any un-bias reviews about it

[Piggus]

Yeah thats what I was going to get but I heard it had some problems so Im just going to save up for the 9600xt because I also heard that the amount of memory doesnt make that much of a diference performance wise.

BTW will more RAM help increase the speed of just regular aplications on the computer?

[Neil]

Hold on a sec... what price is the Radeon 9600 XT vs the Geforce FX 5900 SE??

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

The Radeon 9600 XT is : £113
The Geforce FX 5900 is : £189 - i cant find the SE version

[james]

a 9800pro is £130 if you look hard enough
in not a 9800 (powercolor) is about £122 and is a very good card
if you got the 9800 you could overclock it to pro speeds

[james]

Originally posted by .:Mouldy Punk:.
I am also looking to buy the 256mb RADEON 9200se but im lookin to see if i can find any un-bias reviews about it

dont do it..they are crap, 256mb of vram is a waste of cash. the 9200se's performance is CRIPPLED by its puny 64bit memory interface, if you dont have much to spend get a fx5200ultra or a 9600pro

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

ok thanks lol u dnt get much more un-bias than that

[Piggus]

The ATI RADEON 9600xt and the GeForce fx 5900se are both the same price. $190 in the U.S.

[james]

and the 9800 costs £122 and is much better than both of them

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

I was more looking for cards in the £60-70 range lol I dnt realy wanna spend loadsa muney on sumthin that is just gona get dated and crap and need upgrading agen

[Piggus]

Does any body know how more memory effects your computer? Does it reduce loading times?

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

Computer memory of graphics memory??

PC memory allows your computer to load more things at the same time...and speeds up loading times for programs....If you didnt have much memory your computer would go really slow alt+tab ing out of a game.....if you have loads of memory (512mb-1024mb) Then you can Alt+Tab out of games and use the internet...other programs etc....also if you are converting movies or sumthing like that...it will speed that up.

Video memory is how much graphics info ur graphics card can take at a time...the more the better...how ever... if its got 256mb memory it doesnt nesasarily make it better than a card with 128mb memory....If the card has slow bus speeds then 256mb is wasted on it because it cant use it quick enough or sumthing

[pyromaniac]

yaaaa but it could make a decent overclocker

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

But if you dnt no how to overclock its useless lol

[pyromaniac]

I have this bigass Hercules Radeon 9600 with 256MB, not the fastest but an overclocking app was on the CD. And its got sweet cooling

[Piggus]

Wait a minute I was looking for more cards and I found a GeForce FX 5900xt. It is ony $10 more than the ATI but looking at some charts for certain games the 5900 is ahead by around 20-30 fps. Should I rethink getting the ATI 9600xt?

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

With the 256Mb Radeon 9600 card does can it cope with that much memory or should i get the 128mb version?

[Piggus]

dont wast a bunch of money on the extra 256 mb because it doesnt give a huge increase in power.

[james]

ive got the 9600 256MB, waste of cash lol
id say get the 5900xt over the 9600xt
but whatever you do dont go any lower than a 9600pro,
system memory has very little effect on gaming performance, but if you only have 256MB, then id consider getiing another 256MB stick to go with it

[pyromaniac]

Ya... its a waste of cash but i just needed sumin quick lol

[Piggus]

cool thanks james for the advice. I play Halo a lot and on a chart it said it could run at 36fps on the 9600xt and almost 55fps on the fx5900xt so I think Il get the 5900.

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

how much is the 5900?

[The Modfather]

i just upgraded from a gforce mx440 to a power colour 256mb radeon 9600 pro ( £ 98.99 ) the increase in power is incredible and it pisses all over my mates gforce fx 5950 ... which i couldnt believe .
I would say definatley buy radeon especially with half life 2 coming up geforce cards are reported to run a lot slower!

[.:Mouldy Punk:.]

hmmm.....£98.99 i supose my wallet can stretch that far....

[james]

Originally posted by makaveli_rydahh
and it pisses all over my mates gforce fx 5950!


rubbish
does it hell!
both of you run 3dmark03.....

[The Modfather]

we both ran aquamark and im telling you i scored around 127 more points , honest!
Plus he has a faster processor!

[james]

a windows reinstall is need then i think

[The Modfather]

i agree it shouldnt be like that , but thats the way it is (fortunatley for me)
lol

[Yad]

An awesome place to go and look at video card comparos is TomsHardware.com. They have tons of cool info and graphs. I used them to build my PC. I then went to NewEgg.com and bought most of it. It is way cheaper than Best Buy, Comp USA, or whatever.

Just a few plugs for some good websites and web retailers.

[Piggus]

Well Il check out that site and see if the radeon or the geforce scores higher points. All im really concerned with is first person games and I know the geforce can play them a little better than the ATI especialy Halo.

[The Modfather]

GForce cards are not fully direct x 9 compatible so if your thinking about a future investment the radeon is a safe bet , ive tried both cards and from experience i can say the raddy is the better but its your money