Which PC would you use of these 2 for SH4?

[Tigrone]

I've an old desktop and a newer laptop. Which might perform best when playing? I mean: best FPS in most cases. I like to stay at 24 FPS or better if I can. I find at 16 FPS the slow down is noticeable and above 32 FPS, I really can't tell any difference at higher rates. My older PC played SH3 fine with only an occaisional stutter at max graphics. I know I will have to back off graphics in SH4. What might be the 2 or 3 most resource hungry options to drop? I've accepted that I will have give up Environmental Effects. I also am not concerned with higher than native resolutions or AA.

Newer laptop:
1.83 Ghz Intel Centrino Core Duo
2 Gb RAM
Nvidia GO 7600, 256 Mb
17" flat panel at 1280x800 native resolution

Older desktop:
3 Ghz Pentium 4
2 Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT, 128 Mb
19" flat panel at 1024x768 native resolution

Which would you use for SH4?

[Meco]

Teh desktop would be my choice :up:

[StandingCow]

Centrino on the laptop :down:

Desktop ftw. :up:

[elite_hunter_sh3]

errm no wut the hell r u smoking, the 7600 gs is worlds faster and better then the 6600 gt 128mb, the desktop wont even run it, look patch 1.2 is comming withen 2 weeks or so, so i suggest get the laptop.
1. portable, much uses for portability,
2. its specs are excellent enough for sh4 meaning u might get high graphics but med-high wud be better not high and not med.
3.its a laptop much MUCH faster then that desktop.:up:

that 6600 gt will be beggin u not to run sh4 it wont handle it on medium graphics, go for the laptop if u want portability, and performance, patch is coming out within the next 2 weeks, and im pretty sure they are going to fix the resoulution bug in the next one.:up:

[leeclose]

Use the lappy its not ideal but the desktop gfx card will have a brain fart with sh4 i dont think you could even run it low end with everything turned off only thing i could suggest is go get a decent 512meg ddr3 video card then your in with a fighting chance with your desktop i would suggest over cloclers uk they do abrilliant modded geforece 512 ddr3 and the software lets you completly control the card from windows:up:

[StandingCow]

Graphics card isn't all you should look at... the CPU is important as well.

Ya know what.. run it on both and let us know what goes better. :)

[Meco]

Lies.... :D


See my sig info.. Runs very nice on me desktop.. :ahoy:

Mabey Im bias.. but I have always viewed a laptop as an oversized pocket caculator.

Handy for some applications sure.. but for games??? yeesh..

gimi 5.1 suround sound on a 30" screen anyday. Your gona melt your laptop if you try to run SHIV..

:rotfl:


runs.. jumps off the dock.. swims away fast to a nearby island. :arrgh!:

[leeclose]

Graphics card isn't all you should look at... the CPU is important as well.

Ya know what.. run it on both and let us know what goes better. :)

This is my setup and i Run SH4 maxed out

P4 3 gig hyperhtreading cpu
2 gig of ddr 2 ram
512 meg ddr3 custom built gfx card

and win xp and sh4 run smooth as a babes bot and thats running other stuff as well a lot of SH4 imho has to do with a:ram and b: gfx card:up:

[AVGWarhawk]

Heck, I run SH4 on my kids Nintendo DS. No issues mate....;)


Pick the one that you can afford.

[XanderF]

Centrino on the laptop :down:

Desktop ftw. :up:

"Centrino" is not a processor type. You are thinking "Celeron", and even then, the new ones are pretty good.

What he HAS is a Core Duo processor (the 'Centrino' labelling is just Intel's marketing department letting you know that all the parts that make up the laptop were designed to work together in a single unit).

A 1.83ghz Core Duo is roughly a touch faster than a 3ghz Pentium 4.

A GeForce 7600 Go will blow away a GeForce 6600GT, anyway.

So, the laptop is substantially more powerful than the desktop in every regard, and better suited for Sh4. Only caveat I'd add is that desktop hard drives have been 7200rpm (even up to 10,000rpm) for a long time, now, and many have 16mb cache. Most laptop hard drives are still 5400rpm, with 8mb cache. This will mean that loading times may be longer on the laptop.

Everything in-game, though, will be faster there.

[NefariousKoel]

I'd use the desktop. That dual-core system isn't going to be used to it's fullest and desktops are just faster if all specs are equal (which they aren't in this case). I suspect the performance will be close to similar on each if the desktop doesn't openly outperform the laptop.

[StandingCow]

Centrino on the laptop :down:

Desktop ftw. :up:
"Centrino" is not a processor type. You are thinking "Celeron", and even then, the new ones are pretty good.

What he HAS is a Core Duo processor (the 'Centrino' labelling is just Intel's marketing department letting you know that all the parts that make up the laptop were designed to work together in a single unit).

A 1.83ghz Core Duo is roughly a touch faster than a 3ghz Pentium 4.

A GeForce 7600 Go will blow away a GeForce 6600GT, anyway.

So, the laptop is substantially more powerful than the desktop in every regard, and better suited for Sh4. Only caveat I'd add is that desktop hard drives have been 7200rpm (even up to 10,000rpm) for a long time, now, and many have 16mb cache. Most laptop hard drives are still 5400rpm, with 8mb cache. This will mean that loading times may be longer on the laptop.

Everything in-game, though, will be faster there.

Yea, that was my stupid mistake.. Im tired :)

[ReallyDedPoet]

Newer laptop:
1.83 Ghz Intel Centrino Core Duo
2 Gb RAM
Nvidia GO 7600, 256 Mb
17" flat panel at 1280x800 native resolution



This one, but I agree with a few other posters, try both and report back:yep:

[leeclose]

Or you could run silent hunter 3 on one system and silent hunter 4 on the other so you can play in the pacific and the atlantic at the same time:rotfl:

[Tigrone]

Or you could run silent hunter 3 on one system and silent hunter 4 on the other so you can play in the pacific and the atlantic at the same time:rotfl:

Actually, that's what I'm doing. SH3 has always run great on my 3 year old desktop, and I put SH4 on my laptop because the specs seemed close, and the laptop is just 7 month's old with a better graphic card and more up to date drivers.

I fear the decision is not clear, which was my quandry. My sense is: the consensus seems to be that the better graphic's card of he laptop is the decider. I like the 1280 x 800 wide horizon view, even if it is emulated and cropped. I don't think it's worth upgrading now. I'll hang with what I've got for a year or so, then get a new Vista screamer after MS gets it debugged and there's a full range of drivers available. Hopefully SH4 will be debugged and upgraded by then too.

Thank you everyone for your advice and opinions. It did help, and I learned somethings about my rig.

[StandingCow]

Yea, I run SH3 with GWX on my laptop and SH4 on my desktop. That way I dont miss SH3 too much. :)

[leeclose]

Tigrone seems a good idea im the same ive maxed my sys out with all sorts of goodies but waiting 12 months till mr gates sorts vista out then will go spend some money on a new toy :up: as well any way happy hunting out there mate:gulp:

[inferno_34]

that laptop is almost mine...granted I need 1g of more ram, same video card and cpu is just 200 Mhz faster, the game runs nice at Med settings, I could try High, but I like playing with Env effects on, I need to turn that off (the corrupt places on the wate bug) lags my laptop down ALOT. I do want to get a desktop to play my game (current one is a Athlon XP 1900+, 768MB ram, used to use Geforce 4 ti-4200 128MB but because of dx9 games, ATI Radeon 9550 256 MB... (it needs a big upgrade)

[Tigrone]

A friend give me a simple comparison ratio:

Multiply the clock speed of a P4 by 6 and that of a Core2Duo by 12, and that's the approximate indication of their relative performance.

I had our IT guy at the office benchmark my Laptop (1.83 Ghz Core2Duo), and it tested 21.6% faster than my P4 3Ghz. That's very close to the rule of thumb above. 21.6% will definitely improve FPS, I think.

Again, thank you all for your replies.