IDing bottlenecks

[Oberon]

G'day all

I'm looking to upgrade this machine a bit to a point where I can run SHIII with GWX Gold smoothly (at the moment it lags like crazy in 3D external and periscope views), and if possible also run Empire: Total War and ARMA1.

My ultimate dream would be to have it run ARMAII but I fear that's well beyond the VERY limited budget I have.

So, I can really only upgrade one component, and I think I have identified this component as the graphics card. I will post my full stats shortly but I do believe that this is the primary bottleneck in an otherwise quite capable system.

Manufacturer : Hewlett-Packard Company
Mainboard : Hewleet-Packard Asterope
Chipset : ATI RS400/RC400/RC410
Processor : Intel Pentium 4 524 @ 3066 MHz
Physical Memory : 2048 MB (2 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM )
Video Card : ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200 SERIES (256MB Memory, Internal DAC at 400Mhz)
Hard Disk : ST3250823AS (250 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552D
Monitor Type : Hewlett Packard HP vs17 - 17 inches
Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RT8139 (A/B/C/810x/813x/C+) Fast Ethernet Adapter
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2
DirectX : Version 9.0c (October 2008)

I am correct in my reasoning that the thing I need to upgrade the most is the graphics card?

[Raptor1]

Is that an integrated video card? I've never used one of those things, but I'm pretty sure that's the thing you need to replace the most

Your CPU is quite outdated as well, but I had one of them (Or similar) and it'll work fine for SH3 and should for ArmA1 (Also ETW, if you can stand it not running very well on anything too detailed), provided you replace the video card

[Oberon]

It's a PCI. I've been chatting with another friend, and I think I'll be going for this:

http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd3650-512mb-ddr2-pcie-dvi-4YRK.html?refs=11-43990000

A good price, and a good card for what I want.

[SUBMAN1]

Noooo! At least get a 4670!!!! :timeout::timeout::timeout: Don't buy that old thing!

http://www.dabs.com/category/components-and-storage,graphics--multimedia-and-i-o,graphics/11137-426270000

And yes, you can run ARMA II with medium detail on a 4670.

Tackle your CPU problem after you do the video problem.

-S

[Fincuan]

Be advised that besides a newish gaming graphics card Arma2 also needs a dual core cpu to run properly. The minimum requirements state:

Dual Core (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 3200+ or faster


I'm running it on a C2D E6400 @ 2.9ghz, and wouldn't want the cpu to be any slower.

[AVGWarhawk]

Usually this is where the bottleneck starts and it is easy to identfy:


http://www.dailyping.com/images/wallet.jpg

[Arclight]

And even if that isn't the issue, the next bottleneck tends to be at the wife/girlfriend level. ;)

But yeah, that card could use a replacement. Maybe get a new board + CPU after that. An older P35/P45 should still support DDR2, and if you're new card is PCI-E, you can just transplant that as well.

[Task Force]

hmm... what would be a good pc that is within Obi's pricerange...

well... I can say that you can get some 8800s for good prices... Il look around...

Im getting over 100 fps in SH3 with my 8800...

so whats your price range.

[SUBMAN1]

hmm... what would be a good pc that is within Obi's pricerange...

well... I can say that you can get some 8800s for good prices... Il look around...

Im getting over 100 fps in SH3 with my 8800...

so whats your price range.

Again, don't buy old outdated technology. This board as listed here is not a suggestion I would recommend.

-S

[Arclight]

A 8800GT costs twice as much as a 9800GT around here (new). They don't make 'm anymore, supply is low so prices skyrocket. You pay as much as the day they were launched, sometimes even more. :o

[Task Force]

well... hey oberon I have 2 questions for you.

1 do you want to stay with ATI...

2 what it the max you want to spend.

:hmmm: