Whats the problem?
 

well, im quite tired of the massive LAAAAAAAAAAG in my SH5. I get 9 FPS at best. im so VERY VERY tired of it. and im tired of having to put my graphics on all my games to lowest or near lowest so it doesnt lag like F.

However, i need some info on what i need to upgrade. My computer is pretty powerful, 4GB RAM and 600GB hard drive quad-core 64 bit windows Vista With ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics.

But although im pretty dam sure what the problem is, i want some better advice. i wanna know. What do i need to upgrade for SH5 to run well. i am pretty sure its the Radeon 3200, as ive heard its pretty old. But i was wondering if perhaps i needed other things for my computer to finally run all the games at an acceptable res and grahics quality, and that includes SH4 and 5. And how would i go about installing the graphics card, especially since im deciding towards buying an Nvidia. and what model would be best?

im not sure where i can aquire more system specs. and XP users cant help with helping me find it, because its much different, as ive gotten lots of Advice on where to find certain files or find something in control panel and its not there on my machine.

and dont try to tell me to fix SH5 with mods or tring different res, cause it wont work. period. And my situation is different then the common "microstutter" every1 has while running clouds or something. My problem is that sh5 has graphics my machine cant handle, and i aim to change that. even at lowest possible settings, its 9 FPS.

Thank you.

My advice would be :-

If you dont know what your doing, get someone who does know what they are doing to upgrade your PC.

There are many things that may need to be done, it may not be a simple case of buying a new graphics card and plug'n it in.

My last upgrade was a new Graphics card, but i also had to buy a new PSU (Power Surply Unit) as the one in my pc was not powerful enough and didnt have the power connectors to run the card i wanted to install.

If your want to learn.... great.... start by reading books, mags etc. Make sure you understand what your doing before you attempt it, as mistakes can be costly.

For me the learning process and the achievement of building my 1st PC from scratch was a great reward. Now my PC is 7 years old. And im looking forward to building my next. Just gotta talk the wife into letting my spend the many dollors it will cost.

:salute:

I would say it's a tossup between the RAM and the graphics. 4 GB is good, 8 GB is better.

As for the card, I recently upgraded my poor old machine, and it's much easier than you think. Every new card comes with instructions, and with a disc that installs the software for you. Yes, I currently have XP, but hardware upgrades are fairly straightforward and pretty much the same across the board.

That said, don't trust me. This is where the Subsim computer crowd hangs out, and you'll find several people who can help you, and will.

Third, jwilliams' advice is also worth listening to. Ask around and you should be able to find someone who has done it before. But make sure they show you what they've done to their own machine and aren't just talking big.

I've upgraded my PC several times, and it's not nearly as hard as it we always think it's going to be.

Moved to PC Solutions forum. This is where the tech gurus hang out.

4gb Ram is plenty adaquate to run SHV smoothly,
I run it at 1680 x 1050 with high settings on the following:
Core duo E8500, 4GB, GTX 275 and there is no noticable problem with FPS.

So I'd say invest in the best graphics card you can afford and problem solved.

The HD 3200 is an onboard graphics chip, right? That is, it's integrated with the motherboard.

Anyway, I think a new GFX card is the first thing to do. More RAM might help a little if there's a lot of other stuff running on your machine, but my guess is you won't notice much difference.

Unless a screwdriver to you means only vodka and orange juice, you should be able to install a new graphics card just fine :)

Thank you, especially since I seem to have forgotten to put a link in my link. :damn::oops:

Vista needs twice amount of ram than XP does when it comes to gaming- so if the game requires 2gigs of ram for XP users and your running vista you'll need 4gigs to play it well. Going back to XP is not going backwards just update XP to SP3. IMO XP is more the gaming OS compared to Vista. Otherwise if you haven't a XP cd lying around buy Windows 7 professional or ultimate edition then decide on whether you want to buy a top of the range gfx card or just a small upgrade to the one you have. XP or Win 7 are the best OSes for gaming.

I run SH5 on 4Gb with no framerate issues at all, but the rest of my rig is pretty darned fast, so I'm sure that helps. But I think 4Gb of RAM is plenty (I run Flight Sim X with high rez packs with very minor hits on the same amount of RAM, and that's far more demanding).

Having said that, I think your problem IS and ISN'T the system RAM amount. In this case, your bottleneck seems to be your vid card. Integrated video like the HD3200 is going to use up your system RAM, probably a couple of gigs of it, and this, combined with what Windows already uses, doesn't leave much system RAM free while gaming in modern games. By adding a video card to an existing slot, you'll free up your system RAM for what it really needs it for.

In order to upgrade, you'll need to check the following:

- See if your motherboard has a free PCI-E slot for a video card (most do). If it does, make sure there is room for it around it in the case (many of the latest cards are pretty large in size. You can get the card dimensions when you're looking at them online).

- Make sure your PSU (power supply) is both capable of supporting the kind of additional voltage a modern card will suck up, AND make sure that your PSU has the kind of power connectors that the card will need in order to run (if your PSU doesn't have the connectors, some vid cards come with a molex connector that you can plug into a standard PSU dongle and it converts it to that type of power connector, but make sure the card you order either has it already or that you add it to the order. You can also buy these at local computer stores).

Capt MattJ,

What size monitor (resolution) do you use and also what type of CPU do you have and it's clock speed? Another question is what is the motherboard?

And as mentioned by some others that video card is actually an on board chip that is over 2 years old. It is garbage for something like SHV or any recent game from the last couple of years. My guess is that this is your biggest problem.

On the memory question there isn't really any game that will see a real benefit with 8GB of RAM over 4GB.

Anyway hope the peeps here can help you out. :up:

BTW...

Here's a useful site to ballpark your PSU needs: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

The free version of Sisoft Sandra is a nice tool to see your system specs: http://www.sisoftware.net/

This ... onboard graphics chips are not comprable to their discrete counterparts. As mentioned make sure your PSU is up to the job or you could conciveably fry the motherboard bus then your really screwed.

Download CPU-Z or other simular tool and post us your specs.

For sure you need a video card upgrade. Tools needed.... screwdriver and a $2.00 Ground strap sold at most if not all Computer stores.

Will you need a PSU upgrade ? Newer and more powerfull Vid cards require a more powerfull PSU.

4GB of Ram is fine.

Very unlikley to do mobo damage this way, more likely the PSU will blow out but thats it.
Modern mothorboards are amazingly good at protecting them selves from these things.

True though that is more to condsider than just the screwdriver,
1) Ensure your board has a 16x PCI-E slot
2) Ensure you have adaquete room in your case (e,g depth and bracket size)
3) Check you got free PCI-E power connectors on your PSU.
4) Check the min requirements for the graphics card you want to buy - and Steamwake points out, check your power supply (PSU) lable for the wattage rating, and the indervidual rating on the 12 volt rail.

If in doubt, take it in to a specialist.

And i'll re-enforce the memory argument, there is little improvement to be gained from going from 4 to 8 GB.
If you had 2GB though - that would be another story.

Here they are. my system specs. i dont what to make of it. hope this provides enough info...

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/...s/Untitled.jpg
http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/.../Untitled1.jpg
http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/.../Untitled2.jpg
http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/.../Untitled3.jpg
http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/.../Untitled4.jpg