What would you do?

[Torps]

Hey guys
Well I have a dilema, there are two things I want to do, however I can only choose one. I want both equally and I have been dwelling on this for awhile.

A. Get my surround sound system for my house

The sound system is custom, Polk speakers, front, center, rear, a Velodyne Sub paired with a Onkyo 7.1 tuner. Only have my Samsung 4081 LCD for sound. Cost about 1 grand.

or

B. Upgrade my computer

I upgraded my computer twice in the last 1.5 yrs do to a faulty mobo. I spent about oh say 1 grand in that time frame, however I still do not get the HALO affect from Row and the card cannot be set to max settings without frame rates dropping into the single digits.

Items would be purchased
Gigabyte X38T-DQ6 supports FSB 800-1600/DDR3 800 - DDR3 1800( No upgrades required for a long time) and Nvidia 9800 series card. Maybe a new power supply if needed. Cost is about 1 grand.

What would you get ???

[walrusbomb]

there's no reason you can't play SH4 with everything maxed. what are you doing wrong?

[RickC Sniper]

I have a duo core 6600 and the same video card as you.

I get 60 fps in external view (v sync enabled) and only slight chop at high TC when around a port.

Your pc should run this game fine.

[walrusbomb]

I would start with cleaning the registry (winASO)

I would move on to malware (spybot, ad aware)

Free virus scans come next (AVG)

nice clean reboot before moving on to the boot-config. are you playing your 3D games with the bare minimum 15 Processes? No? why on Earth not? Create a custom boot config just for games. watch your heavy-load framerates double or triple!

I have half the machine you have:

A64 3500+
1GB value RAM
Nvidia 7950GT 512MB RAM

And I play with everything on MAX 1400x900 (20-60 FPS). See the Screenshot thread, I posted shots this morning. If you're just itching to spend money, I'll be more than happy to kick you in the nuts for a crisp $100 -- far cheaper than letting these component manufacturers continue to kick you in the nuts every 1.5 years.

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

There's a thread for this called SubSum's Outpatient Service.

[Taurolas]

dude.

i have even less than walrusbomb 3000 amd 1 gb ram old asus mb with agp slot and a ATI 2600 hd pro card and i'm running SH4 with everything maxed.

i'm wondering if you have hardware compatibility issues somewhere along the line... peeps with similar rigs and lower processors / cards have no probs at all... very odd.

[Zantham]

Dual Boot Vista Ultimate / XP
Core 2 Duo E 6700
Gigabyte P965-DS3 Rev 2
4X1GB OCZ Plat Rev 2 PC 6400
SB X-FI Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series
Logitech Z-5500 (Fiber Optic)
ATI X1950 XTX
Benq 22in WS
Raid 1 Vista, 500 GB XP, 500 GB Storage Drive

Lol yeah i think a computer like this is what a lot of people around here would upgrade 'to', not upgrade 'from'! The only thing that would slow a system like this down in a game like SH4 is if you have max AA 16xHQ enabled or something.. that 'might' slow your graphics down a little.

[peabody]

I would get a loan and do both!

Seriously, if you could use some stuff from the old computer but have a mobo that would handle both DDR2 and DDR3 it is do-able. DDR3 if you check specs really isn't worth the extra you get out of it right now. And I don't know what else you do with the computer but SH relies on a good video card while other games don't. I have a Gigabyte P965 Mobo right now because the 35s and 38s are not up to snuff right now. They are not getting enough of a %tage of increase to justify the extra cost or replacing what I have. I got 2GB of dual channel DDR2 800mhz Corsair XMS2 (which is one of the best as far as I am conserned.) And I got it at Newegg for $49 after rebate. Try comparing that to DDR3. Right now there is matched pair of 2X1GB Corsiar for $34. But check the mobo specs some of the boards need 1.8v, these are 2.1v. The DDR3s that I am seeing are over $200. And the RAM is not that big a deal as much as the Video card. The increase in speed, because other parts come into play ,right now is not signifigant. I would wait for the next big jump and lower prices and consentrate on the video card for now. Just my 10 cents..(inflation) I just checked and you can get the 800mhz for $34 right now, the 1.9v and this stuff is fully capable of overclocking. And most Gigabyte boards are too.

As for a surround sound system, my son in law and I have seem them all. (not really) and unless you have a theater specifically set up for this again the baddest system in the world isn't going to make as much difference as a properly set up room. Acoustic wise that is. So you can get system a bit under $1000 that are just as good in the normal home. I wouldn't go with el cheapo set, that will not be as good.

Anyway just my opinion.

Peabody

[Torps]

The thing is guys the latest cards are PCI-E X 16 2.0. MY mobo supports 1.0 not 2.0 so no matter what I will need a new mobo for a the better graphics card, if and when I update the processor I will need a new mobo and my current mobo does not support both DDR2 and DDR3 which some do.(Save money on memory and use my DDR2 800)

I will mess with the settings but the thing is the 1950xtx does not produce the halo effect for more then a few seconds once every full moon. I play other demanding games so the card cant handle those.

I know about the AV, anti spy stuff, registry cleaners etc; my system is clean, I run it everyday I even have Diskeeper 2008 pro premier which helps substanitally with performance in and out of games. Diskeeper helped with my frame rates about 10-15 fps+ by optimizing file placement on the HD. My boot time for XP is 20 seconds. I got this thing really tricked out so to speak, I just feel either the card or the drivers are not up to par. Catalyst 7.4 is what I am using, I have tried everything else and my frame rates dropped. I have my "Storage Drive" everything is on there, only thing on my c drive is the OS and programs, thats it.

Thank you guys for the advice. If you have any other ideas please throw them my way.

[Zantham]

Well you can look at it this way:

You already have a modern, fast computer. Do you already have a nice modern surround-sound system?

The only upgrade worth doing to your system is not a whole new system... at most I'd consider dropping in a fast GeForce 8800GT 512MB for under $300. Your screen is a 22" which means it runs at 1680x1050 maximum. Now if you were running a 30" screen at 2560x1600 I could see upgrading your video card to a 8800GTX or Ultra, but really, that 1950 of yours should handle any game at max graphics at 1680x1050, sans antialiasing possibly, for a while yet. I'm counting on my single 8800GTX to run all my games at 2560x1600 till next winter, and currently there isnt a game out there I don't run at max settings, except lowering the AA levels. I do have 4GB RAM but my CPU is slower than yours (quad core 2.4GHz, currently not overclocked; quad does nothing for gaming over dual core currently).

[Torps]

Originally Posted by Zantham

Well you can look at it this way:

You already have a modern, fast computer. Do you already have a nice modern surround-sound system?

The only upgrade worth doing to your system is not a whole new system... at most I'd consider dropping in a fast GeForce 8800GT 512MB for under $300. Your screen is a 22" which means it runs at 1680x1050 maximum. Now if you were running a 30" screen at 2560x1600 I could see upgrading your video card to a 8800GTX or Ultra, but really, that 1950 of yours should handle any game at max graphics at 1680x1050, sans antialiasing possibly, for a while yet. I'm counting on my single 8800GTX to run all my games at 2560x1600 till next winter, and currently there isnt a game out there I don't run at max settings, except lowering the AA levels. I do have 4GB RAM but my CPU is slower than yours (quad core 2.4GHz, currently not overclocked; quad does nothing for gaming over dual core currently).

Well the thing is PCI-E X16 v1.0 and 2.0 are different and the new cards are 2.0. 8800 gtx and ultra are way to pricey considering the latest 9800 series will be 30%-60% faster and cost a little more.

Besides I do not get the Halo effect and the graphics arn't smooth with my current card.

And no I have no sound system .

[CaptainHaplo]

Go with the sound system....

I totally agree about how something isnt right on your pc mate. I am running a x1650 and SH4 runs great. I start having issues with stuff like Crysis running max but who doesnt?

Since everyone has hit a number of things - a couple of others to check are due.
You mentioned tweaks - have ya done stuff like killing extraneous processes? Especially your AV stuff. Just release your IP, kill the AV and other stuff, and away ya go.

Second - check your ram timings - make sure that they are matched - I have seen multiple banks not running spread spectrum and it eats things alive. Also insure you have EC turned off in the bios if your mb supports it.

Another thing to check is review the cfg files - there is one (which has slipped my mind but you can search) and turn off the debug options. This has helped alot of folks.

Run some checks on how ofter your drives are accessed while you play. Alot of disk accesses can show either memory issues or swap file sized wrong.

One last thing - in the bios - check and make sure you have not enabled AGP shared memory. In many MB that have integrated vid chips (even when your not using em) - the board will allocate system memory to the chip even though it wont be used. This shared memory is another system killer.

This still isn't a comprehensive list, just some thoughts at random. There are more rattling in me head.

Oh -one last one - how bout a list of mods your running and in what order they are instaled - mod conflicts can not only make things ugly - they CAN cause performance issues.

Edit - your sys specs show your mirroring - turn that off when ya game man - your doing nothing more than causing your system to write stuff twice - including stuff like the swap file!!!!

[Powerthighs]

Isn't PCI-E 2.0 backwards compatible with 1.0 slots?

[Zantham]

Originally Posted by Powerthighs

Isn't PCI-E 2.0 backwards compatible with 1.0 slots?

Yes it is backward compatible, except you don't get PCI-E 2 speeds (16GB/sec instead of 8GB/sec). Then again even a 8800Ultra doesnt nearly max out the bandwidth of the current PCI-E generation slot. I doubt there will even be much difference in framerates between a GeForce 9800 in a PCI-E 1 slot compared to one in a newer PCI-E 2 slot, but of course thats just speculation based on previous experience.

Another possibility is that since PCI-E 2 is also a new power spec that may cause more compatibility issues, easily solved since its not unusual to have 2x 6-pin power connectors on a video card already to supply the 185W or so an 8800Ultra requires. I sure hope they arent going to make a card that consumes even MORE power than one of those beasts!!

[Torps]

Originally Posted by Zantham

Yes it is backward compatible, except you don't get PCI-E 2 speeds (16GB/sec instead of 8GB/sec). Then again even a 8800Ultra doesnt nearly max out the bandwidth of the current PCI-E generation slot. I doubt there will even be much difference in framerates between a GeForce 9800 in a PCI-E 1 slot compared to one in a newer PCI-E 2 slot, but of course thats just speculation based on previous experience.

Another possibility is that since PCI-E 2 is also a new power spec that may cause more compatibility issues, easily solved since its not unusual to have 2x 6-pin power connectors on a video card already to supply the 185W or so an 8800Ultra requires. I sure hope they arent going to make a card that consumes even MORE power than one of those beasts!!

Nice