I'm back with a new PC and a few questions

[Dutch]

Hey guys.

I've been away for a while now. Just got back and I have a new PC. Here are my specs.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Dual Core or w/e) 2.01 GHz
2.00 GB of DDR2 RAM
Geforce 6200TC 256mg PCI Express

Its alot nicer than the one I had which had aged quite a bit. It runs smoothly and quickly and the only thing I don't like about it, is the NVIDEA gfx card. I've downloaded the newest Gray Wolves mod, which now runs smooth as silk at a steady 30 fps. With only a few hiccups, which is the reason why I'm posting.

It seems whenever I fire my deckgun, the game drops fps like they are bell bottom jeans, no one wants em. Its only a second or two but just enough to notice, and just enough to get on your nervous as you can imagine. I am about to look on NVIDEA to make sure I have the latest driver, but just thoughted I'd post here as well since you guys usually know more about it than the guys at NVIDEA would.

Anyways I'm glad to be back and am very happy with my new Alienware computer. Silent Hunter is now better than ever, and with the new GWs its even better than it was. Congrats guys on the job well done!

[enaceo]

I think the thing slowing your fps down is the smoke effect from the cannon.Smoke is a huge FPS slower in pretty much all games.I have a 6600GT and when I don't have naything better to do I use the pizza trainer with unlimited ammo and no loading and plant myself with the mission editor in the middle of water with 3-4 corvettes or armed trawlers (sometimes PT boats) and shoot the hell out of them.But I can't fire more than about 7-8 consecutive "automaitc" shots because the smoke gets to me...only for a few secs,but like you said it's kind of annoying.
But the fire effect from the cannon might also cause this,but I that's a low possibility.
Also,one other thing that could be causing this would be sound ,but your CPU is pretty fast so I don't think sound could be a problem for it.

And like Gizzmoe said ,the card is low-end these days so you should consider getting a better one.

[Gizzmoe]

The 6200TC is a low-end card (only costs about $40), I wouldn´t be surprised if that card is the cause of the problem.

[Dutch]

Your telling me a 256mg PCI Ex card is a low end card? I literaly just got this computer why would they put a $40 gfx card in it.

Its the Geforce 6200TC.

What a complete and utter waste of $1093. Screwed yet again by NVIDIA.

[enaceo]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Your telling me a 256mg PCI Ex card is a low end card? I literaly just got this computer why would they put a $40 gfx card in it.

Its the Geforce 6200TC.

What a complete and utter waste of $1093. Screwed yet again by NVIDIA.

The card ram doesn't really count so much .And wether it is PCI-EX or AGP again isn't that much of a factor.
You weren't really screwed by NVIDIA,but by the guys you bought the computer from.This is a wiedly used "tactic" -you rarely see buyable ready-made computers with good cards (there's this computer shop in my town -it's got loads of cool systems with 3600 + procesors,5.1 sound systems ,wireless keyboard and optical mouse /2 gb's of ram and the GPU is a radeon 9200SE .

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Your telling me a 256mg PCI Ex card is a low end card?

The amount of the memory doesn´t say anything about the speed of the card. It doesn´t even have 256MB btw, only 128MB, the other 128MB it takes from the computer memory ("shared-memory").

I literaly just got this computer why would they put a $40 gfx card in it.

Because you´ve ordered it!

Screwed yet again by NVIDIA.

No, you screwed yourself by not knowing what you were buying.

For $1093 you could have gotten a system with a dual-core CPU and good video card. Alienware PC´s are way overpriced, you pay a premium for their name and a fancy computer case that no one really needs.

[Kruger]

Yes Dutch...I'm sorry, but your card is a low end one even if it has 256 mb on it. This is called marketing. You should have asked for a more powerful video card. This doesn't mean that you cannor play sh3. I's sure there are some tweakings related to that smoke gun. Even my 6600GT has frame drops when i move the external camera close to oil burning on the sea.



Gizzmoe...well said.

[HunterICX]

its not an Low End

in Nvidia Terms they call it an Mainstream card
its an good card for people that just want an desktop computer to work with it and play some games that dont ask a lot of system requirements.

then the Nvidia has an Perfomance section.
these are the workhorses. they give the perfomance u need to run games that ask some System requirements

for example the Series Nvidia has are separated in 2 parts
Example the FX series

FX 5100 to 5500 = Mainstream
FX 5600 to 5900 = Performance



I have an Geforce FX5700LE TD 256Mb Performance card and I have it from Start 2005.

in GW 1.1 mod I can run the game with an Average FPS of 30 in port&large convoys 50 Fps in open seas

Hunter Out.....

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

FX 5100 to 5500 = Mainstream
FX 5600 to 5900 = Performance

I have an Geforce FX5700LE TD 256Mb Performance card and I have it from Start 2005.

No Nvidia card with a LE suffix deserves to be called "Performance card"! A 5200 Ultra is actually often faster than a 5700LE, which according to Nvidia´s marketing logic shouldn´t be the case.

[HunterICX]

Right Gizz....

Well at least the FX5700 let me enjoy SH3, the 5500 I had before raped my Sh3 gameplay..choppiness Owned my Game....and after the 4th patrol...my 5500 Burned...my screen went Black out. so the guaranty gave me the FX5700LE TD. So I thanks SH3 for burning my 5500 :P

also it isnt an very bad card...I could play the Game BF2 on Medium quality (textures, models etc etc) with the Dynamic thingies low. it was choppy when I joined the game but after 2 minutes my system catched up and the game runned smoothly

and Just to add...I run SH3 +GW1.1 on my 2,8Ghz, 512 DDR ram, 256 FX5700LE card. and my System isnt an Pre-Ready Comp that u buy...the shop build in all the parts i ordered and it costed my about 700 €.... now..the beauty of it..its a lot easier to upgrade an Put Together Comp then an Pre-ready comp if i,m right

[Dutch]

Now hold on a second. I get around 30 fps in convoy, in one right now, and about 45 in open sea and about 35 in port, so apparently its pretty powerful to hold up against all the addons of GWs.

Aparently the card is a bit more powerful than you guys are giving it credit for, not trying to disagree or start a flame war.

On that note, can anyone help me update my drivers? I went to the NVIDIA site and went to update it, but there are two GeForce sections one is like "Geforce and TNT2" and another is "Geforce 7". I would assume that I go to Geforce and TNT2 but I don't want to download it and screw up my computer if it is indeed the wrong driver. Can anyone shed any light on that?

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Now hold on a second. I get around 30 fps in convoy, in one right now, and about 45 in open sea and about 35 in port, so apparently its pretty powerful to hold up against all the addons of GWs.

35fps in port??? But certainly not at daytime with good visibility and while standing at the bridge...

Aparently the card is a bit more powerful than you guys are giving it credit for, not trying to disagree or start a flame war.

The card is certainly good enough for SH3, though you can´t really use nice (and for me essential) features like 4x Antialiasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering.

On that note, can anyone help me update my drivers? I went to the NVIDIA site and went to update it, but there are two GeForce sections one is like "Geforce and TNT2" and another is "Geforce 7". I would assume that I go to Geforce and TNT2 but I don't want to download it and screw up my computer if it is indeed the wrong driver. Can anyone shed any light on that?

You need the "Geforce and TNT2" driver.

[enaceo]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Now hold on a second. I get around 30 fps in convoy, in one right now, and about 45 in open sea and about 35 in port, so apparently its pretty powerful to hold up against all the addons of GWs.

Aparently the card is a bit more powerful than you guys are giving it credit for, not trying to disagree or start a flame war.

On that note, can anyone help me update my drivers? I went to the NVIDIA site and went to update it, but there are two GeForce sections one is like "Geforce and TNT2" and another is "Geforce 7". I would assume that I go to Geforce and TNT2 but I don't want to download it and screw up my computer if it is indeed the wrong driver. Can anyone shed any light on that?

The card is not essentially everything.Having 2GB or RAM and a good CPU will make the models/textures load faster (by actually not loading them,but keeping them in memory) and thus having more FPS.

About the drivers,use th GF-TNT version.Also had the same problem after getting my new card didn't know which one to dwld but it is that one.GF7 is for another series of cards.

[Kruger]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

its not an Low End

in Nvidia Terms they call it an Mainstream card
its an good card for people that just want an desktop computer to work with it and play some games that dont ask a lot of system requirements.

then the Nvidia has an Perfomance section.
these are the workhorses. they give the perfomance u need to run games that ask some System requirements

for example the Series Nvidia has are separated in 2 parts
Example the FX series

FX 5100 to 5500 = Mainstream
FX 5600 to 5900 = Performance



I have an Geforce FX5700LE TD 256Mb Performance card and I have it from Start 2005.

in GW 1.1 mod I can run the game with an Average FPS of 30 in port&large convoys 50 Fps in open seas

Hunter Out.....

Hunter...the classification you make here was valid two years ago...but not today, that's for sure. Today, not even a 6600GT is a performance series anymore.

[enaceo]

Originally Posted by Kruger

Hunter...the classification you make here was valid two years ago...but not today, that's for sure. Today, not even a 6600GT is a performance series anymore.

You sure?The 6600GT is at the top of it's series,only a bit behind the 6800.The 7*** cards are taknig charge now but the ol' 6600GT still packs a big punch.