Need Help - New CPU? or Video Card?

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apache_lives

Splendid
Dec 10, 2002
6,873
1
26,160
Intel Celeron 667mhz @ 1000mhz (No Extra V's)
PcPartner C960 (i815)
384mb PC133 SDR Ram (CL2)
Nvidia GeForce2 MX400 64mb AGP (@230/180)
WD 20gb 5400rpm
Onboard Crystal 4299 Sound
SMC 1211TX LAN

I Recently bought Battlefield Vietnam for Multiplayer between my two main computers... on my second pc (listed above) the original battlefield ran fine but battlefield vietnam really lags... i was wondering - what would do better - A new video card? Or a new Motherboard and CPU and Use the Existing Video Card? I dont want to spend too much on it. Also - the specs for the Intel 815 say 'AGP4X' - would i be able to use an AGP8X card with that (at 4x ofcourse)? or would it fry it like using a 8x card in a 2x slot (because of voltage diffrences)? Any other sugestions on getting battlefield vietnam working better? Any mods to lighten up resources up or anything? And what effects do sound cards have on performance (like non-hardware accelerated sound)?
 
An AGP 8x card should work in that.

Thats a tough decision to make...Everything in that computer is screaming to be upgraded. For now I'd do an ebay search for a geforce 4 ti4200, you may find one for around 50 or so bucks. You don't need the 128mb version, the 64mb one will suffice. It may be 2 generations behind but its still two generations in front of the mx 400.

Your not going to be getting a very pretty game with that setup + ti4200 but it will run better than its doing now. Hopefully it will last you long enough until you get some extra cash to do a more thorough upgrade or your main system becomes relagated to secondary duty.

Can't help you with your soundcard question much, all I know is to keep eax or anything fancy like that off with that system.<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=395280#395280" target="_new"> Go here for some tweaks</A>

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!
 
CPU upgrade will be more signficant than a video card in ur situation.

===========================
<A HREF="http://www.clancas.net" target="_new">clan CHAOS</A>
 
But make sure its a genuine intel right pete?

AMD 64 3400+
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
1 GB Kingston HyperX PC3200
ATI AIW 9600XT
WD Raptor 74GB
 
make that a prescot, because it's selling good

Watch out for the <b><font color=red>bloody</font color=red></b> Fanboys!

AMD64 2800+ :: MSI Neo-Fis2r :: 512mb Kingmax ddr400 :: Sapphire 9800pro 128mb :: 10K WD Raptor

Addicted, finally.
 
As the others pointed out, get a better GPU first. I also second the GF4 Ti notion, they should be cheap, but are still decent performers (I run Doom3 on it, and it works okay and still looks great, even in medium detail @800x600).

Second thing to consider would be adding some RAM, BF Vietnam really wants 512 MB or more. ADding a 256 Mb dimm shouldn't cost that much either.

The soundcard shouldnt make that much difference in CPU power, I wouldn't bother upgrading it for other reasons than soundquality. You CPU is also not a stellar performer by today's standards, but with a 100 MHz FSB, it shouldn't be too far from 1 GHz P3 performance. Not much point in upgrading it if you won't upgrade the rest as well (unless you'd find a tualatin 1.2+ GHz P3 for <$50, then I'd say go for it).

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =
 
MOST IMPORTANTLY: You can't lose with MhZ

This poor guy actually wanted advice

AMD 64 3400+
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
1 GB Kingston HyperX PC3200
ATI AIW 9600XT
WD Raptor 74GB
 
let's clear a few things up:

1.) Your board supports 8x cards because 8x cards all support 4x boards.
2.) Even if your board was AGP2x you couldn't fry an 8x card, because most 8x cards were 2x compatable, and those that weren't wouldn't fit (keyed differently).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 
I am just curious....what is your primary machine?

I know you dont want to throw too much at a alternate machine, but what are you willing to spend?!?

If you could pick up a Sempron around 2500+, a new Mobo, 512mb RAM, and a geforce 4 ti4200 on ebay....thats like ~300bucks. You could still use your old HD, it will take a while for levels to load but once they are up you will be flying.

If you get those parts and steal all the old parts like case, PSU, and whatever PCI cards you have you will be good to go for ~$300.
If you only have like 50bucks, get the card...if you can spare 80-90, get the card and the extra dimm of RAM.

if you have more then 90 and less then 300,......beg, barrow, or steal(dont steal, its not nice) to get the extra to upgrade it all.

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<font color=blue> I am on an express train to hell. I hope I'm in the front row, the ride is ALWAYS better in the front. </font color=blue>
 
CPU upgrade will work better since only upping the AGP card will not do anything since the CPU will bottleneck.

Mobile Barton 2500+ @ 2420mhz 11x220 1.7v
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
1gb Geil GD pc3500 Dual Channel (2-3-3-6)
Segata 80gb SATA 8.5ms seek
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro to XT(463/795)
 
I had an athlon 700 with a Radeon VE (the ATI equivalent of the geforce 2 mx) and that could barely run BF1942. I recently had to RMA my 9800 pro in my a64 system so I ran the Radeon VE in it and it still ran like crap in BF1942.

Don't forget this guy has a 1ghz processor, and back then the celerons weren't junk. I still say get the Ti. It's also cheaper than buying a new mobo, proc, and ram. Another 256mb of ram would hurt either.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!
 
Primary Machine:
Intel Pentium 4 2.6c
ASUS P4P800S (i848)
512mb Kingmax TBGA DDR400
Nvidia GeForceFX 5600 128mb
Creative Audigy
Seagate 80gb SATA
Pioneer 16x DVD

By the way - the game (Battlefield Vietnam) does go great when your on the ground, but when ur flying (which is a big part of the game is it not?) it does lag a fair bit... so what would be the main cause for that? (like the main cause - i know the whole system is pretty old but still) like if i got a new video card would that improve it more then getting a faster cpu or more ram?

On the other hand i got a spare stick of 256mb Corsair XMS3200, and a Gigabyte GA-PE667 (it works... but might be unstanble - i got it for nothing)... i could get a celeron 2400... but if it aint stable im stuck with a processor i cant use (and i would waste my $$$ on something when i could have gotten something better)... i think it was the corsair ram at fauld (my stick runs unstable till you set the timings manually if running at 266mhz... - is that like all corsair XMS3200???)

How much better would this system perform compared?:
AMD Duron ~1800 / Athlon ~2500
256mb Corsair XMS
ASUS A7N8X-X (single channel nforce2 board)
Nvidia GeForce2 MX400 64mb (old video)
 
The P4 celeron is about as good as your old celeron, so that would be a no.
The Duron, with less memory would only be slightly better, the xp slightly better again.
In the air, requires more AI (cpu if there are loads of targets) and better graphics, so again you need bothe. Getting a Gforce 4 Ti 4200 will give best bang for buck, but you will still be cpu limited.
 
Above someone mentioned the Ti-4200. Also the TI-4400 can be had for about $15-30 on eBay, and the TI-4600 is about $30-40, either of those would also be a good choice. The TI-4400 is probably the best bet of the two though. Much less you can't really beat the price. I ran a TI-4400 in Doom3 800x600 at high quality without any real problems.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>
Overclocking Results: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc2.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc2.html</A>
 
Radeon VE and 9800pro are apples and oranges got sh!t and kick-a$$ comparing there.

Of course its cheaper to get the Ti but wont do crap. Id just bite the crap performance a little bit longer and "modernize" the system to today's demands. Dont get me started with Celerons, OH MY GOD what a waste of silicon they are ;-)

<i><font color=red>Only a overclocker can make a machine into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>
 
I wansnt comparing the two, i was saying an athlon 700 + Radeon VE = crap and A64 3200+ + Radeon VE = Crap. I only mentioned the 9800 pro because I didnt want anyone to think I was running a Radeon VE.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!
 
P3 celerons wherent that bad, especially if you ran them at 100 MHz like this poster, they performed pretty close to equally clocked P3's.

To the original poster: try running the game 640x480 with minimum details, 16 bit colour if possible. If that plays okay, you just need a faster videocard. IF that still sucks, you may need both

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =
 
Primary Machine:

P4 2.6C
ASUS P4P800-S (i848pe / single channel memory dammit)
512mb Kingmax TBGA DDR400
Leadtek GeForce FX5600 (standard 5600)
Creative Audigy 1
Onboard 100mbps NIC
Seagate 80gb SATA
Pioneer 16x DVDRom
Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP Deluxe
 
System Update:

The system now has 512mb PC133 - no improvement... but i remembered something a while ago - i tested my old ASUS GeForce4 Ti4200 128mb 4x Card in that system (not as good as now - was a P3 600EB + 192mb ram) and it scored ~5500 3DMark2001 marks... so ill buy it a new video card... that will atleast improve the fill rates and texturing performance... the celeron should be able to handle it i thought so... as for the video card - it is an old DX7 based card pushed to the max... it was in my P4 system in battlefield 1942 for a test - it made battlefield skip a little (not too bad)...

So whats a good video card for it? Should i go for a 2nd Hand Ti4200 64/128mb? What other ATi cards are available at the same price before i buy that GF4... what are some other options - any sugestions would be great.
 
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