Upgrading to play cod mw2

[scott60]

Hello, i have an older(06) rig A8NSLI mobo,Amd Athlon proc., ati radeon xt-850 grafx,2gig corsair ram. I can't play call of duty modern warfare2? I can up to dual core and 2 more gigs of ram , which grfx card or pair would work with those vertex shaders I can't run now???

 

[enzo matrix]

Woah dude. That post is just impossible to understand. Would you mind writing it in an easier to understand manner and also include:
-brand of motherboard
-athlon model and speed (athlons range from single core 0.6GHz to quad core 2.8GHz so "athlon" doesn't help)
-type of ram (DDR, DDR2 etc)
-Power supply
-if you can't figure out it all, just do your best

Anyway I can help a bit:

Yes your card is too old. It only supports DX 9b. MW2 needs at least DX9c. From what I read, your card uses the old AGP bus. This tells me you would probably be better off building a new computer. But for the sake of upgrading to be able to play MW2 (albeit you won't be able to play at more than low settings), you could look into getting one of these cards as a replacement.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131329

Although it is more expensive than the better PCI-e version, it would cost less than a new system. I was actually surprised to find an AGP version of this card. You'll be able to play medium-low setting with this card, provided your CPU isn't hindering it. But to find that out, we need to know what CPU you have.

 

[scott60]

single core athlon ( need to check the speed), asus motherboard,DDR2 ram, antec 550 watt power supply

 

[enzo matrix]

The upgrade to the 4670 would be worth it. Your CPU would hold back performance but it would still be better than you have now and play MW2.

Another, more expensive option, would be to get a new CPU and GPU now. I would recommend as a budget solution a radeon 5670 for about $100 and a Phenom II x2 3.2GHz for about $100 if you aren't willing to overclock your CPU. This is of course just for MW2. Other games could benefit more from the 4 cores of the Athlon IIx4 2.6GHz than they could from the speed and cache of the Phenom II dual core.

You could also upgrade your GPU to a 5670 now and upgrade your CPU down the road.

Your ram is a fair factor to consider. For this level of performance, I recommend at least 2GB.

 

[scott60]

thanx enzo, i'm thinking about upgrading pretty much it all... I dont play well just averagely playing... ok if i were to upgrade motherboard cpu and gpu .. would i be able to transfer my ram from my current setup or would i need all new? any suggestions as i would like to stay under 600 dollars or so? thanx again

 

[enzo matrix]

Hmm. I looked up your current board and it is socket 939 supporting DDR ram. You said you were using DDR2 ram so either you're mentioning the wrong board or the wrong ram.

Yes you will if you have DDR2 and not DDR ram. But I suspect you have DDR ram. I apologize, I didn't look up your board before, I just assumed by you saying DDR2 ram that you had at least an AM2 board.

For under $600, assuming you keep your current power supply and case. I recommend a new hard drive:

Motherboard: Asus M3A78-EM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324

CPU: Phenom II x4 940 BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

ram: corsair 5-5-5-18 DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

radeon 5770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161317

Western Digital Black 500GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

Other people have said that the samsung spinpoint series are faster and less expensive. The only reason I recommend the black is because I have not seen anything to prove this myself and my friend's WD black is fast and nice in his computer.

 

[Fuddy12345]

I would recommend you perform a test on System Requirement's Lab's "can you run it?" tool. Visit http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

All you have to do is search for Modern Warfare two in the search bar or in the drop down menu. Click on it and it will perform a test to see what parts of your computer can run Modern Warfare and what can't. I have had some issues using it in Firefox, so if it doesn't work for you in a particular browser, try another one. It will ask you to download an Active X/Java component, just press yes, its completely safe.