BF2 system specs

[Jade Falcon]

I can barely run BF2 on my present system. As some of you might have seen in my previous posts, I generally go onto 24/7 servers because it takes a while for me to load levels, and my detail levels are all pretty low.

My system at present is....

AMD Athlon Socket A 2000+
512mb Ram
256mb Geforce 6200 AGP Graphics card
PCI Sound Blaster Audigy Value


I'm thinking just now of upgrading to....

AMD Athlon Socket 939 3200 64
1gb RAM
256 Geforce 6600GT
Undecided on the sound card if it even needs upgrading.


The question being, just how much of an improvement would I see in my gameplay by upgrading to that?

[LoD]

Re: BF2 system specs

Thats actually not that large of an upgrade. The 6600GT is also almost two years old, not exactly a top line card anymore.

It will play a hell of a lot better than it is now, but the upgrade doesnt seem that large of one. It will be just enough to make BF2 run great, but isnt really protecting you for the future.

I would be more inclined to recommend a 3200+, 2GB of ram and a 7600GT as a minimum.

You could even go the socket 754 route with a venice or equal sempron to save money. BF2 needs video card and ram most, I would go with 2GB now you can pick it up for only $140ish

[-=4th=-1/2Hawk]

Re: BF2 system specs

I'm surprised you can even get the opening videos to play... :) Avoid the 6k series cards - half of them dont work well with BF2. Spring for a 9800 Pro or higher - games are only going to get more graphics intensive going forward. I just replaced my harddrive with a new SATA drive (had an old IDE) and I load much, much faster. You can check out newegg.com for good deals on memory and parts if youre on a budget.

In game, make sure dynamic lighting and shadows is off, and another thing I've seen work on low end systems is to put everything to Low but then jack up your screen resolution. The higher resolution alone will make everything look better. Clean out and reoptimize your shader cache too if youve never done that.

[imported_The_Revrend]

Re: BF2 system specs

Hmm. . . well I went from an

Athlong XP2500 Barton Core
1GB Kingston
PNY Geforce 6600GT 128
SCSI/SATA

Which ran the game ok, 1152 x 870 on fairly medium graphics settings. to the system listed in my sig. Which Plays everything at 1280x1024 at max graphics settings.

I guess the most basic question, is what is your budget for the upgrade?

Rev

[Zefram]

Re: BF2 system specs

the 1 gig alone will be great for your system... the more memory, the better.

You'll love it. But in game... you won't notice much of a difference with those specs.

[PrimePayne^.uk]

Re: BF2 system specs

Anything less than 1 gig of ram is a big mistake for BF2.

[Jade Falcon]

Re: BF2 system specs

I'm surprised you can even get the opening videos to play... :)

Well, by my stats, I've dones reasonably well all things considered.

Avoid the 6k series cards - half of them dont work well with BF2. Spring for a 9800 Pro or higher - games are only going to get more graphics intensive going forward. I just replaced my harddrive with a new SATA drive (had an old IDE) and I load much, much faster. You can check out newegg.com for good deals on memory and parts if youre on a budget.

In game, make sure dynamic lighting and shadows is off, and another thing I've seen work on low end systems is to put everything to Low but then jack up your screen resolution. The higher resolution alone will make everything look better. Clean out and reoptimize your shader cache too if youve never done that.

Well first off, no offence, but I'd rather stick with an Nvidia chipset card, just personal preference. At the present time I can get maps like Karkand, Mashtuur, Sharqi and Wake to work fairly well. Special Forces and Euro Forces is a bit of a drag at times as they seem more system intensive.

My budget is limited, but I don't suppose extra ram costs that much. The proposed upgrade was also going to include a 120gb SATA drive.

Noob question. Whats the real difference between Socket 939 and Socket 754?

I tried to get an intermediate upgrade and tried locally to get a Socket A 3200 Athlon to tide me over, but noone has them in stock, and Ebay, which I'd be wary of for this sort of thing is charging silly money for them.

I'm also wanting to use a shop, rather than mail order, and there are very few in my area.

There's this one (I'm not trying to advertise here, but show you my choices)

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/

and this place

http://www.level2systems.co.uk/

[Zefram]

Re: BF2 system specs

just the pins I think...

[TokenBrit]

Re: BF2 system specs

A 939 has a superior memory controller, allowing you amongst other things to run dual channel memory and more double-sided dimms at PC3200.
Furthermore 939 chip will most likely run cooler and quieter.

[humpz18]

Re: BF2 system specs

i have 2 gb of ram a 7900 gt and a 3500 64 processor mine runs great along with 3 raptor hard drives and another 9700 gt on the way cant wait gonna be sweet machine also another raptor

[vets.Sarge]

Re: BF2 system specs

"The entire 6K series doesn't work well with BF2"

QUOTED FROM DICE: "BF2 WAS TESTED AND DEVELOPED USING THE nVIDIA 6K and 7K series"

Furthermore the fact that you're recommeding him a 9800 over a 6600gt confirms the bullshit

The 6600gt is a good budget card, and will run BF2 smoothly on mediums, but is quickly losing pace with modern day games

Do NOT get an ati x*** or 9*** series card! The x*** series uses shader model 2.0 wich will cause lots of problems with future games (such as UT2007) and will force the game to run on lower DirectX levels. The 9*** series are just too outdated. However, anything up from an x1600 will be just fine.

256 mb version of 6600gt doesn't provide much improvement over the 128 mb version, because if you'll be needing that much video ram the card itself won't have the horsepower to actually play smoothly anyway.

I'd like to know a bit more about your budget before recommending anything to you, to be honest

What PSU do you have? (please don't tell me how many watt it has, that's not what I'm asking. Manufacturer + model please.)

If you're 'budget', don't bother with a soundcard, you're better off spending the money on a better video card.

Another piece of advice I have is to buy 1 stick of 1gb ram. That way, you'll be able to upgrade to 2gb later, as for now you shouldn't buy 2gb when the money is better spent on a video card

[Jade Falcon]

Re: BF2 system specs

"The entire 6K series doesn't work well with BF2"

QUOTED FROM DICE: "BF2 WAS TESTED AND DEVELOPED USING THE nVIDIA 6K and 7K series"

Well I've been running it on a 256mb 6200 which, granted, is quite outdated now, but I picked it up dirt cheap and it allowed me to run it on minimum spec.

256 mb version of 6600gt doesn't provide much improvement over the 128 mb version, because if you'll be needing that much video ram the card itself won't have the horsepower to actually play smoothly anyway.

Really? I've heard that more VRAM can always help, but I'll take your word on that.

[quote[I'd like to know a bit more about your budget before recommending anything to you, to be honest[/quote]

I'm thinking about £550-600, which I know is pretty low budget. I don't need a new monitor, mouse or keyboard, as I've upgraded them all fairly recently.

What PSU do you have? (please don't tell me how many watt it has, that's not what I'm asking. Manufacturer + model please.)

Certainly, its a 500w Qtec Big Fan

http://www.qtec.info/products/product.htm?artnr=13981

If you're 'budget', don't bother with a soundcard, you're better off spending the money on a better video card.

The old Audigy still seems decent, I've only ever had three sound cards (including this one) in about 11 years.

Another piece of advice I have is to buy 1 stick of 1gb ram. That way, you'll be able to upgrade to 2gb later, as for now you shouldn't buy 2gb when the money is better spent on a video card

Okay, that seems fair enough. :)

[vets.Sarge]

Re: BF2 system specs

VIDEOCARD

BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC 256MB £146.82

RAM

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series £164.44

MOTHERBOARD

Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi £105.69

CPU

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego £129.19


GRAND TOTAL: £564,14

[CaMar0z]

Re: BF2 system specs

Thats actually not that large of an upgrade. The 6600GT is also almost two years old, not exactly a top line card anymore.

Wrong, with the 3200+, 2 gb ram, and a 6600GT, you can run on all high settings.

[vets.Sarge]

Re: BF2 system specs

Wrong, with the 3200+, 2 gb ram, and a 6600GT, you can run on all high settings.

goddamnit stop talking out of your arse people!