Getting more from my system!!

[Locherbread]

Ok I'm having problems settling on what settingg my current set up should handle playing battlefield 2 - at the moment to get anywhere near a decent framerate I run at 860x600 all settings medium except lighting & shadows which are set to low, also have AA switched off.
Even at these settings some of the maps where intense battles can occur my framerate drops to an near stagger through treacle!!
My Pc is as follows
GA-7VT600 1394
sempron 2300+ ~1.6GHz
Radeon Sapphire X800 pro "Cat 5.13 drivers"
2x 512 Kingston PC3200
Is there anyway I can get a little more oomph out my cpu - tried upping the clock speed from 166 to 200 - booted up fine but then got the blue screen of death ^ ^ so I quickly reverted back

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

What price range are you looking at to upgrade with.

[Locherbread]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

Ah thats my only option - oh well I'm near skint at the moment - might be able to afford another stick of ram but about it - Thought my gfx card was at least capable of holding its own :-(

I'll just soldier on & perhaps lower settings even furhter.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

You RAM and GFX card are ok. It's you CPU holding you back. Is it a Socket A or Socket 754 Sempron?

EDIT: After re-reading your original post I'm assuming it's socket A.

[Locherbread]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

Yeah its Socket A - cmae to the conclusion it certainly is the cpu holding me back - Guess its time to get a new m/board+CPU :-)

[redrider]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

Do you have on board sound? If you do you can move some of the work away from your CPU by getting a sound card. This might take as much as 25% of the work load off the CPU and could prove to be the cheapest way to go. . . . . .Red

[Locherbread]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

I have a budget of £150 to purchase a new motherboard+cpu - Any suggestions ?!?

[MonkMachine]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

Save up a bit more and get something like this
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?MBB-N43251

[claevade]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

sempron 2300+ ~1.6GHz

That's the main issue, your RAM and GPU are fine, no High but Medium would be fine. I suggest you get another Socket A CPU, a Bartoncore 3000+ perhaps, those aren't to expensive either. And that will make a huge diffrence. Sempron cores are absolutely not suited for gaming.

[Locherbread]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

Doesn't support AGP - meaning my X800 pro becomes useless!!
I don't have the means to purchase high end components like £200 quid gfx as well as new mothrboard/cpu ;-\

[dirtylarryuk]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

sempron 2300+ ~1.6GHz

That's the main issue, your RAM and GPU are fine, no High but Medium would be fine. I suggest you get another Socket A CPU, a Bartoncore 3000+ perhaps, those aren't to expensive either. And that will make a huge diffrence. Sempron cores are absolutely not suited for gaming.

I totally agree I tried a 2600 semp, a few months back though it would make my old rig much better as I had a 6800 GT that was performing like crap in a 2.4 Athlon rig, I thought the AGP x 8 vs AGP x 2 would really help the 6800. It was actually worse!!!!!! I think the older Athlon chips as in the XP's are better than the new Semps!!!!!!

For price / performance. An AMD 64 3500 + San Diego 939 is just shy of £160, I opted for the 4000 + And the 4000 is about 100 x better than the fookin sempron I bought. Which was cheap but cack. But there aint a huge difference between the 3500 and 4000 apart from £100 notes.

A decent AGP 939 Mo' Board Is about £ 40-60 {I recommend the ASUS ones especially the NFORCE 4 ones}, and will have better onboard sound.

I'm also fairly sure the XFI cards make a decent difference. DVD's sound better but I get almost no lag ever in any online games.

Video card wise, ATI and Nvidia both make great cards, but I would throughly recommend not getting any card below a 7800 GT. They are cheap and have great performance for the price my 512 GTX should be alot faster, its about at best 2 x faster. 256Mb Gigabyte PCI-E GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI SLi Ready is £190!!!!!!!!!!!!

The big thing is dropping AGP, flog/see/part with your 850 AGP, get what you can and move to PCIE + 939. On ebay the 850 should get you at least £100 or more so you would now have £300!!!.

I also bought an AGP this year and totally regret it. The 6800 GT V9999 was not as good or fast as I thought it would be, I didn't buy a PCI 7800 as I would have to get a new CPU and Mo' Board. Now I know with hindsight that is what I needed to do.

My friend got this ASUS barebone {link Below} 939 DDR 400 machine from Scan a few weeks back, £80 for case+MB+300w PSU. He gave away the PSU bought a 400 W one for an extra £40, then that EVGA 7800 £190. And added a small 40 gig IDE HD he had and his 2x 512 DDR's and now has a excellent Gaming RIG that cost for the new bits a fraction more than a XBOX 360.


http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=282303

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

sempron 2300+ ~1.6GHz

That's the main issue, your RAM and GPU are fine, no High but Medium would be fine. I suggest you get another Socket A CPU, a Bartoncore 3000+ perhaps, those aren't to expensive either. And that will make a huge diffrence. Sempron cores are absolutely not suited for gaming.

He's wasting his money if he buys another socket A CPU.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

I totally agree I tried a 2600 semp, a few months back though it would make my old rig much better as I had a 6800 GT that was performing like crap in a 2.4 Athlon rig, I thought the AGP x 8 vs AGP x 2 would really help the 6800. It was actually worse!!!!!! I think the older Athlon chips as in the XP's are better than the new Semps!!!!!!

For price / performance. An AMD 64 3500 + San Diego 939 is just shy of £160, I opted for the 4000 + And the 4000 is about 100 x better than the fookin sempron I bought. Which was cheap but cack. But there aint a huge difference between the 3500 and 4000 apart from £100 notes.

The socket 754 Semprons are miles ahead of the Athlon XPs. Also the 3500+ IS NOT a San Diego core, it is Venice. The San Diegos start at the 3700+.

[sackynut]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

also, sort of off topic, arent the cat 5.13 drivers bad for bf2? maybe you should try rolling back some (of course if the 5.13 ARE the bad ones) it might help some.

[MonkMachine]

Re: Getting more from my system!!

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?MBB-NF6434

AGP and not too expensive+ 512mb ram with it.