Ultimate Performance

[alacritous]

Hello,
I was just wondering what I need to update in order to provide the maximum (almost) performance I can get without upgrading more than one part.

I currently have the following:
512MB RAM
1.8GHZ CPU
GFORCE 4 (graphics card)
ASUS P4B Motherboard

I'm thinking its my graphics card... but I'm not sure...

Alacritous

[Ideas Man]

I'd say your graphics card too, because your processor will require a mobo upgrade also.

[Dave Sell]

Originally posted by Ideas Man
I'd say your graphics card too, because your processor will require a mobo upgrade also.

Agreed, vid will be your cheapest upgrade route and give you considerable performance increases for current games like DOOM3.


After that if you still need more juice you will have to increase the type of mobo, and the speed of the CPU, but also make sure to go out and buy the fastest RAM possible for the new board.

[alacritous]

Hello,
Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I'm amazed though that you mentioned Doom 3. I'm not interested in the game, but man I've heard that game is hella scary because of the graphics. I've also seen my friend play it. Obviously it's going to still "lag", though.

The main game I am interested in is World of Warcraft by Blizzard. I even lag when playing Warcraft III TFT right now, so thats pretty bad.

Yeah Dave Sell, you mentioned about me needing more juice. I HOPE the graphics upgrade will do it for me for a while, as the computer I have now I've had for 2 years. I'm almost fourteen years old, hehe, so I hope it'll last me for my "college upgrade".

This is totally off subject, but a new computer will be nice for GA Tech, if I make it . (probably will :P)

Alacritous

[dglienna]

my neighbor just bought a NEW DELL computer for $0 money down, and $25 per month. see if you can talk your parents into it by promising to do chores until it's paid off. good luck.

[alacritous]

Heh,

Dell can goto hell.

I hate dells. Now yes if its cheap I suppose.

I've got plenty of money though, just didn't want to spend too much as I'd want to spend it on a whole, not just one good part.

Alacritous

[NoteMe]

Well I would say it depends on what you are going to use it for...if you are not playing much games or doing a lot of graphics programming, then your GPU might not be the bottle neck....you have to give more info before it is possible to answer that question..

[alacritous]

. . . The main game I am interested in is World of Warcraft by Blizzard. I even lag when playing Warcraft III TFT right now, so thats pretty bad. . . .

Yes, the things I said was vague, but I think that provides enough detail to tell you I'm interesting in games. Like I said, I'm not interested in the top games such as Half Life 2 (not said, but) or Doom 3 (said).

Alacritous

[StevenHickerson]

If your lagging in WoW I'm gonna have to disagree with the others on the graphics card issue. I've been playing in WoW Stress Test Beta, my system 1.7 Ghz Geforce 4 TI 4600 768Mbs PC 800 RDRAM it runs beautifully. There is some slight video choppiness in extremely crowded areas but it takes like 75+ people in my screen to cause it.

In one part of the stress test I logged in to about 200 people in my screen my FPS dropped to probably around 15 or 20 but it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought it would be (200 people in my screen in EQ would mean 1 FPS hehe).

The WoW graphics engine is simply amazing and I'd say your biggest perfomance boost would be to double your memory to 1 Gig of ram. Unless you are using an extremely low end Geforce 4, then you might want to upgrade it too. But I know 512 can run choppy more.. I tested it, a friend only had 256 MBs of PC 800 RDRAM so I took out my two 128 Strips and dropped them in his and noticed a performance drop. So I put them back in mine and he ordered two 256 MBs Strips of his own.

[alacritous]

WOW

I havn't played the beta, just saying.

I just wonder why I lag in Warcraft III TFT?

Do you think the transition from Win98 to XP is doing this?

I'm just clueless...

edit
I've been reading about WoW and reading the forums, and I've gathered a conclusion. It's my graphics card. Someone had the almost exact specs as me (2.4ghz which I can overlock my 1.8 to) and the same 512mb of ram, but a way better graphics card. (geforce fx 5200 128mb).

He said he plays the whole game [beta] perfect with the highest settings with lag only in a perticular place, which others declare "everyone will lag there".

Alacritous

btw: hand over the beta NOW or someone is going down