Vanity - Optimizing PC performance for gaming software

None | 10/11/2003 | Me

[Cultural Jihad]

I concur. Newegg.com is a great on-line merchant for PC parts.

ItsOurTimeNow: Which games were you hoping to run, BTW?

[Cultural Jihad]

If you upgrade your video, reinstall your operating system.

What?! I would never recommend anyone do so.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Actually, the best way to go is to build your own custom computer. That way you know what's in it.

[Cultural Jihad]

If you upgrade your video, reinstall your operating system.

Has 'ItsOurTimeNow' even stated what his or her operating system is?

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Which games were you hoping to run, BTW?

I have "Jedi Academy", "Return of the King", and "War of the Ring" on my Christmas wish list.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

XP

[Cultural Jihad]

... that plays games like Quake III Arena quite well.

Not really a good example, though, since QIII has rather low specs. It'll run on almost anything. ;-)

[Brett66]

The components that will have the biggest impact on performance are:

1. Video Card (unless you have a real dog of a CPU, the video card is more important)

2. CPU

3. Ram speed

4. Motherboard chipset

Your best bet is to get as much video card as you can afford and then overclock your CPU. I have an XP2500 AMD (1.8GHz CPU) I overclocked it 300 MHz with no problem. XP thinks I have a XP3000 when I look at the CPU ID in Windows.

[wolficatZ]

This demo will push high end machines to the limit. Not really the kind of stuff I like but really incredible, especially for a demo; very imaginative...it crashed on me after I got my hovercraft fixed though. Well worth a look anyways.

http://www.gamershell.com/hellzone_Action-Adventure_Beyond_Good_and_Evil.shtml

[Psycho_Bunny]

If you upgrade your video, reinstall your operating system.

What?! I would never recommend anyone do so.

You're correct to the extent that I probably shouldn't have told that to a n00b.

Reformatting for a new video card is a good rule of thumb if you don't reformat Windows on a 8-12 month basis.

[Cultural Jihad]

Reformatting for a new video card is a good rule of thumb if you don't reformat Windows on a 8-12 month basis.

What?! Not on a 7 to 13 month basis? ;-)

[Psycho_Bunny]

I never go longer than 5 months but I've gone as short as a day.

>:)

 

[MissTargets]

Here is what was done with my 2 year old Dell running ME:
Upgraded to XP.
New memory card.
ATI Radeon 9000 video card.
Worked just fine for me.

Lots of good advise here. Freepers are the greatest

[MissTargets]

would enjoy playing against and with Freepers.

Dungeon Seige fan here. Multiplayer on Zonematch is the most fun. Best part is, you don't have to pay a monthly fee.
It would be nice to play with other FReeepers. The expansion pack comes out next month.

[Gringo1]

I'm waiting for "Lock-On" from the same guys that did the IL-2 series of games. Great Eye candy and great flight models. Look forward to hunting T-72's in an A-10.

[Gringo1]

I love Xp pro.....never a hiccup unlike Win98.

I'm running:

Asus P4S533 Mobo
P4 2.4 GHZ(overclocked to 2.6)
512 of RAM
Waiting on my FX5600 256 meg video card(ordered it Saturday)
Maxtor 7200 rpm HD
DVD-ROM(generic 16x)