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Earl

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
593
Hello im currently using a 9800pro in my shuttle with a 2.6Ghz p4 processor.
Have 1gig of ddr400 ram.

I'm thinking about getting http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=92419

but this is going to require me to get a new motherboard and case so I guess i'll have to add the price of mobo and case on top of £350.. oh dear :(

What I want to know is if i'll need a new processor to keep up with my graphics card?
 

Jonty

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,411
Hi Earl

Your 2.6Ghz should be okay in the short term, but to really unleash your graphics card you would ideally need a new processor. Not all games are CPU bound as the majority of the work can be handled quite happily by the graphics card, but in games where the CPU plays a larger role (the names of such titles escape me at the mo) your graphics card would be held back. That said, in most situations I'd dare say you wouldn't know the difference unless you play at high-resolutions with anti-aliasing and such enabled, or if you were benchmarking your system. So in short, don't worry too much about your CPU, you should be just about fine.

Just a couple of other things to note. Firstly, since your P4 2.6Ghz was made Intel have introduced a new socket - Socket 775 - which all new Pentium and Celeron processors use. Many new boards will now use this design which is not compatible with your Socket 478 CPU. Be sure to either buy a board with a Socket 478 slot and PCI-Express support (a few exist) or save up and buy a Socket 775 CPU and a newer motherboard. Secondly, note that you cannot really buy motherboards for Shuttle small-form factor systems, so you'd either need to buy a whole new Shuttle or ditch it in favour of a standard ATX/BTX system. Finally, some newer Intel motherboards support DDR2 RAM which would be incompatible with your existing DDR RAM. Again, either make sure your new motherboard supports DDR RAM (if it supports Socket 478 it should be fine), or save up and splash out on DDR2 RAM and a newer motherboard.

Sadly Intel's platform has changed quite a lot of late which hampers using older generation hardware with new generation upgrades. It either means settling for older technology or saving up and splashing out on a lot of new kit (there are some hybrid boards, featuring AGP and PCI-Express, DDR2 and DDR support, but these are few and far between). Personally, if you decide to save and go for a whole new Intel-based system, I'd choose one with Intel's 945 chipset. If you decide just to do as minimal an upgrade as possible, just be sure to check that your existing hardware is supported.

Kind Regards
 

Earl

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
593
Right well hmm.. I don't have all that much money to spend..

Basicly I want to play DAOC without any lag, don't know if you have any experience with how the graphics engine and stuff is handled by hardware but at the moment I can get frame lockups for a second or so when things are loading, and low FPS when theres lots of people on screen
 

Jonty

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,411
Hi Earl

Really it sounds more like upgrading your CPU and RAM would help more than changng the graphics card. A GeForce 7800 GTX is really only needed if you're going to be playing graphically demanding first-person shooters, e.g. Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2, F.E.A.R., S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Unreal Tournament 2007 etc.

Whilst a shiny new graphics card would help matters, more RAM and perhaps a faster CPU would likely provide a better solution. For £360, which a GTX would roughly cost, you could upgrade your CPU, RAM and buy a mainstream graphics card and still have change left.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. Note that it is now harder to buy Socket 478 CPUs, but they can be still found.
 

Honza

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
363
Hmm, why not go Intel 955 or intel version of nForce 4 (I know about lower stability rumours but after lots of rumours after this and that I'd rather make my own picture)
 

Earl

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
593
Jonty said:
Hi Earl

Really it sounds more like upgrading your CPU and RAM would help more than changng the graphics card. A GeForce 7800 GTX is really only needed if you're going to be playing graphically demanding first-person shooters, e.g. Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2, F.E.A.R., S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Unreal Tournament 2007 etc.

Whilst a shiny new graphics card would help matters, more RAM and perhaps a faster CPU would likely provide a better solution. For £360, which a GTX would roughly cost, you could upgrade your CPU, RAM and buy a mainstream graphics card and still have change left.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. Note that it is now harder to buy Socket 478 CPUs, but they can be still found.


Any chance you could suggest a few names of the things you mentioned? I'm not really up to date with the middle ranged graphics cards and such, and even cpus are quite confusing now :p

Also what do you mean by upgrade ram? Would I be better buying ddr2 and a new mobo or do you mean 2gigs or something?
 

Jonty

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,411
Hi Earl

RAM For now 1-2GB of DDR400 (aka PC3200) RAM should be ample. 1GB usually costs around £60-70. My advice would be to eBay your old RAM as it saves a lot of hassle trying to mix and match your old and new RAM, which has the potential to slow performance. How much RAM do you presently have?

CPU I believe Socket 478 CPUs stopped around 3.4Ghz, all of which should be compatible with your motherboard. Again there's now the Socket 775 design so be sure to check what you're buying, if you decide to upgrade the CPU.

Graphics A GeForce 6600GT or 6800 should cost around £130-150 and offer great performance for the money. Gainward, Gigabyte, MSI, BFG and ASUS are good makes which tend to tweak the standard designs to give you a better solution, although they may cost more. PNY, XFX, Club3D and others tend to stick to the no-frills reference design but in doing so save you money.

From ATI there's the x700 Pro and x800 and x800 Pro, which have a similar price bracket (the x800 Pro does, however, cost closer to £180). Each offer great performance, but I'd personally sooner go with a GeForce 6 solution unless your budget stretches to a x800 Pro, but that's just me. Both ATI and nVidia cards offer great performance on balance.

Hope this gives you some ideas to play about with :)

Kind Regards
 

Earl

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
593
Thanks :)

Currently I have 1Gb of ddr400 ram, it was decent stuff, can't remember the name exactly, something like Consoir Twinx
 

Jonty

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,411
Most likely Corsair TwinX, which as you say is good stuff. I'm surprised 1GB isn't really sufficient for DAOC, but I don't play such games so I'm only really able to give generic advice :)

Kind Regards
 

Honza

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
363
Jonty said:
I'm surprised 1GB isn't really sufficient for DAOC

It suprises me too, mainly because with this configuration I run DAoC without lags even during hi-res video-capturing (all details on):

Intel Pentium 4-HT 2,4GHz (OC 3,12 GHz)
Asus P4C800 mobo
1 GB Corsair TwinX UL DDR400 RAM (2-2-2-5 timing) dual channel turbo mode
nVidia GeForce FX5900 128 MB RAM
S-ATA1 HDD Western Digital 200GB

This computer is more than capable to avoid ANY lags with Catacombs client and all possible details and graphic features enabled... (only yellow lag I got so far was when I was FRAPSing some ML with 7-8 fgs)
So in your case, it might be crappy stuff running on background (high demanding antivirus like AVG, FTP server etc.) or badly configured OS/GFX card or simply computer built up of crappy components/badly set up BIOS.

If you run 2 accounts it's approximately equal to FRAPS running... PC ends with breath with 2 accs running and FRAPSing (more RAM and preferably 4 logical CPU units for that imo)...

About your RAM, use CPU-Z utility to check and tune their timing to run on Corsair specification (Corsair intentionally lowers these timings so their RAM works with gimpy motherboards so you have to set the high-speed one manualy).

EDIT: If you play alot, it might come cheaper to get GeForce 7800 card than 6800 one - 7800 is more expensive to buy but has far lowest power consumption from current graphic cards - difference is in average 10-15W, though depends on power price in your country... Here the power is quite expensive - I figured I'll have add-cost of 7800 gfx card back in half year.
 

Earl

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
593
My ram timings are showing up as:

CAS# Latency 3.0clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay 3clocks
RAS# Precharge 3clocks
Cycle time (Tras) 8clocks

I dont really understand how to change these..
 

Earl

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
593
Oh and how does the FX5900 compare with the 9800pro? Just to elliminate other things :)
 

Yaka

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
4,421
erm i think the 9800pro is the better card
 

Honza

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
363
9800pro is supposed to be better card, but I wouldn't take it...
I am far to lazy to play with all possible and impossible drivers versions/settings to make every game working ;p
 

Embattle

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
13,182
Earl said:
My ram timings are showing up as:

CAS# Latency 3.0clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay 3clocks
RAS# Precharge 3clocks
Cycle time (Tras) 8clocks

I dont really understand how to change these..

Generally they are changed through the BIOS, although the gains in performance are often very small.
 

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