New Motherboard? Video Card? Argh?
- Thread starter W0RF
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Also remember that you can find just about anything on eBay. You could pick up a Radeon X800xt for cheap in 2+ years, and I bet it'll still kick ass. 
Useless update thread:
I decided to go with a RAM upgrade first. It's not a huge help atm. When I went from 256 to 512 the performance of UT2k3 skyrocketed. Likewise when I got my new vid card last year. But going from 512 to 768 isn't a big leap because the processor still seems to be the bottleneck. But that's what I could afford with the money I've been putting under the mattress.
I swapped out 1 256MB PC2100 for a 512MB PC3200, and in a couple months when I can save up some more dollars I'll replace the other one as well. A gig of 400MHz DDR should last me well into my next mobo/card when I upgrade... whenever... next year I guess...
I decided to go with a RAM upgrade first. It's not a huge help atm. When I went from 256 to 512 the performance of UT2k3 skyrocketed. Likewise when I got my new vid card last year. But going from 512 to 768 isn't a big leap because the processor still seems to be the bottleneck. But that's what I could afford with the money I've been putting under the mattress.
I swapped out 1 256MB PC2100 for a 512MB PC3200, and in a couple months when I can save up some more dollars I'll replace the other one as well. A gig of 400MHz DDR should last me well into my next mobo/card when I upgrade... whenever... next year I guess...
Running DDR400 ram in a motherboard that supports much less is fine. Doing it on both of my computers. It can also be usefull as it can run in much timings. Not sure if you follow, but its basicly means quicker reaction time, that sort of thing.
You can also run it at 400MHz with a divider, not sure which would give better performance in you computer. In mine by PC2700 RAM runs better at PC2100 frequency with tighter timings.
AGP is going to last for quite a while yet, The current top of the range cards will last a couple of years. I have a 9500pro which was a really decent card when it came out 3 years ago (im guessing) and it still runs halflife 2 on medium settings and UT2004 on full settings at 50fps no problems. - and the rest of my computer isn't a huge amount better than yours, am upgrading later this year.
You can also run it at 400MHz with a divider, not sure which would give better performance in you computer. In mine by PC2700 RAM runs better at PC2100 frequency with tighter timings.
AGP is going to last for quite a while yet, The current top of the range cards will last a couple of years. I have a 9500pro which was a really decent card when it came out 3 years ago (im guessing
) and it still runs halflife 2 on medium settings and UT2004 on full settings at 50fps no problems. - and the rest of my computer isn't a huge amount better than yours, am upgrading later this year.
I haven't messed with timing, not quite sure how it goes and I'm a little gunshy since I seem to have a way of borking my computer more often than I'd like.
And kudos on the HL2 but I discovered I can't even run the Republic Commando demo because the min specs are 2.0 GHz so I'll have to trade up eventually. I'm just not ready to throw out the investment I made in the vid card.
And kudos on the HL2 but I discovered I can't even run the Republic Commando demo because the min specs are 2.0 GHz so I'll have to trade up eventually. I'm just not ready to throw out the investment I made in the vid card.
I did have a nice page that explained what all the timings meant. But firefox deleted all my bookmarks (ty firefox - still much better than ie) I'l let you know if i find it.
Its not actually that tricky once you know how. Until recently I was scared of bios lol - worried about breaking something. Its was through reading lots of articles about overclocking that I realised If you don't change something by too much your usually allrite, the worst that can happen is your computer crash.
basicly:
Go into Bios, under one of the settings bits (varies on the mobo) you will see things like fsb, multiplier and Ram/Cpu ratio. change the ratio to 1:1 or something equilvilent and the frequency will then match the fsb. You can then tighten the timings, its possible that it might of tightered automaticly but for all I know that might only be on newer boards. but there will be a section called something like "Ram config" where you can go into. There will be a list of values, you want to change the CAS. I would gues it would be around 3. if so try dropping it to 2.5, or maybe even 2. (dont go straight to 2 first time) you can change the other values aswell to lower numbers, but I'm not so sure about them since loosing the link to it......
Hope thats helpfull, and if it isn't, it was good typing practise for me lol
Its not actually that tricky once you know how. Until recently I was scared of bios lol - worried about breaking something. Its was through reading lots of articles about overclocking that I realised If you don't change something by too much your usually allrite, the worst that can happen is your computer crash.
basicly:
Go into Bios, under one of the settings bits (varies on the mobo) you will see things like fsb, multiplier and Ram/Cpu ratio. change the ratio to 1:1 or something equilvilent and the frequency will then match the fsb. You can then tighten the timings, its possible that it might of tightered automaticly but for all I know that might only be on newer boards. but there will be a section called something like "Ram config" where you can go into. There will be a list of values, you want to change the CAS. I would gues it would be around 3. if so try dropping it to 2.5, or maybe even 2. (dont go straight to 2 first time) you can change the other values aswell to lower numbers, but I'm not so sure about them since loosing the link to it......
Hope thats helpfull, and if it isn't, it was good typing practise for me lol
I'll check it out. I have a SiS board so we'll see how much control I have over CAS latency values.
so we'll see how much control I have over CAS latency values.