How can I increase..

[PritomD]

Increase my performance?

NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT HOW BAD MY COMP IS, I ALREADY KNOW, AND WILL GET A NEW ONE SOON

I have a 300MHZ P2 with a 4mb Video card. I usually get 20fps on 400x300, it's bad, but I cope with it. On certain maps, like cs_italy and office, I get LOTS OF VIDEO CARD lag whenever I join a firefight. I heard that it is my video card, but I think it might be my proc. Are these spikes because of my video card or processor? If video, what PCI video card do you reccomend for me, that won't bottleneck at 300mhz? If its my proc...then oh well..

I heard that a GeForce 2 MX or Voodoo would do me well...

 

[stormbind]

What game is this?

Different engines (backbone of the games) are optimised for different graphics cards. The graphics card has a more effect than anything else.

If you want texture compression like S3TC or DXTC then you really need a P2 400/Celeron 800 or better to get good results. For some reason, the algorythms put a lot of stress on the CPU cache. Your current card does not support this.

The problem with 256-bit or higher graphics chips (i.e. GeForce) is that they need AGP version 2.0 (128-bit bus) so you should check your motherboard supports this before buying one of those cards. This is not to be confused with AGPx2 which is totally unrelated.

In the AGP 2.0 market, the best value for money at the moment is probably a GeForce 3 Ti which are only marginally slower than GeForce 4 Ti and have all the other features. The GeForce4 MX is poor value for money, and technically inferior.

cs_italy is Counter Strike? You could get by with a second hand 16Mb 3dfx card or a 32Mb Direct3D card. The reason 3dfx cards appear more efficient is because they only support small textures but you would be hard pressed to notice a difference, if anything 3dfx looks better However, I do not recommend 3dfx because driver support under WinXP is terrible

Stick loads of memory (512Mb or more) in your motherboard, it's dirt cheap from Crucial and you will be surprised how much it improves overall system performance (stops the PC needing to use the hard drive for memory space).

If you absolutely must use a PCI card you will end up paying more simply because they are harder find, but you can find GeForce2MX varients in this form

Before buying a PCI, seriously consider the option of a mobo+AGP; you may be surprised at the similarity in total cost. Finding a suitable motherboard will be hard because of the need for a rare P2 slot

Are you sure there's no support for AGP on your current one?

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Don't buy a Voodoo. I have a GeForce2 MX and I like it. I can't run new games on rez higher than 800x600 with full detail, but with a GeForce2 MX, your CPU would probably slow you down before the grafics card.

You didn't mention how much system RAM you have.

My suggestion is with a 300MHz CPU, go with a 32MB (or larger if the price is very close) Geforce2, and make sure you have at least 256MB of system memory. Anything more may be overkill. You won't be able to run the lastest games at best quality anyway without more upgrades.

you could probably get that type of video card and memory for around $100. But the most import thing is getting a video card with lots of video memory.

 

[PritomD]

i got 192 megs of ram...would it really make a difference to get to 256?

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Ah, 192 should be OK I guess. Like I said, the video memory is more important for your problem then system memory. That is why your frame rate is so bad. A good video card won't have less than 32MB. Mine has 32MB and its 2 1/2 years old.

EDIT: Ironically, your hardest part may be finding a PCI version. Most computers less than 4 years old have AGP capability.

 

[Jeratain]

Well if you don't want to buy any hardware upgrades here are my suggestions for pure software increase in peroformance.

1. Run Windows 98 SE - Don't run ME, don't run XP, don't run 2000. You could also run 95.. but 95 is really outdated, so I'd stick with 98 SE for your processor speed. It's the fastest for your particular system.

2. Free up your resources. Run 'msconfig' and edit your startup so that you don't have a lot of junk programs running in the background. Ie: AIM, MSN, Virus Scanners, etc. All these take up RAM and resources.

3. If you have Hard drive space, allocate some to virtual memory. If you don't know how to do this then don't.

4. DEFRAG DEFRAG DEFRAG. It will help get the access speed of your HD up and require less thrashing on your CPU.

5. Buy hardware upgrades Stormbind has some good suggestions.

 

[stormbind]

Originally posted by PritomD
i got 192 megs of ram...would it really make a difference to get to 256?

Chances are it would improve performance slightly.

The cost of SDRAM is so low now that I suggest just filling up the banks with the biggest your motherboard will support

It's theoretically possible to slow down a computer by using too much memory, because any memory not used still has to be scanned, but chances are that any new game will use every drop of RAM you add - which will mean less virtual memory.

When buying SDRAM, CAS2 is faster than CAS3. These numbers represent the delay between read/writes. You will probably need to setup the memory timings in the BIOS to get the best effect.

DDR won't apply to a computer of this age but don't feel bad because good quality CAS2 SDRAM can actually outperform DDR under "some" conditions because it's limited to CAS2.5

Links for US & UK
http://www.crucial.com and http://www.crucial.com/uk/

 

[stormbind]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Jeratain

Nice speed tips. Be careful with msconfig though; don't turn off any essential part of windows!

Another tip to stop your hard drive becoming fragmented (obviously, not much help if it's already messy) is to use a fixed-size swap file. This way Windows won't expand and contract it, which causes files to moved around and causes premature fragmentation.

---

Win98 + Service Pack is the same as Win98SE

WinME is a version with older parts removed and selective newer additions. I actually liked it and I didn't like Win98SE - It will depend on your computer, there's no right or wrong answer to this

 

[stormbind]

Oh, the P2 300 with happilly run at 333MHz and if it were mine, I would make it sweat at 450MHz

Don't blaim me if it blows up under these conditions

 

[Pongui]

You don't need to upgrade your video card to get better video, PritomD. Have a look at the motherboards with onboard video - compare specs and prices. What you'll find is that buying an "all-in-one" (integrated) motherboard at any given performance level is far cheaper and simpler than buying all the components separately. I've seen motherboards with integrated video selling for slightly more than the comparable video card alone.

SDRAM is slightly slower than DDR memory but half the price... so go with a SDRAM compatible mainboard and buy twice as much RAM!

 

[Rheinmetall]

If I remember correctly it's also possible to force CS to use low quality textures to save gaphics memory and since your's is severely limited it might help a lot. There's also switches to turn off all muzzle flashes, smoke effects, decals and such. Also hiding arms & gun from the screen may help. I suggest searching various CS forums for tips on how to do these.
[edit]
Ok! I found these. May or may not work and there are more if you keep looking. Try these in console.

fastsprites 0
Sets the complexity of the smoke sprites for the smoke grenade - The range is 0-2, with 0 looking the most like actual smoke

max_shells 300
Sets the number of shells visible at one time (0-500)

max_smokepuffs 300
Sets the number of smoke puffs visible at one time (0-500)

gl_max_size 256
Set max texture size.

gl_round_down 3
Set texture size rounding-down value. (Higher means faster, lower quality)
[/edit]

 

[PritomD]

ill probably just get a new video card..my friend has a place that is selling a GF 2 MX 440 with 64megs of memory for $30 or so..P C I too!

 

[stormbind]

Originally posted by Sean Lindstrom
You don't need to upgrade your video card to get better video, PritomD. Have a look at the motherboards with onboard video.

SDRAM is slightly slower than DDR memory but half the price... so go with a SDRAM compatible mainboard and buy twice as much RAM!

Would be hard to get a board with both P2 Slot 1, and current onboard video.

SDR is ussually slower than DDR but I have seen 133MHz SDR CAS2 (PC133) outperform 133MHz DDR CAS2.5 (PC266). The reason is that data to and from system memory is more bitty (small pieces) that don't fill the capacity of a single troph (SDR) and therefore don't benefit from having two trophs (DDR)... but the CAS2 has less delay than CAS2.5... hence the results.

Graphics cards move huge chunks of data like textures and polygons that benefit greatly from additional bandwidth, which is where DDR acquired it's great reputation.

 

[damunzy]

The problem with getting the mobo/graphic card combo like an nforce2 would be that a new power supply would be needed. Any other mobo/video combo is pretty much a waste of time. If you live in the united states go into a Comp USA and check out their homebrand video cards - they have some 32MB PCI video cards for under 40 USD that would speed your game up a bit. Depending on how long until you get your new computer it might just be a good idea to wait for it. Also, I don't see much improvement from 192 to 256 megs of ram, especially in Win98.

 

[stormbind]

Originally posted by munzy
The problem with getting the mobo/graphic card combo like an nforce2 would be that a new power supply would be needed. Any other mobo/video combo is pretty much a waste of time. They have some 32MB PCI video cards for under 40 USD that would speed your game up a bit.

nForce(2) would be useless. He needs something with a Slot 1 for the Pentium II processor. Most P2 systems came with ATX power supplies anyway.

Beware of NVidia TNT-2 M64/Vanta cards. Even with 32Mb these are really poor, and intended only office computers. Please avoid them!!!

3dfx Voodoo3 or even Banshee are much better but as said already, WinXP support sucks so not recommended unless you are sure you want to keep Win98

A second hand 128-bit TNT-2 (original) is much better than newer 64-bit varients.

You can get geForce2MX for $10 on ebay, or a Radeon for $45. However, I will not recommend this because I paid up for hardware won on ebay and the damn card never arrived!

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by PritomD
i got 192 megs of ram...would it really make a difference to get to 256?

No point adding ram to that machine, won't make any noticeable difference on a 300. Besides, the new ram most likely won't work with your next computer either. Does the machine have an AGP slot? I kind of doubt it, if you buy a PCI card you can always use it in your next machine to drive a second monitor. Anyway, don't buy something that you can't use with your next machine and I hope that it comes sooner than you think.

 

[PritomD]

i only want to upgrade this comp. im STILL going to use this comp for gaming LANS and such!

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by PritomD
i only want to upgrade this comp. im STILL going to use this comp for gaming LANS and such!

That's why updating the graphics card is your single best bet, according to your first description. They have come along way.

But take it from me, I've been there, you will use that system on your LAN for now but at some point you will want to salvage everything from it for another machine for one reason or another, so don't buy 'new' stuff today that is already obsolete, if at all possible, unless it is priced really cheap.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by Cartouche Bee


That's why updating the graphics card is your single best bet, according to your first description. They have come along way.

But take it from me, I've been there, you will use that system on your LAN for now but at some point you will want to salvage everything from it for another machine for one reason or another, so don't buy 'new' stuff today that is already obsolete, if at all possible, unless it is priced really cheap.

I don't entirly agree with you on this.

For example. Lets assume he buys a top of the line video card for $300 today. I am sure everyone will agree his computer will not use it to its full ability.

Later he gets a new computer minus the video card. Where has this gotten him? He has a computer with a video card that is now worth $100.

Lets say that a cheepo card would cost him $50 now. Depending on the path, he either spent $300 or $150 and is in the same position after the new computer is put together. Me, I would go the cheepo card now route and save money.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by CrackedCrystal


I don't entirly agree with you on this.

For example. Lets assume he buys a top of the line video card for $300 today. I am sure everyone will agree his computer will not use it to its full ability.

Later he gets a new computer minus the video card. Where has this gotten him? He has a computer with a video card that is now worth $100.

Lets say that a cheepo card would cost him $50 now. Depending on the path, he either spent $300 or $150 and is in the same position after the new computer is put together. Me, I would go the cheepo card now route and save money.

I don't see where we disagree. I wouldn't put a $300 video card in a new computer because next year that card is only worth $100. Not worth it unless it's a business write off. [He could buy a $300 computer and be further ahead.]

For his machine any video card manufactured in the last 2 years that he can get his hands on will be big improvement and will still work on his next computer unless it doesn't have PCI slots. I didn't talk price cause it was implied.

Memory, which was the other option, for that machine is a dead end road.