| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 27708 | 2002-11-29 03:51:00 | Up grading video card and CPU | Danger (287) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 102329 | 2002-11-29 03:51:00 | Hi, I want to improve my frame rates in my Combat Flight Simulator (tried all the other mods and drivers). I have a Intel Pentium III 800MHz Coppermine and a NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro video card. Not sure of which card I want to replace it with yet, but in my searches I have come across information that to really get any benefits from a new card I need to have at least 1.GHz processor. Is increasing my processor from 800MHz to 1.GHz worthwile? Or can I increase it further? Would I be wasteing my money? I don't think I can go to a P4 or AMD without changeing my motherboard. Are PIII processors still available anywhere? My motherboard has a Via Apollo Pro 133 chipset with a PGA370 socket. Any advice at all would be appreciated as I am a relative beginer and don't really understand to well about any pros and cons of upgrading like this. Thanks. Danger |
Danger (287) | ||
| 102330 | 2002-11-29 04:03:00 | don't worry about the processor so much. at the moment the video card is the biggest bottle neck. the top end GF4 is proberly not worth getting but the lower specs ones would still be ok. try not to get the MX versions unless your budget is tight. GF3 are still quite good if you can find one and its at a resonable pice. |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 102331 | 2002-11-29 04:03:00 | 1st things 1st... you will need to understand what your motherboard will support... chances are that it might not even allow an upgrade? Although, I wouldn't like to say until you give clearer details. 2ndly, if you were looking to spend a little cash, you could pick up a good mobo and CPU combination which would be easier than upgrading an older CPU alone, as they might not be stocked nowadays. Spending a $480 would give you something decent, IMHO... eg., an ASUS P4S333 motherboard with a Pentium 4 1.4 GHz. Add in a token 256 strip of ram, and you would get a "bare-bones" type system. Anyway... I'm probably getting OT now... maybe best to just check out your motherboard details and see what max CPU is supported by it? Lo. |
Lohsing (219) | ||
| 102332 | 2002-11-29 04:05:00 | You know, you could probably overclock your system to 1Ghz with your chip anyway... but I agree with Tweak'e that the graphics card is probably your problem. Lo. |
Lohsing (219) | ||
| 102333 | 2002-11-29 04:08:00 | In my opinion, it's not worth spending the money on a 1G P3 (they are available, but ridiculous prices are being asked for them, in comparison to current processors) . The mobo wouldn't do justice to the money you would spend on the processor . You are best to spend you money on the video card - will more infinitely more improvement than an 800 to 1G processor upgrade . If you want to spend more than just on a video card, you really need to go for a more up to date mobo (and processor) . |
wuppo (41) | ||
| 102334 | 2002-11-29 04:12:00 | > 2ndly, if you were looking to spend a little cash, > you could pick up a good mobo and CPU combination > which would be easier than upgrading an older CPU > alone, as they might not be stocked nowadays. > Spending a $480 would give you something decent, > IMHO... eg., an ASUS P4S333 motherboard with a > Pentium 4 1.4 GHz. That should be P4 1.6Ghz... Lo. |
Lohsing (219) | ||
| 102335 | 2002-11-29 04:28:00 | Thanks for your quick replys. tweak'e, I realise the video card is a basic one, but from what I have read online without more processing power I may be wasting my money on a better one. Loshing, that motherboard cpu combo sounds interesting, where would I find these? Would it require any other changes or upgrades to other components? My Mobo manuel states: Processor: Support 66/100/133MHz bus speed including all PGA370 processors operating from 300MHz to 533MHz and future processors. Sorry, not sure what other details I should include :) I have 384 ram already. Not sure about overclocking, I thought the settings were locked on these, and it could make things unreliable. I am a beginer, but very keen to learn. |
Danger (287) | ||
| 102336 | 2002-11-29 04:33:00 | Found the prices on Pricespy (http://www.pricespy.co.nz) ... do a search under motherboard, and CPU. Unless you are interested in hyperthreading, no real need to go OTT with CPU speed... I only have a 1.8 at the moment, but it overclocks to 2.4 easily... waiting on hyperthreading becoming a LOT cheaper before I consider upgrading again. Anyway... best of luck... you sound like you could just go get an "Upgrade Box" ... wander into your local computer place and see what "Upgrade Specials" they have... these usually are computer excl keyboard, mouse, monitor etc... just the box! Lo. |
Lohsing (219) | ||
| 102337 | 2002-11-29 04:35:00 | >without more processing power I may be wasting my money on a better one . NO . you have power to spare . with that sort of cpu speed you have, a GF2gts or GF3ti will be fine . a p2 350 will max out a tnt m64 . useing a full GF4 might not be worth the money . |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 102338 | 2002-11-29 05:16:00 | Thanks guys. tweak'e, do you mean a card like this? www.pricespy.co.nz |
Danger (287) | ||
| 1 2 3 4 | |||||