Poor FPS in LOFC 2

[Scudslaker]

i totaly agree with ertheralN, running mine e8500@4.0ghz with 500 psu from noname brand, an ATI 5770, an second sound device by EMU, 3x HDD, many USB peripherals and resultant no phantom reboots, no problems. i think i can get more speed from the e8500, but for now it s enough.. it s running

[KungFuCharlie]

Also, he has an 8400 GS. The 7900GT is actually stronger, significantly, than his. And by significantly I mean several times the relevant processing power. 4x Pixel throughput, 3x Texel throughput, 6.5 times the memory bandwidth. Should I continue? Please please please can people make sure they know the hardware before they start giving advice to people who are on tight budgets? You are advicing people on what is for them a major purchase. Please think and do some research first. If you only have your gut, stop.

 

Exactly... so if I didn't see any improvement from a 7900GT to a 9800GX2, he will be highly unlikely to see any improvement from a 8400GS to any card above what he has without a CPU upgrade as well.

 

Please make sure you read a bit more attentively before you criticize someone unnecessarily.

[mikoyan]

Since you guys know so much about computer building; you should came out with 3 types of computers that fit diferent ideologys:

 

1. socialist computer package : A computer for the worker's party; designed for the working class, a computer that have cheap components that work thogether as one and produce the "same class" of performance of capitalist class computer. all that done by a very low budget proposed by the socialist party. note:The capitalist class would be discussed later. Note: "same class" denotes performance estimations on capitalist computer performance charts obtained by the intelligence agents of our party.
   
2. Sweden Class computer: Nor to fancy, nor as cheap an crudely made as the socialist computer package. This is a neutral computer designed with just the right combination of stuff to leave those nasty Socialist package behind while keeping the pace with the capitalist computer package.
   
3. Capitalist Computer package: A computer that seeks the absolute performance with little concern about budget and schedules. A computer on which the latest components are not even yet commercialized. The Capitalist package considers cryogenic cooling systems, terabyte hard drives, bearings-less cooling fans as technologies of the past.
   

[KungFuCharlie]

Capitalist Computer package: A computer that seeks the absolute performance with little concern about budget and schedules. A computer on which the latest components are not even yet commercialized. The Capitalist package considers cryogenic cooling systems, terabyte hard drives, bearings-less cooling fans as technologies of the past.

 

I'll take two of them, please. :thumbup:

[Silent Warrior]

Voodoo 2? I haz one of those! :D

 

EtherealN: Regarding the driver-situation, I have to disagree. See, past version 196.21 (or .45) Nvidia broke something critical to NWN2, and the latest drivers give (or give ME, anyway) crashes and slowdowns in FSX (the later beta only more pronounced, and earlier crash). If ATI is worse, I'd say we're in a world o' hurt... I suppose I have to confess, for completeness's sake, that Mass Effect 2 appears to work A-OK with the latest WHQL-forceware. (And lookin' hella sexy at 1024x768 with reduced settings!)

 

In response to the OP: My GeForce 9600 GT seems to be at the lower tier for getting eye-candy and FPS out of FC2. It's really not a smooth ride, but if you're careful with your settings (i.e. no AA, reduced visibility, shadows, etc), it works well enough. Maybe I'm even running 1280x1024 with typically 20+ FPS...

[Drona]

Re:

 

Wow, never expected so many replies but thanks everyone for the recommendations...however, looking at the various posts, some of you guys suggest to change both the CPU and the graphics card. Is that the best idea? or is changing the graphics card a good solution?. If getting a new graphics card gives me 40fps i'll be happy. if not, then i'll have to wait to change my computer.

 

@ EtherealN: if its best to get a new computer.... what can i do for now to get a manageable frame rate in my 8400GS card. if any at all? If you want my dxdiag file i'll post it in the next reply as i can't right now as i'm on linux :smilewink:.

 

Thanks

Glen.

[Drona]

My dxdiag file

 

My dxdiag file

DxDiag.txt

[EtherealN]

Exactly... so if I didn't see any improvement from a 7900GT to a 9800GX2, he will be highly unlikely to see any improvement from a 8400GS to any card above what he has without a CPU upgrade as well.

 

Please make sure you read a bit more attentively before you criticize someone unnecessarily.

 

Actually, my criticism is warranted, because you obviously didn't read what I wrote, making your little quip there amusing. ;) So let's put it like this:

 

He gets about the same graphical computer power from that 8400GS as he would get from Intel integrated chips like the one in my netbook. The 8400GS was weak even when it was released in 2007. What you however is trying to say is that if you upgrading from a 7900 didn't get a noticeable performance increase then he won't either, and that is just plain false, for reasons I explained in my post and will repeat here:

 

The 7900GT has many many times more computer power than the (slightly newer) 8400GS. The 7900GT is strong enough that you may indeed bottleneck on the CPU instead of at the card, though this would require a weak CPU to be in the equation. The 8400GS on the other hand is just plain crippled. It is not even close to powerful enough.

 

That plain enough, or do you want me to quote verbatim out of the relevant GPU spec sheets? He needs a new card, but he does not need a 200 dollar card, and your example does not apply due to the classic "apples and oranges". ;)

[EtherealN]

glenmeyers, whether you should get yourself a new computer instead is really a question of how much money you have available to spend. If you are able to plant some 800 dollars or equivalent in your currency I'd probably suggest a new machine that re-uses some components from the old machine. If you prefer to stay as cheap as possible, I'd suggest one of the cheaper 100 dollar cards I linked in the other thread (I don't have time to research them again for this thread sadly, since I'm on a business trip and is typing from the car :P ). Then test with that and see if it works fine enough.

 

Once you have seen what your performance is like with that upgrade you can then decide whether you want to upgrade more parts of your system. My suggestions would be:

 

New Motherboard at roughly ~150 dollar price point

New CPU at roughly ~150-200 dollars

New memory to fit the Mobo/CPU at around 80 dollars

New Operating System - Home version of Win7. (XP hampers these games since it is a lot worse at handling multicore hardware and doesn't use Dx10-11 load balancing functions.) OEM versions are around 100 dollars.

 

Reusing the rest you could potentially "get away" with as little as around 500 dollars plus the 100 for the GPU, for a cheap and functional (though not "monster-class") computer.

 

If you decide to save up towards the 1200-1400 dollar price range and still reuse whatever you can, you will however be able to start glancing at the relatively powerful stuff.

[KungFuCharlie]

Actually, my criticism is warranted, because you obviously didn't read what I wrote, making your little quip there amusing. ;)

 

I really cannot do anything more than laugh. I just got owned. Completely. Thanks for helping me remove my head from my southern extremity if you know what I mean... :doh: EtherealN = 1. Kung Fu Charlie = 0. :thumbup:

 

Not that it helps any but I actually had the 7900GS. That's what I get for trusting my memory. :(

 

But for the record, I still think my original joke is funny. :D

Edited July 24, 2010 by KungFuCharlie

[KungFuCharlie]

New Motherboard at roughly ~150 dollar price point

New CPU at roughly ~150-200 dollars

New memory to fit the Mobo/CPU at around 80 dollars

New Operating System - Home version of Win7. (XP hampers these games since it is a lot worse at handling multicore hardware and doesn't use Dx10-11 load balancing functions.) OEM versions are around 100 dollars.

 

Agreed. Computers really are not as expensive as people think they are unless you really go to the extreme. The nice thing is that you can usually reuse parts. Most SATA and SATA2 mobo's still have one or two IDE channels that you can use old hard drives on. Not that you want to... but if you don't have the $ to upgrade hard drives right now it isn't overly critical.

 

One thing that you do need to consider is your power supply. If you are going to reuse your PSU, make sure it can handle the load of the new CPU and video card. When you go to get a new power supply, try to get one that is more than the video card needs. That way if you decide to overclock your video card in the future, you'll have the room to do so. (A good rule of thumb is for every 10% overclock of video card, increase its power consumption rating by 5%). This is especially important if you want to add a second video card to your system in the future.

[Drona]

@ EtherealN and KungFuCharlie. thanks for the suggestions, i think it will be better to go in for a new comp using the resualbe parts... but sadly that would have to wait for now..:( anyways thanks again for the suggestions..:)

 

Glen.

[Distiler]

Certainly Win7 will give you a big boost of fps (like going from 20s to 30s). If you are in a university, there are chances you can have it for cheap or even free if the IT department has signed an agreement with Microsoft (MSDN Academic Alliance)

 

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/seven-perfectly-legal-ways-to-get-windows-7-cheap-or-even-free/1533?pg=3

[Rodney]

Certainly Win7 will give you a big boost of fps (like going from 20s to 30s). If you are in a university, there are chances you can have it for cheap or even free if the IT department has signed an agreement with Microsoft (MSDN Academic Alliance)

 

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/seven-perfectly-legal-ways-to-get-windows-7-cheap-or-even-free/1533?pg=3

 

Agreed, and the OP is using an AMD Athlon x2 5000+ CPU. AMD is a nice CPU but I have found from experience because I have used both for gaming that an Intel C2D will yield better performance.

 

So really KungFuCharlie makes a valid point that it may take more than just a video card to up the OP's performance although I do agree with EtherealN that the 8400GS is a weak card. I have it in my Dell Vostro 1500 and it's really a low end card for gaming. A 7900GT should perform much better and a 9800GTX+ even better.