Advice on upgrading this rig please?

BoBoDaClown

Heya, my girlfriend has recently joined me in gaming!  We are playing with the Exploration Society on Thelanis (Udine and Titian).Unfortunately we can't afford a new computer, so I am recycling an old machine.  We just want to get it to run smoothy on 1152x864, and it can be pretty damn ugly.  With the current rig her avatar rubberbands, and the game gets jittery during the 12man raids, while when I swapped her video card for my videocard the game continued to have low fps, but the rubberbanding did fix itself.

I would like advice on how to get the following machine into a more playable state(I don't have much technical know-how; a friend is doing the changes, so I don't want to change the motherboard in order to keep the work down).

 

DDO's minimum requirements:

P4 1.6 GHz or AMD equivalent Processor with SSE

512 MB RAM

64 MB Hardware T&L-compatible video card

recommended:

P4 3.0GHz or AMD equivalent Processor with SSE

1GB RAM

128MB GeForce FX or better video card

 

her computer:

 

motherboard: ASUS A7N266-VM

CPU: AMD ATHLON(TM) XP 1700+ 1.10GHz



RAM: 1.5gig (1gig DDR400MHz, 512mb DDR333MHz)



Video Card: Radeon 9600 (128mb)

So, the only part that is below recommended in the CPU.  I have just bought a second hand ATHLON XP 2400+, which is close to the max the motherboard can handle, and above the minmum requirements. 

Hopefully that will make a difference?

I figure 1.5gig of RAM is all good, but I was thinking of purchasing a second hand graphics card, any recommendations for this rig?

I was thinkin a 256mb along the lines of:

 

ASUS A9550GE/TD/256MB ATI 9550 256MB DDR TV-OUT DVI VGA

or

Gecube ATI Radeon 9600Pro 256MB AGP 8x DVI TV Out

or

GeForce 7300GT 256 AGP 8x DVI TV-out



I was thinking the GeForce, since I have had a lot of problems with the current RADEON and this motherboard.

 

Anyway, thanks for any advice!  It's appreciated

Talyn

My old system was an Athlon 2400+ with 1.5GB RAM and (I think) a 7600 card. It ran the Turbine Engine (ie. both DDO and LOTRO) "ok" on the lower end of medium graphics settings.

The engine does like 2GB RAM, though, I did notice that right away. Otherwise, just depends on your finances - I'd recommend jumping into the dual-core era, they're pretty inexpensive these days.

I'm currently using a 7950GT since I have no plans to down?grade to Vista, so a DX10 card would be a waste of money. On the plus side, the existence of DX10 cards caused DX9 card prices to drop.

Sevenwind

Think I've seen you two running around Stormreach on Thelanis. You sound like you got a plan, I just want to add have you played with the player texture option in DDO? There is one where you can lower character textures for when you are around a lot of people.

There is also another option of tweaking the game engine to slow it down. I've heard in there it helps a lot in the rubberbanding area. Probably have to do like most people is have a setting stage you lower for raids and a stage you may boost for playing with just a small group.

Goodluck!

 

 

mindspat

I run DDO with max settings and minimal lag.  I'll tend to turn down some shadows to make the game run slightly smoother.

This is my PC:

pentium 4 2.8 prescott;  2x 1 gb dual channled DDR; ati x1950pro AGP 512mb

I've been trying to upgrade my CPU altough P4 Extremes are nigh impossible to find.  Haven't convinced myself that going from a 2.8 to a 3.4 (prescott's) is going to improve much at all.

Riddikulus

You will probably find that a fast video card will make more of a difference than anything else at this point.

Take a look at Nvidia 8600 GT for a cheap, fast card.

BoBoDaClown

Originally posted by Riddikulus


You will probably find that a fast video card will make more of a difference than anything else at this point.
Take a look at Nvidia 8600 GT for a cheap, fast card.

Isn't this pci-e? 

Thanks guys for the advice.

 

Any ideas on a good compatible video card?  Should I just get any cheap Nvidia 256 meg graphics card, like the 7300? 

 

Cheers

Riddikulus

Originally posted by BoBoDaClown


 
Originally posted by Riddikulus


You will probably find that a fast video card will make more of a difference than anything else at this point.
Take a look at Nvidia 8600 GT for a cheap, fast card.

Isn't this pci-e? 

 

Thanks guys for the advice.

 

Any ideas on a good compatible video card?  Should I just get any cheap Nvidia 256 meg graphics card, like the 7300? 

 

Cheers

Hm, you have AGP I take it?   It appears 8600 GT isn't available in AGP unfortunately.

Looks like X1950XT and 7900GS are the end of the line for AGP.

My older machine has a X850Pro and it worked great on DDO up to "High" settings as long as I reduced the texture setting by a notch.

Sevenwind

I had an x850XT or whatever it was called for AGP and it ran DDO pretty solid. I think I ran on max and turned off all shadows. But thing to consider is back then the options to tweak the game were not as great as they have now. (Example: I think the texture cache, crowd control, etc.) Least I don't think they were in the game at the time I had DDO.

I thought rubberbanding was due to latency issues not PC performance?

 

 

BoBoDaClown

Originally posted by Sevenwind


I had an x850XT or whatever it was called for AGP and it ran DDO pretty solid. I think I ran on max and turned off all shadows. But thing to consider is back then the options to tweak the game were not as great as they have now. (Example: I think the texture cache, crowd control, etc.) Least I don't think they were in the game at the time I had DDO.
I thought rubberbanding was due to latency issues not PC performance?
 
 

thanks guys, will look into those video cards.

 

It always seem to be reported as a latency issue, but I have never had it on this older machine when I swapped my  video card (a 7600gt) into it.  I ran it for a couple of weeks without rubberbanding, where as while the older radeon is in, I get game ending rubber-banding 80% of days I play(within 1st minutes I get rooted to the spot).

 

So, despite conventional wisdom, it seems hardware related to me.

 

anyway, thanks for the advice!

mindspat

Be sure to get a card with 512mb ram.  Some cards have two or three versions with different RAM and if you can get one with ddr3(256bit) you'll be glad you had. 

Check out this page: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=AGP+512MB

 

 

BoBoDaClown

I could be wrong, But I don't think 512 cards are compatible with this rig?

 

So, I installed the Athlon 2400+, and the game still rubber-banded, to the point you cannot move off the spot, at all.  So, I then moved my Nvid7600gt into her computer, and moved the radeon9600 into mine.  Now it runs sweet.

At medium graphics on 1280x1024 it seems to run fine, without having done a raid yet.

 

What I am curious about is, how come my computer which runs at a similar speed(AMD 2600+), is now running her crappy graphics card, and has 1/2 a gig less RAM is actually running the game far better?

 

Is that the result of the motherboard being a bit newer?  Or maybe some driver/software/bios issues?

 

cheers for the help!

 

We can play now!!!

pfloydguy84

maybe your RAM is faster?Also, her comp could be bottlenecked with that cpu.An athlon 2400 is pretty bad, and prolly cant take full advantage of the graphics card.Also, I suggest shutting down any non crucial programs in the background while playing DDO.Update all your drivers if you havent and defragment the harddrive.

mindspat

 

Originally posted by BoBoDaClown


I could be wrong, But I don't think 512 cards are compatible with this rig?
So, I installed the Athlon 2400+, and the game still rubber-banded, to the point you cannot move off the spot, at all.  So, I then moved my Nvid7600gt into her computer, and moved the radeon9600 into mine.  Now it runs sweet.
At medium graphics on 1280x1024 it seems to run fine, without having done a raid yet.
What I am curious about is, how come my computer which runs at a similar speed(AMD 2600+), is now running her crappy graphics card, and has 1/2 a gig less RAM is actually running the game far better?
Is that the result of the motherboard being a bit newer?  Or maybe some driver/software/bios issues?
cheers for the help! We can play now!!!

I thought the 9600 was equivalent to the ti4200.  I owned the later and wouldn't even think about playing DDO with it installed. 

 

It sounds right that you're getting better performance from the 7600gt since it should be a superior card of the two.

and I think I misunderstood.  You're getting better performance with the 9600?  If so, maybe a driver issue?

mindspat

Check out this write up on System Requirements.  I'm linking the page regarding different video cards and cpu's but you'll want to start at page 1 for the whole sche-bang. 

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/see-through-the-specs/a-2008030595717429063/p-4

Hope this was helpful. 

BoBoDaClown

mindspat, to clarify:

 

I normally have the nvid7600 in my own machine, with the rad9600 in my gf's, but due to the terrible performance i swapped them over.(the nvid7600 was awesome in my machine, but couldnt even play due to rubberbanding with the the 9600 in hers)

 

So now my machine: 2.08ghz off a AMD2600+, 1gig RAM, radeon9600

hers: 2.0ghz off a AMD2400+, 1.5gig RAM, nvid7600

Just off those values I would have thought her machine would now be running better, but it isn't. 

My machine is running really well:      1280x1024, medium graphics atm, probably gonna up to high, it's very smooth, looks good, despite the antiquated video card.

Her machine is running OK:      Just did a 6man explorer of Gianthold last night.  Same setting at above, 1280x1024, medium graphics, slightly jittery, fps seem to stay mainly between 20-40.  Little worried about raid performance.

 

Like you said, maybe it's a driver issue.

 

I will read that link you posted later.  Just got back from work and am feeling too lazy atm

Cheers for the help!

 

 

 

BoBoDaClown

JUst read it.  Interestiing.

 

The rankings were also pretty informative.

 

The radeon9600 is running DDO pretty well thought

 

cheers matey