Stuck at uncle's

[Westside]

For the next four month (one semester) I am stuck at uncle's with an ass old computer (athlon 2000+ with 512mb of RAM), luckily, my pop's computer's got a integrated video, so I can sneak the Geforce 6800 AGP card out, since he only uses it for business. However, since the CPU is crappy, how bad will the framerates drop? My pop's computer has an athlon 64 3600+ with 1 gig of RAM (I know, not much better), but it runs every game I have (AOE III, Need for speed Carbon, etc.) with above average performance for me (30+ is good enough).

 

[FAST6191]

First you can play games on a rig like this quite easily (especially if you get the card) but be prepared to work for it, take a hit in the "prettiness" department and jump through a few hoops.

The 6XXX line should be supported but the current drivers so start with them. Go into the options and rather than leave everything to the application try setting options right down (minimal AA etc). A lot of the time you have to train yourself to tell the difference and stop long enough to look for it.

I assume overclocking is out of the question (these older althlons were normally considered the best OCing processors until the core2 line came along: 2GHz should be a breeze and a ). If that does not work and assuming it is not a dell or such with locked down BIOS consult a guide on things to change (update that as well if you can) as that can squeeze a bit more out of them.

You may have to sacrifice resolution (not great for AOE so be prepared to sacrifice some other stuff if you want the higher res here). If you have the option go with 16 or 24 bit colour (only skin tones will really be apparent most of the time and you can get a bit of a speed up, this may be mute though if the card is good (I am not sure about these ones))
Consider cracking stuff if you have not already: a drive (be it a hard drive or CD) spinning up can destabilise things a bit.

The ram may prove a killer, try tweaking things to force usage down (if you end up using the virtual memory it really is too late) and pull some serious optimisation (disabling firewall, closing AV, any and all non essential stuff (sound, wireless, chat, services.. all can clock several megabytes each which eventually runs to about 50).
Get a windows tweaker and turn off as much crap as you can bear (animated windows, cursors....). Also overclocking the ram or underclocking and reducing timings can help some.

Finally when you are installing the new card clean it out and tidy the cables: extra air flow means cooler insides and less lowering of clockspeed when things heat up (i.e. mid game).

The usual defrag drive, disable indexing.... should also be considered.

Finally: those $10 racks in supermarkets are a veritable goldmine for situations like this.


Good luck.

 

[Westside]

First you can play games on a rig like this quite easily (especially if you get the card) but be prepared to work for it, take a hit in the "prettiness" department and jump through a few hoops.

The 6XXX line should be supported but the current drivers so start with them. Go into the options and rather than leave everything to the application try setting options right down (minimal AA etc). A lot of the time you have to train yourself to tell the difference and stop long enough to look for it.

I assume overclocking is out of the question (these older althlons were normally considered the best OCing processors until the core2 line came along: 2GHz should be a breeze and a ). If that does not work and assuming it is not a dell or such with locked down BIOS consult a guide on things to change (update that as well if you can) as that can squeeze a bit more out of them.

You may have to sacrifice resolution (not great for AOE so be prepared to sacrifice some other stuff if you want the higher res here). If you have the option go with 16 or 24 bit colour (only skin tones will really be apparent most of the time and you can get a bit of a speed up, this may be mute though if the card is good (I am not sure about these ones))
Consider cracking stuff if you have not already: a drive (be it a hard drive or CD) spinning up can destabilise things a bit.

The ram may prove a killer, try tweaking things to force usage down (if you end up using the virtual memory it really is too late) and pull some serious optimisation (disabling firewall, closing AV, any and all non essential stuff (sound, wireless, chat, services.. all can clock several megabytes each which eventually runs to about 50).
Get a windows tweaker and turn off as much crap as you can bear (animated windows, cursors....). Also overclocking the ram or underclocking and reducing timings can help some.

Finally when you are installing the new card clean it out and tidy the cables: extra air flow means cooler insides and less lowering of clockspeed when things heat up (i.e. mid game).

The usual defrag drive, disable indexing.... should also be considered.

Finally: those $10 racks in supermarkets are a veritable goldmine for situations like this.


Good luck.

Thanks for the help, I'll start with OCing the CPU, as it is a custom PC and you can overclock it pretty well, around 1.9GHZ.

 

[Darkforce]

Just play some older games!

 

[Westside]

Just play some older games!

Well, I would like to, but I played all the good ones already. :'(

 

[jargus]

Don't even try complaining. I spent nearly 10 years with the most suck computer ever.
Pentium I processor 166MHZ
32MB Ram (Later 64)
Windows 95-98(2003)-XP Home(2005)
4GB Hard Drove, later 40
About 7 or 8 CD Drives
Dial-up internet

I had this setup for nearly 10 years. I finaly got a new this summer. I've never played a high-end PC game. You have been spoiled Westside.

 

[Westside]

Don't even try complaining. I spent nearly 10 years with the most suck computer ever.
Pentium I processor 166MHZ
32MB Ram (Later 64)
Windows 95-98(2003)-XP Home(2005)
4GB Hard Drove, later 40
About 7 or 8 CD Drives
Dial-up internet

I had this setup for nearly 10 years. I finaly got a new this summer. I've never played a high-end PC game. You have been spoiled Westside.

 

[WK416]

Don't even try complaining. I spent nearly 10 years with the most suck computer ever.
Pentium I processor 166MHZ
32MB Ram (Later 64)
Windows 95-98(2003)-XP Home(2005)
4GB Hard Drove, later 40
About 7 or 8 CD Drives
Dial-up internet

I had this setup for nearly 10 years. I finaly got a new this summer. I've never played a high-end PC game. You have been spoiled Westside.

O.O
Wow. All the way to XP? I'm a little surprised you didn't have Windows 3.1 on that list. I started with that, but never stayed with a comp as long as you did.

I wonder how you would get Vista running on that machine.

 

[Westside]

Don't even try complaining. I spent nearly 10 years with the most suck computer ever.
Pentium I processor 166MHZ
32MB Ram (Later 64)
Windows 95-98(2003)-XP Home(2005)
4GB Hard Drove, later 40
About 7 or 8 CD Drives
Dial-up internet

I had this setup for nearly 10 years. I finaly got a new this summer. I've never played a high-end PC game. You have been spoiled Westside.

O.O
Wow. All the way to XP? I'm a little surprised you didn't have Windows 3.1 on that list. I started with that, but never stayed with a comp as long as you did.

I wonder how you would get Vista running on that machine.

No, the bigger question is... How the hell do you get XP running on that?? I had a PII awith 128mb RAM at one time with XP, and I just gave up, burn the computer (well, I actually short circuited the PSU) and asked my parents to get a new one for me.