help... low fps

[username111]

hey all,

this is my system spec:
athlon 1800 xp (1.53 ghz)
768 ddr pc 2100 ram
sapphire ati radeon 9800 pro
cable modem

i get very low fps in game (about 10-20 in heavy outdoor fights and maybe even sub 10 during indoor base fights) and turning down details doesn't seem to help.... it also seems to crash every couple of hours at random times (sometimes not even at heavy battles). i tried defragging and i'm about to try formatting even, because i'm stumped. anyone know what the problem might be?

please help

jimmy

[Rbstr]

well your graphics card is not a problem, but you do have an older Athalon and slow memory.

PS is very memory intensive and you don't have very fast memory the norm now adays is ddr33 or pc 2700, and new p4's use DDR 400 or pc 3200. And it looks like you have 3 sticks of ram, and that means you aren't doing the double data rate (hence DDR).

But i don't think its you hardware, you may have a driver problem so try to update them all

[Ait'al]

DDR is not two sticks. thats double DDR! :ugh: (tell me if im wrong. I keep hearing people calling somehting else double DDR? I got my DDR types all mixed up again!8) i gotta get into stuff again. :p ) DDR was a change compared to how the old SIMMs processed info. its a change to the individual modules way of taking in info.

[Daleon]

Argh, come on.

DDR is always double data rate. It doesn't take any special memory config to make it be what it already is.

Dual Channel takes either matched or very similar pairs or specific combinations in certain memory slots to give you a LITTLE extra memory bandwidth. On AMD XP's its SOOOO little its barely 3-5% and is NOT noticable unless you're doing atleast 333mhz fsb. I crank mine to 200/400fsb so its a decent bit. Intel's with their 800mhz fsb though do take a decent bit more advantage of dual channel. But its still never that big a deal.

For original poster - Your CPU is way to freaking slow. You need atleast a 2ghz cpu these days. Your memory is 266mhz, meaning you can handle AMD XP cpu's that are 133/266 fsb. If your memory can overclock up to 333mhz you can go with a faster 166/333fsb, but I wouldn't count on it. So maybe look into getting an XP2400 or something. It might be enough and would be a cheap upgrade.

Otherwise - new mb, ram, cpu. Video is good but your not even coming close to taking advantage of it.

[Ait'al]

Yea i meant Dual!8) I thought they were coming out with a double DDR now, that had twice the bandwidth the normal did?

[NoSurrender]

yea such as daleon said your CPU/memory is NOT keeping up to the amount of data that the video card can handle. Ait'al just plz GO SIT IN A CORNER!

[username111]

Hey,

I've got a KT400 Motherboard from MSI that says it supports up to 2800+ or higher at fsb's 200/266/333. It also says that it supports three 184-pin 200/266/300/400 ddr sdrams. I guess I can upgrade my CPU for about a hundred bucks for 2000 MHZ or around. I could also get a stick of 512 pc2700 cheap apparently.....Does the FSB of my CPU have to match my memory speed?


Thanks a lot,

[Rbstr]

no but its helps if they are running syncronously (same speed)

[NoSurrender]

yea running memory at the same speed is key. You can really trash your whole overall computer speed if you mix speeds. Trust me i know from experience :p

[Daleon]

Yea DDR2 is out and mb's will be using it shortly.

With your MB I'd suggest going barton xp2600, but you can push it to 2800/333. As far as ram, best to just buying faster ram than what you need. This lets you possibly run it at the slower speed with better timings. Say buy pc3200 or 3500 and you'll never have any problems and can possibly do 2-2-2-6 or close. But 2700 will get the job done.

[Rbstr]

yes/no lots of stuff over ddr400 in not capable of going lower than cl 3 do to archiatechture (SP) of the very fast speed, even when its running slower than it can. Some new chips are called universal and they can eitehr go realy fast(ddr433-500) at decent timings or normal (ddr400) at very fast timings. OCZ, and Cosiar have some of these but i do not know the product names. I do know that when i get my memory upgrade i and going to get some Corsair XMS pro ddr 500 sticks if possible.

[NoSurrender]

how does this go from i need comp help to a discussion on memory companies? anyways Maximum PC showed OCZ didnt fare to well. From their findings id go w/ Kingston HyperX once you hit Overclocking country.

[Ait'al]

Will there be a corsair DDR2 set of memory equivilent to the twinx ddr500 pro they have now? 8)

and what is that 2-2-2-6 thing mean again i cant remember? Exactly!?

[Daleon]

There were a few good OCZ parts, ones that used winbond-5 chips which are good for oc'ing. Other than that, most of their stuff doesn't perform exceptionally.

I've never really been big on kingston stuff. Prolly dates back to when I was paying $200 for 4megs of ram, bastages.

I use PC3500 Corsair XMS cl2 and do 2-2-2-6 1t. This is about as good as it gets for memory timings. I can't even seem to find Corsair XMS higher than 3200 rated to do these memory timings anymore which sux. But don't need more ram atm thankfully. The memory timings just give a small boost to memory speed performance but if you clock the memory to high with to low of settings your system won't be stable. I use prime95 for memory tests.

[Rbstr]

Yeah i can't find any memory that used the WB5's anyware, i nkwo winbond stoped making them but i would excpect there would be stocks somewere, 2-2-2-5 1t is the best timing of any memory i have seen, yet they seem to not be making it anymore wich sucks, Auto cad LT 04 just came today and i can start that job for my dad, i can get a nice pair of sticks for that money.