FOR the love of god, HELP!

[jollydumple19]

OK, here's how it is. I got PS a while ago and loved it, but my comp sucks. I usually run at about 15 fps in the sanc. I've tried updating drivers, setting all the settings as low as possible, and a lot of other crap that didn't work. If anyone can give me some tips on how to increase my frameerate drastically, please do. Also, i might get a new vid card, which will probably solve the problem. I want some feedback before i buy it though, so let me know what u think.

vid card (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-164-021&DEPA=1)

[martyr]

that's an OK card.

tell us what you've got for a system now and we'll give you some suggestions

[BizSAR]

The 9600 is ok. F.Y.I., tho, that no game to be released in the foreseeable future (not even Half-Life 2) will use any more than 128Mb on the card. Therefore, I'd suggest getting a 9800Pro 128Mb. It should cost about the same and you'll get more bang for your buck. I have one and it rox in PS (I do have a 2.2Ghz system with a gig of RDRAM). That being said, there's no reason not to max out your memory. PS will take all it can get.

[MrPaul]

Before I see the system I'll bet you need MOAR RAMZORZ!!1!one
If not then.. bleh.

[martyr]

The 9600 is ok. F.Y.I., tho, that no game to be released in the foreseeable future (not even Half-Life 2) will use any more than 128Mb on the card.

actually, you'll see games at higher resolutions (1600x1200) using that extra 128.
alternatively, you'll see a big difference when you're performing highly-texture intensive operations (doom3)

ref: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040809/index.html

[BizSAR]

Of course, Doom3 doesn't look very good at 1600x1200 using high detail in Doom 3 for most cards out there, but at 1280x1024 and below the 9800Pro 128Mb rox.

Odd, but thanks for the clarification/article. Now, are there any benchmarks for the 9600XT 256Mb vs. the 9800Pro 128Mb?

Anyway, let's see the rest of the stats on this system...

[Rbstr]

acctualy doom3 on its highest settins uses over 256mb of textures, it needs a 512 meg cards (except with the X800 3dc compression stuff)

[MrPaul]

Speaking of which, is the Radeon 9600 any good? Better than my GeForce 5200FX I know, but how much better (is $'s or �'s - they have some on eBay and I would buy one cheap, dunno if it's worth it though...)

Found this (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27387&item=5123224439&rd=1) .
Any good?

[Rbstr]

9600 pro is currently the best mid range out there.

whats the price range you have for a new Vidcard?($ plz)

[BizSAR]

I don't want to get off topic, but some of those textures are stored in the paging file, otherwise, a 128Mb card simply wouldn't function. I guess how well that works out depends again on what the rest of jollydumple19's system is comprised of.

jollydumple19?

[Pogostickx]

the video card is more than fine IMO...i had a gf2mx 100/200 and PS was actually playable with it. my bet is the proc is older or ram is very low. :(

[Electrofreak]

PS is much more reliant on CPU and RAM than your graphics card, in general.

[Rbstr]

very true, in going for a cel 2.4 @2.8 ghz to a 2.8p4 at stock i got 40-50 FPS increase