Gaming Question

[lavenderAC]

My friend has a P3 1Ghz computer.
Specs:
Video card: Geforce4 MX 400SE
Memory: 256 SDRam

He has problem play certain new games such as
1) Prince of persia
2) Deus ex Invisible War
lag like dog:
1) star wars knights of the old republic
2) X2 The Threat

Now, I have suggested him to grab the Radeon 9600XT card, but it can only be running at 4x since his mobo only support up to 4x.
Will that fix the problem? Or should he grab more rams as well?

 

[cas0496]

Definitely go with the vid card upgrade....I think you will see a world of difference. And if your gonna spend the money...why not get a better mobo and an AMD processor. AMD is geared more for gamers anyway. Good luck!!

 

[lavenderAC]

Thanks, but he doesn't want to change the processor since it will be like changing the whole comp. I will tell him to get the video card though

 

[Deadguy]

I wouldnt put a XT in go with a 9600 pro 4 pipe or a 9700 pro 8 pipe.

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030714/vga_card_guide-12.html

 

[miller]

I wouldnt buy that 9600, its not much of a speed upgrade video card wise. I have a friend with a 2600+ and 512 ram that runs games great with that mx440. I think a ram upgrade would be the way to go. Video card would be little difference performance wise.

 

[Deadguy]

Isnt it a Direct x 8 supported card though with little 9x ability.Like Miller said memory would help also but he really should make that big leap to a new board,cpu and memory.If you get more memory.Your not gonna want to carry it over to a new board.

 

[Harper]

Since we are on the subject... I am planning a LAN Party for the easter week end. One of my house mates has the following system :-

ASUSTEK CUSI-C Motherboard
P-III 866
384 MB SDRAM @ PC133
On board SMA VGA (Currently maxed out at 64Mb)

Now the guy really does not care about really nice graphics. As long as the game does not LAG, he is fine.

Now I can borrow some parts from work for the week end.
Eg. A SiS PCI 32Mb Video Card
(I am not buying this guy a PCI GeForce unless he give me the money)

Do you think this will be enough to able to play?

Games being playied will be
* HALO
* Lords Of EverQuest
* War Craft III (currently works on his machine)
* Counter Strike (currently works on his machine)
* UT2k3 (I am going to right that one off as not playable)

Alternatively, I do have my screw around box that is kicking a Duron 1300 and AGP Slot. I could just MAX that one out. But it's a last resort, but I really don't want to go down that path as :-
* I want to use that computer to host the games.
* I would like to avoid setting any presadents with him.

 

[Apokalipse]

I have a friend who upgraded from a P3 1GHZ, and a TNT2 card to a Geforce FX 5200, AMD Athlon XP 2500 and a Gigabyte GA-7NNXP. his PC runs really smoothly now; If I were him I would have gone with a Radeon 9600, but the Geforce is still a lot better than the TNT2