Best upgrade for UT2k4

[CrazyFunkyTown]

Thanks again for all of the replies. To woodchuck I am kind of leaning towards what you and others have been saying, but the problem is that if I upgrade my CPU I need a new mobo and then I need new RAM, and RAM is a rip-off right now. Anyone have any suggestions for good RAM - perhaps a FS/FT forum (I live in Canada so I don't suppose the AAT board would be the best) and pricenetwork.ca is the only similar forums I know of based in Canada.

 

[CrystalBay]

UT2k4 loves Ram period.........

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: beatle

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
its not balanced, the ti500 is dog slow. even a low end video card would give him a decent boost, his vid card is his bottleneck. and of course a super high end card wouldn't be called for, would make the rest of his system teh bottleneck.

You have to be kidding... The 1800+ is not much of a performer, especially when running @ stock (1533mhz) speeds. That's not much faster than my tbird, which was a very similar chip, clock for clock.

With the new cards hitting the market in the next month, the prices of current cards will drop even more. "Sampson Simpson, I stick by my story!"

eh, i just know i ram ut2k3 on a xp 2k+ just fine. i saw it go from unplayable with a normal radeon ddr to playable smooth at low settings on a radeon 9k pro. i have a faster system now, but vid card def makes a difference.

 

[myocardia]

Crazy, here's what you need to do: buy a mobile Barton (I recommend the 2600-- mine is running at 2.5ghz), either an Abit NF7-S or a DFI NFII Ultra Infinity (both around $100 US), and some PC3200 ram. You can get all of that for less than $400. Then, sell your current motherboard, cpu, and memory together, for about $125. Then, you only need to add about $75 or so to what you got for your old stuff, and you can add a nice 9800 Pro, and you'll have a kickin' system for quite awhile.

 

[akshayt]

You should get a AMD ATHalon 2800 64 or AMD 3400 or higher if your budget permits.
Else take AMD 3000.

Add atleast 512mb more ram.

Take atleast 128mb radeon 9800pro.

 

[sandorski]

Hmm, are you talking $400 cdn or US? If CDN, then a 9600 Pro might be a better choice, but that would still be an iffy choice as it would only allow a RAM upgrade(512mb PC2700 or 3200). In reality, upgrading any of the 3(cpu, vidcard, or RAM) will give you some improvements, but all 3 would be preferable.

If it's $US, then do the works, but if you run a little short the 9600 Pro is a good compromise(remember that Upgrading the CPU will likely require some new ram).

 

[CrazyFunkyTown]

The $400 was USD, I phrased my question as that just to avoid some confusion, but then I mentioned I live in Canada so to clarify that is ~$400 USD. I am starting to get a good idea as to what my upgrade strategy should be, I appreciate all of your responses. Several people have mentioned add another 512 MB of RAM. The problem is I only have PC2100 RAM right now, and it is in two sticks at that. I would need to buy either 512 or 1 GB of new RAM if I upgrade my mobo and CPU. I think I will get the Mobile Barton, new mobo and new RAM. Then as someone suggested I will sell my old things and put that money towards a video card upgrade. Thanks again, this forum rocks and is very helpful!

 

[Lonyo]

Just went from 9800Pro, 1GB RAM, XP1900+ to all the same except a mobile Barton 2500+ @ 2400.
A nice jump in UT2k4 performance. (Very nice jump)

 

[gauravsharma311]

put game at minimum resolution (640x) and run. any slowdown will be due to cpu. if no slowdowns, then cpu is not limiting factor, spend money on graphics instead.