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BH6 Hardware upgrade for Unreal Tournament

S

StephenM

Member
Howdy all-

I'm looking for suggestions for a minor upgrade for my current computer, with the goal of improved frame rates with Unreal Tournament. I'm looking to spend ~$200, with a time frame of mid-March. Currently I'm running a 900 Mhz Celeron with a GeForce2MX (more details below). I'm looking for a simple plug-n-play type upgrade to last me until late-summer, when I'll most likely be building an all-new machine for UT2. After searching the archives, the two options I'm weighing are:

1) Powerleap adapter w/ 1.3-1.4 Ghz Tualatin Celeron, whichever is available by then

2) Geforce 4 ti4400/4200, depending on eventual street price

Right now I'm leaning towards the Geforce 4, since it will be usable in the next rig I build, whereas the Powerleap adapter is pretty much a dead end. However, I've always heard that UT is a very CPU intensive game, so I'm thinking maybe a CPU upgrade will buy me more frames than a new video card. Also, I've had a 300A@450 & a 600@900 in this motherboard, so there's some appeal to one last CPU upgrade before I put it to rest. I do realize that the most effective upgrade, $-wise, would probably be a new MB + low end Athlon XP. Unfortunately, I really don't have the time for a whole rebuild + OS reinstall. Plus, I don't think my current case has enough watts or airflow.

A few months back I found a UT benchmark site that had 1000+ user-submitted benchmarks, with all combinations of hardware. Of course, I didn't bookmark it, and I can't find it anymore. 🙁 It would have been useful for this type of decision. Most of the major review sites don't bench older hardware, not for UT anyway.

Anyway, to sum up, ~$200, for an Abit BH6, for faster UT. 1 or 2?

TIA,

StephenM


Current PC:
Abit BH6, rev 1 w/SS bios
Celeron 600 oc'ed to 900 mhz (100 mhz FSB) on "Slocket" socket370 -> slot 1 adapter
256 meg Crucial PC133 ram, CL2
32 MB Gigabyte Geforce 2MX video card
Western Digital 40 MB 7200 RPM HD
8/4/32 Sony CDRW
16X Lite-On DVD drive
Windows 2000
Generic case & keyboard, ~200 watt el-cheapo PS, Logitech optical wheelmouse, old SB sound card, Netgear NIC, 19" ADI microscan monitor
 
UT is VERY cpu dependant. If you want to upgrade -just- for UT, than get a new cpu, I was using a slot a tbird (rare) 700 with a voodoo 3 and switched to an tbird 1400 with the same voodoo, and it was a major increase in framerate, your celeron 900 is roughly = to a tbird 700 .
If you want to look toward the future get the geforce.
 
I'll say the opposite. UT is very playable on a C900 with a decent video card. Overclock the C900 to a 112 FSB for a 1008 MHz (every little bit helps). That GF2MX has to go! Get a GF3 or GF4. Whatever fits the budget. UT will play just fine. Plus, you will be able to use it in your new system.

Edit....oops..I see you are already overclocking your C600 to 900. 1008 would be pushing it I guess. Still same idea. Get a new video card. It will help a lot and will be there for the new system when you do upgrade.
 
Either upgrade is going to be an improvement in framerate. With that being said I'd go for the Geforce 3 or 4 since you could take it to your next machine.
 
Also you might look through the old video card reviews here on anandtech. Could be some good comparisons between a Geforce2mx and Geforce2 GTS. Granted it's not a Geforce 3, but it could at least give you some info.
 
I would do an ECS K7S5A with the fastest Athlon XP you can afford to throw on it. That way you're in for under 200 bucks, can reuse your RAM, and can "hold out" on the video card longer or throw in a $49 Visiontek Geforce GTS-V. That should hold you for quite some time and would be more than enough for UT.
 
UT is not that new of a game. My copy of UT came with my Voodoo3 which was a just released card at the time. I think I was running a PII 400 back then. A C900 with a modern day video card will play UT just fine. In fact one of my kids PC's is a BH6, C1000 @ 1120 with a GF2 GTS card. UT plays very well on it.
 
Im running ut on a duron800 at 800 and ut plays just fine. I also running a geforce2mx400. Everything is at factory settings.😉
 
He has a GF2MX. That card sux no matter what you have for a CPU. All the cards in that test were considerably better. A video card upgrade will make a big improvement in UT with that system. He can also use it when he upgrades.
 
Oldfart : Explain this then. Linky

At resolutions below 1280x1024 performance of Geforce 2mx and a Geforce 4 is going to be NEGLIGABLE in UT. UT IS CPU dependent, the celeron is not going to max out even the lowly geforce 2mx at most resolutions.
 
UT has never benchd representative to real performance. I've played UT since the day it came out. I've had it on more CPU/Video card combos than I can count. One change I did was from a PIII 1G/Voodoo 3 to a Radeon64. The difference was huge. One of the kids PCs is a BH6 Celeron setup. Same on that one. I went from a Voodoo3 to a GF2 and it also made a world of difference. I'm going by my experiences with the game. A C900 with a decent video card will run UT well. Yes, a system upgrade will also make a very big difference. He is CPU limited one way, Video card limited the other.

My point was get a nice video card now that can still be used again in a new system instead of spending the money on the Powerleap upgrade which would not be reused in the future system. That was what he was asking.
 
This is kind of off the subject but are you using the Loki (sp?) OpenGL renderer or Direct 3D? If you are not using the Loki OpenGL render, try that first in combination with the high resolution textures. This actually runs faster despite using the high resolution texture since texture compression is enabled. Now, I know that the Loki renderer is not perfect but the grapics look far superior to Direct 3D and you should get a nice performance boost for free.
 
That kind of brings up another point. UT does not run well on a 32 meg card. This is true in D3D and VERY true using Loki OpenGL. The high res textures are huge and will choke a 32 meg card. I've used 32 and 64 Meg Radeon and GF2 cards as well as my current GF3. A 32 meg card is not "smooth". It doesn't show in benches, but you can feel it in gameplay. With Loki High res, its even more apparent than D3D.

Oops forgot! Yes, the High res OpenGl textures are really nice looking. You also need a decent amount of system ram (256 min) for it to work well.
 
oldfart:
In what way do you mean that UT is not smooth uning the Loki GL renderer and a 32MB card. Now, I can't comment on how it looks/feels with a 64MB card but my Geforce 1 & 2 that both have 32MB of DDR memory feel smooth to me. With both cards the FPS is well above 70 and IMO the game is as smooth as it can be. Also, a friend of mine has P4 1.4 and a Radeon VE w/ 64MB DDR memory and I was using a P3 733 and a Geforce DDR at the time and I thought that the game play on my system was far better. On top of that my system running at 1024x768 with the high res textures and his was running at 800x600 w/o them.
 
I guess it depends on what one considers smooth and also how the game is set up. I can easily tell the diff between a 32 meg Radeon or GF2 and the 64 meg versions (I've owned all 4 plus a GF3). The 32 meg cards get texture thrashing, while the 64 meg cards dont. It is most noticable on the 32 Meg Radeons. I never had a Radeon VE. From what I know, they are severly crippled as compared to a normal Radeon. I dont doubt that it doesn't play well.
 
I went from Voodoo3 to a Radeon 32mb ddr on a P2-400 and it made a world of difference in every game. Of course when I upgraded to a Celeron 850 with the radeon card it was a world of difference. Point is, his entire system is limiting him. Better to upgrade the video card now and take it with him to the new system than to upgrade the cpu and wish he had a better one in two months when he upgrades the rest of his system.

Just my opinion though.
 
Thanks for all the replys. I'm going with the video card, A GF4 ti4400, whenever they get down to around ~200 or so (hopefully in a few weeks). Being able to use it in my new machine was the deciding factor. Thanks again,

-StephenM
 
GO UT!

You won't see any framerate change with a gf4 vs a gf2 tho.

I have a V3 and 800x600 gives me ~100fps avg. Yea a gf2/4 looks better, but BAH! I'd own your ass with ripper SO THERE.

UT = all cpu

I agree get the gf4, but its not gonna help ut so don't be suprised. UT is dying anyways... competition is gone... /me awaits u2

And in U2 you're gf2 is going to be worthless basically, so gf4 is the good buy.
 
I don't think you will find a GF4 TI4400 down to $200 anytime soon cause supposedly the TI4200 is going to come out in about 2 months and it's supposed to retail for $200 US so the other cards will still be costly. If you want a better deal, get a Radeon 8500 retail, you should be able to find one soon for around $130-140 and it can do 275/275 straight out of the box.
 
Some performance improvements / other good stuff

800x600 or 1024x768 only
low world detail
medium model detail
no dynamic lighting
netspeed = 20000 (makes ut more responsive if you got a nice connect)
maxtickrate = 0 (makes ut more responsive)
turn off most of the hud... what do you really need? life weapons at the bottom of the screen? less = more fps
turn down teh gore... bunch of people dying = no fps with gore on high
turn off screen flashes - when you get shot it doesn't flash red
weapon = hidden .... imporves fps, improves your game - also no more mini flash.... makes u do more dmage with mini... can see where you are aiming
3d audio = off ... sounds bad, hurts fps, hurts game
theres a setting... ahh its in teh normal preferences... its a slider bar... teh higher its up when you run around you sway like you're relaly running... turn it all the way down.... defualt is up a litlte

uhhhh

theres also the cache setting... defualt is like 4MBs.. never seen it actaully help by raising it, but can't hurt to set it to 64MB or something

um um um

thats basiclaly all that makes any difference really.

oh yea, ping.



btw i'm bored... 6am and i can't sleep aaaahhhhh
 
I also have a Abit BH6, rev 1 w/SS bios. I run a 1.1gHz Pentium 3 and run it at the 124 bus (124x11 = 1364mHz). I can tell you that this is an awesome upgrade. You will probably need some ArticSilver III thermal compound and a good aftermarket heatsink/fan to hit this mark, but you could easily hit the 112 bus (112x11 = 1.23gHz).

I vote go for that route, as my system runs most games better than high end P4 and Athlon's... and I'm serious. I'll compare framerates with anyone (I'm running a GF3 @ 250/533).

This upgrade is simple and easy and cheap and I promise you, will be a superb upgrade. You know as I know, the BH6 is STILL the fastest motherboard EVER made.
 
Becks2k-

Thanks for the tips. They seemed to give me a little boost.

Chad-

Interesting option. Two questions:

1) Where'd you find 1.1 Ghz (100Mhz FSB) Pentium III? I checked the ususal suspects (newegg, mwave, tcwo) but couldn't find one. Ebay, maybe?

2) What else do you have on your PCI bus? As I'm sure you know, the Abit BH6 has no 1/4 divider, so 112/124 FSB gives you 37.3/41.3 PCI. I've got a Netgear NIC, but that's it. Sound card is ISA (yeah, that old). Not sure how well the NIC would handle the overclock.

-Stephen

 
3dspotlight has a very good UT tweak guide. This site has the best Game tweak guides I have seen. Also some very good OS tweaks. Check it out.

Chad, very nice BH6 system you got there.

I also have (kids PC) a BH6 rev 1 SS BIOS. It has a Celeron 1G @ 1120. 37.3 MHz PCI is not a problem. 41.3 is pushing it. You have to have very tolerant components. My primary system (see my rigs below) runs a 158 MHz FSB and 39.5 MHz PCI. No problems so far.
 
StephenM, if I were you, I'd buy a Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 Golden Sample card from Newegg ($180 was the price last time I checked on newegg). The Golden Sample has 128mb 4ns memory (allows for some MAJOR overclocking). O/C that sucker up to around the GF3 Ti500 speeds and you'll be one happy gamer. The GF4 Ti4xxx line isn't going to go down in price anytime soon (at least not in the Mid-March timeframe).

Here you go (from newegg.com):

Link to the Gainward Vid Card Page



<< Gainward/Cardexpet GeForce 3 Ti200 128MB (NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 GPU), Power Pack Golden Sample, 4ns 128MB DDR.Retail Box. Overclocking enhanced performance mode. TV-Out. Retail Box. Model#: GF3TI200 TI450-128MB Special FedEx Saver Shipping $6.00 >>



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Positive Consumer Feedback from Newegg
 
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