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Small Upgrade yields BIG results

jonks

jonks

Lifer
I have a p4 @ 2.66, 640mb, and a brand spankin new bfg 6800gt, to go w/my new 2001fp. So i was somewhat chagrined to see that in Doom3 I could only play at 1280x1024 on High with no AA in order to get decent framerate. So I made some changes. Upped my Ram to 1 gig, defragged all my drives and switched from Norton Internet Security/Antivirus to ZoneAlarm Security Suite. I'd bet the Ram made the most difference but now I'm playing at 1600x1200, Ultra Quality with 2xAA and its smoove. I thought I was CPU limited but mayhap i was simply Ram limited. So for those with midlevel systems like mine, there is hope!
 
I used to play UT2003 a while back on a machine with 256MB of RAM (that was running Windows XP). It wasn't pretty. 😛

1GB of RAM = :thumbsup:
 
yer, antivirus = crap. just dont dl pron and stupid files. If you want to antivirus, just scan every month or so, i hate real-time protection sucking my resources :/
 
It's the Norton suite. My new notebook was DEAD slow in everything - disabled the stuff, and voila, instant speed!
 
I have not used an installed antivirus app since about November, or whenever free AVG went from v.6 to v.7, instead I scan online once a month and I have not had one infection yet.
 
Norton's utilities & Anti-Virus are usefull, so long as they are never automatically running in the background... I have Nortons System Works but NONE OF IT AUTO-RUNS.

As mentioned previously, just practice good web habits and occasionally run a system check every now and then.

I have 512MB myself and have been thinking about jumping to 1Gig. My Doom3 is a wee bit sluggish at where I'd like to run it on my system (see below). I'm hoping 1Gig will help... I just gotta find that darn memory code for going over 512MB in WinME (I have a dual-boot ME/XP system).
 
I don't know about norton but I find that running Macafee V 7 Enterprise seems to be pretty good about resources. I run their auto-checker in the background and it seems to do a nice job catching nasties coming into my comp. This happens less now that I don't use the likes of Kazaa, but it still happens (last thing it caught was about 4 weeks ago). I am currently also running MS spyware thing at the same time just out of curiosity.

I also went up to a gig (from 512) recently and it was freaking awesome. Games played good before and improved some, but the largest improvement by far was the time it takes after a game closes to use other programs on your comp. Previously after jumping out of UT 2004, Morrowind, Doom3 or any other game I would have to wait from 10 seconds to a full 45 seconds before I could do anything with my computer (IE windows would sluggishly open). Now everything responds instantly after the game closes... so nice!

-spike
 
I turn off all auto protection except Firewall, depends if I play online or not, before I play a game.
 
Originally posted by: Peter
It's the Norton suite. My new notebook was DEAD slow in everything - disabled the stuff, and voila, instant speed!
Click to expand...
LOL. I agree wholeheartedly with this anti-Norton sentiment! Be Norton-free and be free!
 
Browse with Firefox and don't click on anything questionable. I don't even use anti-virus protection.

Once a month I load in Anti-Vir and check, but never find any problems, then simply uninstall.
 
I have heard that if you're going to use Norton, or any other AV, have it do a complete system scan once, of everything. Then set it to only scan files that are new or altered. Anybody know if this makes a difference?
 
Well I do surf "questionable" sites (sue me) and don't want to have to worry about whether something I'm clicking on might give me a virus. I've gotten viruses in the past and its so much easier to prevent getting one than getting rid of a persistent one, especially considering that if it screws up your files, well, your screwed. I don't have a backup drive (sue me again) and would kinda hate to lose my mp3's/photos/etc because I didn't want to sacrifice a 4% system lag. I've got no problem turning it off for games, but say in UT2k4, when you connect to an online server and it downloads maps or packs that you dont have, couldn't you conceivably pick up some bad bugs if AV isn't running? What about firewall vulnerability if you disable it before playing online games? It's not really an issue cuz I'm playing UT2k4 at 16x12, 4xAA/8xAF, ultra everything w/no problems so this is more academic or useful for future info.
 
SUE! SUE! 😛


I think you'll be fine leaving the AntiVirus software on while in gaming, and personally, I would recommend that you do. Its not that you could get a virus from the UT2K4 servers, because I really don't think that will happen. What is more likely is that you could catch a virus because some viruses\worms actually "hunt" WinXP. This is the reason that you just really can't go without AntiVirus anymore.

If your afraid of the software sapping the resources from your machine, then get AVG Free. Not only is it free, but it takes virtually no resources to run, and its efficient to boot! I use it all the time, and run it constantly, and I can't tell the difference between when it is running and its not, even in games (WOW, I just sounded like an AVG salesman 😛 ).
 
😉
Originally posted by: sirjonk
Well I do surf "questionable" sites (sue me) and don't want to have to worry about whether something I'm clicking on might give me a virus. I've gotten viruses in the past and its so much easier to prevent getting one than getting rid of a persistent one, especially considering that if it screws up your files, well, your screwed. I don't have a backup drive (sue me again) and would kinda hate to lose my mp3's/photos/etc because I didn't want to sacrifice a 4% system lag. I've got no problem turning it off for games, but say in UT2k4, when you connect to an online server and it downloads maps or packs that you dont have, couldn't you conceivably pick up some bad bugs if AV isn't running? What about firewall vulnerability if you disable it before playing online games? It's not really an issue cuz I'm playing UT2k4 at 16x12, 4xAA/8xAF, ultra everything w/no problems so this is more academic or useful for future info.
Click to expand...

Isn't it funny how even consorting with loose women ONLINE can give you a virus? 😉
 
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