Suggestions on upgrades to improve my performance and FPS for Games.

I have gotten into Star Wars Galaxies and my computer lags pretty bad even at lower resolutions. I was looking to upgrade for better performance but i have been out of the loop for a few months. Here is what i have and suggestions would be very much appreciated:
P4 2.4b
Gigabyte sinxp
ATI 9700 pro
512 mb corsair ram (soon to be 1 gig kingston hyperx, dual 512 sticks)
dual WD 80gig SE's
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (wondering if a audigy 2 would sound much better?)

Thanks for taking the time to look, I didnt know whether i would see a bigger gain with either the cpu(HT and 800fsb), new mobo or what. Is intel still on top for performance?
TIA
-Matt

 

[Lonyo]

The RAM should do.
I remember a post in Software saying that 1 gig of RAM is pretty much a must for SWG. Wait for your extra 512MB of RAM to arrive and see how it goes from there, but it might help quite a bit.

Save the rest of your money for later in the year. No point in buying a new mobo that won't be able to support future processors (whether you get Intel or AMD). People will say "wait and wait and you'll never get anything" but since both of the next 2 processors (Prescott and Hammer) will need new motherboards, this is a time to wait. See how that RAM goes.

 

Cool, i have seen the HT chips and just got a little antsy, didnt know if they would help or do next to nothing.....Should be arriving Monday .
-Matt

 

[Wingznut]

I believe that SWG is multithreaded, so a new P4 w/HT would improve performance.

But I agree with Lonyo... Get up to 1gb of RAM and then re-evaluate your system.

 

[zephyrprime]

Have you thought that maybe the problem is your internet connection and not your computer?

 

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Have you thought that maybe the problem is your internet connection and not your computer?

The Star Wars Galaxies is multithreaded? If thats true then i will get a p4c asap!
My inet connection is really good, i play CS all the time and i would know if it were going haywire, my ping in there is good as well but the FPS sucks...

 

[pelikan]

Have you optimized your operating system for gaming? That can make a noticeable difference.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: pelikan
Have you optimized your operating system for gaming? That can make a noticeable difference.

How do you recommend doing that? I haven't seen any "gaming optimizations" other than simply turning off services you don't use... which really isn't specific to gaming optimizations.

On a different note... is it just me, or has there been more and more Intel users complaining about crappy FPS measurements in games lately?

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: pelikan
Have you optimized your operating system for gaming? That can make a noticeable difference.

How do you recommend doing that? I haven't seen any "gaming optimizations" other than simply turning off services you don't use... which really isn't specific to gaming optimizations.

On a different note... is it just me, or has there been more and more Intel users complaining about crappy FPS measurements in games lately?

Yeah, services is part of what I'm talking about. None of this may be new to you, but there's a guide here are tweaktown that covers a lot of what I do. I've found that getting rid of adware/spyware makes a big difference. I use spybot and adaware. Then I add this list to restricted sites in internet explorer so that I never get any more adware/spyware. And then of course bios optimizations.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: Phocas
I have gotten into Star Wars Galaxies and my computer lags pretty bad even at lower resolutions. I was looking to upgrade for better performance but i have been out of the loop for a few months. Here is what i have and suggestions would be very much appreciated:
P4 2.4b
Gigabyte sinxp
ATI 9700 pro
512 mb corsair ram (soon to be 1 gig kingston hyperx, dual 512 sticks)
dual WD 80gig SE's
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (wondering if a audigy 2 would sound much better?)

Thanks for taking the time to look, I didnt know whether i would see a bigger gain with either the cpu(HT and 800fsb), new mobo or what. Is intel still on top for performance?
TIA
-Matt

wtf?! those specs lag!??!?!?! your machine is probably in the top 1% of all machines out there. Whats the target audience of star wars galaxies? owners of top .1% of machines out there?

:disgust:

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: Phocas
I have gotten into Star Wars Galaxies and my computer lags pretty bad even at lower resolutions. I was looking to upgrade for better performance but i have been out of the loop for a few months. Here is what i have and suggestions would be very much appreciated:
P4 2.4b
Gigabyte sinxp
ATI 9700 pro
512 mb corsair ram (soon to be 1 gig kingston hyperx, dual 512 sticks)
dual WD 80gig SE's
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (wondering if a audigy 2 would sound much better?)

Thanks for taking the time to look, I didnt know whether i would see a bigger gain with either the cpu(HT and 800fsb), new mobo or what. Is intel still on top for performance?
TIA
-Matt

wtf?! those specs lag!??!?!?! your machine is probably in the top 1% of all machines out there. Whats the target audience of star wars galaxies? owners of top .1% of machines out there?

:disgust:

Actually that processor is at the lower end for a gaming rig.

 

2.4 @ 2.8 (even not overclocked) is lower end? ok

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Phocas
2.4 @ 2.8 (even not overclocked) is lower end? ok

Nowhere in your post does it say your 2.4 is running at 2.8... and yes, a 2.4 Ghz P4 would be at the lower end of a gaming rig.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Phocas
2.4 @ 2.8 (even not overclocked) is lower end? ok

Nowhere in your post does it say your 2.4 is running at 2.8... and yes, a 2.4 Ghz P4 would be at the lower end of a gaming rig.

Think about it Phocas, that like only running a 2400+ in the AMD world...

Not that fast...

 

[Regs]

Well a 2.4c with Pc3700 ram I would consider top-o-line. Overclock it to 3.2+ Ghz and you have yourself one fast ass system. If your system lags with a 2.4b and a 9700pro, then it isn't hardware related. More than likely software related.

 

[maluckey]

As an avid gamer, UT2003, Serious Sam, IL-2, etc. I am guessing you are not so much hardware limited, as non-optimized. Turning off services is great, but not really necessary if you run over 512mb memory, and a fast Main HDD. I get in-game 75 FPS average in UT2003, with no services turned off, and older, slower hardware than you (except processor). Your system should kick a** if you take the time to set up the video card (in BIOS, and in-game), your memory timings (as fast as they go before crashing), and the game itself.

 

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Phocas
2.4 @ 2.8 (even not overclocked) is lower end? ok

Nowhere in your post does it say your 2.4 is running at 2.8... and yes, a 2.4 Ghz P4 would be at the lower end of a gaming rig.

Thats why i said even not overclocked, there is not a really huge difference between the two speeds in the games that i play. The majority of the people here dont have 3.2 chips, i dont get where you are getting your stats from... Im not saying its in the top percentile but its certainly not bottom of the barrel.

 

[BurnItDwn]

2.4ghz is damn fast ...

my 1.53ghx athlon XP1800 is fast enough for anything i try to throw at it ..

 

[BurnItDwn]

Whoa ,,, sorry ... double post .. (first time thats ever happened here)

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Phocas

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Phocas
2.4 @ 2.8 (even not overclocked) is lower end? ok

Nowhere in your post does it say your 2.4 is running at 2.8... and yes, a 2.4 Ghz P4 would be at the lower end of a gaming rig.

Thats why i said even not overclocked, there is not a really huge difference between the two speeds in the games that i play. The majority of the people here dont have 3.2 chips, i dont get where you are getting your stats from... Im not saying its in the top percentile but its certainly not bottom of the barrel.

I'm not saying it's bottom of the barrel... I'm saying for a GAMING RIG a 2.4 Ghz P4 is at the lower end of the spectrum. I don't care if it's a B C D E or Z...

 

[Cogman]

Humm, Something you guys have not thrown out, but check for a heat problem, Intel CPU's undervolt and under clock when they get to hot, so if you increase your cooling you increase your preformance. Also, What OS are you using? I have heard the XP is better for gaming then windows 2000, but I have not ever ran into any problems running games on 2k. However, if you are running a 9x/ME system, Get rid of it. Also, if you are using a XP system, I would sugest making sure you are using a NTFS file system (I feal kindof stupid saying File System twice).

 

[WhiteKnight77]

Disable vSynch and try playing with out AA or AF. I have a XP 2400 and a GF3 Ti 500 and can play all my games really well tho sometimes I get a slide show with IL2:FB when there are lots of planes in the sky (prolly cuz my vid card is now a bottleneck.) I can even run shadows now in GR when before I couldn't.

 

I'm not saying it's bottom of the barrel... I'm saying for a GAMING RIG a 2.4 Ghz P4 is at the lower end of the spectrum. I don't care if it's a B C D E or Z...

Thanks for you input

I checked the heat and its not a problem, i did some searching and found that alot of people have been having issues with under a gig of ram.
I am going to hop on with the deal for the 2.4c that people have been getting up to 3.0+ and with the extra 512 (1 gig total) i should be good to go, probably going to reinstall xp just incase something is screwed up...

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Phocas

I'm not saying it's bottom of the barrel... I'm saying for a GAMING RIG a 2.4 Ghz P4 is at the lower end of the spectrum. I don't care if it's a B C D E or Z...

Thanks for you input

I checked the heat and its not a problem, i did some searching and found that alot of people have been having issues with under a gig of ram.
I am going to hop on with the deal for the 2.4c that people have been getting up to 3.0+ and with the extra 512 (1 gig total) i should be good to go, probably going to reinstall xp just incase something is screwed up...

a P4 at 3.0 Ghz is good for gaming

 

[FreeBirth]

Uhm SWG = Sony crap. Sorry but EQ runs like a dog on top end hardware too and its a way older game. SWG has been noted as crap for a long time man.

Sorry that this isn't much help.