Upgrade CPU or video card?

[fritzfield]

Doom 3 plays like a slide show. Is it my Athlon XP 1600 or my Geforce Ti 4400?

Thanks

 

[Shimmishim]

to be honest...

it's probably both

you may want to upgrade your processor then try to pick up like a 9800pro or even a geforce non-ultra/non-gt if you have the money

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Second that.

 

[fritzfield]

OK, maybe I can get a 9600 video card reasonably priced, but which way for the CPU? P4 or Athlon64?

 

[Corporate Thug]

whats your budget

 

[DaNorthface]

if you play on low setting, even a geforce 2 gts will do fine with an overclocked barton.. So, your graphics card doesn't need to be upgraded unless you play with higher resolution. Upgrading your cpu is all you need

 

[DaNorthface]

Originally posted by: fritzfield
OK, maybe I can get a 9600 video card reasonably priced, but which way for the CPU? P4 or Athlon64?

i think you should consider a mobile barton as well - cheaper than p4 - unless you want to encode a lot

 

[rogue1979]

If you are on a tight budget, upgrade the cpu first. If you have the right motherboard and memory you can get an 1800+ and take it to 2000MHz real easy, no multiplier settings needed. This will give you better performance than a stock 2400+ or 2500+ Barton for less then $50. If you have the higher fsb (up to 200MHz) capability grab the 2500+ and overclock it for about $20 more.

Make sure and use the 44.03's for the Ti4400, use coolbits to overclock. If it has BGA memory chips you should be able to hit Ti4600 speeds (300/650). This should make Doom 3 "playable" without AF or AA at 800x600.

 

[fritzfield]

The highest CPU the MSI K7N420 Pro can take is an XP 2600+ Thorton. I checked the BIOS upddates, but that is the max suupported CPU. So, if we can get by without replacing the video card, which MB/CPU combination should we get?

 

[SneakyStuff]

Take a look at this possible upgrade route.

CPU- 2500+ $90
Mobo- Shuttle $57
RAM- Mushkin $74
Video Card- 9600XT $135

$356, for a MUCH better, overclockable, system. 🙂

 

[VietDude]

wow that's a pretty decent combo

 

[carlosd]

Yeah, get the mobile Athlon XP.

 

[Brackus2]

what settings were you trying, if higher than 800x600 and med quality of course its gonna slide show...

If your mobo will keep a 2600+ then get that or a 2500+, save the 50-100 bucks and keep your old mobo.

Then play the game again, if you still are dissatisfied (whats your ram? you need AT LEAST 512mb) then maybe go get a 9800pro, best card out there for value and upwards perf as far as I can tell,

Reply with how your upgrades go,

Dustin

 

[Brackus2]

what settings were you trying, if higher than 800x600 and med quality of course its gonna slide show...

If your mobo will keep a 2600+ then get that or a 2500+, save the 50-100 bucks and keep your old mobo.

Then play the game again, if you still are dissatisfied (whats your ram? you need AT LEAST 512mb) then maybe go get a 9800pro, best card out there for value and upwards perf as far as I can tell,

Reply with how your upgrades go,

Dustin

 

[Zap]

A setup like that should be able to run the game okay. Just make sure you keep the settings turned LOW. Don't worry about whether or not you have eye candy, just worry about the monster you hear somewhere up ahead that you can't see. 🙂 Besides turning down the eye candy, exit out of everything in the background. Turn off your IM programs and your anti-virus. Anything in the background should be off. The only icon next to your clock should be your speaker/mixer icon.

 

[maluckey]

I can play Doom 3 with my 128mb Ti-4200 and XP 2100+ just fine, on an overclocked KR7A-133 board. A little overclocking on the vid-card, and a little more CPU would get you to good framerates with eye candy.

A really good CPU is around 85-100 bucks

 

[k900]

Originally posted by: Brackus2
what settings were you trying, if higher than 800x600 and med quality of course its gonna slide show...

If your mobo will keep a 2600+ then get that or a 2500+, save the 50-100 bucks and keep your old mobo.

Then play the game again, if you still are dissatisfied (whats your ram? you need AT LEAST 512mb) then maybe go get a 9800pro, best card out there for value and upwards perf as far as I can tell,

Reply with how your upgrades go,

Dustin

I agree that 512MB of ram makes a huge difference.

 

[The Green Bean]

more RAM + CPU power. Ti4400 is fine. I play 10*7 Mediuym 40FPS. But im getting a 5900 tommorrow 🙂

 

[Toro 45]

Originally posted by: maluckey
I can play Doom 3 with my 128mb Ti-4200 and XP 2100+ just fine, on an overclocked KR7A-133 board. A little overclocking on the vid-card, and a little more CPU would get you to good framerates with eye candy.

Agreed!

Most xp1600's will do an easy overclock to xp2200 speeds, OC your vid card and that game should run ok. Check your vid drivers too.