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What's His Bottle-Neck?

T

TFM

Golden Member
My father-in-law built a new computer a few years ago. He went the cheap route, but it wasn't too bad. This was basically his system...

Intel Celeron 2.4
P4I865 mobo - On board video, sound, network
512 PC 2700 RAM
2 x 120 GB SATA HD (in raid 1)

This computer served him well since he didn't do too much to stress it. Then we got him a little into gaming - but teh computer still held its own through Return to Wolfenstein and CoD1.

The problem came when he got CoD2 last year for X-Mas. He installed it and it didn't run at all on his machine. This was all i needed to decide i should upgrade my video card (as well as a deal at Microcenter where i got an X850XT on teh cheap very early in the year). So i justified buying a new video card so i could give him my 9800 Pro. For some reason, the 9800 Pro sat without being installed until i went we went out to visit them over Thanksgiving. I installed the 9800 Pro for him and the game was then playable - only it was VERY choppy. Frame rates were awful. However, he really enjoyed the game anyway.

Looking at the minimum requirements, i noticed it said nothing about celeron processors. So i thought that might fix the problem. For X-Mas this year, we got him a 2.66 Pentium IV (533 FSB) CPU. He has now installed that and this is what his system looks like...

P4 2.66 (533fsb) CPU
P4I865 Mobo (onboard sound, network)
512 MB PC 2700 RAM
BBATI 9800 Pro (256 MB VRAM version)
2 x 120 GB SATA HDs (in raid 1)

Unfortunately, the problem has not gone away with trying to play CoD2. I'm assuming he's cut down the graphics as i somewhat suggested it (but not certain yet if he has). Why would he still be having framerate issues? Is this hardware not good enough to run CoD2? Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!
Chris
 
From an Amazon reviewer:

"Call of Duty 2 was made with Dual Core Processors in mind. And in the equation of computers most likely a Dual Core Processor= High End Computers. This means that Call of Duty 2 will take a GIANT spoonfull out of your computer if you do not have sufficient hardware. The MINIMUM requirements are: A video card that is at LEAST DirectX9.0 compatible and is a 64mb version, teh English version of Windows 2000, or XP, a Pentum 4 1.4 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1700 processor or higher, 256mb RAM (512 recommended), a DerectX9.0 compatible 16-bit sound card with the latest drivers, Windows XP compatible mouse, and keyboard, 4 GB left on your hard drive, and a 8x Speed CD-ROM or 2x DVD-ROM. This is only MINIMUM! That could possibly be more than a giant spoonfull. Note that you do not need a Dual Core Processor to run this game. The lowest ATI video card you can have for this game is the ATI Radeon 8500, my video card: ATI Radeon 9600 barely runs this game good with high graphics. You will need a top of the line video card for this. For nVidia I think the least supported card is the nVindia GeForce 2 Ultra. "



COD2 recommended system is:
2.5 GHz Prozessor (Athlon XP / Pentium 4)
1 GB RAM
ATi Radeon 9800XT / GeForce FX 5900

Hmmm.. What settings is he running the game at? It should run fine even at medium settings.

Another things I would recommend are:

-> Defrag system.
-> Make sure nothing's running in background. (msconfig and disable everything that's extra)

I would suggest adding more RAM, but then again, it might be other programs running in background.


Try these things and post a reply 🙂
 
THanks tanjot - i'll pass this on to him

The last email i got from him stated that he had just de-fragged, but gave no indication on whether he had yet tested CoD2 after the defrag. As well, he did note that there seemed to be a lot of superfluous programs running in teh background, but he had no clue what was necessary and what was he could get rid of. On that, i have no clue either - even after spending hours on google trying to figure it out for my own machine around February or so when i decided i'd just do a fresh XP install... which might not be a bad suggestion for him. Maybe i'll pass that on.

Anyway - thanks for the quick reply and i'll pass on what you posted and get back here
 
as tanjot said, adding more RAM should help. try disabling background process that you may not need that eat up the computers resources. that computer should be able to run the game at a resolution of say 800x600 without a problem while still looking ok.
 
I found the best way to play CoD2 with a Radeon 9800 Pro is to go to DirectX 7. Yeah it might not look as good in DX 9 mode but it helps out.
 
I have Cod2 and when I play, I make sure everything is turned off, like antivirus, firewall-anything that sucks up system resources. Also, he could use some extra RAM too.
 
He should definitely get more RAM. 512 Mb is simply not enough. My P4 2,4 (800 mhz fsb), with 1,5 Gb RAM, and a Radeon 9800 pro runs it just fine.
 
I would say that Celeron is pulling him down a bunch
also his ram is only 512MB also low speeds
the reason why that card didn't work probably is because his PSU couldn't handel it probably didn't have the right connection even for the card.

now seeing the new system he has

I'd say the ram get at least 1GB though I'd recommend 2GB. should be able to buy some cheap used stuff

LOL, I actually have 2 kits of 512MBx4 lying around a lot of people have this stuff sitting around check for sale/trades.
 
He doesn't have a celeron anymore, besides, do you really think someone running a celeron has enough money to just go out and buy two gigs on a whim?

I vote for a full gig, that'll bring you up to minimum specs and it should run then, at least on low settings.
 
Before investing anymore money in this system, try disabling the superfluous progams running in the background. That should do the trick. If that does not help, up the RAM to 1 GB. Do not waste your money on going any higher. COD2 does not require over 1 GB of RAM.
 
I would also vote for the RAM and background processes. First the RAM: With that RAID 1 setup and only 512 of RAM, the virtual memor/pagefile is probably chugging along pretty slow. RAID 0 would probably pep it up quite a bit too.

As for using MSConfig to eliminate background programs, I generally use a few rules to decide what to turn off:
* I only really mess with the startup tab
* I don't disable anything installed by Microsoft unless I have a pretty good idea that it shouldn't be there
* I leave all virus protection stuff alone (for me McAfee)
* I kill anything else that I don't recognize. A few big culprits are: Real Audio cr@p, Adobe updater for acrobat, iTunes, etc...

Use common sense. If you have a logitech mouse and use their config utility, then you probably should leave the logitech stuff installed. I don't think there is anything that you can do on the startup tab that is irreversible or destructive.

A few more things to try: clear all caches, empty email garbage and sent mail, eliminate extraneous desktop icons, uninstall any software that you haven't used in 6 months or more. After you do all that, then defrag.

Finally, here is a really good tool for seeing what is using up resources: Process Explorer
 
RAID 1 is slow. Especially software RAID 1. I think that's a big part of it, also the low RAM. A 9800 pro should be able to handle at like 800x600... CoD2 is a pretty demanding game though...

I would also recommend a reformat, just to take care of any 'clear cache update drivers etc etc' typical problems. Antivirus programs are often a big problem, make sure you're using a lightweight one (NOT Norton). I prefer AVG.

~MiSfit
 
Originally posted by: w00t
I would say that Celeron is pulling him down a bunch.
Click to expand...

Didn't read the whole post?

OP: I'd have to join the choir here and say get another 512 stick of RAM in that. Should be a cheap enough upgrade and he'll notice the difference.
 
Originally posted by: w00t
I would say that Celeron is pulling him down a bunch
also his ram is only 512MB also low speeds
the reason why that card didn't work probably is because his PSU couldn't handel it probably didn't have the right connection even for the card.

now seeing the new system he has

I'd say the ram get at least 1GB though I'd recommend 2GB. should be able to buy some cheap used stuff

LOL, I actually have 2 kits of 512MBx4 lying around a lot of people have this stuff sitting around check for sale/trades.
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: Roguestar
Originally posted by: w00t
I would say that Celeron is pulling him down a bunch.
Click to expand...

Didn't read the whole post?

OP: I'd have to join the choir here and say get another 512 stick of RAM in that. Should be a cheap enough upgrade and he'll notice the difference.
Click to expand...

Didn't you guys read my whole post? I was just too lazy to delete what I wrote before
 
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