Where's the bottleneck?

[SirFshAlot]

system;

AMD K6-2 400
Asus P5A
Seagate 6.4 Ultra ATA
128mb Micron PC100
128mb Hyundai PC133
Voodoo5 w/64mb
2) Toshiba 40x CD-Roms
HP8100 CDRW


I just received and installed the V5 yesterday, expecting that to alleviate choppy gameplay in Age of EmpiresII. The game plays fine til I build up around 100+ soldiers. When I do battle, it gets very frustrating, because it does momentary freezes.
What part of the system is being taxed by this?

I just ordered a MSI Pro2-A motherboard and Duron 800 cpu.

The Voodoo helps Half_Life resolutions in my system, though, so I don't feel it was upgraded in vain.

Thanks for any feedback,
Craig

 

[pillage2001]

Chances are, your Mobo and processor.

Your Voodoo5 will scream once you get your Duron.

 

[Noriaki]

Oh yeah your CPU defiantely...

those real time stragety games are very CPU bound....

I wish more people would try some kind of benchmark for that kind of game because they load your machine very differently from first person shooters (which are very video card dependant) which is why your half life is helped by the V5.

When you get the Duron that will help you out a lot.


Also it might be your internet connection speed if you are doing multiplayer.

 

[Viper GTS]

CPU. FPU on a K6-2 400 blows goats.

Viper GTS

 

[samgau]

Whats the fastest CPU the ASUS P5A can take?

As for your question, your cpu/mobo and your HD...when i went from my older HD to a 7200 RPM ATA66@33, i saw definite improvements... once you upgrade, your HD will become the biggest bottleneck...

Sam out

 

[Viper GTS]

Asus P5A can probably take a K6-3 550, which people are overclocking to like 650+ MHz...

Viper GTS

 

[samgau]

thanks...

I hope SirFshAlot will be willing to sell his k6+mobo setup...i should have some use for it...

 

[SirFshAlot]

samgau,
sorry, but I will be giving it to my little girl to play her Barbie and Elmo games.

 

[samgau]

No sweat man...
I know what you mean...I have a 1yr old and she is already into banging on keyboards and kicking around the mouse...i just built her a cel333 machine to run the toddler softwares and play MP3's on the side..*laffs* she doesnt care too much about the software at this point but she does love the music...

 

[SirFshAlot]

they had a package at Sam's Club with a steering wheel (ala Little Tikes, bright colors) with software for a fun looking driving game. It was around $35, couldn't resist for Christmas.

 

[narzy]

really I have age of empiors on a P2 350 w/ tnt2 V770 and dont have a problem whatsoever so its the processor or Vid card...I have 64 megs of ram but I dont think it is the processor unless the AMD chip preforms worse then a Penti UM???

 

[narzy]

but then again I am a bit partial to Nvidia

 

[Mday]

samgau, buy her an mp3 player, then borrow it ;-)

--

yeah, the bottleneck is the processor and motherboard. the HDD could use a boost too, as always, the HDD is always A bottleneck.

the duron will kick ass fishy.

 

[Noriaki]

A K6 msot definately does perform worse than a pentium.

The K6 line has a very weak FPU which hurts almost any game under the tree.

The Athlons have a good FPU though (in case you don't actually know the Athlon is currently the most powerful x86 compatible FPU there is) but the K6 was weak in that area.

Partial to nVidia or not your TNT2 can't lick his v5's boots...different gnereation of cards, but your P2-350 is defiantely a faster gaming CPU than his K6-2/400

 

[ForeverSilky]

I command you to get a new CPU and motherboard. How dare you pair that beautiful video card with a k6-2!

 

[samgau]

well i'm around computers all day and all night...so no real need for an mp3 player...as for the car...i drive about 10 mins to get to work...normally time to catch up on some news..*grins* good idea though...

 

[SirFshAlot]

LOL @ ForeverSilky

the Duron 800 & MSI Pro2-A should arrive tomorrow or Friday, so the bottleneck should move to the HDD

maybe I'll find a good deal at the computer auction on Saturday to take care of that part

 

[Adul]

Sounds like a nice setup fishy

 

[snow patrol]

I haven't read any of the responces (as I have a bath running ) but I'd say the bottleneck is definitely your CPU. The FPU of that processor is pretty...um, crap. Once you get that Duron 800 you'll have an excellent all round gaming system - apart from the small (and probably slightly slow) hard disk. You really should get something bigger

Btw - check out 3dfx's latest drivers for great performance gains. Read the thread here

Enjoy

 

[SirFshAlot]

update;

put together the MSI Pro2-A and Duron 800.

Age of Empires runs great now.

 

[RoboTECH]

Fsh, I'm picking up an identical setup

already ordered the Duron 800. It's been pretested to 1-Gig

have you overclocked your duron on the Pro2a yet? How high can you go in voltage with the Duron? Have you downloaded that BIOS that lets you adjust the voltage?

You can private message me wit hanswers to those questions if you like.

thanks man.

 

[Muerto]

Your CPU. No doupt about that. You'll be ready to do battle once you get your Duron.