Which of these systems better for light gaming?

[ElDonAntonio]

I currently own a laptop I use for all of my work, plus some UT multiplayer games occasionally. My FPS are really low though (have to run at 640x480 lowest quality) and I was thinking of just upgrading the graphics card of my old desktop system, as I don't know of any way of upgrading my laptop's graphics adapter.

So I wonder: which one of these systems would run a game (UT for example) faster?

1) Laptop Celeron 800Mhz
256MB RAM
Integrated Intel 815 Graphics (sharing main memory)
Win2k

or

2) Desktop Pentium II 266Mhz
96MB RAM
nVidia GeForce2 MX200 PCI 32MB (or any other not-too-expensive PCI graphics card)
Win2k


Alternatively, does any of you know how I could improve my FPS on UT? I have the latest drivers and DirectX...
thanks!

 

[Viper GTS]

For the PII I'd say:

1) Faster CPU
2) Voodoo3 or something from that era

No sense in buying a GF anything when your CPU is such a bottleneck.

Do you know if your motherboard supports 100 MHz PII's?

Viper GTS

 

[ElDonAntonio]

upgrading the CPU won't take me very far, I think the best I can do is 333Mhz...

If I remember correctly my mobo is @66Mhz, I've got EDO RAM, not even SDRAM.

Do you think that with a Voodoo 3 card the desktop will be able to beat the laptop??

 

[Viper GTS]

Sounds like you have a 66 MHz motherboard, you might look to see if it has any unofficial FSB settings (75, 83, 100, etc).

For a good idea what a V3 would do in your system, look here

They test a V3 with a PII 266. Granted it's Quake II...

Viper GTS

 

[ElDonAntonio]

Sweet...I'm going to check out prices on a Voodoo3 (if I can find some still available...). My current graphics card is a Matrox Millenium II, I guess there should be an interesting improvement in 3D speed.

I'm browsing on amazon.com and I found a Hercules 4000XT 32MB (Kyro) and a PNY TNT2 card, each for 60$. Don't you think I'd get better performance with one of these cards?

Thanks for the input Viper, I really appreciate it.

P.S.: what kind of job do you have to be able to afford all your upgrades?!?!?!

 

[Viper GTS]

Voodoo3's are pretty cheap on PriceWatch, they have a refurb V3 2000 for $23. You might also check the FS/FT forum, V3's go for pretty cheap & you'll save a lot on shipping vs what a retailer will charge.

What kind of job do I have? Not good enough.

I do tech support. It pays bills & allows me buy hardware. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

Viper GTS

 

[ElDonAntonio]

wow, so I guess I'm actually getting a free ride here...
I have a friend that may still have a TNT2 lying around, I'll try and test it with his. If my memory is correct the TNT2 performed better than a Voodoo3...

thanks again for the input!!

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i was gonna recommend a radeon (theres on for like 43 bucks at newegg i think), but that TNT2 sounds like it'll do the trick, and free is always great

 

[ElDonAntonio]

well do you guys think I'll be able to beat the performance of my laptop which has a faster processor and more RAM?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< well do you guys think I'll be able to beat the performance of my laptop which has a faster processor and more RAM? >>


its hard to say (especially since i dont game), but i would reckon you would be able to, intel integrated graphics on a laptop arent going to be very good for games

 

[BFG10K]

While laptops are traditionally not good for games in this case that laptop will totally blow away that desktop especially in UT, which is a very CPU limited game. Stick to 640 x 480 x 16 with the lowet detail levels and that integrated Intel board shouldn't have too much trouble keeping up.

 

[ElDonAntonio]

damn, BFG10K, if what you say is true I'm stuck until my next desktop buy...

even at 640x480 with lowest quality, the image will sometime freeze for like 2 seconds in multiplayer and then resume. I think it depends on the map and the number of players.

 

[acidvoodoo]

if u want more frames in UT, search 'unreal tournament tweaks' in google. there is a article (www.3dtweaks.com maybe?) on tweaking UT so to turn off some features to allow better performance

i think the laptop would beat that desktop