Will a new video card improve Command & Conquer performance?

[eflat]

When I am playing Command and Conquer the game usually slows to a crawl after a while. I want to do something about that, but I'm not sure if I would want to upgrade the video card or the processor?

Right now I have a Celeron 366@550 and a Voodoo3 2000 video card. I know with Quake a video card would be the way to go, but what about a not so 3d game like C&C? Would the processor or video card be the bottleneck?

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

I'm afraid a new videocard wouldn't help much. The game is extremely memory intensive. The engine isn't efficient at all so even top of the line systems experience slowdowns. I get the occasional slowdown, but only during heavy firing. A faster processor would help, as would more memory.

 

[eflat]

I guess it wouldn't hurt to add an extra 128 megabites of ram, especially since it is practically free these days.

 

[bigshooter]

I was playing single player red alert 2 and on the final mission when all hell kind of breaks loose, i noticed a few minor slowdowns. If you skirmish with lots of computer players it happens too. I have a p3-866 256megs pc-133 and although it doesn't matter, a geforce2gts. I think this is one of the answers to people who ask "what do you need a 1.5 ghz cpu for?".

 

[Lord Evermore]

You're talking about the original C&C? I was supremely impressed with the performance difference when I upgraded from a 486-66 to a Cyrix 166+ and Matrox Millennium. How the hell could it be slow on a Celeron @550 with a Voodoo3?

Of course, if you're talking about the newest one in the series, nevermind. However I still think a 550MHz processor should be more than enough for that game.

 

[RSI]

What the hell? You guys with awesome screaming-fast computers are complaining about COMMAND AND CONQUER performance? Are you nuts? Have you lost your marbles?! :Q

Come on, C&C is fast on a 486. Unless you play the Windows version, in which case with 64+ ram and a decent videocard, it's still fast.

Come on, how can it lag on your system? That makes no sense to me at all, I remember playing it on my Cyrix MII-300(233MHz) with 96MB ram and Banshee, not a bit of lag at all.

But I did notice some slowness when I "upgraded" to my K6-2/350@450. Weird how a "crappy" Cyrix would play a game faster ..... oh well.

-RSI

 

[duragezic]

Are you talking about Tiberian Sun or Red Alert 2? Red Alert or the original C&C will run VERY FAST on a 550. If you're talking about Red Alert 2 then I can understand as that can start running choppy during a big game where there is a ton of units.

In that case, more ram or a faster processor. Video card wouldn't do anything.

 

[Aboroth]

Hahaha, I remember benchmarking my computer against my friend's with C&C by seeing how many soldiers we could fit on the screen before the game started to slow down. Heh, the good old days.

 

[Neoplasia]

I love C&C. Back in the day I saw it being played on a LAN once and had to have it. Cannot tell you how many hours I spent glued to it. Not much can beat watching soldiers burst into flames. *Yaaah!*