Wow, my computer is old: CoD4:MW was crawling!

[James3shin]

Before I get into the details, my system specs:

Athlon64 3200+
1gig PC3200
7800GT

I have the flu and am tired of reading so I decided to see what all this Modern Warfare hype was all about. I downloaded and installed the MW demo where you play "The Bog" then went straight to the options menu to tweak the game. Found "optimal settings" under the options then proceeded to click...wtf!? The setting defaulted to 800x600 res?!?! Uh oh, either this "optimal setting" thing is fucked or my system is fucked, either way, I was fucked. Went to start the mission and even the briefing scene was choking.

The game was dying. Absolutely unplayable with it's current settings, I went and turned every fucking thing off. Shadows - off. AA - off. Texture Res. - muddiest/low. Still unplayable - Fucking A! At this point a little piece of me was dying on the inside; my once respectable machine was nothing more than an over sized calculator.

I guess it's time to wallow away into consoles for "gaming." Don't worry guys, I will never ever touch a fucking controller for a FPS. I can't do it, it's like trying to eat soup with chopsticks.

/myPCfpsDAYS

 

[Clinkster]

Did you go into hibernation for half a decade or something?

That kind of setup has been rendered obsolete a while ago. =/

 

[thecrecarc]

Did you go into hibernation for half a decade or something?

That kind of setup has been rendered obsolete a while ago. =/

Yep. Spend some cash slightly over consoles and you can get a reasonable rig though, with more function than consoles.

 

[James3shin]

Did you go into hibernation for half a decade or something?

That kind of setup has been rendered obsolete a while ago. =/

I guess you could call it hibernation. Nah, just been busy working my tail off trying to become a surgeon/cure cancer. I don't consider myself a gamer anymore, just a casual controller jockey now. I play Street Fighter 4 on my PS3 every once in a blue moon when I get some down time but that's about it.

My PC gaming obsession was CS! I'm talking pre 1.6...bunny hops, days of ripping 2 for 1's with the awp and popping domes with the ak and silenced m4. Pure joy!

 

[toyota]

Did you go into hibernation for half a decade or something?

That kind of setup has been rendered obsolete a while ago. =/

yeah no shit. its silly that he acts like this just happened when its clear that pc can hardly play any modern games at all.

 

[Kromis]

Crawling in my skin!!!!!!

 

[James3shin]

yeah no shit. its silly that he acts like this just happened when its clear that pc can hardly play any modern games at all.

Call me silly or foolish all you want, I was genuinely surprised. I really did not think Modern Warfare was that demanding and scaled well with hardware. I checked the minimum/recommended specs, my CPU fell into the minimum category while my GPU fell into the recommended category. I wasn't expecting full settings but at least something playable, shit was furthest from playable as can be.

It is amusing how far removed my PC is now from the gaming level, hell even the workstation/web browsing level.

 

[JSt0rm]

stfu fools he was in med school. Give the man some help.

 

[stag3]

lol i had to build a new pc just for cod4

i had a p4 3.4ghz, 2gigs ram, x850xt video card and a 74gig raptor
and it was a slideshow for me

 

[Fallengod]

Ya, to be fair you have a really outdated system....

Single core 3200+ and 1gb of memory is absolutely the bare minimum id ever want to run anything on.

You want at least a core2duo at around 2ghz at least and minimum 4gb memory for any game these days.

Your video card is decent, so thats probably "ok".

 

[Fallengod]

err

 

[toyota]

Ya, to be fair you have a really outdated system....

Single core 3200+ and 1gb of memory is absolutely the bare minimum id ever want to run anything on.

You want at least a core2duo at around 2ghz at least and minimum 4gb memory for any game these days.

Your video card is decent, so thats probably "ok".

a 7800 is not decent at all anymore and even something like an 8600gt will spank it in modern games.

 

[Marty502]

*feels proud to have bought a used dual core 939 CPU for cheap when he stil could*

 

[Ushio]

Hmmm I just finished the game with:

Athlon64 3000+
2gb ram
6600GT

was still very playable, but then of course i had to run it under windowed mode, my fps days are still alive and kicking with this machine, especially in bf2!

 

[CurseTheSky]

His computer isn't that old. I just recently helped someone on a bare-minimum budget upgrade an old Athlon XP system so they could play some slightly more modern games (Source engine, Sims, WoW). Replacing the FX 5200 (IIRC) with a 9800XT that I found in a donor system did just the trick.

Even though it seems like you're swearing off PC gaming (and I can see why, considering the combination of lack of time due to med school - good for you - and expense of keeping a system up to date) you should really consider piecing together a system. Prices have REALLY come down, especially "mid-high end" graphics cards.

Consider the following:
AMD Athlon II X2 240 (2.8GHz, Dual Core), $61 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
ASRock M3A785GMH/128M (AM3, 785G), $80 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157168
Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333, $45 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148221
Sparkle 9800GT, $90 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187091
Total: $276 + shipping

Or, if you can afford to spend a bit more:
Athlon II X4 620 (2.6GHz, Quad Core), $99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103706
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H (AM3, 785G), $90 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128397
OCZ Obsidian 2x2GB (4GB) DDR3 1600, $79 ($59 after MIR) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227495
XFX HD 5770, $175 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150447
Total: $443 ($423 after MIR) + shipping

Both of these suggestions assume you'll be reusing your hard drive, case, power supply, monitor, etc.

Best of all, you can mix and match parts between the two systems. Can't afford to spend $400+, but want something a bit faster than my first suggestion? Go for 4GB instead of two, or the faster graphics card. Want a more future-proof processor? Get the quad core. You get the idea.

Good luck to you.

 

[tokie]

I played CoD4 perfectly fine with my old rig.
That was with an Athlon 64 3200+, 1GB DDR3200, and an X800XTPE. Ran it on 1440x900 on medium settings with 2xAA and got 25fps and up at all times. Min was around 25..

 

[Barfo]

There most be something wrong with your system, I used to play COD4 in my old Pentium 4 + 7900GT and it ran ok with medium settings @ 1280x1024.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

my e6400 + 7900gt was able to run modern games reasonably well.

 

[Fallengod]

Yes but E6400 is significantly faster than his single core amd 3200 heh.

 

[cbn]

Before I get into the details, my system specs:

Athlon64 3200+
1gig PC3200
7800GT

I have the flu and am tired of reading so I decided to see what all this Modern Warfare hype was all about. I downloaded and installed the MW demo where you play "The Bog" then went straight to the options menu to tweak the game. Found "optimal settings" under the options then proceeded to click...wtf!? The setting defaulted to 800x600 res?!?! Uh oh, either this "optimal setting" thing is fucked or my system is fucked, either way, I was fucked. Went to start the mission and even the briefing scene was choking.

The game was dying. Absolutely unplayable with it's current settings, I went and turned every fucking thing off. Shadows - off. AA - off. Texture Res. - muddiest/low. Still unplayable - Fucking A! At this point a little piece of me was dying on the inside; my once respectable machine was nothing more than an over sized calculator.

I guess it's time to wallow away into consoles for "gaming." Don't worry guys, I will never ever touch a fucking controller for a FPS. I can't do it, it's like trying to eat soup with chopsticks.

/myPCfpsDAYS

You have a 90nm CPU and 1 GB memory (512 MB DIMMs)

After that the industry standard was 65nm CPUs and 2 GB memory (1 GB DIMMs).

Now we have 45nm CPUs and 4 GB memory (2 GB Dimms).

Just around the corner waits 32nm CPUs and 8 GB memory (4GB Dimms).

[The Bright side is you can buy a pretty cheap value system now that will be a big step up from your current hardware. A fry's combo Core i5 with 4GB DDR3 and a HD5750 would be a good place to start]

 

[uclaLabrat]

I'm on a 3700+ OC'd to 2.8, 2G RAM, and an x1800XT 512 and it runs COD4 at 1280x1024 everything on high, 4X AA no problem.

 

[VashHT]

I played the 1st one with a X1900XTX and a athlon X2 4800 and 2Gb of ram and it ran reasonably well. You could build a PC for pretty cheap that will max this game, just pick up a 4870 and a mid or low end proc and at least 2Gb of ram and you'd be fine I'd think. Right now I'm playing MW2 it on a Phenom II@3.8GHz with 4Gb of ram and a HD5870 and I have it maxed at 1920x1200 with 4xAA and it runs so smoothly, I have not noticed any slowdown at all so far.

 

[BladeVenom]

I have a friend who played it on an older system than that. It didn't look great with all the settings turned down, but was playable.

 

[vj8usa]

My friend played through CoD4 on a P4 2.8 + X1650, and it was playable according to him. I haven't seen it in action on his rig, but it sounds like your faster system was having a harder time with the game than his system was, which is odd.