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Taylor
Gamorrean
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
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 Posted: Nov 27, 2007 18:19 Post subject: Time to upgrade... |
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Ok, I figured some of you computer nerds here could help me with this, lol. I need to upgrade several things on my computer. Why? Because Bioshock won't run without them, heh. Specifically, I need to upgrade my RAM and graphics card. But the problem may be bigger than that, as I'm sure I'll need a new motherboard too. I'm not really knowledgeable of what to look for in a motherboard though, so please help me out!
Here is what I am currently operating with:
Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU
512 MB DDR RAM
Radeon 9800 512 MB graphics card
I already know that I want 2GB of RAM, which will probably only come in DDR2, hence the comment about possibly needing a new motherboard. Also, I need a graphics card that supports 3.0 shading and DirectX 9 at the very least. 10 would be great, but I don't want to bankrupt myself upgrading too much.
I know this board is slow these days, but hopefully someone will notice this. Thanks, guys.
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Matt K
Dark Trooper Phase 1
Joined: 27 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Nov 28, 2007 08:02 Post subject: |
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You can get 512MB of DDR RAM for $29.99 at Crucial.com. That will get you to 1GB. Another 1GB will cost you about $80 unless you have two more free slots and then you can get two 512MB chips for $59. Whatever you do, BUY RAM NOW. The memory market is still down due to a crash in the summer but it is going to rebound soon and prices will go up.
Honestly that goes for everyone else too. You're not going to see RAM prices like this again for a while.
Video cards depend on what slots you have on your motherboard. If you're shortsighted (like me) and got a motherboard without a PCI-E slot, you're going to be paying a lot more for an AGP card. Seriously PCI-E versions of the same model cards can be up to $50 cheaper.
Here's a pretty good breakdown of current DirectX 10 cards and pretty recent prices that might be helpful: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2171443,00.asp
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Fenwar
Admiral Ackbar
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Nov 28, 2007 10:25 Post subject: |
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I would say your CPU is probably below par for Bioshock, as well. I haven't played it but I know the AI and physics are pretty complex, which puts a load on the CPU as well as the graphics. (Definitely ran into this with half-life 2 and all the debris flying about - my Athlon 1800 (which I had bought in order to play Jedi Outcast  ) was not up to the job, my work machine (P4 2800Mhz) at work just about coped (on minimal graphics settings), but an Athlon 3800 played it very nicely indeed.
If you can afford a Core 2 Duo they are pretty darn good processors. Then you'll want a socket 775 motherboard.
If it's more important to get the game playable than looking gorgeous, I would leave the upgrade of the graphics card until last, unless it's an AGP card (in which case you'll probably end up needing a newer PCI-E card, but as Matt says they're not too expensive now).
And don't throw away your old parts mine are now housed in an old case I salvaged and happily running Ubuntu Linux. Not that I need it or anything... but it's great!
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Taylor
Gamorrean
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Nov 28, 2007 13:20 Post subject: |
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I don't really care if it's full throttle as far as game graphics. I have Half Life 2 and the two episodes and they run fine on Medium-High settings for most things. The latest one does lag severely during a couple segments which need more RAM though.
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Nottheking
Kell Dragon
Joined: 29 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Nov 29, 2007 01:50 Post subject: Re: Time to upgrade... |
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Taylor wrote:
Ok, I figured some of you computer nerds here could help me with this, lol. I need to upgrade several things on my computer. Why? Because Bioshock won't run without them, heh. Specifically, I need to upgrade my RAM and graphics card. But the problem may be bigger than that, as I'm sure I'll need a new motherboard too. I'm not really knowledgeable of what to look for in a motherboard though, so please help me out!
Here is what I am currently operating with:
Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU
512 MB DDR RAM
Radeon 9800 512 MB graphics card
I already know that I want 2GB of RAM, which will probably only come in DDR2, hence the comment about possibly needing a new motherboard. Also, I need a graphics card that supports 3.0 shading and DirectX 9 at the very least. 10 would be great, but I don't want to bankrupt myself upgrading too much.
I know this board is slow these days, but hopefully someone will notice this. Thanks, guys.
Just as some thoughts that came to me as I was reading your post:- First off, Shader Model 3.0 is part of DirectX 9.0c. DirectX 9.0c support in a video card means that it has Shader Model 3.0.
- I'd also note that it's effectively worthless, but since BioShock is a pretty straight PC port from the Xbox 360 version (the Xbox 360 being based upomn DirectX 9.0c hardware) the PC version of the game requires that your hardware be just as new a generation as the Xbox 360's hardware, which means a minimum of a GeForce 6 or Radeon X1000 series card.
- As I'd seen, there's actually a fan-made patch out there for BioShock that removes the SM 3.0 requirement, allowing you to play it with SM 2.0 cards like your Radeon 9800. It's been quite some time since I looked at it, so I can't quite provide a link immediately.
If you're going to be doing hardware upgrading, I'd probably best off just making a whole new machine: it would not really be cost-effective to replace only some parts of it: you're currently stuck with an old Socket 478 motherboard with DDR1 slots and an AGP graphics slot: all three of the above are rather limited in how much farther you can logically go, and likewise, the "roof" of what you can achieve there is considerably more expensive than what comparable hardware would be for modern standards. Some suggestions for what you may want to look for when shopping for hardware:- First of all, the motherboard is what ties everything together. The main qualification you should look for is that it expressly supports all the other parts you want. If you have questions as to whether a certain motherboard would, you could mention it here, (even the make and model name/number is enough for me) and I'll tell you whether or not it will... (whenever I check back here again that is, heh)
- When it comes to your CPU, once again, both Intel and AMD are viable choices: for the high-performance segment, Intel has an iron grip with the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors, though AMD's chips actually tend to have the edge over Intel's Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron Dual-core chips, giving AMD the lower end; likewise, while AMD's quad-core Phenom chips are not as powerful as Intel's Core 2 Quad processors, they're also all cheaper than all of Intel's chips. And virtually any of the above will be *vastly* faster than what you have right now: AMD's chips tend to out-peform Pentium 4s by 85% on a clock-by-clock basis, and Core 2s out-perform them by about 100%.
- As for RAM, you know you want a lot. I personally wouldn't build a machine with anything less than 2GB today, even if you're sticking with Windows XP and not taking Windows Vista. (and I recommend XP over Vista anyway... At the very least until Service Pack 1 comes out) I wouldn't worry about getting DDR3, as it's prohibitively expensive, for little to no gain. Instead, look to DDR2: DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 would likely be the best speeds to get.
- When it comes to a video card, I honestly wouldn't bother too much with upgrading an AGP card: they've gotten pretty expensive; this is the chief reason I recommend a complete PC replacement. On the flip side, PCI-express cards are staggeringly cheap: less than $300US will get you the top-dog GeForce 8800GT, while $219US gets the Radeon HD 3870, and $179US for the Radeon HD 3850. At even less, there's stuff like the Radeon X1950pro and X1950GT.
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Wake up, George Lucas... The Matrix has you.. |
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Patrick Haslow
Trandoshan
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Nov 29, 2007 22:13 Post subject: |
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If you have a socket 478 motherboard, the highest you can upgrade the processor is a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4. I had a system similar to yours, here's what I did:
2.4 GHz P4 to 3.2 GHz P4 (have to find those on Ebay)
swapped up to a 350 watt power supply for the processor
Geforce 5900 to a Geforce 7600
I still have just 1GB of RAM
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