First of all I am new on this forum, and did some reading in this section before registering. Since I didn't really found what I was looking for, I'll post my question below.
First of all my current pc configuration:
- Windows XP Home Edition SP2
- Asus Vintage PE-1
- Celeron D with 2.55 Ghz
- 1 Gig Ram 400Mhz (upgraded this recently)
- ATI Raedeon 9550 AGP with 256MB Ram onboard
- 80 GB Harddisk 7200RMP, ATA133
- Installed: FS2004, FS Traffic, 737 pmdg, Ground Environment, World mesh, JF flying club, and some other payware scenery and aircraft.
First, at this time I'm experiencing rather bad framerates, for instance at LAX final approach I'm getting like 5-6 fps, with medium fs settings (autogen, aa turned off, 1280x1024x32). I can live with it,since I try to avoid the denser areas. Once I have enough altitude or in less dense areas, I'm going to more acceptable framerates somewhere between 22-26. Finals in small airports give me about 16-18 fps.
Second, what I hate even more, is waiting a couple of seconds in virtual cockpit or spot plane mode, when I rotate the view to an airport (small or large, whatever). Seems like my systems needs some time to draw the airport. It doesn't make much difference how far from the airport I am.
Now, about the planned upgrade. What would you advize me to upgrade?
I'll have to go in steps, cause I don't really have lots of cash available at the moment.
It's quite obvious that choices are: cpu upgrade OR video card upgrade.
In my case, what would recommend to upgrade: cpu or gpu?
I was thinking about a P4, 3Ghz EMT64 socket 775 as CPU, or a gpu around the same price. Common sense tells me that my cpu is the killer in this config, but I'd like to hear it from the experts
If this is not the case, what gpu would you advize me (agp, not pci-e!!)?
I have a small upgrade budget of about 200$.
Thanks a lot for your time and reply .
Cheers,
Vito
If you upgraded the CPU , then you may need to change your motherboard as well. That will then force you to either buy another board with onboard graphics, and those graphics suck. You could just buy a gpu and have possible the same problem, but it is most likley you will not. Both need to be upgraded, you could spend a $120 on a video card, or spend your 200 on a new board and CPU. Go with AMD insted of Intel.
Yes, indeed, you are absolutely right. If I would buy the cpu I mentioned above, that would mean I'd have to change the m/b as well, since the PE-1 isn't 64bit enabled (just discovered that a few minutes ago).
I've just called my regular pc-parts store, and they have only 1 cpu left that I could use: P4 506 LGA775 2.66Ghz Prescott, which is compatible with the asus m/b. Upgrading the m/b and cpu for amd will simply cost me too much at the moment, and also i'd need to buy a pci-e gpu as well.
so too many €€€
Do you guys think the upgrade to this p4 2.66 is worth it?
I don't see a graphics card on your computer specs. Just buy a graphics card, increases those framerates like magic .
BTW, if you really don't have one, buy a FX5500 256MB. It's not the best one around but it does handle FS really well, unless you have a 35Gb library like mine...
El, he wrote: ATI Raedeon 9550 AGP with 256MB Ram onboard
That would be the graphics card.
I agree with the others, Vito. You can save money by not getting a high-end motherboard, if you don't want SLI or RAID.
Go for a Socket 939 board from Asus, Epox, Foxconn, Abit... you shouldn't have a problem finding a decent board for less than $80(US). Add an AMD Athlon 64 chip like the X2 3800+ for $120 (or the single-core Venice line) and you've got your board/CPU upgrade. A new video card can run anywhere from $100 and up. THere are a couple of deals on 6200TC's and 7300GS's right now for less than $100. If you can afford it, try to get at least a 7800 GT model; probably for about $250.
hmm. actually tenspace, what You just said does not make much sense to me. First off, do x2's really ship for just 100 in the US? if this is the case then it seems like they are murdering us here (400+). Secondly, i dont see why he should think about budget cards, those things suck and are NOT for any kind of gaming (except for hl1 maybe) and dont support a whole bunch of stuff that You will probarbly need in the future. and then why go from budget right to high-end? there's 7600gt too You know... killer card for that money. pci-e of course. oh wait a minute, 250 for a 7800gt? now thats someting. i'm looking at that price here for the 7600gt.
what i would suggest is NOT buying the slow and old intel. save your cents and go with a whole new system in some time. the pentium IS faster than the celeron but its not worth it. what could help You is an agp 6600gt, its a nice card but it does cost a bit too (not as much as the 7800 or 7900 line of geforces of course and lower than the 7600, too) so You have to think about it for a bit. it wont be a concorde though, that celeron is slow. and You'd have to dump it when You buy a new system.
in the meantime, turn Your resolution down and go with xga (1024x768), i dont think it is good to run with that system at Your current resolution.
hmm. actually tenspace, what You just said does not make much sense to me. First off, do x2's really ship for just 100 in the US? if this is the case then it seems like they are murdering us here (400+)
Sorry for the confusion. The venice single-core chips are just over $100. An x2 3800+ starts at about $300.
Quote:
Secondly, i dont see why he should think about budget cards, those things suck and are NOT for any kind of gaming (except for hl1 maybe) and dont support a whole bunch of stuff that You will probarbly need in the future.
He's doing this on a budget. If he has $350+ to spend on a 7800GT, or GTX, that's fine. But he is already looking at $200-300 for a mobo/cpu. And if he goes with a high end card, he'll need a new PSU as well. The 7300GS and below only need 250-300w power supplies.
Quote:
and then why go from budget right to high-end? there's 7600gt too You know... killer card for that money. pci-e of course. oh wait a minute, 250 for a 7800gt? now thats someting. i'm looking at that price here for the 7600gt.
Right again. I meant 7600GT, not 7800.
Quote:
what i would suggest is NOT buying the slow and old intel. save your cents and go with a whole new system in some time. the pentium IS faster than the celeron but its not worth it. what could help You is an agp 6600gt, its a nice card but it does cost a bit too (not as much as the 7800 or 7900 line of geforces of course and lower than the 7600, too) so You have to think about it for a bit.
Yes, a 6600GT or 7600GS card should be in the $130-$160 range.
it wont be a concorde though, that celeron is slow. and You'd have to dump it when You buy a new system.
in the meantime, turn Your resolution down and go with xga (1024x768), i dont think it is good to run with that system at Your current resolution.[/quote]
Thanks for keeping me honest, Mythril. I must've been asleep when I posted.
erhem... May I just hop in a little bit?
Where do I see what CPU I am currently using? Because I am not sure wether I have a strong or weak CPU as I am having the same problem as Vito here with big airports. It might be the graphics card, an some people mentioned to me here, or the CPU. I can't figure out the pieces of the puzzle until I know what kind of CPU I have. Starting from then I can finally make a final judgement (perhaps with the help from the experts here, of course! )
Thanks for all your feedbacks!
As a first step I finally bought the P4, 3Ghz EMT64 processor, and installed it this morning. So, it is compatible with the m/b! Ofcourse the next step will be to replace my gpu, and I'm hoping of doing that next month
Well, I've noticed most of you are amd minded, (I'm not going to start this discussion). but given the prices and available cpu's here in belgium, switching to amd would have cost me about 300$ without the new gpu wich I would then need to upgrade to pci express also.
Therefor I chose to keep the m/b and upgrade the cpu as first step.
I payed this cpu 170$. Next thing will be the gpu, and I saw already some agp gpu's. Is it possible there is somethign like a nvidia 7300?
the 7-series is the latest, no? Or is the 6600 series better?
Anyways, first result of the upgrade of cpu and (as Mythrilfan suggested) I downed the resolution to 1024*768. Visually it indeed has not much difference. From both, I now have quite good results: where I spoke of 5-6 fps, I now have 15-16 High up in the sky, (and now with 3d clouds enabled) I'm at 28 fps
So, I'm happy with the first step of my upgrade. I hope the new gpu next month will have a similar impact
So, Thanks for your advice again!! Some more thoughts on the gpu would be nice
erhem... May I just hop in a little bit?
Where do I see what CPU I am currently using? Because I am not sure wether I have a strong or weak CPU as I am having the same problem as Vito here with big airports. It might be the graphics card, an some people mentioned to me here, or the CPU. I can't figure out the pieces of the puzzle until I know what kind of CPU I have. Starting from then I can finally make a final judgement (perhaps with the help from the experts here, of course! )
Capt. El
you can see it during boot sequense. If not, you can look it up in your bios. if not, in windows, hit the windows key + break. this will show your cpu + ram.
There are other safer ways. Why safer, because some times people will go into the BIOS and see something intresting (cpu frequence) and change it, maybe leading to overheating or damage.
THis is what I got with computer summary. Is this great? Or is there something that could be improved and/or upgraded? If there is, please tell me! Thanx.
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(just discovered that a few minutes ago).
.
and lower than the 7600, too) so You have to think about it for a bit. it wont be a concorde though, that celeron is slow. and You'd have to dump it when You buy a new system.
)
