Hello all, I play man game including COD, COD:OU, CS:source/HL2, and BF2. I have a Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 1GB PC 2700, 80GB Hardrive, PNY 6800 vanilla. My computer runs super in COD, rarely going under 100 fps, but it seems as though COD:UO kills my fps. In large open areas, my fps will drop down to 30, and sometimes even 20. It seems to me that I should be getting better fps with my system. It does the same thing in CS:source. Oh, I also have a Thermaltake 480W Powersupply, so I know it's not a power problem. Is this just all my system can handle? As far as resolution is concerned, it gives me the same fps on every setting! That seems weird to me, like something is holding it back. Any opinions?
Very much likely that its your CPU. Pentium 4 CPUs aren't as good as Athlon64 in gaming, and at 2.4GHz, it becomes the bottleneck for your PC. Your graphics card is being held back by your CPU and so if you upgrade, it will be used to its fullest extent. If you want an easy upgrade, get a faster P4, 3GHz or more, and possibly more RAM. However, if you really want to get the best, you'll probably want to get a new mobo and an Athlon64 3000+ or higher. You'll see a good difference.
wouldnt some DDR400 be better for gaming as well? do amd cpu's support DDR2? if so lookin into some of that with a new motherboard, as its a lot quicker
nope amd cpus dont support ddr2 they will on the next line by the time ddr2 actually has greater performance increases, right now theres no need to respin the memory die though amd cpus secretly can withstand up to ddr500 but it can lead to problems.
aha i see, well then i think try some faster RAM ut apart from that an AMD 64-Bit CPU would be a better option
AMD's M2 socket will support DDR2 in the future, but as of now theres no point, and also saves people money as they can keep their old DDR for new A64 rigs.
any info on what cpus are gonna be in the M2 socket? im guessing the future X2 line? pity, i thought they'd be on 939 : (
PC2700 won't really hold you back much, you have a gig so you're fine there. As Addis said you're cpu is bottle necking you video card a bit. It's not a terrible chip but an nice overclock would make a good difference if you want to do that sort of thing (assuming your ram is up to the task, is it name brand stuff like Kingston, Corsair, etc?) All but the very fastest nVidia cards perform fairly unsatasfactory in HL2 and CS:S, the engine is optimized for ATI cards and doesn't appreciate nVidia hardware very much so you get somewhat poor results. I can't say I really understand why COD UO is so much more demanding as they use the same engine right? I say get a patch for it and update your video drivers, that's always been my knee-jerk suggestion.
