Please help a noob in need!

[Tip_Top]

Hi guys/girls,

I am having a few problems with my graphics which I think could be more smooth. My computer spec is:

Advent PC
Pentium (R) D 3.2Ghz processor
Windows XP Home Sp2
2GB RAM
NVidea 6600LE Graphics Card 256 MB (?)
Virgin Media Broadband 10Mb
NetlInks 54Mb/s wireless router

I would be grateful if someone oculd give me some poitners about an upgrade for my graphics card and perhaps my processor?

 

[Me__2001]

what do you mean by smooth ? are you experiencing stutters during video playback ? or gameplay? if so what games ? what settings are you using ?

btw to upgrade your CPU would more than likely entail buying pretty much a new PC, you can however get an ATI X1900 in AGP

 

[Spezi]

What kind of problems are you specifically referring to?

I have that graphics card in my test box and it has handled what I throw at it quite nicely albeit I'm not a fanatical gamer.

 

[PotGuy]

Its a crippled 6600 vanilla isn't it?

Should still be able to handle most things, depends what you are doing with it.

What games are you playing?

 

[Alf]

Yea pretty much the LE means its slightly slower than vanilla.
the 1950GT by ATI will take care of ya.

 

[Tip_Top]

The games I am playing are mainly:

CoD 1, UO and 2.
Battlefield 2142
Americas Army.

It may not be the graphics card I guess, it could just be latency or lag caused by my Router? I have spoken to a few friends who think that my graphics card could be better, especially as I bought the computer in the first place to mainly play these sorts of games.

Is the ATI X1900 in AGP a suggested upgraded graphics card?

I'm sorry this must seem like I am being awkward, but I really don't have a clue. Thanks for the help so far though!!

 

[Me__2001]

it could be your internet connection if you're playing online or it could be your PC cant handle the games on the settings you are running them at

what resolution are you using ? AA setting ? AF setting ? have you got all the shadows and draw distances set to max ?

also what is actually happening during gameplay ? try runing fraps during a normal game (not an online game to rule out your connection), your fps should stay around 30 much below that and things will start getting slow

if you dont give us the information, we can't help

 

[Tip_Top]

I know if I don't give you the information you can't help, but you are speaking a different language, AA/AF Setting? Sorry.

 

[Spezi]

I used that same video card to play the same games and had no issues attributable to the card.

Odd connections to some sites or router issues can cause the screen to do strange stuff.

It's certainly not the most awe inspiring video card for gaming but it does indeed work for CoD and I'd also mention that my other box with a GeForce 7300GT card in it doesn't really function much better to where I can notice.

I do recollect some glitches with dual core processors so I made sure to apply the AMD dual core patch as well as a MS offering but it didn't seem to cure all woes for everyone.

I note that you have a wireless router so I might add that from my own experience here it seems that my daughters computer that is located furthest from my router and is connected via wireless card simply does not perform as well as my own two units that are directly connected to the router by CAT5 cable.

For one thing the wireless is not capable of the same speeds and for another the signal strength tends to fluctuate and varies depending on the actual building structure.

For gaming I would think that a direct connection would be preferable and if you don't have one perhaps you could temporarily move things around to test whether there is any improvement.

 

[Tip_Top]

Yeah I think I should use the direct cable route!! Thanks for that. If I was to upgrade my video card, what informaiton do I need to check to make sure it is compatible?

 

[Spezi]

Yeah I think I should use the direct cable route!! Thanks for that. If I was to upgrade my video card, what informaiton do I need to check to make sure it is compatible?

To the best of my knowledge you simply have to make sure that it matches your motherboard slot so if you have an AGP video provision motherboard you need to get an AGP card or if you have a PCI-E motherboard you then have to get the PCI-E style of video card.

My money is on connection issues in your case though.

 

[Abarbarian]

SIW mention in this link will tell you everything you need to know about your pc ,

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3048995.php

or this will do nearly the same ,

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Everest-Home-Edition.shtml