Up to now, I've been playing on a PII 400Mhz with 128MB RAM, 16MB ATI Video Card, 4x4x32 CDRW, and a 5200RPM HD. I notice that performance, while mostly bearable, is still rather bad. Load times take almost half a minute, and graphics in certain sections (e.g. Underdark) slows to a crawl. Multiple spell effects on the screen tend to turn the whole battle into ultra slow-motion.
Anyway, I just ordered relatively inexpensive system from one of those websites that I've never heard of... (bad idea, huh?) for just about a grand. Anyway, it's a Athlon 1.4GHz with 512MB DDR RAM, a 64MB Geforce2 MX graphics card, 16x DVD, 16x10x40 CDRW, and a 7200RPM HD. Should I expect much improvement in terms of game performance? (Specifically the problems I mentioned above). I realize the graphics card is cheap (I'm not quite convinced of the practicality of a Geforce3 to shell over 350+ dollars for one yet), but it does have a lot more memory than before...will it matter at all?
Just curious.
Technical question: what hardware would make a difference in BG2?
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try to go for a true intel...
if you plan to run anything beyond games. to my personal, professional recomendation, while athelon and other reverse engineered cpus are great, nothing beats a true intel for peace of mind. I have a loaded p3 coppermine processor with a older diamond steath vid card. the one and only thing you will upgrade, besides the hd and cd om, those go bad in 2 years or so, is the vid card. spend the money on cpu and fast motherboard, Asus is really good, and upgrade your vid card later, as this will stretch your technology curve out to around 4 years.
if you plan to run anything beyond games. to my personal, professional recomendation, while athelon and other reverse engineered cpus are great, nothing beats a true intel for peace of mind. I have a loaded p3 coppermine processor with a older diamond steath vid card. the one and only thing you will upgrade, besides the hd and cd om, those go bad in 2 years or so, is the vid card. spend the money on cpu and fast motherboard, Asus is really good, and upgrade your vid card later, as this will stretch your technology curve out to around 4 years.
They call me Darth...
Darth Gizka!
Muwahahahahhahahha!!!
Darth Gizka!
Muwahahahahhahahha!!!
UU, I ask for any substantiation (links) to any of your statments.
"athelon and other reverse engineered cpus are great"
What do the real pros say about AMD vs. Intel?
Tomshardware: See AMD Processors Vs. Intel Processors - Facts and Lies [url="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q4/001017/athlon-02.html"]http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q4/001017/athlon-02.html[/url]
""AMD Processors are significantly less expensive than Intel processors although they are at least on par in terms of performance. - FACT"
"AMD processors are incompatible. - LIE"
"Chipsets for AMD processors are inferior to Intel chipsets. - LIE
----------------------------------
Not to get into an AMD vs. Intel debate but surprisingly, even a 2.0 GHz P4 cannot convincingly beat 1.4 GHz Athlon-C. In fact, the opposite is true: the Athlon is faster in the majority of real-world applications.
AnandTech's review of the P4/2.0 Using the fastest chipsets for each processor -- the Intel 850 and SiS 735.
The Athlon-C 1.4 GHz beats the P4/2.0 GHz in six applications, looses in four, and ties it in one (Cinema 4D Raytracing):
Athlon-C 1.4 GHz takes
Business Winstone 2001
Sysmark 2001 - Office Productivity
OfficeBench 2001 v2.0
3D Studio Max R4.02
FlaskMPEG
AquaMark
Pentium4 2.0 GHz takes
Content Creation Winstone 2001
Sysmark 2001 - Internet Content Creation
Quake III Arena
Dronez
None of this, of course, takes into account that other most important product feature: price. Here, the P4 is still not even competitive. There are no PriceWatch street figures for 2.0 GHz P4's at the moment, but if we use the current P4/1.8 price ($260), we get this absurd comparison:
Athlon-C 1.4 GHz $106
256M PC2100 DDR SDRAM $31
ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) $59
Total $196
Pentium4 2.0 GHz $260
2 x 128M PC800 RDRAM $68
ECS P4ITA $112
Total $440
The Athlon system is not only faster, but more than twice as cheap! And most intelligent PC users have realized by now that Intel and AMD platforms are equally reliable.
My recommendation is to get the above Athlon solution and a Radeon LE for video. Since BGII is severely disk intensive a 7200 rpm IDE hard drive is also recommended.
Athlon-C 1.4 GHz $106
256M PC2100 DDR SDRAM $31
ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) $59
Radeon LE $70
40 gig 7200 rpm HD $107
New top performing computer = $374
No intel solution can come close in terms price/performance. For purchase I recommend [url="http://www.newegg.com."]www.newegg.com.[/url]
[ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Carbonyl ]
"athelon and other reverse engineered cpus are great"
What do the real pros say about AMD vs. Intel?
Tomshardware: See AMD Processors Vs. Intel Processors - Facts and Lies [url="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q4/001017/athlon-02.html"]http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q4/001017/athlon-02.html[/url]
""AMD Processors are significantly less expensive than Intel processors although they are at least on par in terms of performance. - FACT"
"AMD processors are incompatible. - LIE"
"Chipsets for AMD processors are inferior to Intel chipsets. - LIE
----------------------------------
Not to get into an AMD vs. Intel debate but surprisingly, even a 2.0 GHz P4 cannot convincingly beat 1.4 GHz Athlon-C. In fact, the opposite is true: the Athlon is faster in the majority of real-world applications.
AnandTech's review of the P4/2.0 Using the fastest chipsets for each processor -- the Intel 850 and SiS 735.
The Athlon-C 1.4 GHz beats the P4/2.0 GHz in six applications, looses in four, and ties it in one (Cinema 4D Raytracing):
Athlon-C 1.4 GHz takes
Business Winstone 2001
Sysmark 2001 - Office Productivity
OfficeBench 2001 v2.0
3D Studio Max R4.02
FlaskMPEG
AquaMark
Pentium4 2.0 GHz takes
Content Creation Winstone 2001
Sysmark 2001 - Internet Content Creation
Quake III Arena
Dronez
None of this, of course, takes into account that other most important product feature: price. Here, the P4 is still not even competitive. There are no PriceWatch street figures for 2.0 GHz P4's at the moment, but if we use the current P4/1.8 price ($260), we get this absurd comparison:
Athlon-C 1.4 GHz $106
256M PC2100 DDR SDRAM $31
ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) $59
Total $196
Pentium4 2.0 GHz $260
2 x 128M PC800 RDRAM $68
ECS P4ITA $112
Total $440
The Athlon system is not only faster, but more than twice as cheap! And most intelligent PC users have realized by now that Intel and AMD platforms are equally reliable.
My recommendation is to get the above Athlon solution and a Radeon LE for video. Since BGII is severely disk intensive a 7200 rpm IDE hard drive is also recommended.
Athlon-C 1.4 GHz $106
256M PC2100 DDR SDRAM $31
ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) $59
Radeon LE $70
40 gig 7200 rpm HD $107
New top performing computer = $374
No intel solution can come close in terms price/performance. For purchase I recommend [url="http://www.newegg.com."]www.newegg.com.[/url]
[ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Carbonyl ]
Damn I good lookin'. My mother told me so.