New Graphics Card...

[Tony9r]

My PC is getting on a bit now, and after buying a cool R/C flight sim the other day, found out that the graphics card wasn't really up to the software ... the graphics became "jerky".

Had a look on the web site for the sim, and they gave recommendations on what graphics card would do the job.

One of the highly recommended ones was the Radeon 9*** series 128MB DDR, so I bought the 9250.

To be honest the sim doesn't run any better... is it still the graphics card, or is my main processor not man enough at 1.15 gig?

[Rob]

how much memory do u have? and do u have the latest direct x drivers

[Tony9r]

how much memory do u have? and do u have the latest direct x drivers

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If you mean RAM, then I have 512MB, and I don't know about the Direct X drivers, all I did was install the drivers from the disk provided with the card.

Sorry, I know b****r all about PC's

[aido]

Do they not have recommendations for the minimum PC spec required mate?

I haven't played a game on a home PC for years as it's a nasty can of worms you open the second you start playing games on them, the problem is some games just have basic wireframe models you don't need a high spec graphics card for but others put a huge load on the processor and graphics subsystems when calculating all the info to hand over to the graphics board for rendering - the manufacturer of the game should have a minimum PC spec they'd recommend but being honest a lot of the time the minimum is just that - guessing if it's got a complicated physics engine then that could be using a lot of CPU.

An easy way to figure it out mate it to leave the task manager or load Performance Monitor and leave it running while the game is up - that will show you what load is being placed on the CPU when the game is running :D

Easiest way to do that is click Start - Run and type 'perfmon' in the box without any quotes and just click ok - by default it will have a few counters running, you're just interested in the CPU one, load the game, play it then quit and see what perfmon is showing - if the CPU graph is in the 90's or flatlining at 100% that tells you that you need a CPU upgrade for that particular game :winky:

[Tony9r]

Do they not have recommendations for the minimum PC spec required mate?

I haven't played a game on a home PC for years as it's a nasty can of worms you open the second you start playing games on them, the problem is some games just have basic wireframe models you don't need a high spec graphics card for but others put a huge load on the processor and graphics subsystems when calculating all the info to hand over to the graphics board for rendering - the manufacturer of the game should have a minimum PC spec they'd recommend but being honest a lot of the time the minimum is just that - guessing if it's got a complicated physics engine then that could be using a lot of CPU.

An easy way to figure it out mate it to leave the task manager or load Performance Monitor and leave it running while the game is up - that will show you what load is being placed on the CPU when the game is running :D

Easiest way to do that is click Start - Run and type 'perfmon' in the box without any quotes and just click ok - by default it will have a few counters running, you're just interested in the CPU one, load the game, play it then quit and see what perfmon is showing - if the CPU graph is in the 90's or flatlining at 100% that tells you that you need a CPU upgrade for that particular game :winky:

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Aido, the minimum system requirements stated on the box are 100% Pentium III or AMD Athlon/64 with at least 800 Mhz and 128MB RAM, and their recommended system requirements are 100% Pentium IV or AMD 64 compatible processor with at least 1600Mhz and 256MB RAM.

All I know about mine is it's an AMD Athlon 1.15Ghz with 512MB RAM...

[aido]

What game is it mate?

Sure there will be other people on here who are playing it - maybe they could put up what spec machine they have and whether it is working properly?

Does the game have display options as maybe you just need to run the game at a lower resolution?

[Tony9r]

What game is it mate?

Sure there will be other people on here who are playing it - maybe they could put up what spec machine they have and whether it is working properly?

Does the game have display options as maybe you just need to run the game at a lower resolution?

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It's not strictly a game... Aerofly Professional Deluxe RC flight simulator.

I fly RC model planes for a hobby, and this is a great bit of kit to practice my flying on as I'm trying for my "B" test certificate soon, so I doubt if there's anybody else that will be using this :P

I have tried reducing the resolution, but in quite hard loaded situations, it still suffers and the fps go right down

Is there some sort of adjustments that I need to make in windows to set up the new card?

[Brettster]

That radeon card you have is the buget one, take it back and get yourself a 9800 pro, should only be around 90 pouds these days but its an awesome card for the money, I have one in my machine and i can play doom 3 or half life 2 at a very high res with all the detail settings turned up.

[Tony9r]

That radeon card you have is the buget one, take it back and get yourself a 9800 pro, should only be around 90 pouds these days but its an awesome card for the money, I have one in my machine and i can play doom 3 or half life 2 at a very high res with all the detail settings turned up.

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Yea... unfortunately it was the only PCi (??) card the guy had in, and at 38 quid I thought I'd give it a go.

Just need to know at this stage if it's the card or the PC that's bogging down...

[MrADeveci]

@ adio playing games on a pc is not a can of worms ......... I do it all the time with no probs at all !

@ tony tried updating windows too ? might need new direct x drivers .... and it might even find a few more new drivers you need for the gfx card.

[Tony9r]

Do they not have recommendations for the minimum PC spec required mate?

I haven't played a game on a home PC for years as it's a nasty can of worms you open the second you start playing games on them, the problem is some games just have basic wireframe models you don't need a high spec graphics card for but others put a huge load on the processor and graphics subsystems when calculating all the info to hand over to the graphics board for rendering - the manufacturer of the game should have a minimum PC spec they'd recommend but being honest a lot of the time the minimum is just that - guessing if it's got a complicated physics engine then that could be using a lot of CPU.

An easy way to figure it out mate it to leave the task manager or load Performance Monitor and leave it running while the game is up - that will show you what load is being placed on the CPU when the game is running :D

Easiest way to do that is click Start - Run and type 'perfmon' in the box without any quotes and just click ok - by default it will have a few counters running, you're just interested in the CPU one, load the game, play it then quit and see what perfmon is showing - if the CPU graph is in the 90's or flatlining at 100% that tells you that you need a CPU upgrade for that particular game :winky:

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Just tried the Perfmon, run the game, exited and the CPU was running at a constant 100% :o

[Brettster]

if you can only use PCI for gfx then forget looking for a better card. they hit the performance wall with pci cards about 5 years ago when they brought out the AGP slot, things have gone full circle again and they reached the limit of AGP and designed the PCI Express slot. I think you'll be stuck with what you have now untill you upgrade your whole pc. Ive got a radio controlled trainer helicopter thats for indoor flying and runs from the mains so you can practice all day long and it doesnt suffer from any fps issues :)

[Tony9r]

if you can only use PCI for gfx then forget looking for a better card. they hit the performance wall with pci cards about 5 years ago when they brought out the AGP slot, things have gone full circle again and they reached the limit of AGP and designed the PCI Express slot. I think you'll be stuck with what you have now untill you upgrade your whole pc. Ive got a radio controlled trainer helicopter thats for indoor flying and runs from the mains so you can practice all day long and it doesnt suffer from any fps issues :)

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Mmmm... new pooter then... I also got a Dell Poweredge which I havn't used, it's got longer green slots with two partitions/notches, what type are they?

It has a 1.8 Ghz processor, but is only limited to 256MB RAM - tried a 512MB card, but it still only limits to 256. Is there a way of breaking this limit?

The LAMA's good, I got the Twister - no wire :P

[aido]

Just tried the Perfmon, run the game, exited and the CPU was running at a constant 100% :o 

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There's your answer pal, the CPU is the bottleneck so you need more speed - once you've upgraded the CPU it should be a bit better :winky:

The CPU isn't providing data to the GPU quick enough, this is what I mean about can of worms Ahmet, you upgrade one bit and then another subsystem becomes a bottleneck, it's a constant race to keep up with the latest and greatest. It's so much easier to just stick to an XBox or PS2 or something which has a fixed platform :)

:)

[Tony9r]

@ adio playing games on a pc is not a can of worms ......... I do it all the time with no probs at all !

@ tony tried updating windows too ? might need new direct x drivers .... and it might even find a few more new drivers you need for the gfx card.

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Ahmet, how do I know if the drivers need updating and where do I get them from... like I said, I really don't know too much about these things

[Tony9r]

Just tried the Perfmon, run the game, exited and the CPU was running at a constant 100% :o 

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There's your answer pal, the CPU is the bottleneck so you need more speed - once you've upgraded the CPU it should be a bit better :winky:

The CPU isn't providing data to the GPU quick enough, this is what I mean about can of worms Ahmet, you upgrade one bit and then another subsystem becomes a bottleneck, it's a constant race to keep up with the latest and greatest. It's so much easier to just stick to an XBox or PS2 or something which has a fixed platform :)

:)

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So do you think the Dell would be the better PC to run this on? :)

[aido]

It's got to be worth a go Tony :)

What you'll probably find then is that the Dell would need the more powerful graphics card - can of worms I tell you

[Tony9r]

It's got to be worth a go Tony :)

What you'll probably find then is that the Dell would need the more powerful graphics card - can of worms I tell you

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Thanks Aido... I'm getting to know a bit more about these pooters now - can of worms

[Moffet]

Could be that it's PCI is the problem. It doesn't have the bandwidth of AGP/PCI-E that is on more modern PCs and that will probably not be able to feed information to/from the card fast enough - that is probably the problem with your old card too if they both perform the same and all your drivers are up to date.

[ColinBarber]

The game should run on your PC even with the budget graphics card.

Are there any setting within the simulator to alter the graphics detail? You may have to lower the detail level to get it to run smooth.

[Tony9r]

The game should run on your PC even with the budget graphics card.

Are there any setting within the simulator to alter the graphics detail? You may have to lower the detail level to get it to run smooth.

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Yes Colin, there are options to turn off smoke, reflections etc which helps with the fps.

Really need to upgrade my PC to catch up with the times

[Kremmen]

Moffet is onto the secret.

If your motherboard is only capable of AGP4x then even installing a more modern graphics card of the AGP8x variety will make no difference whatsoever.

The graphics will still run at the AGP4x speed.

Also, whilst the manufacturers specify minimum requirements they tend to be very low to increase sales and you can dig out what the game actually requires from user forums or reviews.

There is a utility >> HERE << that will assess your PC and report whether the game you are intending to purchase will run on your machine (if your game is on their database.

[Moffet]

He actually said his graphics card was PCI, which I don't think is capable of running many modern games.

[derekyau]

if you can only use PCI for gfx then forget looking for a better card. they hit the performance wall with pci cards about 5 years ago when they brought out the AGP slot, things have gone full circle again and they reached the limit of AGP and designed the PCI Express slot. I think you'll be stuck with what you have now untill you upgrade your whole pc. Ive got a radio controlled trainer helicopter thats for indoor flying and runs from the mains so you can practice all day long and it doesnt suffer from any fps issues :)

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Mmmm... new pooter then... I also got a Dell Poweredge which I havn't used, it's got longer green slots with two partitions/notches, what type are they?

It has a 1.8 Ghz processor, but is only limited to 256MB RAM - tried a 512MB card, but it still only limits to 256. Is there a way of breaking this limit?

The LAMA's good, I got the Twister - no wire :P

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Your Poweredge (which is DELLs Server-end products) WILL take more than 256MB.

Thing with their Server range (and certain computer products - the motherboard) is that they generally take different types of RAM.

Poweredge servers take self-checking ECC Polarity RAM if i'm not mistaken (as do most servers).

If you plan to get more RAM for your Poweredge, look on the DELL website or Kingston perhaps to find out exactly which type of RAM you need, then look on say Ebuyer to make your purchase (as it will be a cheaper than DELL themselves.

But yeah, your current PC is being bottlenecked by your processor, and PCI is a bit dated nowadays :-(

D.

[Rillo]

Assuming you don't want to upgrade PC, graphics card etc there are some simple things you can do to get the best from what you've got:

1) Update Graphics drivers - go to www.ATI.com and download latest drivers.

2) defragment your hard drive - right click on start button, choose explore and then right click the drive and choose properties. Now select Tools tab at the top and defragment. You will be amazed how much this helps pc performance.

3) whilst you are there do a disk cleanup and also uncheck the box that says "Allow Indexing Service" - surprisingly this can slow your PC down!