DeadReckoning84

So, I am an avid gamer, pretty much any system, PC, Xbox, PS, etc.

Anyway, I like to get the most out of what I have, and that would mean learning the current limitations and options of my hardware and software, speaking purely of PC gaming of course.

As of this moment, my PC is a compaq I bought very cheap from a store and upgraded myself. In fact, I think the only part not upgraded is the Motherboard, however, it is a fairly recent MOBO but it is a built-in MOBO with Compaq.

Here is what is in the box.

AMD 64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core 2.20 mhz, L2 Cache 1 mb

Power Supply is an Asus, 500 watt

4 sticks of 512 ram, PC3200 SDRAM

ATI Radeon X1900XT, 512 MB (Crossfire Edition) PCI-E


So that is what I am working with.

What I am looking for is limitations or max things I can do with this rig in it's current form. Like should I be able to run, say, F.E.A.R. at 1280X1024 and get a certain FPS.


I want to know my limitations, know what I can do and what I can't, and see if anything is bottlenecked, needs updated, system optimaztion for gaming.

Basically my PC is for gaming and some internet usuage, and I want to put all my hardware to do that.

Here is some info.

My 3DMark06 score was

3DMark Score 5476
3DMarks SM 2.0 Score 2161
Marks SM 3.0 Score 2470
Marks CPU Score 1676 Marks

What confuses me is that my SM 2.0 was lower than my 3.0 :O I thought SM 3 was more advanced and used more resources than SM 2.0


I wanted to give you guys an average on STALKER, since that is the newest game out with really high system requirements, but seems it's unstable for a ton of people and I believe the coding and or optimaztion could be screwed so it could be the game or my system with no actual way of telling, so instead I am going to run FEARS demo and report my min, max, and average FPS with the settings I use.

Here were my settings

1280X1024 resolution 32bit

Everything on Maximum or ON

FSAA X4

Anistropic Filtering X16

Vertical Sync - ON

Soft Shadows - OFF



Here are more FEAR TEST Results WITHOUT Soft Shadows on -

Minimum - 24 fps
Average - 42 fps
Maximum - 75 fps


Now same settings except Soft Shadows ON -


Minimum - 25 fps
Average - 42
Maximum - 75

So it seems Soft Shadows didn't make a difference AT ALL.


Now, I am also researching AA, V-Sync, and Anistropic Filtering.

To my understanding, AA is pointless and unnoticeable at higher resoultions. Same with AF filtering.

Same with V-Sync and moniters. I have a widescreen LCD, max resolutions is 1440x900

I know my response time is 8ms, but have no idea if I have any input lag or not. (could that even contribute to my general fps in video games?)


So what do you guys think of all this? Ditch AA, AF, and V-Sync, stay with it?

Is my tests in current line with my hardware? Or is it slower? Could I have a bottleneck, or maybe my operating system could not be fully optimized for gaming?

What should my expectations be? Should I be playing games at 1440x900, or something else?

Any information or adivce is appreciated.

ChaosMinionX

Chances are that CPU is bottlenecking that card, more than likely. Not to mention your not using DDR2 which is even more of a bottleneck when maintaing higher, more stable frame rates with higher resolutions not only with graphics memory, but the rate at which the stuff comes from system memory into the card. That chip is Socket AM2 939, you should be using DDR2 with it PC5300 or PC6400. DDR2 667/800mhz respectively.

Running anything around 1280x1024 which is standard resolution for 19" LCDs you will most definately notice a difference in the degree of Antialiasing, maybe not so much on the anisotropic filtering, but the AA yes. In which case I believe a value on AF of 4x or 8x is a given on the X1900's I could be wrong, but it has little to no effect on FPS from what I have seen.

With that setup, XGWarcat ATI drivers over at TRU might be your best bet for performance out of that system, and Omega seems to be a good solid performer with any game.

Also if Im not mistake the crossfire edition only comes as the X1900XTX version 512mb. Since its a slave card to a 1900XTX its clocked at XTX speeds etc etc.

Vsync should not be a problem, as most LCD refresh rates are 60-80hz and if your FPS isnt like 100-200fps and you have a slower monitor and you see what is called "Screen Tear" is the only time you enable Vertical Sync as it will force the image to match the monitors refresh rate. Screen tear occurs when the image that is being sent to the monitor is cycling faster than the monitor is producing it. IE A scene is rendered theres a barrel exploding on screen,but the screen skips the image of the explosion and jumps to the burnt area around it. While this is a extreme degree of screen tear, its the general idea of what happens.

As far as monitor response times they are usually measure in a Gray To Gray scale, Anything to do with Gaming/Fast motions like movies and whatnot is generally best when used in the range of 2ms to 8ms at max before you see ghosting and other unwanted side effects of the monitor not clearing the screen fast enough. The overall response time has nothing to do with FPS or lagged signal, however a lagged signal and degredation of image quality could be a result of using a VGA input, and not a DVI input. VGA is sent as an analog signal, which is then converted to a digital signal that the video card can read. Where as DVI is sent as a digital and is directly interpreted by the video card with no conversion necessary.

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DeadReckoning84

I pretty much guessed ram might pose a problem, although I was more concerned with the fact I know two sticks of 1 gig dual channeled is better than 4 512 sticks, as far as performance.

And what could I possibly due about the CPU bottleneck?

Can I test for it? Can I fix it? What would be the cause?

ChaosMinionX

Get a new chip, or overclock is the only way to decrease, or eliminate it all together.

CPU bottlenecking happens when the card can process information alot faster than the CPU, but the CPU isnt sending the information to the card so it can process it which is a big cause for a FPS drop. Or capping out of FPS with new video cards or seeing little to no improvement.

to put it a little easier to understand, say you have a hose. and you can put say 10gallons per minute through the hose itself, but the nozzle on the hose only allows you to do 5 gallons per minute. in which case the hose is the video card, and cpu is the nozzle. If the card doesnt have information from the CPU about the next set of images or scene or whatever it may be. It has nothing to process. While its a minor detail to video cards, CPU bottlenecking with highend cards is very noticeable.

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H3X4D3C1M4L

CPU bottleneck is removed by buying a faster CPU or overclocking the current one.

ChaosMinionX

QFT

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DeadReckoning84

Well then my options are limited.

As it stands, my motherboard only supports 939, and only up to AMD X2 processors.

And I am unsure how you thought I could use DDR2, as my Mobo only has 128 pin connecters.


So, I would now need to overclock my CPU, which I have never done, but it shouldn't pose TO much of a problem. However, if I did overclock my processor, what speed would be the best for my video card?

ChaosMinionX

My bad, its late haha I was thinking Socket AM2 its only a 939 I got them confused damn AMD. Anyways yes your right you can only use DDR 128pin, as far as overclocking goes if you have never OCd a processor before you might want to read up a little bit into overclocking, and then start by talking to an AMD guy on OCing. Im an Intel person haha, I dont know too much about AMD overclocking as I never owned a AMD system, cept for a FX60 I had in an alienware that I wasted money on when I was like 16.

Also is this a computer from a company, or one you have assembled yourself?

EDIT: Upon using the wonderous skill of reading, I have gathered that you have a Compaq with some upgraded things, except the one critical part to overclocking....Your Motherboard, you will want to buy a new one preferably an enthusiast board with a tweakable bios, if and when you decide to OC that computer. As a stock Compaq mobo's BIOS will not allow you to overclock at all.

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