Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ulundel on April 28, 2002, 07:01:09 am
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All right, here's the deal.
My computer's getting old, no, I mean, really old. Only 64megs of ram and some stupid 8megs video card. yeah, I know
Also, I need a CD burner. So, what should I buy first: more ram, a nice geforce or CD burner.
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hmmmmmmmm a nice shiny geforce will only do you alot of good if you got a nice shiney newish processor to go with it - save up and buy a whole new computer nif its gettign old
i recomend the athlon range over the p4 far more bang for your buck
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Well, if you don't have the bucks to get a new one, I'd suggest more RAM. A CD burner... well, you can always call me and a new video card won't do you any good without a new processor.
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Originally posted by Stunaep
and a new video card won't do you any good without a new processor.
Like...why?
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What's your processor speed? Also, CD burner doesn't add speed (:doh: , I guess you know it) so if you want speed, you should buy something else first. ;)
My computer is crap too, but I hope I'm going to get new one pretty soon. :)
Edit:Originally posted by Ten of Twelve
Like...why?
I know you didn't quote me, but like I should care. :p :D
Anyway, if you have good a video card but a slow processor and/or not enough ram, the processor/ram/whatever will be bottleneck, and the video card will not help you much.
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600 Mhz (actually 601 but who cares)
My first one had 12 Mhz :lol:
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well at 600 you might benefit from a geforce 2 but i doubt you notice much difference if you got the 3 or 4 on the upside the 2 is quite abit cheaper and that should leave you with enough to pick up some ram too which will help alot even just another 64mb would probally make quite a differnce
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Thanks. :)
*runs*
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I got a 450mhz p3
and an 8mb card
got the 1337 syS73|V|
oh ya
:doubt:
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Originally posted by Bobboau
I got a 450mhz p3
and an 8mb card
got the 1337 syS73|V|
oh ya
:doubt:
I'm feeling better right now. At least I'm not the only one here...
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Originally posted by Bobboau
I got a 450mhz p3
and an 8mb card
got the 1337 syS73|V|
oh ya
:doubt:
- 466MHz Celeron
- Integrated video card, 8MB
- 160MB Ram
:headz:
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stupid ATI 4 mb. video card....
:snipe: would be the right comment here.
Luckily, I'll get a new comp. by the end of the summer (actually I could get one tomorrow, but I don't see the point, since I do not use it in June-july-august. An 4 months make a huge difference)
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Originally posted by Ten of Twelve
600 Mhz (actually 601 but who cares)
My first one had 12 Mhz :lol:
I have a 600Mhz too, runs everything i have perfectly
okay: got 400Mb of RAM in there (128+256 but Pc can't do it's math and says 391 :rolleyes: )
geforce2 GTS
and two large and fast harddrives
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The first thing you should do is shell out for a nice new motherboard. Something in the £160 range with lots of slot and dual processot support, then plug all your old crap into it and gradually add things like a GC and RAM when you got the spare cash. The motherboard should always be the first candidate for upgrading.
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I'll buy some ram and a new video card so I could play Morrowind, return to castle wolfenstein and any other.
New computer comes later. :p
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Originally posted by an0n
dual processot support
Um, why that? That's only useful for renderers (well, maybe some other things benefit from dual processors, too) who need very fast computers, and it might even give problems, or decrease performance in some things.
Edit: But I agree, a good motherboard is important. But if you don't have to upgrade it for new processor, you shouldn't. And changing to DDR-ram from SDR-ram isn't very good reason to upgrade motherboard, either. Of course if you have the money... :p
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Originally posted by Redfang
Um, why that? That's only useful for renderers
:rolleyes:
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Originally posted by Ten of Twelve
:rolleyes:
:o I know you render, but dual processor doesn't even double performance, and it's not going to be cheap. I forgot to say that actually when computer is used for only rendering, and/or it's doing much rendering, only then should you have dual-processor system (I hope you can understand that, it was badly written).
It's expensive, but of course it's up to you to decide do you want dual-processor system (but remember, it doesn't help gaming performance, might even decrease that, and cause problems).
Edit: Also dual-processor system would be good for them who just have the money and want more performance for rendering. ;)
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Depends if you're running POS default MAX or lightwave renderers or some good software like Mental Ray or PRman.
the second processor gave me a 30% speed improvement with the MAX renderer (YIPES!).
it gave me 100% on mental ray.
Duals aren't worth it if you dont EXCESSIVELY render animations. For stills a single will still do you fine, more or less.
As for graphics cards...geforces are fine......provided you like graphical glitches all over the shop.
But then again decent pro 3D cards are way expensive (mine was £400)
If i were you i'd get a new mobo and processor first with memory. make it DDR and make sure the mobo sports the best chipset around (KT266a or Nforce). DO NOT get a cheapo motherboard (PCchips...bleurgh), go for a good solid brand name like Asus, Abit or Tyan etc. (sorry if i left anyones' favourite out)
Upgrade the graphics card later...this christmas a few manufacturers are releasing things that most people would kill for (i dont mean Nvidia or ATI, either, since all their designs are just higher clocked or DDRed versions of the same fricking chip)
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while i agree a good motherboard is a start - its not always the best idea to do it like you suggest - motherboard dont support all processors so if hes got a p3 at the moment perhaps in the up[grade he want s to switch to athlon etc - also dual processor support is only really needed if you planning on doing some serious rendering so if you just want to play games mostly then why shell out the extra fora dual board espcially is finacaes dictate you can only afford one chip for the moment when the non dual chips are running at faster speeds
on the other hand if you wanted to do animations and some serious renders then dual is brilliant for that hehe =) i can vouch for this since i have one
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i would point outalso that dual board are no impeiment to gaming =)
and i did hear that the quake 3 engine can take advantage of dual processors but that might be a myth but jedi knight 2 based on quake 3 engine runs like and absolute dream
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Oh and one more thing, dont run winXP if you want rendering
performance nominally drops about 20% in all cases plus you may have problems getting license servers up and running without a million patches.
Stick with 2K until a few service packs later.
Or linux.
Whatevers' your poison .
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Seems I'm not the only one lookin' to upgrade :)
Anyway, I have decided against dual. I don't have a need for. I render stills mainly, anyway.
It's gonna be high end AMD, probably the Abit AT7 mobo, 1 Gb RAM and maybe another 80 Gb.
Article @ Tom's Hardware about dual cpu.
http://www4.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q1/0203131/index.html
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Originally posted by Ryx
It's gonna be high end AMD, probably the Abit AT7 mobo, 1 Gb RAM and maybe another 80 Gb.
ANOTHER 80 Gb???? :jaw:
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It's only a lil' IDE drive for crying out loud :P
anyway...if you deal with noncompressed video NLA stuff you need the space.
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Originally posted by wEvil
(i dont mean Nvidia or ATI, either, since all their designs are just higher clocked or DDRed versions of the same fricking chip)
Yeah, Geforce 4 was quite much the Geforce 3. But Geforce 3 was something new. Also ATI R200 was new compared to R100. Also, I guess this year ATI comes up with something new (R300), and NVidia also, maybe. ;)
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actually i was thinking of BitBoyz OY and their Rage3D as well as 3Dlabs "emma" chip.
Emma got creative excited enough to buy them, put it that way :p
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Interesting dilemma. While extra memory is always good (except with Win9x :wink: ), if you decide to upgrade the rest of the system in future the RAM would most likely end up having to be replaced. And while a new video card would be a major upgrade compared to an 8MB card of any sort, if you end up going for a faster card like a GF3 or 4 then the CPU will end up being a bottleneck in your system. The plus side of this is that when you do upgrade in future the video card will be up to the task.
After reading all that confusion, I say get the burner :D
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heh, yall are going to laugh at what i have:
550mhz AMD processor
16kb 3d Accelerator
128mb sdram
Packard Bell 14in monitor (6 years old)
on the other hand, i have:
20gig HDD
AT&T Cable (woohoo)
I think i'll end up getting a new motherboard and processor, then adding another 128mb of ram and pick up a better 3d accelerator sometime later.
EDIT: 1111 posts! woohoo!
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My computer is about a year old now but still serviceable. I might upgrade sometime in a few months to a faster processor, but I think my computer works okay for the stuff I currently do, although that may change when UT2k3 and U2 are released. ;) I hardly do any 3D rendering, so I basically just need high fill-rates (games) and fast floating-point performance. (mathematica)
Yeah, Geforce 4 was quite much the Geforce 3. But Geforce 3 was something new.
It is said that every odd-numbered Geforce is a true innovation, while every even-numbered one is essentially a much faster version of the one before it. ;)
16kb 3d Accelerator
I hope you're joking... :D :D
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Heh, a 16kb video card? Even I have better than that... :p
Yes, I know it's really 16mbOriginally posted by wEvil
actually i was thinking of BitBoyz OY and their Rage3D as well as 3Dlabs "emma" chip.
Um, Rage3D? Rage3D (http://www.rage3d.com) is just an ATI fansite. :p
Also, Bitboyz, of course might release something, but you will never know. They've been talking about releasing new chip for years.
3DLabs, well why not. :p
Also, Matrox might come with its "Parhelia" (or if it's going to be called that) soon. :)