Upgrading my pc

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Hi there,

Recently the minimum system specs for Warhammer Online have been released and I wasn't really shocked to find that my pc will be unable to run it. I think most of the problem lies with the graphics card, but I'd like your opinion on it.

Some specs:
Intel Dual Core @ 1,80 Ghz
Clockspeed 1,80 Ghz, 2gb ram
GeForce 7500 LE

Now, my first question is. Does my pc operate at 1,80 ghz or at 3,60 ghz? WAR's minimum requirements are 2,5ghz single core, so that's pretty important to know.

Secondly, where do I find what type of Ram I have? DDR2 or 3? Can I locate it in my specs or do I have to break open my pc?

Thirdly, what card do you recommend? I'm thinking either a 8600GT if I have DDR2 or a 8800GT SC or 9800GT if I have DDR3. What's the difference between the last two cards anyway? The 9800 is prices cheaper, which is strange for a newer card.

Cheers in advance.

 

You have two cores, each one is running at 1.8 GHz. That is NOT equivalent to 3.6 GHz, but in a (perfectly) multithreaded program, your CPU could approach performance equivalent to a single 3.6 Ghz core.

For Warhammer Online, a Core 2 Duo will do fine. Each one of your cores may not run faster than 2.5 GHz, but I'm also pretty sure that 2.5 Ghz relates more to Pentium 4's than it does Core 2 Duos.

A Core 2 Duo at 1.8 GHz beats a Pentium 4 running at 3.0 GHz while using less energy if you are wondering, so your CPU is fine.

You most likely have DDR2 memory, DDR3 is fairly recent. If I were you, I would get a Radeon 4850 or 4870, but before you do so, make sure that your motherboard supports it (it most likely does) and that your PSU does (it might not be powerful enough).

 

I second the above post. However it will be nice if we knew a bit more. Try a tool called cpu-z to get more technical data.

I guess it is a ready from the box system.

 

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Radeon cards. I've owned them in the past and have not been impressed with the driver software. Also, and this may have changed with some of the latest generation cards, Radeons do not support 32-bit color in Direct Draw, which means that all those wonderfully rendered dungeons and scenes in Black Isle games are viewed only in 24-bit color with a Radeon card; you will be missing out on some of the best RPG artwork that has ever graced a monitor in its full glory, IMO. In my humble opinion, nVidia is the better choice.

 

I have no bones to pick with ATI. My 3850 delivers the goods big time, and runs surprisingly quiet.

 

I've never had a problem with BG and IWD with Radeon cards, and as a software developer who works in computer graphics, I find the idea very very unlikely.

Are you sure you arent thinking about the fact that the 9 series Radeon cards only used 24 bit floating point precision whereas the Nvidia cards of the time used either 16 bit or 32 bit (resulting in poor performance)?

The drivers thing.... I hear bad things about both companies all the time. I had a Radeon 9200, then a 9600XT, and now I have an Nvidia 8800GTS. I've never really had any issues.

 

Chandos, you've probably got confused with the floating point precision. ATI cards can run DirectDraw in 32-bit just fine and have done so for over a decade (I first played BG2 in 32-bit on the ATI Rage Pro, which is a 1998 card).

I've had both Nvidia and ATI cards at various times and have had problems with both. Nvidia used to be clearly superior in Linux because the ATI drivers were rather poor but this has been fixed. I wouldn't really think in terms of brands but rather which card is better in a particular generation and within your price range.

With respect to the CPU, as far as games are concerned, forget about the 2nd core. Your CPU is a 1.8GHz. Probably under the recommended specifications, but it can be tricky to tell with clock speeds nowadays (they're not as clear-cut indicators of performance as they used to be 5 years ago).

The system RAM you have and the RAM on the graphic card are entirely different beasts. You can have DDR2 system RAM and still get a graphic card with DDR3 RAM (I've got DDR1 system RAM and DDR2 graphic RAM for example). I'm surprised the 9800GT is priced cheaper, as it's a much better card... unless you're talking about the Nvidia 8800 and the ATI 9800? That may explain things.

 

I must of have a defective card then, or it was the driver software. But on contacting ATI support they told me, at that time (about 4 years ago), that Radeon cards did not run 32-bit color in 2D games, that 24 bit was all I could get. And when I went to the game menu in BG 2 there was no option for 32-bit color. Plugging in an nVidia 5900 and the 32-bit option reappeared and I was happy again.

Yes but was that a Radeon card? I'm not that familiar with that version of ATI card. The ATI rep was specific that it was the Radeon architecture, at least it was at that time.

 

9800gt is the 8800gt whit a new sticker. Due to a large stock and ati competing whit Nvidia in every corner expect the very high end single chip, Nvidia tries to keep it sales going.

Whit the next generation all can be different. But for the moment the budget and medium high end market belongs to ati. There is no way around the valeu for money they offer. Yes, Ati had on ro two bad series, and yes some people have bad cards, but the problems are just as big whit Nvidia.

I had the Sapphire x1600xt, the Gigabyte hd2600xtgddr4 and now the Sapphire hd3870 toxic. No problems whit any of these. I have had 2 cards break down on me, one from Ati (9800pro) and one from Nvidia.

I suspect it can be the brand, or a batch from a certain factory building for several brands.

By the way Nvidia kept its mouth shut over a thousends notebook graphics card overheating and malfunctioning just around the warranty date. How about that for a reputation.
http://gizmodo.com/5021713/lots-of-nvidia-laptop-graphics-cards-are-overheating-dying

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10000910-64.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

 

Ah that changes things. My old Rage Pro was pre-Radeon. It's possible the very early Radeon cards had this problem then, but they've got over it now and can display 32-bit with no problem.

 

That's good to know, thanks.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys. Merlanni, I just downloaded CPU-Z and made a dump, but the .txt file is a bit large. Any information you'd need in particular?

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name Intel Core 2 Duo E4300
Codename Conroe
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz
Package Socket 775 LGA (platform ID = 0h)
CPUID 6.F.2
Extended CPUID 6.F
Core Stepping L2
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 1200.0 MHz (6.0 x 200.0 MHz)
Rated Bus speed 800.0 MHz
Stock frequency 1800 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2048 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
max VID 1.325 V
Features XD


DIMM #1 (#2 is the same)

General
Memory type DDR2
Module format Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) Samsung (CE00000000000000)
Size 1024 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
Part number M3 78T2953EZ3-CE6
Serial number 780B29C6



The Mobo is from MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD. I was stupid enough to buy a computer from Media Markt, never doing that again. When I was deleting Vista to but XP back in, I noticed there was a secret Linux partition on my pc, which I was unable to access, it didn't contain the backup files btw. Ended up zero filling the HD.

Anyway, thanks for the advice so far!

 

The 4300 will be okay for a while so no need to panic. A good graphics card is the first step, followed by an increase in ram. However the videocard can be used on the next motherboard, the memory not. 2 gig ddr2 533 more for 35 euro so no big deal.

But which videocard that is the question. There are two type manufacturers Ati and Nvidia. Both frogleap over each other for the crown of best GPU Nvidai had that crown for a while but Ati gives more bang for buck. The choice is hard for both makes have the same problems. Some poeple here have had problems whit the one make and choose to buy only the ohter. This discussion will never end and I am not going to advertise for one or the other. the question is what do you want to spent on it.

 

I've been looking at the Paradigit website, but they don't seem to have any Ati cards. I think I had an Ati in my old pc, never had any problems with that, neither with Nvidia for that matter.

I'll probably be able to buy a card through an aquintice of mine who runs his own computer/company network business. I'm not sure if I can get a discount, not the nicest of fellows that man.

What to spend on it? I have no idea, I don't want to buy a card for 60 euros and obsoleting it in a year. Both the 8800 and the 9800 were around 110 retail, so I guess that's a nice price to shoot for. I'll buy a better card if I can get a discount.

Concerning the ram. I have always thought/assumed all ram sticks should be the same. So should I replace those 333MHz with 800MHz?

 

When upgrading a computer you should always try to match or upgrade the RAM to the same speed. If you purchased more RAM at 800 speed you could return that RAM for the lower speed or buy more 800 speed RAM.

 

It also makes it more stable. I had that problem whit visat for a while, its very memory sensitive.

If you want to go for a high end card make sure the power supply unit can handel it. It has a tag on it explaining the voltages. waht you also nee is a six pin cable but that is not the problem. the problem is the 12volt lines. it must have enough juice on the 12 volt lines for the card and the rest of the pc. A lot of budget pc's have just enough to get the system running safe. My 3870 draws full load over 100 watt. A pci express 16 slot gives around 75 watt. So even a medium card can tip the balance over for a weak power unit.