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XmirroR
Village Leader
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 89
Location: South CA USA |
My specs are...
Intel 533FSB 3.2Ghz, 2GB 400DDR RAM, nVidia 6600, Win2K SP4+, Seperate HDD for games ( no OS, no VM, no Recycling Bin ) is a 250GB SATA 150 7200RPM 16MB cache. ( onboard vanillia audio )
I run my desktop at 1152x864, so I run my games at same resolution.
Oblivion runs fine with each setup I tried, until I overdosed on shadows.
I did get sluggish when talking to NPCs... Or using SpeechCraft.
I tried to fix it with several of the available FrameRate Tweaks.
Ultimately I am playing at 800x600 AAx4 Bloom, Max Detail, Max Distance all but actors ( at about 75% ). Shadow Toggles are all off, Water and Decals are all Max. Shadows Interior at 50%, Shadows Exterior at about 30%.
The game runs like a dream. No complaints about the 800X600 once AAx4 is running. And believe it or not the NPCs are lip syncing near perfectly, which simply wasn't true at the higer resolution.
I hafta agree with Dani ( it must be a first )... HDD speed is greatly overlooked when building a system, and can be the stumbbling point on many systems. It certainly isn't the most important factor... But I think most people simply never even consider it a factor in the first place. I have found for best results to install my games to a seperate HDD, so never is more than the game at hand using the drive for any other task. I turn off Recycling Bin so that there is no file retention in the sectors... Only things deleting files are uninstallers. Only thing writing files is the installers... I Make certain to NEVER EVER run Virtual Memory from my Game HDD. And also ensure the OS isn't storing any nonsese on it either. I keep the drive FragmentFree with scheduled Defrags. And I know I get better frame rates on Doom3 than people with cosiderablly better CPU and GPU setups, simply because they are running the game off their abused C:\Drive...
When I get the chance I do Update my game HDD about the sametime I update my GPU card. 'Course once the HDD is maxxed to the MotherBoard, a New MotherBoard ergo a new CPU is also required. And the cycle starts over.
Hardware RAID ( stripping ) cards can make several fast HDDs a serious threat. But you usually loose the value of the cache memory... What I mean to say is that [4] 2MB cahce harddrives is a better choice then [4] 8MB cache hardrives if they are in a RAID. What you are getting then is a major boost to the RPM, and you are likly to Max out the PCI BUS before actually getting all speed form your RAID setup. Noteablly tho, you wont see any improvement whatsoever if you have a HiEnd Audio card in the same PCI Bus. Needless to say software RAID like Windows 2000/XP DynamicDisk is a bit dodgey for this kind of abuse.
Wow didn't mean to rambble so much... ~shrug~
Help someone can make use of this info.
Later,
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-= XmirroR =-
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Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:38 pm |
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JDR13
Magister of the Light
Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 376
Location: Michigan, United States |
You must remember though, that most people don't have 2 hard drives in their system. The vast majority of systems out there have only one hard drive. |
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Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:08 pm |
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XmirroR
Village Leader
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 89
Location: South CA USA |
quote:
Originally posted by JDR13
You must remember though, that most people don't have 2 hard drives in their system. The vast majority of systems out there have only one hard drive.
Thats kinda my point, people spend between 300$ and 600$ for a super GPU, and dont realize that a 120$ HDD would make a significant improvement. A is well worth the money spent.
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-= XmirroR =-
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Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:45 pm |
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JDR13
Magister of the Light
Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 376
Location: Michigan, United States |
quote:
Originally posted by XmirroR
quote:
Originally posted by JDR13
You must remember though, that most people don't have 2 hard drives in their system. The vast majority of systems out there have only one hard drive.
Thats kinda my point, people spend between 300$ and 600$ for a super GPU, and dont realize that a 120$ HDD would make a significant improvement. A is well worth the money spent.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you a lttle there. Sure, another HDD would help with caching and boost overall performance somewhat, but It's not going to significantly boost your frames per second which is what most people are looking for. |
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Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:10 pm |
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XmirroR
Village Leader
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 89
Location: South CA USA |
quote:
Originally posted by JDR13
quote:
Originally posted by XmirroR
quote:
Originally posted by JDR13
You must remember though, that most people don't have 2 hard drives in their system. The vast majority of systems out there have only one hard drive.
Thats kinda my point, people spend between 300$ and 600$ for a super GPU, and dont realize that a 120$ HDD would make a significant improvement. A is well worth the money spent.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you a lttle there. Sure, another HDD would help with caching and boost overall performance somewhat, but It's not going to significantly boost your frames per second which is what most people are looking for.
Hehee, I hope we are not argueing... I am not meaning to...
Certainly if you have 600$ go buy a GPU... Even if all you have is 300$ and a 300$ GPU would be an improvement... Buy a GPU...
However if you already have the super GPU... And the SLI Dual cards... etc...
You can get that extra few inches outta the system, for mere pennies in comparison... By adding a Medium sized drive that matches your Mother Board's max speed specs.
What I am saying is that the HDD isn't the most important factor, but that it is often the most overlooked factor. And often the cheapest easy fix, especially if your specs are already near max.
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-= XmirroR =-
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Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:53 pm |
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Warmskin
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 116
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OK, I'm buying (having the specified parts assembled for me) a new computer to play this (I needed one anyway). I'd like to list some of my ideas and see if some of you might have some pros/cons:
*AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
*2 gigs ram (Is there a particular 'type' of ram I should try to get)?
*ATI Radeon X1900XT (I am going to get an SLI board with an emtpy slot for an addtional X1900XT down the road if needed)
*Also thinking of getting a widescreen HDTV/computer monitor (24") LCD to use for both gaming and TV (I heard ES4 supports this).
These ideas are not written in stone, obviously. The above CPU and GPU are from recent suggestions listed in 'Computer Gaming World' (they made these choices sound pretty good-I've always had Pentiums and NVidia before).
With the above system will I be able to play Oblivion with *everything turned all the way up?* Yes, this is quite expensive, but I don't mind this time around (Gothic 3 is coming in the fall and the use of an HDTV would be a nice bonus). Any ideas or suggestions would be *very* welcome. Don't hesitate to mention any flaws with the above. Thanks. |
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Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:08 am |
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JDR13
Magister of the Light
Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 376
Location: Michigan, United States |
quote:
Originally posted by Warmskin
OK, I'm buying (having the specified parts assembled for me) a new computer to play this (I needed one anyway). I'd like to list some of my ideas and see if some of you might have some pros/cons:
*AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
*2 gigs ram (Is there a particular 'type' of ram I should try to get)?
*ATI Radeon X1900XT (I am going to get an SLI board with an emtpy slot for an addtional X1900XT down the road if needed)
*Also thinking of getting a widescreen HDTV/computer monitor (24") LCD to use for both gaming and TV (I heard ES4 supports this).
These ideas are not written in stone, obviously. The above CPU and GPU are from recent suggestions listed in 'Computer Gaming World' (they made these choices sound pretty good-I've always had Pentiums and NVidia before).
With the above system will I be able to play Oblivion with *everything turned all the way up?*:) Yes, this is quite expensive, but I don't mind this time around (Gothic 3 is coming in the fall and the use of an HDTV would be a nice bonus). Any ideas or suggestions would be *very* welcome. Don't hesitate to mention any flaws with the above. Thanks.
You will have no problem running any game with "everything turned up" with the system you just described. Of course, you could also put a down payment on a new house with the amount of money you're going to spend.
Last edited by JDR13 on Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:04 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:43 am |
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bjon045
Fearless Paladin
Joined: 02 Jun 2003
Posts: 234
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I have an althlonXP2800+ 1.5 gig ram and a x800 pro and the game runs smooth at 1024x768 on "high" quality setting. I have AA disabled though. I would think ram and GPU are the main bootleneck for this game as my CPU is really quite old and I still get a very good gameplay experience. |
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Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:31 am |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
quote:
Originally posted by Warmskin
With the above system will I be able to play Oblivion with *everything turned all the way up?* Yes, this is quite expensive
Man, I don't mean to be too rude, but you should rather sponsor poor Africans than fat GPU/CPU producers :]. |
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Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:52 am |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
I played bit more yesterday (and really tried the game in the first city and in the outside areas).
Specs:
3400+, 1 gig RAM, 6800 GS
Everything is running fine in 1280*1024, HDR, most of setting on 75% or somewhere around. Every "non-slider" setting on max. |
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Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:59 am |
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Warmskin
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 116
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Originally posted by Warmskin
OK, I'm buying (having the specified parts assembled for me) a new computer to play this (I needed one anyway). I'd like to list some of my ideas and see if some of you might have some pros/cons:
*AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
*2 gigs ram (Is there a particular 'type' of ram I should try to get)?
*ATI Radeon X1900XT (I am going to get an SLI board with an emtpy slot for an addtional X1900XT down the road if needed)
*Also thinking of getting a widescreen HDTV/computer monitor (24")
You will have no problem running any game with "everything turned up" with the system you just described. Of course, you could also put a down payment on a new house with the amount of money you're going to spend.[/quote]
**************************************************************
Thanks, but I own my house already.  I'm just tired of having to compromise and I figured this set up should last for awhile. I'm not what you would call a *young guy* like most of the people here probably are (I'm in my 50's). I'm at a point in my life where I can afford to buy a high end machine and I've loved RPGs since the old Atari ST days. So, I'd like to spend a year or two not having to think about how I'm going to beef up a machine to play whatever's next. Any comments from anyone on the widescreen monitor? Anyone here using one? What might the pitfalls be? Thanks again. |
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Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:04 pm |
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