BMC123
7th August 2007, 17:31
So... I was going to buy a new computer to take advantage of the latest DX10 games etc, but at this stage I think if i can find a new PCI express motherboard that supports my socket 478 chip, I'll change the board and buy new ram and a 8800 card. and this is why.
I have my home built PC with both Vista Ultimate & XP Pro installed, (one OS on each hard drive, selectable at boot up) and a new game (Ghost Recon - Advanced Warfighter 2)
first off, a quick run down of the spec of the machine.
P4 3.4Ghz
Microstar motherboard (cheap 'n cheerfull)
1GB ram (2x512 PC3200)
Drive 1 = 160Gb IDE
Drive 2 = 250Gb SATA
BFG Nvidia geforce 7600GS 512Mb (AGP)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
Not a bad little thing, and gives a Performance score in Vista of 4.1 and i compared that to a brand new dual core intel machine on ebay with a 8800GTX card, and it scored 4.2 :SHOCKED: Obviously the GTX card is PCI express and on a newer machine will run the games a lot better, but I was surprised there was not that much in it.
Basically I installed the game on XP first, it installed fine, passing the games inbuilt hardware test, and I ran it in 1024x768 with medium settings. I did notice a major lag between levels, and a very very slow loading time (almost making it unplayable) Actual gameplay in game was fine, smooth graphics and great particle effects :)
So then i installed on Vista, and what a difference! the game loads quicker, runs faster and the graphics are slightly improved, and all on the exact same machine :shrug:
The graphics card is a major player here though, but if i had gone down the road of spending £1500 on a new high end machine, I think i would have been not overly impressed....
I have my home built PC with both Vista Ultimate & XP Pro installed, (one OS on each hard drive, selectable at boot up) and a new game (Ghost Recon - Advanced Warfighter 2)
first off, a quick run down of the spec of the machine.
P4 3.4Ghz
Microstar motherboard (cheap 'n cheerfull)
1GB ram (2x512 PC3200)
Drive 1 = 160Gb IDE
Drive 2 = 250Gb SATA
BFG Nvidia geforce 7600GS 512Mb (AGP)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
Not a bad little thing, and gives a Performance score in Vista of 4.1 and i compared that to a brand new dual core intel machine on ebay with a 8800GTX card, and it scored 4.2 :SHOCKED: Obviously the GTX card is PCI express and on a newer machine will run the games a lot better, but I was surprised there was not that much in it.
Basically I installed the game on XP first, it installed fine, passing the games inbuilt hardware test, and I ran it in 1024x768 with medium settings. I did notice a major lag between levels, and a very very slow loading time (almost making it unplayable) Actual gameplay in game was fine, smooth graphics and great particle effects :)
So then i installed on Vista, and what a difference! the game loads quicker, runs faster and the graphics are slightly improved, and all on the exact same machine :shrug:
The graphics card is a major player here though, but if i had gone down the road of spending £1500 on a new high end machine, I think i would have been not overly impressed....