Scyatic

I was getting BF2 to run on my kids PC, with the settings at 1024x768 all on medium and no AA. Sound on software medium. It starts running below 25 fps.

Any imput on what or how to tell what is the bottle neck, graphics, cpu or memory ?

Here is the system specs

AMD Athlon 2500 Barton processor
1 gig DDR333 kingston memory
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB AGP8x graphics card

WhiskeySix

Somethings you don't need on medium - particularly the light settings. Checkout this for more info: http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_5.html


As far as your HW goes, that card is definitely holding you back... you can probably double your performance for $100

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DigitalAssassin

See if you can find a 7800GS for ~$150. I just picked one up recently for that price and with a system pretty dang close to yours I experienced a MAJOR increase in performance and can run settings quite a bit higher. BF2 looks like an entirely new game on the 7800GS.

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Scyatic

any recommedations on a $100 AGP graphic card that would boost performance ?

DigitalAssassin

When I was looking most of the ~$100 AGP cards aren't going to give you much more performance then your 9600 Pro. You really have to move to the ~$150 range to see enough improvement to make it worth upgrading.

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Scyatic

So what is a good model for $150 ?

WhiskeySix

According to this trusted site, the ATI x1650 pro and Nvidia Geforce 7600 GS are about as good as you're going to do.



Here's a full list of $100-$200 AGP cards (including the two above):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...7%201069609639


Finally, here's a chart that shows the relative performance of cards:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html (Depending on the exact version of your 9600, your card is at or below the bottom of this chart)

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WhiskeySix

this one in particular looks pretty good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161032

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micbur54

I have a 7600gt,Good card in that price range

Jaykay

double your RAM, and dump the 9600 ... a 9800 is MINIMUM, and the 9600 is a hobbled 9800 8p

Also ALWAYS use LIGHT setting at *Low* .. it actually improves vision.

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Jaykay (FastBK) |null|

stickyjeans69

new graphics for sure

Cappy

yup took the words right outa my mouth,,,,,

wash your hands next time please :P

ya if that 9600 waz a vivo you could have soft modded it to a 9800,,,,

i made the same mistake ounce,, havent made it again

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Beatnik

Just out of curiosity (and somewhat on topic), is there any guide out there that describes good pairings of CPUs, RAM, and Graphics Cards? I know that at some point, you can have a GPU that outmatches your CPU, but I have no idea where that point is.

For example, I have a AMD 2600+ Athlon (2.0 Ghz) in my box, with a ATI X850XT card and 1.5 gigs of RAM (non-dual channel since 3 slots are used). I'm pretty sure that in BF2 and STALKER that my CPU (or RAM bandwidth) may be bottlenecking performance, but haven't been able to confirm that with any actual data... Any ideas?

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BaneII

This is the closet article I could think of off the top of my head. You may want to search around in the graphics card section to see if there are any similiar articles.

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msdz

Everyone has their own preferrances but I would go with a Nvidia card. I have an ATI AIW X800XT aand have nothing but troubles out of this card. It may be JUST this card though cause I have had a lot of people they have had no troubles out of other ATI cards. I had this card RMA'ed 3 times already and knock on wood this last card seems to being a little better. Only issue I have now is it is like my drivers get lost or something and I need to reinstall drivers every once in a while. The graphics in game get blocky, certain objects such as guns or buildings have a grainy, blocky look to them. When this happens I have to reinstall the drivers.

I had a Nvidia card before and had no problems out of it at all. It just wasn't good enough to run BF2 and that was the reason I had bought the ATI card. If the ATI card were to burn out on me now I would not buy another AGP card at all, for the same price as an AGP card you can get a lot better PCI Express card. AGP for old technology has really skyrocketed in money. I plan on building a whole new computer with PCI Express or whatever is going to be available at the time I do the build(by that time something completely different might be around). Oh ATI has confirmed to me through their tech department that the Via chips on my MB is what is causing an issue with this particular card. They do not work properly together, which in return I tried to get a different card through them at or about the same value, that didn't work but at least I tried, lol.