sloppy Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 I currently run CMBB with no mods on this system: Celeron 1000A @1660 Mhz FSB 166 256 MB SDRAM @166 2-2-2 Windows 2000 Geforce 4 MX440 @300/500 Will a memory upgrade to 512 MB improve the graphics performance ? sometimes I get a little slow scolling, especially with larger maps. I often run CMBB in background because of a running PEBM game, When I switched back to game/desktop it takes some time... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soddball Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Originally posted by sloppy: I currently run CMBB with no mods on this system: Celeron 1000A @1660 Mhz FSB 166 256 MB SDRAM @166 2-2-2 Windows 2000 Geforce 4 MX440 @300/500 Will a memory upgrade to 512 MB improve the graphics performance ? sometimes I get a little slow scolling, especially with larger maps. I often run CMBB in background because of a running PEBM game, When I switched back to game/desktop it takes some time... I think that you're describing two different issues - the slow scrolling is related to the video card, and the switching between game/desktop is a CPU/memory thing. I replaced my old GEForce DDR 32MB card at Christmas when I found that it just wasn't performing in CM:BB - I was experiencing the slowness in scrolling that you describe. I bought a GEForce 4 128MB card which has removed the slow scroll issue. I have 512MB RAM so I'm sure that the slow scroll is not memory-related. My best guess is that the processor is causing the game/desktop switching slowness - Celerons are slow buggers at heart. If you want to sharpen up the game, go for the new graphics card. Replacing the processor means replacing the motherboard and probably the memory as a result, so it's a more expensive route. [ June 04, 2003, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: Soddball ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Hello mate, to be honest, a 256mb ram upgrade will help to a degree, but the primary concern should be the processor and motherboard. You're using an old system with a 166fsb, which is limiting the performance of the rest of the machine. A graphics card upgrade will only heighten the problems you're experiencing and not resolve them as it will be wanting more bandwidth than it can have. I would recommend (if at all practical??) a motherboard and cpu/memory upgrade first. Even the cheapest new kit out there will be better than what you are using at present. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soddball Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Originally posted by phil stanbridge: Hello mate, to be honest, a 256mb ram upgrade will help to a degree, but the primary concern should be the processor and motherboard. You're using an old system with a 166fsb, which is limiting the performance of the rest of the machine. A graphics card upgrade will only heighten the problems you're experiencing and not resolve them as it will be wanting more bandwidth than it can have. I would recommend (if at all practical??) a motherboard and cpu/memory upgrade first. Even the cheapest new kit out there will be better than what you are using at present. How exactly will having the graphics card handle the graphics processing heighten the problems he's having? :confused: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted June 5, 2003 Share Posted June 5, 2003 Originally posted by Soddball: How exactly will having the graphics card handle the graphics processing heighten the problems he's having? I assume he's referring to matching a faster video card to a slower CPU. In this case I don't think that the worry is warranted. While his CPU may be a Celeron, it is clocked at a fairly high speed. It's biggest drawback is a smaller cache than the Pentium 3 or 4. In my opinion a memory upgrade will help, but only in a nearly undiscernable fashion. You really probably won't see much, if any, difference unless you're running larger battles (or you have a lot of other apps/utils open in the background). If you're switching back and forth between CM and other apps, more memory may help. A GeForce 4MX, while not being the fastest card, is still a fairly decent performer. A faster video card usually is the best bet for improving performance in CM - at least in the manner that most people notice, which is scrolling around the battlefield. Moving to a GeForce 4 Ti4200 or 4800, etc. may produce an improvement for you, since these cards have a significantly higher video memory bandwidth/speed than the MX cards do. A faster CPU could help a bit too but not as much as video card upgrade - unless you're running a vastly slower CPU, which isn't completely the case here). However it would have to be a complete motherboard/CPU and possibly memory upgrade in order to move to something that will perform significantly better (a Pentium 4 or an AthlonXP) than your currently souped-up Celeron. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted June 6, 2003 Share Posted June 6, 2003 That's right Sch.. The cache on the Celerons is the bottleneck. A new graphics card will look a lot better, and granted, it will be faster, but not to the degree he wants. If he wants something very comfortable with CMBB then he needs to ditch the celeron. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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