Hardware question, but specifically gaming related....

Chris [BEANS]

Chris [BEANS]

Chris [BEANS]

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Hi,

Fed up with learning from my mistakes, so I'm going to ask before I just go ahead and spend money!!!

I've just built a new, mid range system and I've got back into PC gaming after years of not being able to play anything new.

It's an:-

Athlon 64 X2 dual core 4400+
2gig 6400 ram
Radeon HD 4670
Vista HP 64
All drivers on latest version

and I'm using an Asus V222h 1080 monitor set at 1400 x 900 in game

In both games below, the graphics settings are at whatever the game reccomends.


Anyway, noticed two problems:-

In company of Heroes, when panning the camera around the battlefield, it will often become very jerky, or even pause for a split second and then jump to wherever it was panning to.
Once this has happened once, it will smoothly pan over the same area no problem.

Also, the FMV is slightly jerky if you look closely enough....



In the Bioshock demo (awesome!! definately going to buy it!!).
Again, panning the camera is occasionally jerky and there will rarely (but still too often) be half seconds pauses while playing.



So... Am I right in thinking, more ram will help/solve my problem?? Or am I going to be better off lowereing settings, or what??

Was about to buy some ram, but realsied its been a long time since I've known what I'm on about so needed advise from people who know what they're on about!!


Cheers :)
 
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i get that problem with jerkyness on some games after i've been gaming for a while. I found turning up the fan on the GPU helped as i think its a sign of slight overheating. I know its unlikely given your spec but may be worth a look, could save you some money
 
Drop your Rez.
Clean the dust out your fans & coolers.
Add a fan to your Cpu cooler.
Remove useless back ground services.
Run Ad aware & Superantispyware with System restore switched Off (Switch it back on after a reboot)& delete all they find.
Defrag
Get more Ram.
Enjoy. :)
 
More ram it is then :D

It's a pretty clean install, only things that have gone onto it are AVG, firefox, steam and CoH.
All the components are new, so no dust, and there's a HUGE fan on the CPU.

Cheers for the advise guys.

Oh, as for lowering the res, I know it's pretty much always game specific, but as the components are new and half decent, and the games are a year or two old, what sort of res should I be looking at?? I figured 1400 x 900 should be fairly reasonable...?
 
AVG sucks mate get Avast it's a Decent free AV that I've used on All my gaming rigs for the last 2 years.
 
Install FRAPS and it will tell you what your frame rate is. In an FPS like Bioshock you want 40fps or more all the time to make it nice and smooth. For something like CoH, 20fps is playable because the action tends to be slower.

RAM is probably your problem though, but bear in mind that your system isn't massively powerful, and whilst the games are a couple of years old now, their engines are still going strong in other titles so they are still reasonably cutting edge.
 
Fair play, cheers.


I'll give the different AV a blast, get more ram (as it appears I need it regardless) and if the problems persist than I'll have to drop the res.

Thanks again all :)
 
Also when games get patched Invariably the patch is designed to better use the engine therefore will need more resources.
I agree on the system as well, It is a decent system but not massively powerful (being polite) With games like COH, Bioshock, COD4 on high rez you really are pushing a system once the crap hits the fan in game.

Try Avast though it's Light which helps loads compared to other Av's.
 
Sounds like I'm paying the price for not keeping up with it all.
The previous system I built included a 9800pro when they were brand new. Did LOADS of research and faffing back then, built a great little rig.

Not paid any attention to what's going on since then and I've ended up with a fairly pants system when I could have had much better for a little more cash!! Oops!! lol

Perhaps I'll try again when Windows 7 is released! (Lol, I i'd never even heard of windows 7 til a couple of weeks ago!! well out of the loop!!)
 
It's not an amazing system but it isn't bad. Hell, I know people who play games on less. Get some more RAM and you should be set for now :)
 
Lol, might knock it up a touch, never really been into overclocking. Did it when my old rig was new just because I could, as this system would genuinely benefit from it I guess I should....
 
I had the X2 4200+ before i changed to this CPU, it would do 2.75Ghz nice and stable - didnt try to push it much further than that really.

If your CPU cooler is good go for it, its cheaper than buying new RAM and may well be the cause of your slowdowns.
 
RAM ordered, AV changed, and ingame res dropped to 720....
It's lower than I intended, especially as I used to play games years ago on 1024 x 768 which is obviously taller, BUT i figure it's the same res as most of my PS3 games and everything runs at high and looks great, so perhaps I was worrying over nothing :)

As for the overclocking...... If any of you are regulars in the hardware sections, expect to see me in there moaning that I blew up my PC!!!!
 
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