Author Topic: How to make a shitty computer faster.  (Read 1339 times)

Offline Fearbefore.

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How to make a shitty computer faster.
« on: 08-09-2009, 23:09:26 »
Right, I doubt anything can be done but it can't hurt to ask, so I'll keep this very short and sweet.

I have an 8 year old comp, used to be a family computer but it's mine now, 512RAM and a 2.0Ghz processor. I defragment as often as I can and run spyware doctor as often as possible, I shut off as many processes I can before I play FH1 but still for me it's literally impossible for me to play on a server with more than 20 people online. If I join a server like that, I have to aim at the sky to change weapon or to prone, if I get in a vehicle it takes 50 furious presses of 2 to switch to the mg position, etc.

Obviously I'm saving up and I am going to spend $1,500-2,000 bucks and completely overkill on a gaming computer so I never get so frustrated again, but is there anything I can do to this shitty computer to run things better?

I have every graphical setting as low as possible except view distance, which is at 75%. Sound quality is at medium. I try to keep the hard drive as empty as possible and I move all my music and shit like that to an external hard drive.

So - does anyone know anything I can do to make my comp run FH a bit easier? I'm still months away from a new computer, but should I just buck up the RAM on this comp to 2 gigs or something in the meantime? Is that likely to make a big difference?

It's just frustrating, like last night on Ramelle I had no lag until the tanks showed up, and then i was getting killed again and again because i literally couldnt fucking move, and then naturally I respawn on the other side of the river and we're back to perfect fps.

Thanks for any help.

And please don't tell me I don't need to spend 2 grand on a computer, I know that. I just want something that will play FH2 with decent graphics and I never want to spend another night on FH1 or FH2 with 10 deaths every round attributed entirely to me having a shittier computer than everyone else. I want to die when I've been outsmarted, not outbought.

Cheers.

- Andrew

Offline DLFReporter

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #1 on: 09-09-2009, 09:09:31 »
You can gain quite some speed by defragmenting your harddrives frequently.
Another cheap but good way to speed things up is a RAM upgrade. Will cost you roughly 60€ for 2-4Gig and it is worth it threefold. You might also look into buying a cheap 3 year old GFX card for about 60€ which will run BF2/FH2 on all high/medium.
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Offline Die Happy

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #2 on: 09-09-2009, 10:09:32 »
you dont need to spend 2000$ for a new rig
betetr spend 1000$ now for a good setup as high end is just overpriced and 1 or 2 years later spend the other 1000$ for either upgrades or a new rig. :P

besides that getting more seems the obvious choice
for FH2 it can help to disable the menu background video renaming the "X:\Battlefield 2\mods\fh2\movies" folder should do the trick. that is not much but can help a little since you already have done everything else.

besides that what N24 said  if you really want to upgrade now get at least 2GB ram and some older gfx card with 256mb or 512MB on it.

reducing the game resolution can also help a lot depending on your current settings.
if you play on 1024x768 it wont help much to reduce that to 800x600 but if you play on something like 1680x1050 reducing that can help a lot.
« Last Edit: 09-09-2009, 10:09:07 by Die Happy »
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Offline NTH

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #3 on: 09-09-2009, 11:09:49 »
Overclock your CPU and videocard. Since you are replacing it in a few months, the extra wear on you CPU won't matter.
By another 512MB ram hyose are cheap and can be used as a quick fix. Place them in dual channel if your mobo supports that.

Also listen that what Die Happy said. You will be spend the majority of that money on getting a few FPS more.  1000 bucks will get you 90FPS in FH2 and 2000 bucks will get you 100 FPS in FH2. That is not worth the money.


Milton Gault roared, "Roffey, I know bloody well that Jerry knows we are here but you don't need to advertise the fact!"
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Offline Dukat

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #4 on: 09-09-2009, 23:09:49 »
Ha. What a dé-jà-vu. I remember everything you mentioned. The impossibility to change weapons, the desperate looks to the ground just to raise fps. And in one moment you got 40 frames just for them to drop to 9 in the next second. The only good thing was, that I was always warned when enemies appeared. The fps drops were treacherous.


Ok, you want hints, right? I barely can give any. I concentrated on actions that did not bring me into close combat brawls. I secured rear areas behind the line. Rearward spawns with only little enemy activity as it is the appearance of enemies that cause your fps to drop. Usually I was watching some rear flag and when a single enemy or bunch of enemies appeared, it was still less enough for the fps to stay stable. I also liked to operate arti which is usually behind the frontline. It might stutter a bit when you shift to the spotter view, but overall it doesn't get you killed right away. I became really good with the Nebelwerfer in those days. And, well, stay out of knifefights.

In the end I had some mindmap of spots to go and no-go-areas on each map. Many maps provide spots with less combat activity which are non the less very important to keep in order to win. There were barely maps where I did not found such places. Though you might need the lonewolf gene to enjoy.

However, don't let it demoralize you. In a knifefight you turn 180 degrees right away because you know your computer won't deliver a frame at 90 degrees in time so you just catch your enemy at 180 degrees.  It takes a lot to compensate fps drops and actually kill people when others turn around like cutting through butter. This will not be in vain. When you get a new rig, you'll benefit from your expirience you've made here. The things you've found out about lonely spots behind the line will reward you with a 7th sense for enemy appearances and breakthroughs.

Another example: I'm using arrow keys and besides the unability to change weapons the keys were too far away anyway. The knowledge I gained affects my behavior today. I still don't switch to knifes in a supposed knifefight, I simply shoot the guys.

What I consider unbelievable is that you still play on 512MB RAM. You've somewhat missed several phases in RAM prices here. At first the RAM you need was very expensive, became very cheap while prices rose again after some time as it is barely produced or produced in very small amounts nowadays. I guess you're using DDR266 or even DDR400 if it is an early Pentium 4 system.

FH1 is very hungry for RAM and requires at least 640MB Ram to run smoothly. A simple upgrade would have solved the worst of your headaches already years ago while it might only have been 100 bucks you would have needed. Of all upgrades I did through the years I played FH, the RAM upgrade gave the best cost-performance ratio.

If you're going to spend a lot more time on FH1 servers until you upgrade your rig, consider to upgrade to 1GB RAM. I'd even do that today if the new rig would still be 6 month away.

Download something like SiSoftSandra and check what RAM you're using. It might be that you're using the RAM in a dual mode channel which reqiures 2 banks actually to be equiped to work correctly. Then it would be 2 banks occupied with 256MB each. Old computers like yours often use an outdated bios that cannot handle 2 gigs of RAM. So for you it would be suitable to use the same amount of banks used currently and that means that you would have to exchange either a single 512MB stick or or 2x256MB sticks. Accordingly I'd recommend to double the memory size you're using currently. If there is a 512MB stick assembled buy a 1Gig stick. If it is 2x256MB buy 2x512MB. Then it is most likely that you won't mess anything up. A 512MB DDR1-400Mhz stick is currently about 20€-30€ here, shouldn't be that expensive. DDR1 memory is compatible downwards, so it doesn't matter if your mainboard is running on 266Mhz, 333Mhz or 400Mhz, 400Mhz DDR1 sticks would do.

I usually imagine my own sounds with it, like `tjunk, tupdieyupdiedee` aaa enemy spotted, ratatatataboom

Offline Fearbefore.

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #5 on: 09-09-2009, 23:09:09 »
Yes, finally someone that understands the fury of having to press z thirty times to prone and actually stay prone.

It's funny you should mention the 'mind map', as to a lesser extent that's what I've tried to do. Fuck, the ONLY reason that two or three years ago I became almost exclusively a sniper isn't the usual dumbass shit you get with most players that think they're Simo Hayha, it's because I literally can't be in the centre of the fight. In a sentence, I can't go in Pavlov's House.

So there I am, almost every night, pissing and moaning. I can count hundreds of times I've gone to a new map to find upwards of three flags on my team have been lost before I've even spawned once, and I remember one time being jacked because Liberation of Caen was next, and before I could spawn for the first time, EVERY FLAG ON THE MAP WAS CANADIAN OR GREY.

LOL.

Fortunately, I've since grown to more or less fall in love with doing two things in FH - sniping, and manning a tank destroyer. I still, very rarely I will admit, have rounds where I manage to get into the top three in scores at the end of the round by playing as a normal infantry soldier, but in the last few months I've grown to notice that it gives me no greater joy in the game to wait patiently for that one enemy, the one guy on Bulge that thinks he'll sneak around on foot and cap the back flag, and I kill him with my trusty scoped Springfield before he can do it. Or that one guy in the speedy T-34, that thinks he will drive up the valley on Seelow instead of going up the road, and I hit him with an 88 shell. THAT is what makes me happy in FH, and in any other scenario like that, I'm perfectly happy if I go the whole round with 1 kill and no deaths.

I'm getting off topic, though. The short story is this computer was for my entire family up until just a few months ago, and even though it's far from perfect it's better than nothing.

Thank you all for the advice anyway, looks like I'll try and kick some more life into this system. A decent rig still won't happen for me until early 2010 but if a RAM upgrade and a video card will be this much of a difference I can definitely live with it until then.
« Last Edit: 09-09-2009, 23:09:03 by FEARBEFORE_ »

Offline Tim270

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #6 on: 10-09-2009, 00:09:09 »
Dont bother spending anymore on the PC you have now, its just not worth it in the long run + you dont need to spend 2k on a new rig. If you defrag/av check/have no other background tasks/run cc cleaner then there is not much else you can so really expect getting new hardware.

Offline samnadine

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #7 on: 10-09-2009, 01:09:45 »
don't spend money if you plan to buy a new computer.

If you want to get it earlier try to get some extra incomes by working more or launching a small home-based business. You can find tons of books on internet talking about this

Offline sheikyerbouti

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #8 on: 10-09-2009, 01:09:10 »
 FearBefore makes it sound like he lives in a cave in Canada's far North but in reality he is somewhere in Toronto (not exactly the middle of nowhere).

 You say you want to spend 1000-2000 dollars on a rig to play Forgotten Hope 1, when all you need to do is spend 500-800 dollars to accomplish that and much more. Try visiting here :http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=6&sel=Price;Price6  for starters,
Suck it up and buy a Desktop PC now that you can actually appreciate (and afford). Then maybe you could stop whining about laggotry in all your posts and actually play Forgotten Hope 2 for a change.

 I think you just want to have a reason to whine for the next 6 months by setting your price target well beyond your affordabilty. bite the bullet, the welfare check in Ontario would probably cover payments for a reasonable PC in less than 4 months as long as you are smart with your money. In essence, you have no reason not to.
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Offline Fearbefore.

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #9 on: 10-09-2009, 01:09:19 »
Yeah, because I'd rather whine about how half of all deaths I've ever died has had something to do with lag or my shitty computer than actually be respected as a decent player for once.

Offline GenKnight

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #10 on: 11-09-2009, 19:09:59 »
Another thing not mentioned above is shut down all the services in your o/s that you do not need plus anything else running in the background.

I'm guessing you do this but I'll mention it anyways.

Reminds me of trying to play regular BF1942 with a 56k modem running at 33.6...


Offline TheRevoluzer

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #11 on: 14-09-2009, 13:09:52 »
I bought a good gaming PC for 600€.

4GB RAM
AMD Phenom x3 3500GHz each
ATI 4870 with 1GB RAM
Some good fans

I can run ARMA 2 on normal to high settings smoothly if you know that game

so no 2000$ for a good PC

Offline Krt_Bong

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Re: How to make a shitty computer faster.
« Reply #12 on: 15-09-2009, 02:09:06 »
While I'm figuring out my own current problems here's one source that might help you
Advanced System Care Free  www.iobit.com has lots of useful tweaks that really do work especially if you PC is as lame as you think it is, and here's another one - if you have the slightest inclination to build a new rig and I mean do it yourself www.newegg.com even if you get a pre-built gaming rig you'll save plenty 1-2000 dollars on a PC is just nuts in this economy and if you go to the website for Advanced System Care that's all you need, it has all the other stuff on that page in one program.
« Last Edit: 15-09-2009, 02:09:35 by Krt_Bong »