What do I need to replace or upgrade?

RMskater · Post by **RMskater** » January 10th, 2005, 11:02 pm

My computer is acting goofy when I play games. When I'm playing small games like Bejeweled or something like that, it's okay.

However, when I play something like Halo or Prince of Persia 2, it gets wierd in specific parts of the games.

Whenever there's graphic intense situations (a cutscene in PoP2 or lots of shooting in Halo) AND lots of sound (speaking in the cutscene in PoP2 or guns shooting in Halo) the game freezes on and off for about 2-10 seconds at a time.

Now it HAS to be the combination of speaking and lots of graphic action. I can have (in PoP2) the cutscenes going and it works well (like in the beginning cutscene where the Prince is being chased, that works fine), but after the first level (the ship), where the Prince is talking to the old man, every time they speak, the words are glitchy. They don't speak smoothly, and the graphics jump very slightly.

In Halo, the game freezes for a few seconds on one player mode, and in Multi-player mode, when there is a fire fight going on, it can freeze for up to ten seconds.

I have a Radeon 9000 video card (not sure about the sound card), and a Pentium 4. It is 2.20GHz, and has 512MB of RAM. Does anyone know why this is doing this? It didn't do this a while ago (a few months ago) Please help!

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » January 11th, 2005, 12:57 am

It looks and sounds to me as if it a small combination of things.

First.. You said you were unsure of your sound card. If you are noticing the glitching during heavy sound use, it could be responsible. This happened to me a few years ago with a Baseball game for my PC. I had a decent video card for it's time (Ti 500), but still got glitchy as a mofo when the fans made noise).

Second.. If you're still sportin' a Radeon 9000 (I'm hoping it was a typo, and should read 9800.. hehe) .. it is time to upgrade that aswell.

And last on my list of recommendations.. get yourself another stick of ram sometime. If you have the room for it, that is.

Also, make sure you have the latest drivers for all of your devices.

If you're looking to upgrade and not kill your wallet.. check this stuff out
Sound Card
Video Card (please verify that you have an AGP compatible motherboard.. or find a PCI card:)

RMskater · Post by **RMskater** » January 11th, 2005, 8:15 pm

I did indeed say nine thousand, not 9800. Wow, I thought the 9000 was pretty high up there. I knew the 9800 was out there, but I thought that was just a newer (like in the last 6 months) graphic card.

Also, when I say sound, it's not when the physical parts of the computer are moving, just when someone is speaking, or there's alot going on. Thanks for the info, though. I guess it's time to get a better graphics card.

Would it matter if my sound card weren't as high as it could be? I mean it's only sound, right? It can still play music and reproduce human voices. The main importance is the graphics, right?

Coming from this page at Wal-Mart (yeah yeah, they're not a professional computer store, but they're cheap and have adequate products), I saw they didn't have a 9800 card, but here are some of the things I noticed.

They have a 9600 128MB Graphics card. What does it mean when it says 128 MB on the graphics card?

Does this mean that I need to have at least this much memory (I have 512MB) or does it mean that it has this much memory built in?

I also found a 7000 32MB Radeon card. Should I assume that since my card is a 9000, then this 7000 card is worse than mine?

I also found a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 AGP 256 MB Graphics Card. I noticed that this is not only half as much money as the Radeon Card, but it's also got 256MB (whatever that means). I don't know about nVidia (except that some of my games have their symbol, and that my laptop has an nVidia card), so I don't know if this is a good card. Considering it has the most MB (of what, though? I don't know), I'm guessing this is the top of the line?

Can someone please help me in this crazy world of graphics cards?

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » January 11th, 2005, 11:00 pm

The volume at which you play your games is irrelivant. It doesn't make any difference if ya have it at full blast or if your speakers turned completely off.

I wouldn't recommend the aTi All-in-Wonder card. If all you're doing is playing games on it.. it's overkill. The All-in-Wonder series is for watching Tv through your computer, or for video capturing. Out of all the cards that are listed on the Wal-Mart link you provided.. I would choose this one.

The 128MB thing on the cards is the amount of ram that the card has on it. Obviously, the more the merrier.

The 7000 card is a total waste of money for gaming. It's something I would put in someones computer who doesn't game but might play an occasional game from the internet (macromedia, java etc).. My Mom is a good canidate for a 7000 card

I also found a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 AGP 256 MB Graphics Card. I noticed that this is not only half as much money as the Radeon Card, but it's also got 256MB (whatever that means). I don't know about nVidia (except that some of my games have their symbol, and that my laptop has an nVidia card), so I don't know if this is a good card. Considering it has the most MB (of what, though? I don't know), I'm guessing this is the top of the line?

It doesn't mean it is the top of the line, but it will out perform your 9000 by a long shot. Many things have changed in video card capabilities since you bought your 9000. The version of DirectX that is runs, OpenGL compatability, amount of ram, ramdac/core clock speeds, etc etc..

I guess my next question to you would be: How much do you want to spend on your upgrade? Video cards range from $40 to $600 or more. Sound cards are from $25-$30 up to $200+. The card you linked was $188, and for $188 at http://www.newegg.com you can get a very nice video card.

I am not a professional computer geek by any means, but in my opinion you video and sound are the culprit behind your problems.

RMskater · Post by **RMskater** » January 12th, 2005, 5:34 pm

Ha ha, I didn't mean volume when I said how high my sound card could be. I meant how high, as in latest version.

Also, I think I would go for the all in one Radeon card (that can view TV), cause I want overkill for my video card, ha ha. I want it to be high enough so that when newer games are made, it can still last for a while.

Oh, I could use it, since I'm an avid videographer.

Post by **ccb056** » January 12th, 2005, 7:48 pm

I would get three things:

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card <- This is a very inexpensive sound card and yet performs extremely well

Additional 512MB of RAM <- For current games you really want to have a Gig of RAM, especially when running XP

Any one of NVidia's or ATI's gamer cards, this will be an improvement over your current card

RMskater · Post by **RMskater** » January 13th, 2005, 3:25 am

Thanks alot! I will indeed look into purchasing these products.