Is My Pc Adequate For Small-time Gaming?

[Vamp]

By Small time I mean playing games from 2000 to mid 2002 and some new games like XIII or Max Payne II etc.

Would this type of PC be obsolete now?

Celeron 1.7GHZ
256 DDRam
Geforce 4 MX440
CD R/W
DVD-Rom

I got it for $600 last year...Is it a pretty bad setup for games? (Although I do use my consoles for gaming and leave the PC for things like Video Editing, Internet, DVD Encoding etc, which works fine) Would this type of setup run games from the last 2 years decently or would it stutter terribly?

Let's say I was to play on High Detal, but at 800X600 resolution... How would games fare at that? Most games that I've tried from 2000 to mid 2002 seem to run fine. Enter The Matrix and GTA 3 ran perfectly, and Freedom Force gave very little trouble. I'm pretty serious about gaming, but moreso on consoles then PC's where I don't hve to worry about system requirements.

I just got a new MP3 player and DV Cam and an Xbox Mod-Chip so I'm low on cash. But either way...Is my PC pretty adequate?

my one friends PC is a 800MHZ with a Geforce 2 Ultra and Max Payne II runs fine for them on high settings.

Would XIII run? I havn't seen any games that have over 1GHZ minimum specs on the box so I'm assuming that most games from June this year back should run fine? Even with the Geforce MX440?

Most of the hardcore new games I'm going to be playing on Xbox, games like Doom 3, Deus Ex 2 etc... I heard that HL2 is being developed so it can run on low-end systems... Would my PC be described as Low-End or Medium-End?

I just tried running the XIII Demo, It ran beautifully, seemed to run better on 1024 resolution then on 800 for some resason... However my sound card (Crappy Avance'97) started giving crap... On the military base level, when someone shot at me with a machine gun, the sound would start breaking up and the game would stutter... For some reason the only other game it did this with was Undying, however, if I get new soundcard drivers, all my other games start running like shit unless I revert back to the older ones, whereas maybe one or two games will run badly. The Beach mission in XIII Ran fine though... I also made sure I had 85% free resources, which I havn't actually checked before...That might be a factor in games running badly... I'm installing MAx Payne 2 now, so I hope that works... I remember the last game I played that ran brilliantly on full settings was Soldier Of Fortune 2. But that was also the last PC Game I played.
I wonder if it's just my sound card that makes games run badly?

Max Payne runs like a dream on 1024Xxxx resolution....It's running the same as it does on my friends PC which has a Geforce 4 TI4600 Ultra... I don't understand why that level in XIII Didn't run well...I think it's my soundcard that's giving problems... But if I get new drivers, 95% of my games won't run... Help!

I think my PC has alot of potential...Just needs to be sorted out

[RGX]

I would say thats pretty good, not exactly a super computer but by no mean slow either, and i reckon it would run most of your games nicely, future upgrades for you to consider would be graphics card and more RAM, but it will do you ok for now

EDIT: Boards about to go down lol

[leonidas]

I gotta a celeron 1ghz

512 DDR

And I can play quite good to Vice City.

[N£MO]

Your setup is ok,i would at least double your RAM.

[Vamp]

Max Payne 2 runs beautifully at Medium-High settings, while Splinter Cell runs like shit... GTA 3 runs brilliantly, while VC is a little choppy (but it is a rip)


Is my 3D Card a really bad one?

I have a feeling it's my crappy onboard sound card that gives me trouble... When I use old drivers, 95% of games run fine, 1 or 2 out of 10 will give a crappy, crackly, reverby, choppy sound which slows down performance, however, if I get new drivers, those games work but the other 95% give the same problem... I guess I have to sacrifice 1 or 2 good games for 100's of others... XIII Demo does that... On the beach level it runs perfectly but in the Military Base with the M16's firing the sound stutters and the game gets choppy.

My one friends PC is a P4 3.2 GHZ, Geforce FX5900 Ultra, Gig ram and 500GB Hard-Drive...That kind of makes my PC obsolete! (He sold his old PC, P4 1.4, 512 Ram, 80 Gig hard-drive and a Ti4600 XTC for only $200 to one of my friends)

[BawA]

that's very good pc r u kidin or wat i have same pc but with 512 ddr ram and all game works fine and i mean really fine

Is my 3D Card a really bad one?

its best, same vga ive got

[Peerzy]

i got a amd atlon 2000 running at 1.66 and the same gfx card as you. at least double your ram. with 512 you will be able to play max payne 2 with full settingas set to the max on 1024*what ever the other bit is. get a better sound card to, much better. CPU is fine seen as max payne only needs a 1ghz and half life 2 will only need a 700mhz. mine runs all the games i have on full settings and usually higher than 1024*whatevr it is. thats halo, GTA:VC(the extra RAM is why because i use to hav 256) hiotman 2, soldier of fortune 2, max payne 2, max payne 1 and others.

[Vamp]

So if games like Mafia and NOLF 2 run choppily now, then with 512 meg DDram they'll run perfectly? (even with Windows 98SE?) without getting a new 3D Card?

[Peerzy]

Originally posted by Vamp@2 November 2003 - 15:42
So if games like Mafia and NOLF 2 run choppily now, then with 512 meg DDram they'll run perfectly? (even with Windows 98SE?) without getting a new 3D Card?

it wod b better to get xp if you can. and i dunno y MAFIA is running slow. my m8's pc. 1.1 duron 256mb ram win xp 32 mb onboard geforce 2 gfx card ran it fine with all settings up high. YES RAM WOD MAKE A BIG MO-FO-ING DIFFERENCE

[RGX]

Im running vice city with no lag on

AMD Duron 650
256 MB PC133 Ram
Geforce 4 MX440 64MB


but mines the cd image version, so its either the rip or the sound card thats holding you back

Once I get my new PC, im clocking this chip up to 1Ghz, new cooler and maxing the ram to 1.5 gigs, see what it does