could a video card limit the system so badly like this?

B

b1m2x3

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Mar 19, 2002
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well; its between the ram and the vid card on my dads computer...i just cant figure out which is having more of a negative affect on his.

ok specs:
amd athlon xp 2100
soltek sl-75kav mobo
640mb pc133 ram (eugh)
using built in sound
and ati rage 128 graphics (i believe this is right)

so, do you think it would be better to upgrade the video card for him, or the mobo/ram?
he usually has 2 versions of proseries open, as well as a word document and an excel sheet (hes an accountant). as is his computer gets REALLY bogged down when switching between the apps; so i just want to make sure im going with the easiest route for him.

edit: oops guess this should have gone in general hardware
 
synergy321 said:
i say mobo/ram
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I second that, especially the Ram. Try watching a video and surfing the internet while having word open. If the video lags, might be the card.
 
From personal experience using a Rage128 on a server box, it indeed can bog down windows pretty bad. If he's got an AGP slot, why not get a sub-$100 video card, see if that helps, and if not, get the mobo/cpu combo
 
Video card. I used to have an ATI Rage 128 Ultra with 32 MB. I upgraded to my ATI Radeon 9600 SE, and the speed of everything on the PC increased.
 
IMO, a CPU,Mobo upgrade would be good. Like an Athlon 64 3000+, and a good NF3 mobo. Htne maybe 512mb of ram for now, then another gig.

Thn worry about the Vid card
 
Hate_Bot said:
IMO, a CPU,Mobo upgrade would be good. Like an Athlon 64 3000+, and a good NF3 mobo. Htne maybe 512mb of ram for now, then another gig.

Thn worry about the Vid card
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ummmm... this is a business machine... or are you being horribly sarcastic?
 
Oh, well I didnt know that. I didt really read the post, just the specs...
 
PoisonedPawn45 said:
Completely agree.
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QFT

The vid card has nothing to do with 2d switching of aps around on the screen, the reason it's lagging is because it loads it from the hard drive to the ram when he switches.

In fact if you buy enough ram to make it up to 1gig of ram I dont think he'll have a problem any more. That is if the ram is fast enough, what is it 266fsb?

~Adam
 
If "bogged down" means that the HDD is spinning lots when you switch apps, then you should put in more memory.
If the HDD doesn't spin, you have enough memory, but apparently the entire system is too slow. Which would mean you'd need to upgrade the CPU, motherboard and memory (as said before, the videocard is pretty much irrelevant for 2d applications).

But before you upgrade anything, first try to update the motherboard's BIOS to the latest, upgrade the chipset drivers to the latest, and check if all BIOS settings are okay... a 2100+ with 640 mb sdram is not THAT slow if it's working okay (I should know, I use an 1800+ with 512 mb sdram myself here :)).
But it all depends on how heavy the documents are that you are using in those applications, I suppose.
 
i have a rage XL in my closet... and it sucks just for browsing, lags horribly and tahts on a pretty decently decked system. i say pick up a GF MX cheap.. it will make a difference...
 
That ram is also pretty slow, I used to have PC133 and it wasn't fun. It's probably a mix between the two.
 
so what is the overall concensus/verdict?

more ram?

or new vid card?
 
i really dont think you need any more ram, for buisness use 640 should be just fine. i really think a new vid card would help much more than anything else, some people just dont realize how shitty teh rage 128 is...
 
I say try the ram, goto Fry's and buy ram then if that doesn't work try the gfx card.

~Adam
 
I have a Compaq with a 1700+ AXP Palomino and 512mb of pc133, and the thing works fine with a Radeon 9600. I could play Doom3 at 800x600 with it. Get a new video card.

Saying that, I'd run memtest86 on it to see if there's a bigger problem with the RAM. 640mb should be enough though.
 
kirbyrj said:
I have a Compaq with a 1700+ AXP Palomino and 512mb of pc133, and the thing works fine with a Radeon 9600. I could play Doom3 at 800x600 with it. Get a new video card.

Saying that, I'd run memtest86 on it to see if there's a bigger problem with the RAM. 640mb should be enough though.
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If you call going down into 5-10 fps in pretty much every fight fun, then go for it! I used to have a similar system and it sucked to say the least. SDRAM SUCKS, period.
 
Smith said:
If you call going down into 5-10 fps in pretty much every fight fun, then go for it! I used to have a similar system and it sucked to say the least. SDRAM SUCKS, period.
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I didn't say it was the "optimal gaming experience" but my point was that if my older, suckier computer ran doom3, surely his computer should run accounting apps and excel easily, although having them all opened at once and trying to switch between them sounds like a job for hyperthreading.
 
yea

turned out there was 1 stick of 512 pc133, and 2 sticks of 64mb pc100 in there

so i found some more pc133 and threw the pc100 in my closet;

so now he has 896mb pc133

damn... i never thought i would be talking about sdram again....
 
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