How do you learn what your limiting factor is?

Cali3350

Supreme [H]ardness
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Mar 22, 2002
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Hello. M<y specs are below in my sig but ill repeat them here fr anyone who might have sigs turned off:

Athlon XP @12.5*166 (2600+)
Epox 8rda+
1 gb DDR333 (512 Crucial and 512 Kingston @2.5-3-3-11)
Radeon 9700Pro (stock)

OK, my question is, how can i tell what i should upgrade first? FarCry, at highest settings, runs unacceptably on my system. At medium settings, it runs great. There are lotsa things those settigns are changing though besides just GPU bound things. How do i know whats the limiting factor?
 
Probably your RAM. While you do have 1 gb you should get something like Corsair or Kingston hyperx. And your overclock should run faster. :)
 
There really isn't any formula that can tell you the limiting factor(well none that I know of). You just have to look at your hardware and try to figure it out.

I think your limiting factorss are your CPU and memory(fsb wise).

You shoud overclock with 1) what you have. 2) get some higher fsb ram and try to get 200+ fsb.

IF you don't want to overclock 1) you can buy a higher rated 333Mhz fsb CPU 2) Get pc3200 ram and a 400mhz fsb AXP3200+

You can ofcourse upgrade to higher level cpus, A64, P4EE,AFX, etc.


I personally would overclock with what I have and see where it goes before buying anything.
 
Well, for some reason, if i overclock my audigy gets ALL screwy and doesnt work right. i KNOW the ram i have can run ATLEAST 185 with same timings/volts it has now. Im thinking of either getting a new graphics card, or getting a AMD64 system. They can run DDR333 if needs be (only about ~5% performance drop) and the ram might make 400 anyway. That sound good?
 
Originally posted by Cali3350
Well, for some reason, if i overclock my audigy gets ALL screwy and doesnt work right. i KNOW the ram i have can run ATLEAST 185 with same timings/volts it has now. Im thinking of either getting a new graphics card, or getting a AMD64 system. They can run DDR333 if needs be (only about ~5% performance drop) and the ram might make 400 anyway. That sound good?

Could the PCI/AGP be getting overclocked?
 
FarCry, at highest settings, runs unacceptably on my system.


I don't think it'll run acceptably on -any- system at highest settings...
 
I run far cry on my system with this settings:
AA X4 and AF 16X
in the gane all VERY HIGH and AA in medium
and i play on 1024@786...

17-25Fps
 
17-25 FPS is HORRIBLE. I could not aim with that at all. I need atleast 75+. And yes I can tell a difference between every 10 fps :eek:
 
Originally posted by TommyW
I run far cry on my system with this settings:
AA X4 and AF 16X
in the gane all VERY HIGH and AA in medium
and i play on 1024@786...

17-25Fps

HOW THE FSCK CAN YOU PLAY LIKE THAT?!
 
Originally posted by TommyW
I run far cry on my system with this settings:
AA X4 and AF 16X
in the gane all VERY HIGH and AA in medium
and i play on 1024@786...

17-25Fps

A true [H]? Or a true dolt?

j/k :D
 
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