Can someone help me out?

[CrappyPC]

I recently played Unreal Tournament at my friends house (The first one, not the new one) and I totally loved it.

But his computer is better than mine. He can turn all of the cool effects on and everything and still keep it runnung smooth.

But my computer is few years old, and is not as fast as his. When I play it, it runs all choppy. I have to play it at 320X240 resolution and that really sucks! Even with all of the cool audio and visual effects turned off, I can't go higher than 320X240 resolution or the framerate will suck.

Here are my system specs:

AMD K6-500Mhz processer

184 MB SDRAM

I use Windows ME.

I don't know how to check to see what my graphics card is, so I dont know what kind it is.

If someone could tell me if there is some way I could increase the resolution to at least 600X480 while still keeping it running smoothly, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

[CrappyPC]

Someone please help me!

[Witch-Talon]

Welcome to SYSOPT! :t

Needs to know the Video card type

Click on Display in Control Pannel which are located in start menu You will should see the name of the video card in the settings tab.

[Dave Myers]

Yep. Need to know what vid card is in the system. Open up your case, and see if there is a card attached to where your monitor plugs in. It is possible you have integrated graphics, which would explain the LOW resolution problem.

Good luck:D

[AllGamer]

i can almost see it's one of those old 4meg video cards:D

[Beeblequix]

How much more about your computer can you tell us? Motherboard type, chipset type, socket type (probably Super 7), memory type (EDO, SDRAM, etc), size hard drive, evrerything you know.

I can tell you:

Your k6-500 performs more like a Pentium ii 400. But still, you should be able to run higher than that resolution.

Because of this statement "I don't know how to check to see what my graphics card is, so I dont know what kind it is" I can guarantee you're running quite inefficeintly. I'm not trying to anger you, just showing you the pathology. See, someone who doesn't even know how to check their device settings wouldn't have the sense to disallow memory hoggs to run, or take precautions against viruses.

Have you streamlined your startup? What do you actually have loading when you boot up? This means, run MSCONFIG, peek around in there and see what is running. All that AOL Instant Messenger, shareware apps, Microsoft Office ****, etc start up there and don't need to. How many icons do you have in the lower right hand corner of the screen? More than two or three? If you have a bunch, deselect the ones you don't need to run immediately.

What kind of desktop wallpaper do you use? I use a blank screen because it uses memory. And my system has tons o' resources.

Run your antivirus with the latest definitions. Yes, latest. Download the new ones. So often people complain about slow performance, yet don't realize they have 70 viruses running away with their performance.

Use 16-bit color and textures.

Enable DMA on your hard drive if you can.

Get in your BIOS when you turn on the comp to see things like memory timings/speed, AGP setting (1x, 2x, 4x), agp aperture, etc. You can increase your performance by getting your hands dirty and seeing what you have set in there.

When did you last defrag your hard drive? That will help you immensely.

How many programs do you have residing on your hard drive but never ever use? Uninstall them. This will give your comp a tad more swapfile space. Also, allow Windows to manage your virtual memory. It knows better than you.

Questions?
ßeeßle Qµix

[gibsinep]

lol he waited less than 10 minutes before complaining no one was helping him. :rolleyes:


As Allgamer said I can also see it being some onboard( or normal) 4mb video card or less.


:t

[CrappyPC]

I checked the Video card and It is a Trident Blade / MVP 4 with 8MB of RAM.

Are there any other suggestions you can give me?

And what is DMA?

[Dave Myers]

Buy a new video card.

Seriously. I highly doubt you can tweak that card to gain an appreciable difference in performance. How much you wanna spend?

[AceAirman]

Yeah that video card is gonna be tough to get by on these days. :eek:

[Beeblequix]

"And what is DMA?"
Direct Memory Access: This is a setting which when enabled tells the system "hey, stop. I NEED the resources. Y'all can just wait..." By doing this the piece of equipment you've enabled DMA on obtains priority over everything else. This comes in real handy when doing reading/writing to a storage medium. It's sorta similar to an IRQ. Don't ask, I'll tell you. IRQ stands for Interrupt Request. This is a form of timing on your pc. Ever wonder how all those parts run together without problems? Well, IRQs allow this piece then that piece then that piece a turn to process. Problem is that sometimes due to a user's ignorance their computer might have IRQ conflicts, when two pieces of the pc are arguing about which has priority. Usually this ends with your pc freezing or rebooting. Pain in the @ss.

Kid, go over to these links:

<http://www.pcnineoneone.com>
<http://www.tweak3d.net>
<http://www.ask.com>

and browse around for some good How-Tos and FAQs for pretty much anything--you really need to expand your knowledge, and doing some good reading will assist you. Many of your questions can be found by typing in search parameters in search engines, like Google. You could have typed "what is DMA" at Ask.com , and good ol' Jeeves will spit out a few thousand links with direct answers.

You need to do the above mentioned things. Go DO those, then post back with questions.

ßeeßle Qµix

[Monster1]

Last I seen you can get a TNTII for about 20 bucks...its not awsome but is is compared to what you have;)

[Cpl_Squirrel]

Great idea, and a tnt2 should run ut just fine. But let's make sure that 'crappy pc' has an agp port. :( I forget if they ever made a pci version of the tnt2.

[Cpl_Squirrel]

Originally posted by AllGamer
i can almost see it's one of those old 4meg video cards:D Haha...wrongo! 8 megs!!! :x :eek: :p

[Monster1]

Originally posted by Cpl_Squirrel
Great idea, and a tnt2 should run ut just fine. But let's make sure that 'crappy pc' has an agp port. :( I forget if they ever made a pci version of the tnt2.

Im pretty sure they did:cool:

[Monster1]

Pine SiS 305 32MB AGP Video Card http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=P450-7015
26 bucks
tiger direct (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_slc.asp?Id=2803)