Graphics Cards....RAM....Quad Cores....eh?

[NexoAlpha]

With all this talk recently re. COD4 and graphics cards, I was wondering what effect different parts of a system have on game play...

If you have a "minimum requirements" machine for COD4, what upgrade would have the most noticeable effect?

What difference would there be between say a P4-3Ghz machine with top graphics card and RAM and a top Dual/Quad Core machine with average graphics card and RAM?

Not really ever been that pc technically competent but have got interested in it having recently upgraded my machine.

Cheers for any responses people...

Glen aka NexoAlpha

[Vet]

I have some of the same questions since I also have the bare minimum to run after I upgrade the Video card. Processor next, or RAM, or a very high end Video card? I am confused.


Danny

[Macaroni]

I have some of the same questions since I also have the bare minimum to run after I upgrade the Video card. Processor next, or RAM, or a very high end Video card? I am confused.


Danny

Best thing to do - post back here what you have currently and folks can make recommendations.

Biggest areas to consider regarding speed/performance:

1. Hard Drive
- Speed
- Free Space

2. RAM
- Type
- Amount

3. Processor
- Speed

4. Motherboard Model
- This dictates what capabilities you have to expand
- How many open memory slots
- What is the max processor speed

5. Graphics Card
- What available slots/type?
- Memory on the card

6. Internet & Network Connection Speed
- Could have all the best above - but bad connection and it will suck in MP.


So.... post back the above info.... we can give you an assessment on where you stand and what to improve. It really is a combination of all the above (like having a top of the line Graphics card on a Pentium 3 would not be great)


Hope that helps give you some stuff to consider...
Tom

[Yourself]

Yes...without more information, it becomes difficult to offer quality advice...

( all advice here is "free", and you get what you pay for :p )

However, the initial question was regarding gaming, so here's a generic type of answer:

Gaming usually relies on the power of the video card.

If you bump up the resolution, the video card is the bottleneck.

If you drop the resolution, the CPU (or other parts of the system) become the bottleneck. That's why games are run at their lowest resolution in CPU benchmarks.

Using your example and making the additional assumptions that you're gaming at 1280 x 1024 (standard 19" or 20" non-wide-screen LCD monitor resolution) AND that the games in question do not require multiple core performance, I offer that most games will run the same speed from a processor standpoint (most games won't max out either processor, so it won't be limiting).

They will run a tad faster on the dual/quad core machine simply because it does each task faster (it does more per clock cycle than the P4 does), but both will be limited by the video cards.

So, both machines with the same video card in each will offer almost identical gaming performance.

Putting a better video card on the P4 (in the example) will make that the faster of the two gaming machines.

In a nutshell, if you already have a P4 3.0 ghz or better, upgrading the video card will give you the most noticable improvement for the least amount of money.

However, when running a game that is processor heavy AND requires multiple cores (like Supreme Commander), the CPU will most likely be the limiting factor. In the example, the slower video card (assuming it is still adequate) machine with the dual or quad core will run Supreme Commander (with a lot of items on screen, i.e. a good bit into a level, or session) much faster than the faster video card equipped machine with a single core or HyperThreaded processor.

Yourself (Dave)

[raydoger]

You Can Do What I Did,i Was Confused Too,i Got The Specs For The Game Then I Checked To See If Me Computer Could Run It.well You All Know The Out Come,new Pc

[NexoAlpha]

Yes...without more information, it becomes difficult to offer quality advice...

( all advice here is "free", and you get what you pay for :p )

However, the initial question was regarding gaming, so here's a generic type of answer:

Gaming usually relies on the power of the video card.

If you bump up the resolution, the video card is the bottleneck.

If you drop the resolution, the CPU (or other parts of the system) become the bottleneck. That's why games are run at their lowest resolution in CPU benchmarks.

Using your example and making the additional assumptions that you're gaming at 1280 x 1024 (standard 19" or 20" non-wide-screen LCD monitor resolution) AND that the games in question do not require multiple core performance, I offer that most games will run the same speed from a processor standpoint (most games won't max out either processor, so it won't be limiting).

They will run a tad faster on the dual/quad core machine simply because it does each task faster (it does more per clock cycle than the P4 does), but both will be limited by the video cards.

So, both machines with the same video card in each will offer almost identical gaming performance.

Putting a better video card on the P4 (in the example) will make that the faster of the two gaming machines.

In a nutshell, if you already have a P4 3.0 ghz or better, upgrading the video card will give you the most noticable improvement for the least amount of money.

However, when running a game that is processor heavy AND requires multiple cores (like Supreme Commander), the CPU will most likely be the limiting factor. In the example, the slower video card (assuming it is still adequate) machine with the dual or quad core will run Supreme Commander (with a lot of items on screen, i.e. a good bit into a level, or session) much faster than the faster video card equipped machine with a single core or HyperThreaded processor.

Yourself (Dave)

Thanks very much matey....