best way to add performance?

[readymade]

All my specs are pretty close to the recommended, except for my video card.

Here is what I have:

 

Intel Core 2 CPU

6600 at 2.4 ghz

4 gb of ram (but XP only sees 3 gb)

Windows XP

 

Nvidia Geforce 7900 gs 256 mb (yes i know.....)

 

Im getting about 15 - 25 fps which i am somewhat happy with. Could be much worse. My graphical settings in the game are all pretty low. (800 x 600, low, medium, etc)

 

So with my setup, would buying a better video card make a huge increase in performance?

Which should I buy? I don't need dual monitor or anything. Basically it would be just to enhance games.

 

Also, I have read through a lot of the threads here and tried many if not all of the little tricks to up performance. So at this point my only option seems to be hardware.

 

thanks for your help

Edited January 8, 2009 by readymade

[Lutra78]

Easiest upgrade would be the vga-card. Is it agp or pci-e?

[badguy]

xp sees 3.5gb. Just get a better graphics card but dont excpect 50-60 fps with a better graphics card. You still get average 20-30 fps but with better graphics

[Snorty]

You say easy but the 280 gtx is huuuge. Make sure your motherboard and case is big enough.

[TAshifter88]

from what I've noticed, a better cpu would work wonders vs a better gpu. the 7900 is still a pretty strong card for the lower end cards, and is still dated, but the game's performance is HIGHLY dependent on your cpu. A quad core would make a VAST improvement.

[readymade]

How can I get XP to see 3.5 gb of ram?

[blk95ta]

How can I get XP to see 3.5 gb of ram?

thats what i'd like to know. i have 3GB ram and a 512mb 8800GT and xp only sees 2.5gb ram

[bldrgnslyr]

i have 4gig of ddr2 ram and xp still recognises 3.5 gig of it....im not sure what you guys problem is

[badguy]

How can I get XP to see 3.5 gb of ram?

Pres Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click on performance tab. Bottom right should say something like Physical Memory (K), look at 'Total' and if u have 4gb ram it should write something like 340xxxx which is in kilobytes so that would be about 3.4 gigs that xp sees.

[Dreddpool]

 

How can I get XP to see 3.5 gb of ram?

I have 4gb ddr2 and under "My Computer" properties it shows 3.25gb

 

I'm getting 2x2gb Kingston 1066mhtz DDR2 Ram next week.

 

[FireItUp]

I have the exact same cpu e6600 2.4ghz same amount of ram only difference is I have an 8800gt. I recommend getting a better cooler for your cpu and overclock it. I have mine set at 3.4ghz and it gave me a nice boost in fps.

 

Upgrading your 7900gs would be a good idea too.

 

Average FPS: 53.18

Duration: 36.99 sec

CPU Usage: 92%

System memory usage: 63%

Video memory usage: 99%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1280 x 1024 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Medium

Render Quality: Highest

View Distance: 1

Detail Distance: 1

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

Video Driver version: 180.48

Audio Adapter: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [bC00]

Intel® Core2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz

 

In game fps is more like 35-45.

[nicotin3]

For the OP.. i have the same CPU/RAM but a 8800 GTX and the game runs well at 1680x1050 resolution.

 

For everyone else.. it doesnt matter how much ram it shows on system properties, what matters is how much ram your system can use (total amount in task manager).

[Eroneouse]

Addressing more than 2 gig of ram

 

If you have 2GB of memory or less please do not attempt this.

If you have 64 bit XP or 64 bit Vista you will automatically be able to make use of this.

If you have 32 bit XP or 32 bit Vista follow the following instructions to enable the operating system to make use of it:

 

32 bit XP

You first need to locate your machines Boot.ini file which should be located in the root of your main system drive. (Be aware that this file may be hidden and marked as read-only initially.) You will want to open this file in a program such as Notepad to edit it properly.

 

Before adding the 3GB switch though it is important to note that the switch is very picky, and requires that every device and driver on your system be fully WinXP compatible in order to work at all. If anything in the system is not compatible, Windows will not load at all when restarting with the 3GB switch activated. The only way to then remove the switch from the Boot.ini file so that Windows can load is to either mount the drive in another system and manually change the boot.ini file, or reformat the drive and re-install Windows. Both solutions are far from ideal.

 

To safely add the 3GB switch we recommend adding a second instance of the OS in the boot.ini, and add the /3GB switch to that second version.

 

 

----- default boot.ini without 3GB Switch -----

 

This is what a default boot.ini file will look like. (This may differ from system to system.)

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"

 

 

----- updated boot.ini with 3GB Switch -----

 

This is what the updated version should look like. Notice the /3GB that has been added to the second instance of the OS line.

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP with /3GB" /3GB

 

 

Once you have updated your boot.ini file accordingly and have saved the changes, simply restart your system for the changes to take affect. When your system reboots you will be given the option to choose either the standard Windows XP version or the 3GB switch enabled Windows XP version. If you choose the 3GB version and it fails to allow Windows to properly load, just restart your system and you will be given the two options once again, where you can then choose the standard Windows XP version to load. Either way, if it works or doesn't, you can then remove whatever line you don't need in the boot.ini file.

 

32 bit Vista

Run this command from a command window with Administrator priviledge - i.e. (in the Start menu) select "Command Prompt" (Accessories), right-click on it and choose "Run as Administrator".

 

bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072

 

If the system fails to boot properly you can boot it in safe mode and disabled it by the command:

 

bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa

 

 

I accept no responsibility for folk killing their machines useing this switch thingy as I cut n pasted this from a different tech help forum

[ron123]

Just upgradding to the cheap 9800GT 512mb, will boost your rig to space,

Compare to main specs and performance in sig!!!, (you may watch my movies for performance demonstration).

[belinda]

@ Eroneouse

what you tell here is correct, but applications can only use more than 2gb address space if they are compiled with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag set. but this flag is not set in GTAIV.exe (v1.0.1.0, 13.665.640bytes) here on my installation. you can check and even set this with microsoft's tool imagecfg.exe, which is not available on microsoft.com but included in windows nt4 and windows 2000 installation cds or the windows 2000 server resource kit supplement 1. quite a hassle, so i uploaded it here for anyone interested. so increasing virtual user address space with the /3gb switch is not helpful here since GTAIV.exe is not able to use it. but it can lead to bluescreens, RESC10 or out of video memory crashes on some systems, because by increasing user address space the kernel address space is decreased. and setting /LARGEADDRESSAWARE with imagecfg.exe is not helping here too, i tried but gta4 is crashing on start.

 

if a bigger user address space is really needed and the application is able to use more than 2gb of memory (= /LARGEADDRESSAWARE is set), combine /3gb with the /userva=xxxx switch (xxxx = memory for user address space) and use something like:

 

/3gb /userva=2560

 

now user address space is 2,5gb and kernel address space is 1,5gb. together it's always 4gb, which is the maximum 32bit windows clients can use.

please note: this information is valid regardless of how much "real ram" you have installed. we're talking about virtual address spaces here.

 

@ all with 4gb installed ram on 32bit windows

even physical address extension doesn't help here, microsoft is not allowing more than 4gb address space on it's 32bit clients, only 32bit server os's like windows server 2003 or 2008 are able to make use of the 36bit address extension pae uses, but differs on what server licence you have. and every windows has to use some of it's address space to blend addresses of e.g. pci-cards, onboard devices, gfx card vram into the maximum 4gb, so you only see 3gb- 3,5gb as available memory. quite complex, but wikipedia and google can bring additional information if needed.