Hello,

I just was wondering if there are any way to help get a better game play out of my computer. I have read and done all the cod tweaks listed on the forums, but still find the game a little laggy. Maybe I need to get a better vid card or more system memory. The system I have is:



Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Dual Core

Asus P5LD2 Pentium 4 Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 Colling Fan

1 GiG of DDR2 ram

250 Gig Hard Drive X 2

256 mb Nvidia Pci-e video card



This is from the bill but not sure about video card in system tray the property for the video comes up Geforce 6500.



I have a cable conection and do not see any spikes on the lago meter.



Any help will be apreciated.



Thanks,



CV

.

This chart has been shown several times on the forums. It tells you what you need to know about video card performance:

Toms Hardware VGA Charts

Your 6500 card is not on the chart but would be below the 6600. A 7900 GTX or 7950 GT would be several times faster than your card.

Old Man Mike

Thanks Radiation and OMM for the input. Its a new system I probally can get it swaped for a better one. Would larger ram size help out?

Additional system RAM beyond the 1 Gb that you currently have would provide no significant improvement for COD gaming.

Old Man Mike

The answer is always the video card. It isn't really Nvidia vs. ATI, but rather how good the particular card is. They almost come in four flavors now, ultra cheap, budget-priced but decent, very good and great. And, as some of my "names" suggest the way to tell the difference between them all is price. The biggest mistake gamers make is buying a relatively high end system in most respects, but cheaping out on the video card.

However, I am a tad surprised that a system like you describe has a problem with a game as old as COD, but if there is a problem that is related to your computer and not to you ping time, I'd say it's that video card. Personally, I have a lesser processor, roughly same RAM, but an x800 Radeon AGP. It was in the "good" category, a little expensive, but still 50%-100% less cost-wise than the super-duper high-end or "great" video cards.

Also, comparing a laptop to a destop is a little like apples and oranges. Laptop generally are alway slower than their main specs would indicate because of their relatively slow hard drives and built in video cards, which are never of the same level of the "good" and "great" type video cards.

Since the retailier is going to refund for the current card and based of the information I will go with the ati x 1950 sts cf. I plan to have the system for a number of years and the rest of the system is fairly high end the video should also be.



Your right MOD, I should have put in a good card to better match the system.



Thanks everyone,



CV

or if you have 2 pci=e you could run 2 1650 xt 512mb cards for 260$
and wait for a direct x 10 ati card

Actually, laggy may very well depend on what you may have running in the background on your comp while you play. Stuff like;-
messengers [msn/yahoo etc]
anti-virus updates
microsoft windows updates
or... you forgot to turn off 10 projects running at the same time in photoshop
and everyones favourite.... turn off your automatic downloader for xxx sites

Another reason may be your connection- your ISP may be having server probs too.

Balance your game options with your computer's 'juice'. If you don't have a mega-powerful computer then don't crank up all the game enhancing options. Personally I find a 800x600 screen very pleasing to view. Sound options also have a fairly 'big' impact on used game resources.

I sue end it all but I dont know it it will disable auto update. This ifs a good point because I believe several of the programes on the system use this function. My screen rez is around 1280 * 1024 will adjust and try out. I sont know if it matters but i'm running two monitors, 22" wide screen and a 17". I have, oo I cant think of the proper name, it on the screen to monitor the internet. frame rates are around 25 to 30 but when I get some action it droups down to 8.



I dont know much about computer so putting in one card I can do but two might be a problem.



The last computer I had built by a store kept shutting down and restarting and they looked at it several time and then said, "o sorry but you warrenty has run out". I ended up finding that when I wiggle the wires from the power supply to the mother board the system would shut down. Replaced the power supply but the problem seemed to be at the mother board connector. After that I alway tried getting the how to info and do the work myself.



Thanks for the input,

My strong advice is pick up a good computer from a good store with the best warranty. I prodded myself into a 3 year warranty [3 years ago]. I took it in with one month to go for some final maintenance and to fix a faulty dvd drive and they gave me an updated/upgraded/brand spanking new dvd drive for free. And blew out a bucket of dust from inside the pc case.

Also if you meant 'disable windows automatic updates' -you don't want to do that. Instead set the option to 'alert you when Updates are Available' that way you can download and install the sometimes critical updates on your own time. - To get to update notification options [if you are using xp] right click your My Computer icon, select Properties, then the tab 'Automatic Updates'.

Another thing I do, is put my games in their own partition on the hard drive. My CoD is in its very own partition; its very useful when you want to defrag the partition [clean up scattered files - and make gameplay smoother].... you save alot of time -especially with a HD as big as yours, I'd suggest that option- I don't know if Partition Magic is still around, but do some research on it- it's a reputable software tool makes the partitioning process incredibly easy.

Two game cards is an option- but not necessary in my opinion- you have what's necessary already regarding ram and game card to play a strong game.... I'm sure its other issues that are the source of the lag issues.
Try the CoD game option to auto resize at 800x600 screen -no need to change your actual normally used screen size.... and lower the sound setting, and remove a few effects you think you don't notice in the game.
Visually 'maybe' it bothers you ... but perhaps you won't notice it in place of playing a satisfying faster/better game.

Ok, I have done the auto update setting and the games are runing on a sperate partition. I just keep my c for main operating system programes.

I lowered my video settings last night to play german front, big differance, I was getting between 130 to 100 fpm. No lag at all. I also turned down the sound quility.

Thanks for the help

No problemo... I'll fed-ex the tech support bill to you by this weekend....


I'm glad you're all sorted out.