Building/Upgrading a PC for TS2
DrBeast:
Quote from: SpaceDoll on 2006 September 12, 19:52:14
Edit: DrBeast, I just re-read your post and saw you wrote 9600, not 6600! Great, I can get a 9600pro for 20 or 30 bucks cheaper than a 6600! Yay, I will be simming a lot sooner! What about the cinematics?
OK, having a 1.3GHz processor DEFINITELY tips the scale all the way towards the Radeon 9600! Having a 6600 on such an anemic (with regards to processor power) system is a waste of graphics processor power (and money!). Cinematics work just fine with the Radeon card, but I don't know if your processor is up to it.
Hegelian:
Quote from: DrBeast on 2006 September 13, 08:30:23
OK, having a 1.3GHz processor DEFINITELY tips the scale all the way towards the Radeon 9600! Having a 6600 on such an anemic (with regards to processor power) system is a waste of graphics processor power (and money!). Cinematics work just fine with the Radeon card, but I don't know if your processor is up to it.
Probably not, sorry to say. We had a machine with a 1.7 GHz Celeron and no cinematics until we upgraded to a 2.8 GHz P4.
Frankly, with that processor, it's probably not worth the money to buy a new graphics board for TS2. The main limiter of TS2 performance is the CPU; it would make more sense to forgo the graphics board and save up for a new PC, or at least attempt to find a faster CPU to replace that 1.3 GHz part. Sorry. :(
nekonoai:
What causes the game to run so slow sometimes [mostly on big lots]? Is it inadequate processor, video card, or ram? My processor's a 2.6ghz, and I have 512 of ram... Can't remember what video card I have, I'll hafta fill that in later, but I bought the card because it was on the list on the Maxis site. In fact, I built this computer TO PLAY SIMS. haha. I was a month behind everyone else in playtime, but I didn't care, it was worth it. But I can't play a lot bigger than 3x2 without SIGNIFICANT slowdown. [sorry if this doesn't belong here, but it IS a hardware thread and this is a hardware question]
I'd love to hear any feedback.
ZiggyDoodle:
I've been thinking of upgrading the ATI Radeon X300SE (128MB PCI Express x16) that came with my Dell 8400 (Pentium 4, 3.2GHz and 2GB SDRAM).
ATI has a trade up program and credits at least $50 if you order direct and send your old card to them, so I want to stick with them.
The current card is sufficient, but does lag a bit and is bottom line.
The power supply on my system is rated 350W.
Anyone out there using and liking one of the higher end Radeon cards enough to suggest it?
Hegelian:
Quote from: nekonoai on 2006 September 13, 17:38:39
What causes the game to run so slow sometimes [mostly on big lots]? Is it inadequate processor, video card, or ram?
Processor - mostly
Graphics board - somewhat, but mostly this affects the level of detail you can have. But turning down the detail settings can improve game performance.
RAM - a bit; this mostly affects loading times for textures and the like—more textures (and, presumably, character data) can be stored in RAM so less swapping to disk is necessary (so the game doesn't need to wait for the data). I find that with 1 GB or more of RAM, doing a couple turns around the lot from a somewhat zoomed-out position (a couple times for each level) will load most of the needed textures into RAM, reducing lag (although not completely).
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My processor's a 2.6ghz, and I have 512 of ram...
So-so, at this point in time. My CPU is a 2.8 GHz P4,and lots with a lot of CC or with many sims can be pretty slow. Turning down certain video settings can speed this up a bit (edge smoothing, reflections, and whether you can see neighboring lots, in particular), but you can only achieve so much this way. Adding RAM can help also by reducing disk access as you move around a lot, and the game can easily consume more than 1.5 GB if you go clothes shopping and have a lot of custom clothes. To get the most out of additional RAM, you need to tweak your paging file settings to reduce the size of the paging file to force Windows to use all the physical RAM you have, and, ideally, turn off executive paging either by editing the registry or using a memory-tweaking tool like Cacheman XP. But really, the CPU is the main factor, and whether you have anything running in the background (I always disable my anti-virus before starting the game).
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Can't remember what video card I have, I'll hafta fill that in later, but I bought the card because it was on the list on the Maxis site.
The list of supported graphics boards is pretty much a list of boards available when the game was finalized, and earlier. More recent boards aren't listed. The list of supported boards is pretty much a list of what the minimum is to play the game.
Quote from: ZiggyDoodle on 2006 September 13, 18:08:17
I've been thinking of upgrading the ATI Radeon X300SE (128MB PCI Express x16) that came with my Dell 8400 (Pentium 4, 3.2GHz and 2GB SDRAM).
The X300SE was a budget OEM part right from the beginning. Moving to an X800 GTO or X850 XT would be a huge improvement. There are faster boards out there for PCI-E in the X1900 line, but at the moment the X850 XT should match or better the performance of any of the X1600 boards—and it costs less than many X800 GTO boards. ;D
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ATI has a trade up program and credits at least $50 if you order direct and send your old card to them, so I want to stick with them.
Be sure to do some price shopping. ATI will charge you full MSRP for the new board, which you may be able to get for less from a reputable online retailer—plus, you would still have the X300 as a backup. The Sapphire Radeon X850 XT is $114 from Newegg, and there's currently a $20 mail-in rebate. You would need to check your PC to make sure there is a free slot next to the PCI-E 16x slot though, because the fan on this exhausts out the back of the case.
For about the same price you can get a Radeon X1600 XT, but these only have 12 pixel pipelines instead of the X850 XT's 16 pipes. To beat the X850 XT you would need to go the 256 MB version of the X1800 XT which will run you in excess of US$200; it also requires a free slot for its cooling aparatus.
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The power supply on my system is rated 350W.
Depending on its quality,this could be sufficient for now if you have only one hard drive and one optical drive. Upgrading Dell PSUs can be dicey, because they and their associated motherboards sometimes use non-standard pin assignments for the motherboard power connection; and standard PSUs sometimes will not fit Dell's proprietary cases. PC Power & Cooling makes top-quality PSUs for Dell PCs.
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Anyone out there using and liking one of the higher end Radeon cards enough to suggest it?
I definitely recommend the X800 GT and X800 GTO for those who can't budget an X1900-series board. Mine are both AGP models; for PCI-E I recommend the X850 XT, which should be just like the X800 GTO only faster. :)
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