PC Upgrading Discussion

[Eric. K]

32bit equals 4GB's of memory addresses. More than RAM uses memory addresses so OS will never have the full 4GB's available to it in a 32bit OS as RAM. Hence why it will only use around 3GB ram with the graphics card he has. Explained in detail here

You are right it is explained here

In the absence of the /PAE switch

Most if not all 775 sockets motherboard have that switch in the BIOS as I mentioned it earlier. I am running Windows XP 32 on a laptop and the OS uses and sees all the 4GB of ram

 

[Alex Townsend]

I would say something about the CPU, but will stay quiet.

Are you going to use XP 32 or 64? If it is 64 you should have nothing to do.

Please do say something about the CPU - I'm new to PC Gaming and if I can get better results from an upgrade then advise away! :thanks:

I'm currently using WinXP 32 but looking to upgrade ASAP
I was thinking of Vista 64 but with Windows 7 round the corner, think I'll pre-order that and then do a fresh install.

 

[Eric. K]

There is more from a reputable source on the PAE switch
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEdrv.mspx

 

[Alex Townsend]

You are right it is explained here


Most if not all 775 sockets motherboard have that switch in the BIOS as I mentioned it earlier. I am running Windows XP 32 on a laptop and the OS uses and sees all the 4GB of ram

So is it Intel Bios dependent on getting the 4GB to be recognised by XP or can you do it on AM2+ boards too?

 

[Eric. K]

Please do say something about the CPU - I'm new to PC Gaming and if I can get better results from an upgrade then advise away! :thanks:

I'm currently using WinXP 32 but looking to upgrade ASAP
I was thinking of Vista 64 but with Windows 7 round the corner, think I'll pre-order that and then do a fresh install.

The price to performance ratio between an Intel cpu (either an i7 or a Core 2) and anything from AMD doesnt make much sense to buy an AMD box. If you look at any benchmarks comparing similarly priced processors Intel has the upper hand. In the top of the line the price difference is a little larger (Intel being more expensive), but then again a 4 Cores Xeon i7 outperforms a 6 Cores AMD's Istanbul (let's not even talk about power consumption).

As for the OS you are right. Skip Vista and wait for Windows 7.

 

[Eric. K]

So is it Intel Bios dependent on getting the 4GB to be recognised by XP or can you do it on AM2+ boards too?

When XP first came out, AMD was on the top performance wise. I would be very surprised if they didnt provide some kind of support for that.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Eric, he has already brought the system ( judging from the first post ) So that's what he's got It's a good CPU and no need to upgrade unless you really want to. Your not going to be limited anyway, you have a great VIDEO card, and a good CPU.

I would not upgrade if I was you personally unless you feel you need more power.

 

[Eric. K]

Eric, he has already brought the system ( judging from the first post ) So that's what he's got It's a good CPU and no need to upgrade unless you really want to. Your not going to be limited anyway, you have a great VIDEO card, and a good CPU.

I would not upgrade i I was you personally unless you feel you need more power.

I wasnt going to say anything but he asked.

The video card price/performance is AWESOME IMO (not to mention it doesnt freeze Evo)

 

[Damian Henderson]

I wasnt going to say anything but he asked.

The video card price/performance is AWESOME IMO

If he does need to upgrade in the future and the mobo supports it Phenom II would be good.

 

[Alex Townsend]

That's right, already have built the system but wondered if it was worth upgrading but it's apparent that it will do the job
Aren't the Intel chips expensive compared to the AMD chips though?

Thanks for all the input guys. I'll install Windows 7 when it comes out to solve the memory issue and may even upgrade to include more at a later date.

I think my MB is AM3 ready so I could upgrade to a Phenom II X4 965 or similar later on which should give it a boost - At the moment it feels ok though.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Right guys, gave GTR Evo a go on Max everything with 1920 x 1080 resolution this morning and the graphics analyser software in the game said that I was running with settings too high for the targetted FPS

My target FPS was only 25-35 fps

Is something wrong with my set up as I've heard people talking about maxing this game out with fps up to 100 with similar systems
(or are they telling porkies?)

 

[Damian Henderson]

Should run it higher then that. How much AA have you got applied?

 

[Alex Townsend]

I've got it with AA X2 I think

From the game settings

Not sure what it's set to in CCC

Will have a look tonight and let you know

 

[Eric. K]

Oh good... I am not the only one with that issue I am running at 1920x1080 as well and had a huge stuttering earlier on. AA was at 3.

Install ATI Tools and search on the web on Triple buffering. Then disable Vsync in the game but enable it in the ATI Tools.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Eric knows he has the card

You should get well over double those FPS anyway, hope Eric's tips sort it.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Nice one!

I'll have a look tonight, (if I'm not too drunk after tonight's office karaoke...), and report back tomorrow morning!

Thanks for your help

 

[Mike Hill]

surely being drunk is the only way to survive office karaoke?

 

[Eric. K]

If you cant figure it out, I'll post all the details later . You are running on XP. RIght? if that's the case then it will be easy to fix. It was a "biotch" on Windows 7.

However, I did a little experiment last night. I put a different drive in the system and installed XP 64 just for kicks. It is a pain since you need to hunt all the drivers 1 by 1 once I got everything working I ran Evo and my frame rate was only at ~145.... I switched back to the Windows 7 drive and got my 240fps back... Weird... I am assuming that Windows XP device drivers must be crap. I should have done that for XP32.

 

[Will Marquez]

Hey guys,

Was wondering if I could get some help. Just got my ATi 4890 delievered today. Before installing the new vid card I uninstalled the old drivers. Then install the new vid card and put it in place. Started up PC and start to install new drivers from the CD when halfway thru the process the PC completely shutdown. No power whatsoever. Then reboot and PC is on but nothing is on the monitor.

Do you guys have any ideas? Could it be the power supply (its 500w)?

I'm on another laptop atm and any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

editted: old vid card was a 9800GT

 

[Will Marquez]

I also found this...

[ame]http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17995044[/ame]

As someone seemed to have some what of the same problem I am having.