Game playing on PC

scroogesaver

Hi, sorry if I make mistakes but this is my first post.

I have a new PC and love playing games but some seem to be very slow to load and during gameplay so I was wondering if clocking would help. Also I am planning on adding a second monitor to my Desktop so I could do other things along side the gaming and wondered if you could give me any advice on if this is a good idea. I do have another hard drive I could add to this pc that I can take from the old desktop (we had house fire so insurance replaced everything. desktop was smoke damaged and plastic casing melted a little) after it dried out I tested it and it still works so can use parts to boost this desktop if any will help.

I now have a:

Packard Bell
AMD Athlon(tm)IIx4 620 Processor (4CPUs),~2.6GHz
Memory 3072MB RAM
NVIDA GeForce 9200
1394MB Total memory
Display mode 1280 x 1024(32bit)(60GHz)

asc99c

Overclocking might not be possible on a Packard Bell, although you may be lucky. Regardless I think it will not help much, since your CPU is reasonably fast anyway. For games you'll almost certainly want a new graphics card. I think the 9200 is an onboard graphics solution i.e. not a separate card. It's substantially faster than Intel's onboard stuff, but substantially slower than dedicated hardware.

e.g. see the comparisons here:
http://service.futuremark.com/hardware/graphics_cards/nvidia_geforce_9200_

Before you go and buy a new graphics card though, you'll have to take off the side panel and check if you've got a suitable slot to install a graphics card. A PCI-e slot should look like the long slots in this image:
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/early_look_gigabyte_ga-p45-ds5/gigabyte4-8.jpg

I always like the idea of two monitors, and if you buy a proper graphics card, you'll be able to run both. However, with most games, you still won't be able to run other stuff alongside the game. You'll just have one blank monitor during gameplay.

DatabaseError

ASC hit the nail on the head, you need a dedicated GPU for gaming, and you need to ensure you get one suitable for the games you want to play.

Modern GPUs can drag a lot of power - is your PSU powerful enough? Many box-shifters fit the components required for the hardware they're fitting, with no consideration for future upgrades.
GPUs often require dedicated power connectors, if your PSU is powerful enough, does it have the available 6 pin connector(s) or enough capacity on the rail for adapters?

Many shop-bought PCs use narrow cases,half-height GPUs are rarer than full, they also kick out a lot of heat, which needs removing, your case would need adequate cooling, possibly the addition of extra fans.

If you do go down the overclocking route (might be hard with a shop-box) remember, again, heat needs extracting from your case...and making components work harder requires more power creating more heat.

I've also fancied the idea of a 2nd monitor...seriously thinking of nicking my wife's and putting a 22" hd-tv there instead

One thing that is confusing me..
"NVIDA GeForce 9200
1394MB Total memory"
That seems an awful lot ( I have 512mb cards in all 4 of my machines, 1Gb is fairly commonplace nowadays, though rarely required)

gonzo127

DatabaseError wrote: »

One thing that is confusing me..
"NVIDA GeForce 9200
1394MB Total memory"
That seems an awful lot ( I have 512mb cards in all 4 of my machines, 1Gb is fairly commonplace nowadays, though rarely required)

DataBaseError the above is because it is a onboard graphics solution and that is the total amount of shared RAM it can use if needed, although very rearely will it do so, its basicially a bit of a marketing ploy to make the graphics chipset sound better than it actually is, like megapixels on a camera.

anyways all the above is true the GPU is where you need to be looking to increase gaming performance but you do have to be very careful with a off the shelf box as they are not made if upgrades in mind.

if you can come back with some of the details of your power supply and its connectors on and if you have a PCI-E slot on your motherboard (which i would expect you will have) we might be able to suggest something, even if it is only a low power dedicated GPU, any dedicated card will be better than the onboard 9200 chipset you have and will also free up your systems ram which will no longer have to be shared with the graphics - oh and also a upgrade budget would be good

jaydeeuk1

The PSU will probably be a low budget affair, so you may need to budget for one of them.

Last week aria were doing an ATI radeon4870 for £49 inc delivery, which would have been perfect, along with a psu upgrade.

I'll keep a look out for a decent budget card. An alternative would be a low power card like a 5670 that doesn't require a special PSU connecter. If you can pick up a 4670 from ebay for £20 or so, then thats worth a look too.

Percy1983

Lie, the above I was just going to say the 4670 isn't too power hungry and offers a good kick at not much money.

rodenal

Similarly the 4850 has a relatively low power draw - i have just paid £35 for one, replaced the stock cooler with an akasa vortexx (plus 'modified' the original heatsink a bit to help cool the vrms) and it flies through the likes of f1 2010, civ 5, crysis, fallut 3 etc at 1440 x 900

Alot of bang for the buck - the 4870 sounds a real bargain if the ops' psu can handle it

Percy1983

the 6850 offers an amazing deal, but of course will almost certainly need a new PSU.

The big question is what games are you playing/want to play? and waht size/resolution monitor do you plan to get?

scroogesaver

gonzo127 wrote: »

DataBaseError the above is because it is a onboard graphics solution and that is the total amount of shared RAM it can use if needed, although very rearely will it do so, its basicially a bit of a marketing ploy to make the graphics chipset sound better than it actually is, like megapixels on a camera.

anyways all the above is true the GPU is where you need to be looking to increase gaming performance but you do have to be very careful with a off the shelf box as they are not made if upgrades in mind.

if you can come back with some of the details of your power supply and its connectors on and if you have a PCI-E slot on your motherboard (which i would expect you will have) we might be able to suggest something, even if it is only a low power dedicated GPU, any dedicated card will be better than the onboard 9200 chipset you have and will also free up your systems ram which will no longer have to be shared with the graphics - oh and also a upgrade budget would be good

Hope below helps answer questions. I know little about pc's only what read although did build our laptop from 4 broken ones I bought at auction for £10.00. were all same make and was able to salvage enough to build one good one.
Field Value
Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 11/06/2009-NF-MCP78-8A61O002C-00
Motherboard Name Acer WMCP78M

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type AMD K10
Real Clock 200 MHz
Effective Clock 200 MHz
HyperTransport Clock [ TRIAL VERSION ]
North Bridge Clock [ TRIAL VERSION ]

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type Unganged Dual DDR2 SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
DRAM:FSB Ratio 12:6
Real Clock 400 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 800 MHz
Bandwidth [ TRIAL VERSION ] MB/s

Motherboard Manufacturer
Company Name Acer Inc.


Field Value
CPU Properties
CPU Type QuadCore AMD Athlon II X4 620, 2600 MHz (13 x 200)
CPU Alias Propus
CPU Stepping BL-C2
Instruction Set x86, x86-64, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A
Original Clock [ TRIAL VERSION ]
Min / Max CPU Multiplier 5x / 13x
Engineering Sample No
L1 Code Cache 64 KB per core
L1 Data Cache [ TRIAL VERSION ]
L2 Cache 512 KB per core (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)

Multi CPU
Motherboard ID OEM00000 PROD00000000
CPU #1 AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor, 2600 MHz
CPU #2 AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor, 2600 MHz
CPU #3 AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor, 2600 MHz
CPU #4 AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor, 2600 MHz

CPU Physical Info
Package Type 938 Pin uOPGA
Package Size 4.00 cm x 4.00 cm
Transistors [ TRIAL VERSION ] million
Process Technology 45 nm, CMOS, Cu, Low-K, DSL SOI, Immersion Lithography
Die Size [ TRIAL VERSION ] mm2
I/O Voltage 1.2 V + 2.5 V

CPU Manufacturer
Company Name Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.


CPU Utilization
CPU #1 / Core #1 3 %
CPU #1 / Core #2 10 %
CPU #1 / Core #3 1 %
CPU #1 / Core #4 1 %

Field Value
CPUID Properties
CPUID Manufacturer AuthenticAMD
CPUID CPU Name AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor
CPUID Revision 00100F52h
Extended CPUID Revision 00100F52h
AMD Brand ID 5146h (Athlon II X4 620)
Platform ID D7h (Socket AM3)
HTT / CMP Units 0 / 4

Instruction Set
64-bit x86 Extension (AMD64, Intel64) Supported
AMD 3DNow! Supported
AMD 3DNow! Professional Supported
AMD 3DNowPrefetch Supported
AMD Enhanced 3DNow! Supported
AMD Extended MMX Supported
AMD MisAligned SSE Supported
AMD SSE4A Supported
AMD SSE5 Not Supported
Cyrix Extended MMX Not Supported
IA-64 Not Supported
IA MMX Supported
IA SSE Supported
IA SSE 2 Supported
IA SSE 3 Supported
IA Supplemental SSE 3 Not Supported
IA SSE 4.1 Not Supported
IA SSE 4.2 Not Supported
IA AVX Not Supported
IA FMA Not Supported
IA AES Extensions Not Supported
VIA Alternate Instruction Set Not Supported
CLFLUSH Instruction Supported
CMPXCHG8B Instruction Supported
CMPXCHG16B Instruction Supported
Conditional Move Instruction Supported
LZCNT Instruction Supported
MONITOR / MWAIT Instruction Supported
MOVBE Instruction Not Supported
PCLMULQDQ Instruction Not Supported
POPCNT Instruction Supported
RDTSCP Instruction Supported
SYSCALL / SYSRET Instruction Supported
SYSENTER / SYSEXIT Instruction Supported
VIA FEMMS Instruction Not Supported

Security Features
Advanced Cryptography Engine (ACE) Not Supported
Advanced Cryptography Engine 2 (ACE2) Not Supported
Data Execution Prevention (DEP, NX, EDB) Supported
Hardware Random Number Generator (RNG) Not Supported
PadLock Hash Engine (PHE) Not Supported
PadLock Montgomery Multiplier (PMM) Not Supported
Processor Serial Number (PSN) Not Supported

Power Management Features
Automatic Clock Control Not Supported
Digital Thermometer Supported
Dynamic FSB Frequency Switching Not Supported
Enhanced Halt State (C1E) Supported, Disabled
Enhanced SpeedStep Technology (EIST, ESS) Not Supported
Frequency ID Control Not Supported
Hardware P-State Control Supported
LongRun Not Supported
LongRun Table Interface Not Supported
PowerSaver 1.0 Not Supported
PowerSaver 2.0 Not Supported
PowerSaver 3.0 Not Supported
Processor Duty Cycle Control Not Supported
Software Thermal Control Supported
Temperature Sensing Diode Supported
Thermal Monitor 1 Not Supported
Thermal Monitor 2 Not Supported
Thermal Monitoring Supported
Thermal Trip Supported
Voltage ID Control Not Supported

CPUID Features
1 GB Page Size Supported
36-bit Page Size Extension Supported
Address Region Registers (ARR) Not Supported
Core Power Boost Not Supported
CPL Qualified Debug Store Not Supported
Debug Trace Store Not Supported
Debugging Extension Supported
Direct Cache Access Not Supported
Dynamic Acceleration Technology (IDA) Not Supported
Fast Save & Restore Supported
Hyper-Threading Technology (HTT) Not Supported
Invariant Time Stamp Counter Supported
L1 Context ID Not Supported
Local APIC On Chip Supported
Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Supported
Machine Check Exception (MCE) Supported
Memory Configuration Registers (MCR) Not Supported
Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR) Supported
Model Specific Registers (MSR) Supported
Nested Paging Supported
Page Attribute Table (PAT) Supported
Page Global Extension Supported
Page Size Extension (PSE) Supported
Pending Break Event Not Supported
Physical Address Extension (PAE) Supported
Safer Mode Extensions (SMX) Not Supported
Secure Virtual Machine Extensions (Pacifica) Supported
Self-Snoop Not Supported
Time Stamp Counter (TSC) Supported
Turbo Boost Not Supported
Virtual Machine Extensions (Vanderpool) Not Supported
Virtual Mode Extension Supported
x2APIC Not Supported
XSAVE / XRSTOR Extended States Not Supported

gonzo127

well although it hasnt been the easiest to pin down it does appear you motherboard has a PCI-E slot, although when searching there is quite a lot of comments about this motherboard being fitted to small form factor cases with a very low power supply,

so could you please confirm what sort of size case you have and what power supply you have - if you open up your case there should be a sticker on the side of the PSU telling you what the details are, and whilst you have the side of you can just double check the PCI-E slot and how much room you have around it because as well as cooling some cards are very big some can go over 10 inch (25cm) in length