Computer Upgrade for Morrowind Performance

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

Horton Mammal

2004-05-14 04:40:36 UTC

Hi all,

I need some PC advice. I have a Duron 800 with 256 MB of Ram and an MSI
FX5200 - 128 vid card.

Just got Morrowind and it is slow. I'm getting 10 - 15 FPS outside in the
starting town at 1024 x 768 with the view distance at about 1/2. I just got
the new vid card, before that the game was only barely playable, about 5 FPS
at 640 x 480 (TNT-2 M64).

I can eiher buy a Duron 1.4 (fastest chip my old mobo will take) or another
256 MB Ram with this months toy budget. Which will give me a better
performance boost, more CPU or more RAM.

Any other performance hints?

thanks

HM

twbms

2004-05-14 05:37:47 UTC

Permalink

Post by Horton Mammal
Hi all,
I need some PC advice. I have a Duron 800 with 256 MB of Ram and an MSI
FX5200 - 128 vid card.
Just got Morrowind and it is slow. I'm getting 10 - 15 FPS outside in the
starting town at 1024 x 768 with the view distance at about 1/2. I just got
the new vid card, before that the game was only barely playable, about 5 FPS
at 640 x 480 (TNT-2 M64).
I can eiher buy a Duron 1.4 (fastest chip my old mobo will take) or another
256 MB Ram with this months toy budget. Which will give me a better
performance boost, more CPU or more RAM.
Any other performance hints?
thanks
HM

wich OS are you using?

Horton Mammal

2004-05-14 06:24:22 UTC

Permalink

Post by twbms

wich OS are you using?

Win XP Pro

twbms

2004-05-14 09:05:51 UTC

Permalink

Horton Mammal wrote:
<snip>

Post by Horton Mammal

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
I can eiher buy a Duron 1.4 (fastest chip my old mobo will take) or

another

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
256 MB Ram with this months toy budget. Which will give me a better
performance boost, more CPU or more RAM.
Any other performance hints?
thanks
HM

wich OS are you using?

Win XP Pro

hmm, seeing you can only buy 1 of either 2.. i suggest a new CPU.
I heard from a friend that the 1400 of AMD produces a lot of heat, so
you might wanne reconcider getting a slightly slower cpu then that.

Best solution would be to get more mem and a beter CPU.
But then it would be wiser to invest in to a newer system.
Mostly since there are a lot of bottle necks in your system.
I gues you got a 2x or 4x speed AGP bus, FX 5200 can use 8x if i am
correct. this is just one example.

now don't think you need to get a "whole" new system.
Depending on what you have you be fine with just a new mem+cpu+mainboard
and perhaps a new power supply unit.
Just going from your 800mhz system to a athlon XP 1800+ or 2000+ based
system will give you a lot of performance increase.

damn now i start to sound like a sales man.. :S

Just think about it for now.

bryan k

2004-05-14 17:06:56 UTC

Permalink

Post by Horton Mammal

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
Hi all,
I need some PC advice. I have a Duron 800 with 256 MB of Ram and an MSI
FX5200 - 128 vid card.
Just got Morrowind and it is slow. I'm getting 10 - 15 FPS outside in

the

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
starting town at 1024 x 768 with the view distance at about 1/2. I

just

Post by Horton Mammal
got

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
the new vid card, before that the game was only barely playable, about

Post by Horton Mammal
FPS

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
at 640 x 480 (TNT-2 M64).
I can eiher buy a Duron 1.4 (fastest chip my old mobo will take) or

another

Post by twbms

Post by Horton Mammal
256 MB Ram with this months toy budget. Which will give me a better
performance boost, more CPU or more RAM.
Any other performance hints?
thanks
HM

wich OS are you using?

Win XP Pro

Sounds to me like you may be running too much OS for what you have for a
system. My old CPU is an AMD K62, 466 mhz and 512 MB of RAM. Windows XP
professional will not run on it.

I'm a firm believer in upgrading RAM as high as it will go the moment I buy
a system. You may want to give that a try if you are looking for a temp
fix, but I just don't think that will do it all.

Seriously speaking, it looks like the time is nearing to buy a new system.
These days, with all of the package deals available for dirt cheap, it is
more cost effective to buy an entire system than to upgrade the one you
have. You can get something that is more than twice the machine you have
now for well under a grand. In fact, I'm guessing you could get by spending
about $500 given the assumption that you already have a printer and a
monitor.

stepdawn

2004-05-15 15:18:25 UTC

Permalink

Post by bryan k
Sounds to me like you may be running too much OS for what you have for a
system. My old CPU is an AMD K62, 466 mhz and 512 MB of RAM. Windows XP
professional will not run on it.
I'm a firm believer in upgrading RAM as high as it will go the moment I buy
a system. You may want to give that a try if you are looking for a temp
fix, but I just don't think that will do it all.
Seriously speaking, it looks like the time is nearing to buy a new system.
These days, with all of the package deals available for dirt cheap, it is
more cost effective to buy an entire system than to upgrade the one you
have. You can get something that is more than twice the machine you have
now for well under a grand. In fact, I'm guessing you could get by spending
about $500 given the assumption that you already have a printer and a
monitor.

Bryan's right. Windows XP is probably too much for your system. My husband
is running something around that and he can't use XP. Check out Dell's
website (unless you hate Dell--but I've had good luck with their systems in
terms of reliability). They always have great deals on both new and
refurbished systems. I'm looking for my husband right now so he can play
Far Cry. They had a 2.66 GHz Pentium 4 with both DVD and CD R/RW, 256 MB
RAM for around $500. That's just an example. Pretty cheap. That system,
with a video card upgrade and more RAM, will allow you to play Morrowind at
a smoking frame rate. My system allows that, and it's not nearly as good.

Dawn

John Henry

2004-05-15 00:28:36 UTC

Permalink

Hi, Horton Mammal! This is a friendly line to let people know who I'm
talking to!

Post by Horton Mammal
Hi all,
I need some PC advice. I have a Duron 800 with 256 MB of Ram and an
MSI FX5200 - 128 vid card.
Just got Morrowind and it is slow. I'm getting 10 - 15 FPS outside in
the starting town at 1024 x 768 with the view distance at about 1/2. I
just got the new vid card, before that the game was only barely
playable, about 5 FPS at 640 x 480 (TNT-2 M64).
I can eiher buy a Duron 1.4 (fastest chip my old mobo will take) or
another 256 MB Ram with this months toy budget. Which will give me a
better performance boost, more CPU or more RAM.
Any other performance hints?

I'd save your toy budget, bear with the slowness a little longer, and put
enough money together to build a new system. I don't know what chipset
that msi video card is based on, but it should be enough, however your
processor and memory both need upgrading, and a duron 1.4 really isn't
going to cut it. Plus with CPU prices as cheap as they are right now,
there's no reason to go with a cut-rate processor like a duron or a
celeron. Take your toy budget, throw it in the bank, and save up for a
couple of months, and replace the board, the cpu, and the memory all at
once.

--
John Henry
www.lowgenius.com
I'm a damn stud, and a haircut isn't going to change that.
Remove the SPAMBLOCK and organize an orgy to reply by e-mail

Sub Sailor

2004-05-18 18:24:13 UTC

Permalink

Horton,
Make sure anti-aliasing is turned off.
Download and use the "Morrowind FPS Optimizer" found on
http://morrowind.nm.ru/Morrowind%20FPS%20Optimizer/

I'm getting 15 - 25 FPS outdoors with a Quadro FX 2000 video card
(1600x1200) with it, around 10 FPS without.