Suggestions for better performance

[vw56german]

Ok, so I got board and bought Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I did a full install approx 4.7Gb and I seem to meet the Preferred system requirements. I have a P4 2.3Ghz, a Radeon 9250 128Mb video card, 1.5Gb ram, I dont have a sound card, but the onboard sound seems to work fine. Even with meeting the preferred requirements though, I still get studders and freezes durning game play. Any suggestions on an enhancement that would help to give better playing?

David

[Chewy]

are you running lean and mean?

the sound card drivers(dx9) seem critical

have you turned down the settings for the video?

[vw56german]

fairly lean I did use some of the optimizing tips from here, cutting out a few unecessary apps. That dropped my idle memory usage from 400Mb to 300Mb. I did try both the highest video quality and dropped it one step, both acted the same. I ran out of time last night so I have not tried the medium or low quality settings. (I am trying to avoid dropping that far if possible) If I remember correctly I should have DirectX 9c installed already, and the onboard sound has outputs for front, center, and rear/sub outputs. Adding a sound card would seem to only give me better input options so I have skipped that for now.

[Chewy]

your problem is mostly the 35$ video card,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639&Subcategory=48&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

even my best card is getting out of date

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102600R

[vw56german]

ok, I was afraid of that, but system upgrades are fun. I will have to go shopping for a new PCI video card and make the leap to 256Mb. Any suggestions on specific features I should look for?

[Chewy]

oh oh,
you are using pci?

[vw56german]

Yes, I have no AGP slot I am stuck with PCI. Am I doomed to poor graphics, or will a better card help?

[Chewy]

your card is about it for performance on pci bus

[vw56german]

Thanks Chewy, better to find this sad news out now rather than toss more money away. I will play with the quality settings and try running leaner to see if it helps. I need to start a fund for a machine with a bit more horsepower I guess.

[Chewy]

I need to start a fund for a machine with a bit more horsepower I guess.

smart move

[Dan]

Yeah that game is quite graphics intense, with a PCI card it's going to be tough. Aside from lowering the detail levels, I know if you drop the draw distance way down it will help but you will see buildings pop up on the screen instead of being far away and slowly getting closer, it's not very pretty.

[vw56german]

I did find some driver updates and will play with those and the other settings, hopefully I can get it to perform reasonably.

[Chewy]

http://www.chiefvalue.com/product/productdetails.aspx?submit=&item=14-150-157&ATT

I keep seeing cards like these and my mouse finger twitches uncontrollably, and I don't game.

shrink previews would speed up?

anony and uncasms would approve?

[Dan]

hmmmmmm...my finger twitched on that one too,lol. Actually I might be looking for a new video card. My fan stopped working a few days ago. Got it working again with a good cleaning but it's gonna die one of these days.

[anonymez]

sorry vw, you'll need a 9600 at least to make it playable, as always take the system requirements of PC games with a grain of salt (high sys req means lower sales. they're effectively excluding all dell PC's! ). your best bet is using omegadrivers http://www.omegadrivers.net and lowering draw distance, but it's still a long shot.

shrink previews would speed up?

nope

anony and uncasms would approve?

yup. infact i'll be getting a 7900GT this week or the next