Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

How to make Red Alert 2 run the best with what I have.

Tags:
  • Windows
  • Motherboards
Last response: in Windows 95/98/ME
Share
February 6, 2014 2:18:16 PM

What I have:
-Windows 98SE
-Red Alert 2 and Yuri expansion disks
-socket 370 motherboard in810
-various graphics cards and audio cards that I want to upgrade if it's worth it (I know next to nothing on this topic)
-512 mb of ram (this is the only thing I know I have maxed out)

What I want:
-To play these games as smoothly as possible with the best audio and graphics available to that motherboard or a cheap good upgraded motherboard.

Bare with me, I'm a n00b. I joined this website for this topic alone, and I barely understand some of the computer language around here.

All I want is to play this game on my parents old computer that I acquired when they upgraded. The game runs fine most of the time, but during large battles with lots of units, the game is literally crawling.

I did some research last year and took the thing apart. I found out I was only using 64 mb of ram, so I quickly found two 256 cards (chips, disks, whatever the hell they're called) on Ebay and installed them myself. 512 is the max windows 98 can use, I hear. I felt like a genius doing all that by myself. Finished, turned it on, checked if the new ram was being recognized, it was, and started playing. There was NO noticeable differences. The whole time I thought ram was speed. Oops.

So that's my story. I will give more information if needed. And like I said, i'm a n00b.

More about : make red alert run

Best solution

a c 160 V Motherboard
February 6, 2014 2:35:20 PM

Yours is a PERFORMANCE issue, so let's look at the main hardware points:

1) CPU
2) System RAM
3) GPU
4) Video RAM (what the GPU uses)
5) Video drivers

Your CPU and GPU do the processing and must be POWERFUL (fast) enough so you don't get low frame rates and major stutter. The MEMORY (System for CPU, VRAM for GPU) must be both fast enough and have ENOUGH of it to have no issues.

BOTTLENECKS:
One of these points is usually the main bottleneck. In your case, it's likely the CPU though it could be the System RAM amount as well since 512MB isn't very much.

The CPU, among other functions in the game, crunches all the numbers for each unit. That is why your system is running so slow in battles. You upgraded the GRAPHICS but that's mainly about the VISUALS. Since that made little difference that confirms it's a CPU issue.

*What to do?
You only have two options:

1) Upgrade the CPU (likely not possible)
2) LOWER some of the settings (may not help much as most are Graphics related)

**Do THIS:
Put every setting, including RESOLUTION to the lowest. Try the game. If it is BETTER then play around with the settings while monitoring with FRAPS to see the frame rate especially during large battles.

If the LOWEST settings don't help much there's little you can do.

Share
a c 160 V Motherboard
February 6, 2014 2:41:42 PM

http://www.cnclabs.com/redalert2/system-requirements.as...

1) You have plenty of System RAM
2) Your GRAPHICS is probably sufficient
3) Your CPU is likely the problem.

*Please answer:
What CPU do you have?
http://www.oldapps.com/cpuz.php?system=Windows_98&ModPa...

What Graphics card (or onboard) are you using?

How much VIDEO MEMORY are you using?
(if graphics card can tell by model. If ONBOARD, you can change this in the BIOS).

What MOTHERBOARD do you have?

Other:
You should be able to monitor CPU usage with the Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) but I haven't used W98se in a while. If that works, start the TM before the game and look at the CPU graph of usage. Then CLOSE the game during a large battle and see if the CPU usage was maxed out.

m
0
l
Related resources
February 6, 2014 3:05:14 PM

Ok, thanks for the quick responses. I'll check what my CPU is as soon as I get my hands on it.

Another thing I forgot to mention. I'm pretty sure my drivers are outdated. I know I could just download the most recent files, but I can't get online with the 98 due to the fact that most websites use things my old guy doesn't understand.
Do I use another computer to download the files?
Is there actually a way to use my 98 to download them that I overlooked?
Should I use CDR or floppy to download them onto?
m
0
l
February 6, 2014 3:15:20 PM

Also, could you explain what you mean when you said it's "likely not possible" to upgrade my CPU. I'm guessing it's not like ram where I could just get more and plug it in.
m
0
l
February 6, 2014 3:24:53 PM

Manual says "This motherboard support a PGA 370 Intel Celeron PGA family processor."
m
0
l
!