Choppy graphics and bad lag on battlefield 2

[latin1]

hi,i just got a dell gx280 p4 2.8 ht with 512 ram and nvidia 512mb pci express card. i had the same card on my last system and the graphics were better than this. is the lag and choppy graphics because i only have 512 ram? i hope thats the problem or im gonna sell this dell and just save for a better gaming pc. any hints on how to get it to play good on bf2?

 

[Captainhero]

If you are playing BF2 I managed for years with a AMD3500+ 1GB Ram and a ATI 9800 All in wonder 128mb (upgraded in the end to a 7900GS 256mb gfx card) on WinXP. This produced acceptable results but couldnt play on super high. (This was on a 19" monitor, not sure of native res)
So judging by your rig your cpu should be enough, your ram is a bit low, go for minimum of 1gb but with prices these days go for 2gb, £30 approx. You didnt say what gfx card you have but 512mb on the card is more than enough. As long as your gfx card isnt too low spec you should be fine with just more ram. BF2 isnt resource hungry

 

[pr2thej]

you just bought this? second hand?

 

[SpinachEater]

Yeah BF2 is not very GPU heavy. I was maxing it out on my 6800GT. I think it is your RAM. I would throw it away and get a 2GB module at least. Key point....defenestrate the 512MB stick, don't try to use it with new RAM.


There, you can't go wrong. Are you in the US/Canada?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134636

 

[pr2thej]

I had to google defenestrate

 

[latin1]

you just bought this? second hand?

yea i got it for 120

 

[latin1]

Yeah BF2 is not very GPU heavy. I was maxing it out on my 6800GT. I think it is your RAM. I would throw it away and get a 2GB module at least. Key point....defenestrate the 512MB stick, don't try to use it with new RAM.


There, you can't go wrong. Are you in the US/Canada?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134636

ok i hope its the ram. im in san francisco btw

 

[latin1]

thanks for all the replies. i have a geforce 7300gs. so my dell comes with 250watt power supply. im going to upgrade to 2gb ram and toss out the 512 as spinach said. now...do i have to get a higher watt power supply for this type of card?

 

[pr2thej]

15a 12volt rail / 300w is the recommended minimum for that card. If you have the one im thinking of then the Dell Part # is U4714 and it provides 16a.
Honestly you are really pushing it (that 16A needs to provide CPU power as well). I would not spend a dime more on this though, so against my better judgement id say run with it for a few days. If you get any sorta crash under load then i was wrong and you do need to invest in a PSU. Or you could underclock your CPU / GPU until it is stable.

 

[pr2thej]

Oh what am i talking about, the initial lag could be down to an underpowered GPU anyway

 

[Captainhero]

the 7300 is a bit weak but you could easily overclock it to get a bit more out of it, trouble is you have run into the upgrade nightmare now lol. So you put in more ram, easy, then you a new gfx card (is your mobo pci x) if not find an agp card.... So you get the new card and dammit your psu doesnt deliver enough grunt so you need a new one, bah it doesnt fit, i need a new case, and on and on lol.
For cheapness just stick in new memory and overclock your graphics card a bit. Otherwise your nightmare has only just begun..

 

[pr2thej]

Yah prob is El Capitano, that i think he is pushing his PSU too far even with the crappy GPU so an overclock would only compound the issue. Have a look see what the power req are for that card and see if you come up with the same as me.

 

[SpinachEater]

Actually, now that I take a trip down memory lane...I did the same thing. I was a poor college student and had to buy the $399 dell especial el crapo PC.

For a while I rocked out the 512MB of RAM and if I remember right...I got BF2 and it didn't run so smooth with my 6800GT. I replaced the 512 with 2x1GB and the game ran smooth like butta.

I am betting 2GB will do wonders for you. 512 is a bit outdated.

 

[latin1]

k cool. i will def up to 2gb ram and also up to a 300 watt minimum ps. now how do i overclock my gfx card?

 

[pr2thej]

Well majority rules...go with the RAM and if the issue persists then we can choose a suitable PSU for you. If its still a bit sucky then do an OC.

Really would not spend too much so stick with RAM and see what happens

 

[SpinachEater]

I concur.

 

[latin1]

cool..ill try the ram first and see what happens. but someone mentioned the gfx card i got requires more power. can i damage the ps or the mb if i continue to play bf2 with the 250 watt that came with this dell?

 

[pr2thej]

http://www.keenzo.com/showproduct.asp?ID=716249 specifies 300w
http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t16859.html refernce to box, specifies 300w
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071006073742AAJw8cP because answer 2 made me LOL
http://archive.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354 testing done to show card draw max 29w

So....going by the box and recommended specs you are underpowered (which is why i said so earlier). Going by the last posts tests you are fine as long as you dont try to max the card out with a crazy game like GTA IV or Crysis.

You can monitor GPU load with Rivatuner, pretty sure the 7300 is supported by it.

 

[Captainhero]

yeah the psu is a bit low, you may start glitching a lot when the pc is stressed. Chuck the 300w in and cross your fingers, 2gb will def help loads though especially with level load times. I play it on my new rig now and its so fast to load cos its an old game
you can overclock your 7300 by using RivaTuner - www.guru3d.com/rivatuner.
With that card you should manage 1024x768 with some eye candy turned on.

 

[SpinachEater]

BF2 naturally has really slow load times though. When they put BF2142 out they fixed it and made the loads a lot quicker. I highly recommend trying out 2142 if you like BF2 latin1.