Finding my bottleneck!

[shockeroo]

I'm looking at upgrading my homebuild for a better framerate in EVE Online (which currently runs at about 25-40 most of the time, dropping to as low as 10-20 when it has to handle a lot of ships at once.) I was hoping someone could help me identify upgrading which part of my system would be of the greatest benefit, and possibly clue me in to some reasonably cost-effective options.

My current setup:

2.6Ghz Intel CPU (Unsure of exact type, but I don't buy Celerons)
on Gigabyte P4 Titan mb (again unsure of exact model)
Radeon 9550, 256MB (AGP)
1GB PC3200 DDR RAM

Nothing is presently overclocked, I have limited experience in that area but I'm willing to give anything a go. Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[ragemonkey]

The system by itself sounds capable. I'd venture to say your framerate may be improved by upgrading from the 9550.

You have 3 choices really. You can do nothing, you can try OCing the 9550 to get a bit more oomph out of it, or you can buy a bit better card. It all depends on your budget.

By no means is the 9550 is not a bad vid card, but it is limited and considered "entry-level". For the most part it is a slightly detuned/crippled 9600... but comes in 2 flavors, the 9550 (4pipe x 128bit memory) and the 9550SE (4pipe x 64bit memory). It is about what the 9600(non-pro)/9600SE used to be. There are still some real good AGP cards out there available for less than $100. I recently went from a 9600XT to a 9800pro (8pipe x 256bit memory interface) for $80 off newegg before they sold out and noticed a *big* difference. Slight overkill for a PC i threw together for the kid to junk up with her kiddie games but works well. Also, for a bit over $100 you could step up to something like an x800GTO which would be leaps and bounds greater than what you have now.

 

[fredgiblet]

Well my EVE performance is sightly superior to yours on my laptop (I only lag when in a "cloud") and my specs are 1.6Ghz Core proc (roughly similar to yours) 1GB RAM (roughly similar to yours) and an X1300 (I believe a bit superior to yours) so I'd guess it's you GPU.

I don't think you will get enough extra power from OC'ing to make the difference that you are probably looking for without spending money on cooling (and if you are spending money you might as well get a new card). Personally I wouldn't spend money on AGP and would look towards a new system in your situation, but if that's out of the question picking up a X6xx or better Radeon or a 6600 or better GeForce should give you the performance you want fairly cheaply.