Ubuntu very slow on Minecraft

[vincej]

Hi - I have a 6 year old Dell dimension 9150: dual Pentium D's, 4GB RAM, 500 GB disc, Radeon x600 video card.

It runs very nicely with Ubuntu 11.4 for browsing, wordprocessing etc. Then moment I want it to run Minecraft I get terrible FPS performance, 2- 3 fps. I done all the usual recommended checks ie use Sun Java 6, up the process priority. No difference. The network is fine - 15mbs download.


Minecraft is very very heavy on video, nad looking at the specs on the x600 it looks like a dog compared to what ATI offer for $100.

Question: Should I get a new video card ??

And, if so how much poweer ??

Also, the Dell specs simply state that it is PCI. However, video cards are speced as PCI 1, 2 3 .... what do I need ..if I need a card at all that is, or is it just a waste of money and my old Dell Pentium D's will never hack it ??

MANY THANKS TO ALL !

 

[bmouring]

The CPU is close as well to being at the bare-minimum in terms of running this game, and as such, you might get some performance boost with a newer card, but I'm not sure I'd invest any money into this machine since it is fairly old (at least I wouldn't invest money to try to make it play games) and it's questionable whether you'll really see a noticeable improvement from just a card

 

[amdfangirl]

That would depend if the card is compatible or not .

You'd best be better off with a new computer, mate.

 

[vincej]

success - I bought a Gigabyte video card for 50$ and is screams along !

 

[bmouring]

Glad to hear that the video really was the limiting factor and that updating the card fixed it. I really wasn't sure that it would be, hence my suggestion that you not necessarily sink money into the machine.

Out of curiosity, during play, what kind of use are you seeing, processor-wise (you can find this out after quitting by running uptime which will tell you historical system load average for the past 1, 5, and 15 minute marks)

 

[vincej]

Best answer selected by vincej.