Need some advice - Age of Conan System Performance

[binarybacon]

Kicking it to this thread as I'm getting no responses in gaming.

Ok So here's what I'm running:

AMD Athlonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon 64 LE-1600 2.2GHz
A gig of DDR 800
7200 RPM Drive
Radeon HD 2600 XT

Now my questions is this, I run linux as my main OS so that would be the reason why I cheaped out on the processor. The fact also that I think single core is enough and that the entire investment in dual/quad is just ridiculous for the price pointPrice point . But for this game in particular I am seeing about 24 FPS, and yeah it loads kinda slow. Everything is on low with no anti-aliasing or shadows. I don't mind this one bit I actually prefer it. My favorite game of all time is EQ and the graphics in it, I actually prefer more of the ps2 choppy style. Yeah I'm odd. Now I borrowed another gig of memory and like I thought it affected the performance but not how one would want it too. I understand it's an MMOhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game and your going to have server lag but I think if I ran closer to spec that it wouldn't be as bad as it is. Now my real question, do you think if I got a faster processor that it would do me more good than investing in a better video card. Usually I can trump a slow proc with a nice card but for the first time I'm starting to think that this is not the case. Anyone who is reading this that wants the best proc for the price I highly suggest a amd 64, they were great back in the day and they're still fast enough for anything you throw at them and heck mine was 35$ lol. But give me some suggestions. I'm running XP.

 

[aevm]

I think both your CPU and your GPU need upgrades if you want to play recent games. Probably the PSU too.

 

[dirtmountain]

My first thought would be to up the CPU to whatever your motherboard supported first. At $35 for your current CPU it would be no big loss. After that recheck it with the borrowed RAM.

 

[binarybacon]

Well as far as "want to play", I want them to run. I don't mind playing on low. I'm only going to upgrade one thing if need be and I just was wondering which you guys would think would hit the hardest. Increasing the processing power and unleashing the power of the card, or increasing the card and still having it throttled down by the processor. I could replace both, but I'm cheap. My gut feeling is the processor.

 

[binarybacon]

So then should I go for a 3 ghz+ AM2 or just drop the money on an AM2+ board and a phenom?

 

[aevm]

I'd start with a CPU upgrade, X2 6000+ $114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773

The new MB+Phenom solution won't be much faster and it will cost 2 or 3 times more, so I don't like it much. If AoC knew how to use cores 3 and 4 on a quad Phenom it might be worth it, but AFAIk it doesn't know (yet).

 

[Zoron]

More RAM wouldn't hurt either... if you're going to stick with 32-bit, then I'd suggest going to 2GB... if you plan on going 64-bit, then at least 4GB would be recommended. AoC can take up to 1GB running on my system... so the extra RAM would be very helpful.

Btw... I average around 30 - 35 fps on high settings with shadows off at 1680 x 1050. I get as high as 60 and as low as 24.

 

[epsilon84]

Check this out: http://au.gamespot.com/features/6192732/p-6.html

Age of Conan seems quite CPU bound, and it runs particularly poorly on a single core CPU, which explains the poor performance in your situation.

An upgrade to a DC CPU should be a no brainer, if you're open to overclocking then an X2 5000+ BE would be a good bet. In terms of RAM, 2GB seems to be the sweet spot.