Jerky Play Occasionally

[Guest]

I have a Dell P3 500, 256sdram, 16 meg TNT, SB Live, and occasionally after about a 1/2 hour - hour of playing a game it will become very sluggish/jerky. This can happen when I'm playing online or off. Is the problem my video card? I know its time for a new video card what should I buy? Also anyone know how to overclock my Dell? Or will the mainboard not allow anything over 550?
Thanks,
Gary

 

[Take_Out]

See if your card heats up by leaving the case off and feeling the chip with your finger carefully, it should be very warm but not burning hot.
What is your RAM size? 32 is not enough, 64 is minimum, 128 is standard now for gaming. Does your hard drive or CD have to come on during gameplay on one level ( in other words, between loading levels ).
If you have the big money, the GeForce 2 Ultra 64 meg DDR is the one to get, if not, then the GeForce 2 or GeForce are the ones to get.
Hope this helps, Take-Out Good Luck
What games do you like to play? The game operating mode makes a difference in what you need, eg, Open GL, Glide, D3D. However, the GeForce is the one to get, unless you only play Gide games, then the Voodoo 5 is the one to get ($199 at Fry's till Tuesday).

 

[Guest]

Also, you won't be able to overclock unless you replace the motherboard. I have the same system (XPS-T500), the Dell board has no options for changing the FSB speed (for obvious reasons on Dell's part).

With somthing as old as the TNT, you really should look into a new card, even if it's only a TNT2-Ultra or a GeForce 2 MX. I replaced my stock TNT a year ago.

<A HREF="http://www.outlan.org" target="_new">outLAN</A> - Gaming the way it was meant to be

 

[Guest]

Another thing, the GF2 Ultra is not worth the money right now IMO, especially if you only have a 500. Get the Creative GF2 GTS card (www.cnetpc.com has it for $200/free shipping) and save the rest for a new CPU and mainboard later.

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