Hardware, esp Graphics Card

[Sturdy]

I am reasonably new to PC gaming, having given up on it some years ago as it constantly required so many upgrades. LFS has got me back into it again, and I was wondering what you would recommend to get the most out of it?


I'm running a Pentium4 2.4Ghz, 512Mb RAM, and a Geforce2 MX400 graphics card. Is that a decent graphics card or not? I realise that 2.4Ghz and 512Mb RAM is sufficient for LFS, but I really don't know a whole lot about graphics cards. I downloaded the latest drivers from nVIDIA too. 've seen many pictures of LFS running at high frame rates and looking fantastic, and although it by no means looks bad on my PC, I just want to know if I could make it look a whole lot better easily. Any advice for graphics settings etc in game aswell? Things like mip bias don't mean a whole lot to me.

Thanks for any help, apologies if this is a n00bish question.

 

[zoxxy]

Wow, that's a total clone of my issue! Except that I only have a P4 1.7GHz. I'm thinking of buying an something-something 9800, for less than 100€, but I'm not sure if I could improve, or rather decrease the amount of lag when drving online without buying a graphics card?

 

[Pebb]

When buying a new graphics card make sure you have a good amount of ram. And a better CPU then the one you have.

 

[G.T]

A Geforce2 wont get you very far.

I run the game (demo) on an ATI 9600 Pro on full settings and 1600x1200 res. It runs like a bullet.

To get the best out of the game you need an Nvidia FX**** or ATI 9*** card, at least I suppose. You should be able to pick them up real cheap now.

 

[Pebb]

If anyone buys FX which is the GF5 series, don't buy the 5200 the lowest GF5 you should go. Is the GF5600.

 

[vladimir]

if you are mainly interested about LFS, forget about getting the latest graphics card. LFS depends mostly on the CPU. especially if you are running it on an 1,7ghz machine, a newer card won't help you at all. i would advise you to get a new CPU then first, something around 3ghz is perfect for LFS. for the graphics card, a geforce 4 (non MX!) is all you need.

 

[Sturdy]

This is probably an official end to this thread, as my question is well and truly answered now.

I've been getting into the whole PC gaming thing recently, getting my first actual decent job definatey helps, as I now have the money for it! As complete overkill, I have an Athlon64 X2 4400+ on the way, so hopefully that'll be enough processor to handle LFS nicely! :-) I also got a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Atlnatis Pro from a friend for £20 as he had no use for it anymore, and with my new motherboard supporting AGP8x, I should be in business.

<ramble>
Prior to these updates, my RAM was stuck at DDR333,but with 2-2-2-5 timings, P4 was @ 2.9Ghz, and the 9600 was in an AGP4x slot, and gently overclocked. On reasonable detail settings I could see 80+ FPS, but with 4x AA and 8x AF (i noticed little difference with 16x) it was at a more sedate 35-40. Nonetheless it looked great, and I just had to buy the full version of the game too. It is fantastic, and I'll be making my first drifting video in a week or so, (dual core processor should be able to handle LFS and fraps lol)
</ramble>

Most of you probably couldn't care less about that last paragraph, but hey, I kind of warned you. Thanks tvr&ferrari_fan for eventually answering my question though, and thanks vladimir and G.T too.

 

[Gabkicks]

haha. your pc is way more than enough for LFS the 9600XT i have is powerful enough to run lfs at max everything AA and AF. A 9800 pro gives about twice the framerate in most games fyi.