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Specs

  • 03-08-2004 8:43pm
    #1
    Exterminator
    Closed Accounts Posts: 86 ✭✭


    Looking at buying a new commputer second hand, i ran dxdiag to check specs and it seems ok in some respects.
    A few questions though, where do I check if it has 3-D Hardware Accelerator with full OpenGL® support.
    What does "Page file" mean?
    Im not happy with the ammount of memory on the graphics card, short of buying a new one what (if anything) cani do to improve this? Can graphics cards be over clocked, can you get some sort of external plug in?


Comments

  • #2
    tba
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,111 ✭✭✭tba


    I think you better ask here instead, you might get a better answer.


  • #3
    naitkris
    Closed Accounts Posts: 660 ✭✭✭naitkris


    Exterminator wrote:
    A few questions though, where do I check if it has 3-D Hardware Accelerator with full OpenGL® support.

    go "Start" -> "Run..." and in here type "dxdiag" and hit the ENTER key on your keyboard. from this new window, choose the "Display" tab to bring up details on your graphics renderer and display. i don't think it shows OpenGL info, but downloading and running a good 3rd party benchmark tool like AIDA32 should give you more info.
    Exterminator wrote:
    What does "Page file" mean?

    a page file on a computer is basically where the OS (Operating System) stores processes in use but which has not recently been called by the CPU scheduler (or not as much as other processes) and stores it into a slower drive/memory space until requested, by which time the CPU scheduler will call it and swap it back into main memory (RAM) via paging for use, while at the same time swapping an older process out.

    don't know if this makes sense, i am not great at explaining and failed my OS module only recently at college, so had to learn all this off for my repeats in 2 weeks time.
    Exterminator wrote:
    Im not happy with the ammount of memory on the graphics card, short of buying a new one what (if anything) cani do to improve this? Can graphics cards be over clocked, can you get some sort of external plug in?

    i used to be like this in that i thought the more memory on a graphics card means better performance, this is so untrue particularly if the memory is slow and the GPU (graphics processing unit) core speed and pipes are limited. card manufacturers add cheap, slow double memory to fool a lot of buyers into thinking they are getting an awesome deal imo...

    i am upgrading my PC soon (currently have an ATI 8500 128MB which is min spec for DOOM3) and was going to go for a ATI 256MB 9600XT card but am instead going for a ATI 128MB 9800Pro card, as it is almost twice as fast overall and some models can easily be flashed (converted so to speak via software method) to a faster 9800XT. if you have the extra money to burn i'd suggest a ATI 256MB 9800XT or if you are really looking to throw money around, a ATI 256MB X800Pro or ATI 256MB X800XT... as you can guess i am a bit of an ATI graphics card fan, lol..


  • #4
    tuxy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,983 ✭✭✭✭tuxy


    naitkris wrote:
    as you can guess i am a bit of an ATI graphics card fan, lol..

    dont you find it hard to recomend ati at the moment after seeing the doom 3 benchmarks, maybe new drivers from ati will get them back on track but as it stands now they are miles behind


  • #5
    naitkris
    Closed Accounts Posts: 660 ✭✭✭naitkris


    tuxy wrote:
    dont you find it hard to recomend ati at the moment after seeing the doom 3 benchmarks, maybe new drivers from ati will get them back on track but as it stands now they are miles behind

    no. DOOM3 is one of thousands of games, but hopefully new drivers will hopefully resolve the "bad OpenGL performance compared to NVIDIA" in the high-end X800 series of ATI cards...

    most ATI cards in the mid to low range perform equal to or better than the NVIDIA card of the same range/price in DOOM3 - take the 9800Pro v 5900, or 9800XT v 5950 for examples...

    *edit* - seems ATI has released beta 4.9 CAT drivers already - http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4547.html - supposedly giving much improved DOOM3 performance...


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