Big Lag... why?

[aarony]

I have a computer that's nearly one-and-a-half years old, with:
Intel Pentium 4 processor, 2.53 GHz
1 GB RAM
nVidia Geforce 4 MX 440SE
etc.

Yet, when I play games like Guild Wars, Counter-Strike Source, and even Warcraft III (on maps with many units like DotA or Tower Wars), I get huge amounts of lag, eventually forcing me to either play with 1 or 2 fps or quit the game. This causes me much frustration, and I was wondering if there is anything I can do to try to solve this problem. I very recently reformatted, and it did nothing to help the problem. I have just ordered a Geforce FX 5200 to replace my video card, and I hope this will help my situation.

Please give me any suggestions/advice!

 

[kcoriginal]

Big Lag

The biggest thing that jumps out is your graphics card.... that 440 is outdated enough, but one thing I should point out is the specific 440 were talking about. Although, in many industries, SE stands for "Special Edition" and you can say "Ooooo Goodie!", the graphics industry is not the same. The defacto standard definition for "SE" in graphics more closely equates to "Slow Edition"! OUCH!
The 5200 should help you a little over the 440... but really not enough oomph... at minimum I would spend about $10-20 more and get a 5700, if you don't have $10-20 more, I would wait! Sure the 5200 is the slowest card to be fully DirectX9 compatible, but what about OpenGL?
Another key thing to mention, what you are excperiencing, is NOT "Lag". Don't embarrass yourself with that term online. Lag refers to delays cause soley by your internet connection. In your case, your graphics card cannot draw the action fast enough, that is call "dropping frames". A LOT OF FRAMES! BAD! I've never heard of someone trying to run the Counter Strike/Half Life - Source engine on a MX440SE... LOL...really!....LOL....
OK, enough laughing, get yourself a 5700.... my best advice is to save for a 9800Pro from ATI, the 128MB version would do you fine. You can find them on Newegg.com....VERY REPUTABLE ONLINE SOURCE.... If you can't afford the ATI model for $150.... then go with Sapphire foir $129. In my experience, Sapphire, MSI, Asus, and PNY make decent generic cards - as well as others. When I put out $385 for my 9800Pro 256MB, I only bought the brand named ATI model. Too much money to risk!
Since I see that 5200 are dirt cheap, I assume you have no money at all.... I'm sorry... I would really return that 5200 though.... don't even open it... save your money, play other games for a while.... save until you can at least get the 5700.... and if that will take a couple of months.... the price of the generic 9800Pro will come down a bit to just over $100, maybe just under it, if we're lucky!
So remember... NEVER BUY AN "SE" ANYTHING in the graphics world... and
The 5200 will NOT make you happy!
Hope this helps....

 

[kcoriginal]

for more advice....

The best website I have ever found is Mike's Hardware!

http://mikeshardware.co.uk

You can learn ALL ABOUT ALL the graphics chipsets and processors and motherboard chipset.... LOTS of good stuff.... enjoy...

 

[Dtere]

I would have to agree about the graphics card being outdated. However, you running some very graphics intense games. First, go to Nvidia's website and download the newest graphics driver, then install it. If this does not help, i would recommend going with kcoriginal's advice.

On another note: Make sure your CPU usage/RAM usage are not being overloaded with 'background' programs while you play games. For ex. if you have 2 anti-virus programs running in the background that's going to take juice away from your game. So check this out also.

 

[aarony]

Mmm... thanks for the advice... my 5200 came today, and I eagerly installed it... not much help, like you predicted... Well, the biggest thing is, I can play Fable now, although with a somewhat low number of frames-per-second.

The reason I wanted to go so cheap with my card is that I plan to build a completely new computer next year, and I'd rather spend $50 more on that computer than on this one... I just wanted something that would run Fable and hopefully CS Source (which runs tolerably well). Thanks for the advice, maybe I'll post again when building my computer for some more