What shall I upgrade first

[Morituri]

Hail Romans and RomansWannaBes

I have started playing RTW with RTR 5.4.1 mod installed.
However my computer is not that new, and I have problems with
smooth (or even tolerable) play, when I have bigger armies - 3/4 stack or more...
I am playing on NORMAL unit size - had to go down from HUGE

My config is as follows:
Win XP SP2
256 MB RAM
GForce 440 MX 64 MB RAM
Athlon 1.7

My question is: what shall I upgrade first in order to make the gameplay a little better. I have some money (let's say for one of the three things: memory, GFX card, Processor) but not for the whole overhaul.

I am not a computer geek, so pls bear with me.

Cheers

[Erik]

Buy a new graphics card.

The GForce 440 MX is seriously outdated and it wasn't even a fast card for it's time.
A modern mid-range card ($100-$200) wil be a huge improvement.

[Gadger]

Even by upgrading the GPU you will still have a severe bottleneck due to your low amount of RAM and slow CPU. I would start by getting atleast 1GB of RAM if your motherboard supports it, if not 512MB will do, then upgrade your CPU and lastly your GPU. Seriously, you will see little, if any improvement if you upgrade your GPU as it will be limited by the rest of your system.

[Irishman3]

The problem with trying to upgrades on a limited fund budget is this:

To upgrade the CPU you could likely need a new motherboard to support it. Same thing with RAM, because although your current motherboard may support a large amount (say 1gig or over), it may not support the faster RAM which is really what you want to buy if your going to spend the money. Your motherboards capabilities can also bottleneck any new graphics card you buy. For instance, if your current motherboard only supports 4x AGP, it wouldn't help much to buy a high end video card thats going to run best at 8x AGP becasue the motherboard's 4x limitatoin is a bottleneck for it.

So, without knowing what your motherboard specs are, I'd say I agree with Gadger: RAM first (fastest your motherboard will allow), CPU second (again, fastest CPU it'll accept) and then look at a new video card. Honestly though, if you want to do it right, try to find a way to come up with the extra money for all three AND a new motherboard. That way you can get the components you want (and not just the ones your limited to by your current motherboard) and build the foundation for a system that'll probably last you another good two years or so. Its a lot more money than it sounds like you want to spend, but you won't regret doing it if you can get the funds.

[Pent uP Rage]

If you're worried about running R:TW better, go for a cpu. R:TW is waaay more cpu intensive than other games(shooters)

I'd look on the motherboard manufacturers website and see what the highest cpu it will support is.
Then , I'd look on Ebay, and pick up a decent 128Mb graphics card with the money that's left.

Look around on Pricewatch

[Lee1026]

I would just get a new motherboard that comes with a AMD 2700. those are what, $170 ish or so? and it will let you rig on more ram ($40 or so for a 512 ram) and a $50 or so 128 GPU. all for less then 300.

[ZxExN]

What motherboard is it? What type of RAM? PC2700 or 3200?
First off, Video Card must go. MX440 is the worse of the worse videocard you could get. In benchmarks, my old TNT2 Ultra even owns it. And that card is like 10 yrs ago. A decent card ATI 9700 Pro will probably run you 100-150 now. You will see a big improvement. If you are computer savy, I'd recommend upping your FSB while reducing your CPU muliplier. This will improve your overall computer power at the same time not putting more pressure on the CPU. 1700 AMD runs @ 1.47 Ghz. That means its running @ 11x mulitplier x 133 FSB. I would reduce the multiplier down to 9x and bump the FSB to 166. This will see your ram and overall systems bandwidth up by 33 percent. 512 RAM ($50-80) is good so if you go out and buy some, make sure you get PC3200+ rating. This will let you set your FSB and ram speed @ 166 Mhz in your bios and not worry about it crashing cause PC3200 is designed to run @ 200 Mhz.
Your CPU is fine, I wouldn't spend too much money upgrading this system just for RTW. Wait acouple of years to do some major upgrades and at that time switch to a 64 bit platform.

So I suggest to replace first

VIDEO CARD is a must. - ALso don't worry about the whole 4x and 8x designations. Running a 8x card @ 4x or 8x doesn't really matter as tons of benchmarks have proved theres really no major performance change.
Memory boost to 512 PC3200 is a optional
CPU - Not really recommend it yet. I say that cause the 64 bit platform is what you should really be looking at right now and wait abit for those to go down in price.

[english man]

Id go with more memory first and foremost, definately made the most improvement to my gameplay experience (even if I did upgrade from 512 to a gig). However, didn't I hear a few people saying that RTW is the most overall rig taxing game to date??? If that's true, looks like almost every aspect of your machine needs updating

[HorseArcher]

this one belongs to the basement sub forum. moving....

[Morituri]

Hi,

I have checked my specs and I have a new motherboard (a few months ago, my old one burned, so I had to buy a new one - now it turns out that it is not a very good board after all).
Currently I have Gigabyte 7NF-RZ, it supports 3 GB of RAM, new processors > 1.4 GHz, 4x/8x AGP cards.
From what I have read on the net this board is not good for overclocking (not that I know much about it yet, but I would like to give it a shot one day).
Thanks for your input. I think I'll go with RAM upgrade first and Video Card next.

Cheers

[Irishman3]

Looking at the manual for that board, it doesn't say just how fast a processor you can put in it, just that it supports Athlon 1400+ and above. But reading up a bit over at www.amdmb.com, it looks like people are putting up to XP 2700+ processors on it so thats good. It also, according to the manual, supports 400 FSB (Front Side Bus) speeds, which is good news because it'll allow you to go with faster RAM as well. And as you noted, it supports 8x AGP, so your options are pretty good at this point.

256 RAM is very low, and while someone mentioned above this game being very CPU intensive, I'd have to think its also very RAM intensive. And considering you can probably get away with your current video card (although you really should look into a new one soon) by turning down graphic options, and my past experience has been RAM upgrades give the most bang for the buck, I'd suggest looking into some good (and fast) RAM first. At least 1 gig of it. It doesn't appear that that motherboard supports dual channel, so you don't have to put out the extra bucks for that type of RAM (its a bit more pricey becasue they are matched sticks. You can go for the "va;ue" ram many manufacturers sell, but if you can afford their mid ranged stuff I'd get that. You'd be supprised just how much performance difference a milliseconds make when it comes to RAM

After that, and as soon as you can afford it, I'd start looking at a new CPU. Even if you buy a "bargain" CPU of todays standards, it'll be worth it. I picked up a Athlon XP 2400+ Barton at Fry's Electronics just a couple months ago for $69.00 US. They're phasing them out, becasue the Athlon 64s are taking over so the higher end XPs are getting cheaper. Keep saving, keep watching, pounce on a 3000+ or above if you see one cheap that you can afford.

Then, start saving for that vid card, go for an 8x AGP one, and don't go with a "value" card. So many people make that mistake, and the way these vid card manufacturers package them they look like good deals. But they truly are not. Spend the money for a high to medium end graphics card, you won't regret it and if you followed the upgrade path above you'll be enjoying a much faster, and beautiful, game in a few months. Not to mention any other games/applicatoins you have are going to benifit.

Good luck to ya.