Vista - Waheyyyyy!

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Does anyone have experience of playing MOTO GP 07 on VISTA? What was the memory requirement of the game? What kind of system spec gave acceptable performance? If anyone has the game on VISTA can they post up the virtual memory use of the game when running?

Thanks

It ran fine on my PC. But then I've probably gone overkill on the specs.

My rig:
Motherboard: Asus P35 Deluxe Wifi Intel 775 chipset
CPU: Intel Quad Core 6600 overclocked @3.4Ghz
GFX: Nvidia 8800GTX Ultra
RAM: 4GB Geil DDR2 Dual Channel interleaved 5700
PSU: BFG 1000Watt

V Mem was about 800MB.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

hmmmm reading one or two comments on here made me think. We have not actually identified that bottleneck causing the slow game playing. Some folks have identified paging as a possible cause, others the GFX card.

Not being a gamer I don't know what will have the most effect on system performance - memory or graphics speed. As Plowsie is on a bit of a budget, we need to get this right.

Does anyone have experience of playing MOTO GP 07 on VISTA? What was the memory requirement of the game? What kind of system spec gave acceptable performance? If anyone has the game on VISTA can they post up the virtual memory use of the game when running?

Thanks

If it isnt the graphics card then Ill eat my shorts. I think the ram is a little low for vista so they are both bottle necks but the Graphics card is a double bosttleneck as it uses system RAM and is crap on top of that. More RAM would also be recomended.

You would have to see what spec you RAM is (would be written on the sode of it. Something along the line of PC 3200 should be on there.

Originally Posted by plowsie

Why????

How do i do that?????

The card is terrable, it would be only marginaly better than the one you have atm.

All you have to do is take the side of the case off and look on the side of the PSU case (the bit you put the kettle lead into). It should be written on there somewhere. From this link it says its a 160W powersupply. You WILL need a new powersupply!!!

That 7800GTX might be a resonable card, not the most modern but should run MotoGP07 pretty well.

Originally Posted by HooliganDan

It ran fine on my PC. But then I've probably gone overkill on the specs.

My rig:
Motherboard: Asus P35 Deluxe Wifi Intel 775 chipset
CPU: Intel Quad Core 6600 overclocked @3.4Ghz
GFX: Nvidia 8800GTX Ultra
RAM: 4GB Geil DDR2 Dual Channel interleaved 5700
PSU: BFG 1000Watt

V Mem was about 800MB.

Hmm a fello G33k.

My rig:-
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH deluxe
CPU: E6600 OC'd to 3.6GHz
RAM: 2GB XMS2 Corsair TwinX
GFX: Crossfire ATi 3870's. Both OC'd a little.
PSU: Coolermaster M850

Do you play UT3?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by HooliganDan

V Mem was about 800MB.

Seems like the proof of the problem. Plowsie has 98xMb (cannot remember exact figure but 986Mb sticks in my mind) after the on board graphics nicks 128Mb. So with Vista in and needing 800Mb Virtual for the game, his system will be paging it's little toosh off and using a lot of resource just managing memory. So a memory upgrade will cure that. From what Pedro was posting max addressable for this system is 2Gb so that is best he can do. Probably around £30 for 1Gb unless the PC guru's know better?

Even after sorting out the memory requirement, will he still need to spend out on a GFX card?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

If it isnt the graphics card then Ill eat my shorts. I think the ram is a little low for vista so they are both bottle necks but the Graphics card is a double bosttleneck as it uses system RAM and is crap on top of that. More RAM would also be recomended.

Can't argue with that!

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

The card is terrable, it would be only marginaly better than the one you have atm.

That 7800GTX might be a resonable card, not the most modern but should run MotoGP07 pretty well.

well you have not justified why the cheap GFX card is terrible.... But it will not fit anyway. not sure the 7800GTX will fit either as plowsie has one of these slimline cases and so needs a 'low profile' card.

Originally Posted by HooliganDan

It ran fine on my PC. But then I've probably gone overkill on the specs.

My rig:
Motherboard: Asus P35 Deluxe Wifi Intel 775 chipset
CPU: Intel Quad Core 6600 overclocked @3.4Ghz
GFX: Nvidia 8800GTX Ultra
RAM: 4GB Geil DDR2 Dual Channel interleaved 5700
PSU: BFG 1000Watt

V Mem was about 800MB.

Nice rig Dan, but overkill is an understatement with respect to that PSU! The highest ever useage of power I have seen reported on the net (under reasonable conditions of course!) was 750 watts and that was a machine running 4 graphics cards! You'll only use 1000 watts if you are running 8 GFX cards, burning 16 DVDs, boiling your kettle, heating your swimming pool and powering your local grid all at the same time hahaha

Originally Posted by Luckypants

You have not justified why the cheap GFX card is terrible.... But it will not fit anyway. not sure the 7800GTX will fit either as plowsie has one of these slimline cases and so needs a 'low profile' card.

Its old is the basic explanation. Its a little like trying to race a 20 year old bike vs a new off the shelf... is a bout the simplest explantion.

Indeed the case may cause issues. Jeez plowsie you arnt having much luck here mate. Youll have to measure the case and talk to HooliganDan (if you want that card) and see if itll fit.

List to do:-

- Check PSU
- Measure space available for graphics card.
- What RAM you have in the system already.

Originally Posted by Warthog

Nice rig Dan, but overkill is an understatement with respect to that PSU! The highest ever useage of power I have seen reported on the net (under reasonable conditions of course!) was 750 watts and that was a machine running 4 graphics cards! You'll only use 1000 watts if you are running 8 GFX cards, burning 16 DVDs, boiling your kettle, heating your swimming pool and powering your local grid all at the same time hahaha

It's not about total wattage though, it's all about the rails! I was running two 8800GTX Ultra's in SLI mode on a different motherboard and only the 1000W supply was stable enough with the CPU overclocked (also had a QX9650). You'd be surprised at how quick you can use that power. At least the PSU should last for the next generations of card (9 series).

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Its old is the basic explanation. Its a little like trying to race a 20 year old bike vs a new off the shelf... is a bout the simplest explantion.

Sorry mate, just cos something is a not the latest wizzy bang thing does not make it 'terrible'. The question would be is it measurably better / worse than the on board graphics Plowsie has currently?

This is moot now anyway, given it won't fit in the case. so I'll not derail further.

FWIW Plowsie has 1Gb RAM, with 128Mb stolen by on board graphics.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Sorry mate, just cos something is a not the latest wizzy bang thing does not make it 'terrible'. The question would be is it measurably better / worse than the on board graphics Plowsie has currently?

This is moot now anyway, given it won't fit in the case. so I'll not derail further.

FWIW Plowsie has 1Gb RAM, with 128Mb stolen by on board graphics.

Yup, I agree. By the way the cheapest and best upgrade to do first is buy more RAM. I hate these pre-built PC's and would never go back to one. They are built usually with the micro ATX form factor (small motherboard) which limits you so much. For a little more money and some knowledge (and luck) you can build a great gaming rig. But we all need to start somewhere. I started with a pre built HP PC but I soon shoe-horned a couple of 6800 Ultra's in! Ah, back when Doom 3 was the PC's killer app!

Originally Posted by HooliganDan

Ah, back when Doom 3 was the PC's killer app!

Pah, I was dabbling in system building when the original Need For Speed came out ... those were the days ... CPU cache was an "optional extra" back then!
At least they had the foresight to install IC-sockets so you could just plug the chips in :P

Anyway as folk have said ... Stu, you have a few things to check (cos you went and bought a slimline and therefore non-standard PC :P):

Before you do any of the suggestions though ... ask yourself this ... are you quite comfortable invalidating your warranty? I think someone already mentioned this ... but most shipped systems these days (that I know of) will have their warranties invalidated if you open up the case. There are exceptions (please see the HP list of CSP/CRP - that's Customer Serviceable/Replaceable Parts), although the graphics card and PSU are NOT on this list.

If you don't mind, then open up the case and check it out.

If you are going to add more RAM, just make sure HP haven't installed 2 x 512MB memory modules (I don't think they will have, but I've even had mainboards shipped with "factory defaults" not set properly) so well worth checking before you spend money on a memory module that you have nowhere to stick *ahem* If both memory banks are full, then (HP build staff want shootin!) you'll need to purchase 2 x 1GB memory modules (but you may be able to flog the 512MB sticks on here or on fleabay).

Find out what size PSU you have ... it should have a "Wattage" stamped on it somewhere - sorry but couldn't actually find too much info on t'internet about that (possibly 160W?!).

Check the wording CAREFULLY on any graphics card. It needs to be a PCI-express card, and due to the slimline nature of the case, you'll be needing a low-profile card.

I'll dig out some links to ebuyer (or the like) and post up in a bit m8