OFP Performance

[Havok69 0]

I have a AMD 2500+ (1.83ghz), GeForce 5200 (128mb), 512mb DDR RAM, Realtek AC'97 Audio Sound Card, Win XP Pro.  I have all newest drivers installed, and OFP 1.96.  

The problem is I feel the performace of OFP aint what it should be on this type of computer, I know its not great but its decent.  I only have EECP installed for addons.  For Game settings I have:

Resolution: 1024x768x32

Refresh Rate: 60hz

Hardware T&L: Enabled (not sure wat this does)

Multitextureing: Enabled

W-Buffer: Disabled (not sure wat it does, can't enable neway)

Vehicle Shadows: Enabled

Object Shadows: Enabled

Cloudlets: Enabled

Blood: Enabled

Framerate: 20..40 (Never knew wat this did, always kept this setting, plz tell me wat this does)

Visual Quality: 11..23

Visiblity: 1500

Terrain Detail: Normal

I went to "Flashpoint Preferances" and most settings are set at medium quality.  I always close all programs on desktop before I play.  Even when i put the Game Settings down it doesnt seen to make that much of a differance, should I restart my comp or OFP after I change game settings?  Other than putting the settings down, is there anything I can do  (and no, I can't afford a new computer or upgrades for it).  If not, how far should I put my settings down to have good performace yet maintain fairly good quality.

BTW, the reason for posting this is cause i hear a lot of people saying they have 900mhz comps and what nott, yet they still have goo performace and quality, why?

Thanks

[killswitch 19]

<ul>[*] Turn off vehicle shadows

[*] Turn off object shadows

[*] Lower view distance to 900-1000 m

[*] Lower terrain detail to "Low" or even "Very low"

[*] Overclock the CPU (If you have PC3200 RAM, set the FSB from 166 to 200 MHz and you might end up with a XP3200+)

[*] That GF5200 is way underpowered for the settings you listed. I know, I had one.

Further improvements need breaking of the old piggy bank. (Get a sound card with HW Sound acceleration such as the SB Audigy 2, get a *much* faster gfx card or just about upgrade the whole computer)

[Havok69 0]

<ul>[*] Turn off vehicle shadows

[*] Turn off object shadows

[*] Lower view distance to 900-1000 m

[*] Lower terrain detail to "Low" or even "Very low"

[*] Overclock the CPU (If you have PC3200 RAM, set the FSB from 166 to 200 MHz and you might end up with a XP3200+)

[*] That GF5200 is way underpowered for the settings you listed. I know, I had one.

Thank you for reply, but how do I do the 5th thing u said, the overclocking thing. And yes I do have PC3200 RAM.

[hardrock 1]

Thank you for reply, but how do I do the 5th thing u said, the overclocking thing. And yes I do have PC3200 RAM.

Erm . . . if you call it "the overclocking thing" better keep hands off it

(You don't want to end up with a broken CPU do you?)

[killswitch 19]

Thank you for reply, but how do I do the 5th thing u said, the overclocking thing. And yes I do have PC3200 RAM.

Since you have to ask what "the overclocking thing" is, I'm beginning to regret I wrote it :-)

See, overclocking will void the warranty on the computer and it might even make it break. "Overclocking" is the art of making something work faster than it was sold to you as. OC:ing the processor will make it hotter and unless one knows what one does, there's a very good chance of things going very wrong.

I don't have the time to write a tutorial on how to do it, so I suggest you search the internet and read up a lot on the subject before even considering it. I don't want you to damage your computer because of something a crazy stranger like me on the net told you to do.

[sanctuary 19]

Thank you for reply, but how do I do the 5th thing u said, the overclocking thing. And yes I do have PC3200 RAM.

Since you have to ask what "the overclocking thing" is, I'm beginning to regret I wrote it :-)

See, overclocking will void the warranty on the computer and it might even make it break. "Overclocking" is the art of making something work faster than it was sold to you as.

That is why , if he doesn't know how overclocking works, he should avoid this specific suggestion.

As in this case overclocking is known as the art of melting the CPU

[Havok69 0]

Thats cool, thanks for ur help, I figured I'd have to get a new video card neway, this was the cheapest 128mb i could find

[Mr_Tea 0]

You should by a sound card, and put it in your PC.

Onboard soundcards are mostly like a hanbrake for games.

When I was using my onbaord AC97 chip in big missions, the sound

was off when I sprint, when I stand still, sound was back.

I build in a cheap SB 128 card, and my soundproblems and performance lags was gone.

[Havok69 0]

I dont have probs with sounds, but I do have bad lag probs (in SP) and did not know sound cards hand anything to do with it Thanks

[Mr_Tea 0]

Onboard soundcards using system resources that PCI soundcards does not. PCI souncards have theire own soundprozessor, onboard soundchips is using main prozessor.The same goes for the RAM.

btw. Hardware T&L means Hardware Transform and Lightning. As the name says, it calculates transform and lightning effects in grafikhardware. If you disable this feature all the calculations must be done by the main prozessor.

Framerate: 20..40 (Never knew wat this did, always kept this setting, plz tell me wat this does)

You get higher detail if you set the framerate to a lower value. Yust play around with that and watch out for changes, they are not hard to find.

One more tip: Double your RAM, it will make a difference.

[Havok69 0]

Thanks Mr_Tea