Question for you computer guys Options

[Random_Stranger]

Ok, I am not looking for super computer, but here is what I have, followed by my question.

Asus M3A78-EM motherboard (ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD)
Phenom 9600 quad core processor
6GB RAM
ATi Radeon 3400 1GB video card (That's all the information I know on this)
and not so certain on my power supply, I know it isn't 500w


Anyways, I gotten into emulation, and it plays anything from Playstation 1 > just fine. When I go to play dreamcast or ps2 in my computer, it runs really unstable and a bit choppy. Now I have a 64bit operating system (that's what the specs say) and when I look at the ratings for my computer, all is 5.9's except for the graphics and gaming which is only 3.5

So I really, I am just looking to make the whole thing a bit balanced and see how satisfied I am with that for the time being. Does ANYONE know what video card I can go with that will bring it up a bit, and whatever else I need to accommodate that card? I am going nuts trying to determine which card is best suited for the job. I don't play a lot of online games, so that isn't the factor. Just want this darn Emulation thing to run smoothly.


Oh yeah, I found this too, wondering if this is worth a shot as well>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etInrz46UCc...FD1502245CEAE1A

This post has been edited by Random_Stranger: Aug 25, 2009 - 3:42 PM

[95CelicaST]

Vista 64bit?


I know a lot of companies said screw 64bit vista and produced some crap drivers for it. ATI might have been a part of that. On the 64-bit systems I set up at work I purchased CAD-approved video cards ($$$$) that had cad-certified 64-bit drivers. Those were from the nvidia quadro series.

At one point one of the cards failed and I threw in an ATI radeon card for temp use, and our engineers said it was choppy and ran horribly.

64 bit never got much driver support, and I think that is your problem. Have you gone into the card properties and tried different settings?

[Sinyk]

I have a system with lower specs than that and I was able to run dreamcast games really smoothly. Are you sure you have your emulator configured properly?

[Random_Stranger]

I have a system with lower specs than that and I was able to run dreamcast games really smoothly. Are you sure you have your emulator configured properly?

Well I am running MVC2. The frames per second will sit at 50.2-49.3 and then will drop to 23.4 -33.6

It is very unstable. Any idea how to fix this? I would imagine with my specs, I should be able to run this game no problem. I have seen people do it with the same specs and with only 2GB.

Vista 64bit?


I know a lot of companies said screw 64bit vista and produced some crap drivers for it. ATI might have been a part of that. On the 64-bit systems I set up at work I purchased CAD-approved video cards ($$$$) that had cad-certified 64-bit drivers. Those were from the nvidia quadro series.

At one point one of the cards failed and I threw in an ATI radeon card for temp use, and our engineers said it was choppy and ran horribly.

64 bit never got much driver support, and I think that is your problem. Have you gone into the card properties and tried different settings?

I have the Catylist Control center, but never did anything beyond an auto tune for that. For the AMD, I was wondering if maybe that was what was unstable. I have a software controller to overclock that as well, but the novice controls seem to do me no justice.

[Sinyk]

What emulator are you using for the dreamcast? Chankast? NullDC?

[Random_Stranger]

What emulator are you using for the dreamcast? Chankast? NullDC?

nulldc because it supports joystick and it runs the cdi, Chankast doesn't, even with the help of Daemon tools.

[SlvrCelica09]

first, that video card is outdated.. (i have ATI 4350 and street fighter 4 lags..)

#2 downgrade to xp SP2 or 3.. vista it demands way too much memory and in my opinion
(ill show you where to get this in a PM)

#3 defragment your hard drive.. free up some space

#4 clean your registry

#5 i recommend getting an ATI 4870.. after that your CPU WILL be BALLIN!

you got an nice processor and nice memory dont see a reason for your games to be laggy after that

#6 I almost forgot.. you need like an 750W power supply.. (650W min) for a new graphic card.. THEN your CPU will b Ballin

This post has been edited by SlvrCelica09: Aug 25, 2009 - 8:52 PM

[Random_Stranger]

first, that video card is outdated.. (i have ATI 4350 and street fighter 4 lags..)

#2 downgrade to xp SP2 or 3.. vista it demands way too much memory and in my opinion
(ill show you where to get this in a PM)

#3 defragment your hard drive.. free up some space

#4 clean your registry

#5 i recommend getting an ATI 4870.. after that your CPU WILL be BALLIN!

you got an nice processor and nice memory dont see a reason for your games to be laggy after that

#6 I almost forgot.. you need like an 750W power supply.. (650W min) for a new graphic card.. THEN your CPU will b Ballin

Oh ok, that sounds good. Is there a certain type of power supply I need to get? Plus, please send me where to downgrade for that XP. Thanks. That is exactly what I needed to know. Oh, I noticed my computer is not stable either. Is this because of Vista? I put the AMD overdrive back to default (I didn't now how to overclock anyways), still a bit unstable.

[Superaison]

Whats your budget? I use to build gaming computers and sell em for profit, business tanked due to untrustworthy friend.

[Sinyk]

Did you build your computer yourself? There may be some bios settings not exactly where they should be, probably related to the ram. I just ran my nullDC that I had been previously using and it runs around 60 frames on an 8800GTS 512MB.

This post has been edited by Sinyk: Aug 25, 2009 - 10:58 PM

[SlvrCelica09]

Did you build your computer yourself? There may be some bios settings not exactly where they should be, probably related to the ram. I just ran my nullDC that I had been previously using and it runs around 60 frames on an 8800GTS 512MB.

im pretty sure the ATI 3400 GPU is wayy slower than your 8800 GTS.. 3400 gpu speed is 400MHZ.. while 8800 is 670 mhz ATI cards really need to be overclocked to reach good frame rates.. his card is what is making his games run slow.. has to be.. he has close to the latest CPU, the phenom which has a super fast bus speed and he has spit load of memory.. an outdated video card would still negate those specs however.. i think he needs at least a 740 mhz GPU and around 900 mhz memory speed graphic card at that min to run the latest games... pm sent stranger

This post has been edited by SlvrCelica09: Aug 25, 2009 - 11:38 PM

[Random_Stranger]

Whats your budget? I use to build gaming computers and sell em for profit, business tanked due to untrustworthy friend.

I dunno. I just built this one with some advice from someone. People on youtube who can run that emulator no problem said my setup was pretty good, in fact I quote they said it was "One hell of a machine". Yet from some videos I have seen, never regard my motherboard as a gaming motherboard... So I dunno if perhaps there is issues with that as well. I just know I put more than I was willing to into this and don't really want to bother with too much. A video card and a power supply is all I expect to and I want to be atleast above 2.4ghz, which I have seen my processor with 2GB that someone guy had, overclock his to 2.5ghz and with no issues of instability.

I wanted to see how I can overclock this, and also toggle with it, without using AMD OVerdrive software. To me, that software isn't as good as if I can dabble with the bios, however I am afraid of messing something up. I did read that I have to adjust the multiplier to overclock, but I dunno.

Did you build your computer yourself? There may be some bios settings not exactly where they should be, probably related to the ram. I just ran my nullDC that I had been previously using and it runs around 60 frames on an 8800GTS 512MB.

im pretty sure the ATI 3400 GPU is wayy slower than your 8800 GTS.. 3400 gpu speed is 400MHZ.. while 8800 is 670 mhz ATI cards really need to be overclocked to reach good frame rates.. his card is what is making his games run slow.. has to be.. he has close to the latest CPU, the phenom which has a super fast bus speed and he has spit load of memory.. an outdated video card would still negate those specs however.. i think he needs at least a 740 mhz GPU and around 900 mhz memory speed graphic card at that min to run the latest games... pm sent stranger

Dang, you're pretty good. My ATI Overdrive (Cataylst Controller) auto tuned (And selected) it to 600mhz gpu and 405 memory ghz (But then it says "Current Values" which are 110mhz gpu and 400ghz memory, wtf is that?!") As you can see, I am a total n00b.

Did you build your computer yourself? There may be some bios settings not exactly where they should be, probably related to the ram. I just ran my nullDC that I had been previously using and it runs around 60 frames on an 8800GTS 512MB.

How do I adjust through the bios?

This post has been edited by Random_Stranger: Aug 26, 2009 - 12:26 AM

[Sinyk]

Take a look at this thread from the ocforums:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=596023

It should help to explain some of the overclocking concepts as just increasing your multiplier isn't necessarily the only thing you should do, especially if your system is currently unstable. Yes you do not have a Phenom II, but many of the settings should be similar.

[Random_Stranger]

Take a look at this thread from the ocforums:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=596023

It should help to explain some of the overclocking concepts as just increasing your multiplier isn't necessarily the only thing you should do, especially if your system is currently unstable. Yes you do not have a Phenom II, but many of the settings should be similar.

Ok thanks.