Upgrading Hardware for Games: Do I Need To?

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

I had a simular problem in the past. I had to upgrade the Via chipset
driver to make it work correctly.
A bios update may also help.
"L_user" wrote in message
...

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

I had a simular problem in the past. I had to upgrade the Via chipset
driver to make it work correctly.
A bios update may also help.
"L_user" wrote in message
...

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

I had a simular problem in the past. I had to upgrade the Via chipset
driver to make it work correctly.
A bios update may also help.
"L_user" wrote in message
...

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

"L_user"

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

You need a new video card for sure; start with that. Assuming that all of your drivers are up
to date, a different OS (Win2k or WinXP) and another stick of 256M of RAM wouldn't hurt either.

Jon

on Sun January 18 2004 2:25 pm, L_user decided to enlighten us with:


I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

Yes, the system is fine for gameplay. I've played many games on something
less that ran fine. The choppiness in the sound is something probably in
your task tray interrupting your computer. It could also be your sound.
What sound ar you using? Onboard AC'97? Consider a Soundblaster Audigy
card. You could consider upgrading your CPU, but if that's an Athlon XP, I
think the 1600+'s were overclocker's dreams. You may consider overclocking
it.



--
Big Daddy Ruel Smith

My SuSE Linux machine uptime:
3:26pm up 42 days 0:12, 2 users, load average: 0.70, 0.81, 0.49

My Windows XP machine uptime:
Something less...

I had a simular problem in the past. I had to upgrade the Via chipset
driver to make it work correctly.
A bios update may also help.
"L_user" wrote in message
...

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

You need a video card with at least 64mbs of memory to play new games
adequately.
If your motherboard does not have a 4x AGP slot I would recommend upgrading.
There are some great deals out there on AthlonXP/motherboard combos.
The sound problem is may or may not be software related but I would try
upgrading the drivers for both the sound and the chipset.
In the long run you will be better off with WindowsXP and probably obtain
overall faster performance.
Getting a Soundblaster card may not fix the problem as some games are known
to cause clicking sounds because of incomaptibility with the VIA chip set.
Also some onboard sound systems are not well insulated from the rest of the
motherboard: I had one that audibly clicked every time the mouse button was
clicked (this was NVidia's latest and greatest chipset, believe it or not).
If your BIOS is very out of date and BIOS upgrades are described as solving
a particular problem you are experiencing then upgrading the BIOS is worth
the risk of frying your motherboard (make sure you understand the directions
completely before trying a BIOS upgrade).

The on-board sound is using your CPU for sound processing and during heavy
load in games it causes choppy sound. Get a separate good quality sound
card.

--
DaveW



"L_user" wrote in message
...

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).

One example of a game I am told there are problems with is Crime Scene
Investigation (CSI): the sound of the playback of the voices of the
characters is interrupted, or chopped.


This is the system being used:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

Here is the partial report of DXDIAG:

OS: Win 98 (4.10, Build 1998)
Processor: Athlon 1600+ GHz, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Page File: 44 MB used, 1748 MB available
Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

dxdiag DOES report that sound is done through software buffers,
no hardware acceleration.

No problems or errors are reported by dxdiag, other than some drivers not
being MS-certified.

Question: Is this system good enough for game playing? What accounts
for especially the choppiness of sound. Setting the acceleration levels
in DirectX sound seems not to correct the problem, so I am thinking the
hardware is not up to spec...possibly need to put in sound card...replace
the mobo?

Highest regards.

"Jon Danniken" wrote:
"L_user"

I have a PC that does not play games well, and it seems to be a problem
with many, if not all, of the games played (so I am told).
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600
RAM: 256 MB
mobo: Shuttle AK31
sound: VIA KT266A chipset integrated in mobo
video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, 32 MB
OS: Win98

You need a new video card for sure; start with that. Assuming that all of your drivers are up
to date, a different OS (Win2k or WinXP) and another stick of 256M of RAM wouldn't hurt
either.


Oh yeah, you can also try lowering the acceleration values in the control panel sounds and
multimedia sound playback advanced performance hardware area and see it if makes any
difference.

Jon