What Can I Do to Pump Up My Computer for SL?

I wrote this in response to a thread about fps in General, but it occured to me that I would be better off to pick the technical brains in this forum! So . . .

OK, see what you can make of this:

. I get normally 20's-30's fps. Occasionally 40's, but hovering in the 30's on a good night. But I generally don't go around more than 2-3 people. This is with all but a couple of things turned off or down to minimum. (Just before Textures R Us moved, though, it was sheer molasses whenever I went there, like .4.)

. Once, a few updates ago, I got over 50 for a minute or so a couple of times for some reason. That only happened one night.

. After this update, I found myself at .2, etc., then bouncing up to 28, and back and forth like that. I turned down everything there was to turn down and turn off (which wasn't much left), and got back to my normal in the 20's FPS, and some low 30's , but not really 40's. Seems to have gone down about a decade.

Plus none of it seems as "stable" as it used to be - there is more jerking around from the twenties to 18 and lower, etc., than there used to be. (Again, no one much in the sim, except for a couple of friends for a while, who didn't seem to make much of a difference in my numbers.)

I did NOT update any drivers before this update.

-------

This is the computer I have:

Windows XP
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

Dell Dimension 4400
Intel Pentium 4 CPU
1.8 GHz, 1.79 GHz (don't know why it lists two)
256 MB of RAM

NVidia GeForce 3 Ti200

Charter Cable

-------

My question is: What is your advice about could I do with this same computer that would make a nice difference?

(That isn't too hard to do? I hate operating on the computer, and fear changes, which experience has told me sometimes make things worse than they were before, don't work as expected, or cause whole new problems.)

I'd like to get back up to where I was before this update.

coco

Here's my suggestion, in order of priority for upgrading:

* Upgrade RAM to 1GB or 2GB

Check how much your motherboard will support and how many slots it has, it should have at least two slots. This will probably have the least direct impact on your fps actually, but it will prevent your computer from swapping out (where everything slows down and the hard drive light goes crazy).

* Upgrade video card to GeForce 6600 or better

Since you are already getting somewhat decent framerates, it wouldn't be worth your money to invest in a video card less than that. It's no fun to spend over $100 on a card and watch your fps increase by less than 10%, so wait until you can afford it and get a 6600 or better. I don't have a lot of experience with ATI's but an equivalent or better card should be fine.

* Full system upgrade

If you upgrade both the memory and the video card and decide you want to invest more, I would buy a new case, motherboard, and CPU and bring over all the other components from your Dell in to the system. It will cost you anywhere from $350 and up depending on what you want, but it will definitely be an upgrade. For the custom built PC market right now it seems you can get a lot more bang for your buck from an AMD processor, but I might be out of date on that as things move so fast. The faster frontside bus and beefed up CPU will remove bottlenecks from the system and allow SL to get at least around the mid fifties in unpopulated areas.