Expert: BrandonC - 8/22/2007

Question
hello i my name is john and i am from malaysia and i have a problem that i could not understand.
this is my pc with agp spec

1 pentium 2 300mhz
2 256 ram
3 winfast a170 geforce 4 agp graphic card
4 normal yamaha soundcard

here is the problem i have.i have install max payne game that required a 3d accelerator card and it play ok but when  i install counterstrike and try to execute it just keep on loading for a long period after it finish loading i try to play it and it goes to very very laggy more like super slow motion.i don't understand i have a powerful 3dcard why this happen can you help me on this matter i will most greatful.
thanks in advance

Answer
I'm not exactly sure the system requirements for either games, but I do know that simply having a 3D accelerator is not going to be enough to power all games. Your graphics accelerator is actually not that powerful, and is more then less likely actually being bottlenecked by the processor speed.

There are more variables to watch for when trying to improve game performance.
The processor calculates what goes on, and can in fact max out the frame rate, regardless of how good your graphics accelerator is.

I myself, use a GeForce 7900 and even then, it's far from being "amazing", in fact it's coming near obsolete.

Unless at one point in time, you were able to play Counter Strike smoothly on that computer, I don't think theres a way to, without upgrading, and in your case you might just be better off just buying a new computer.


PS: 3D Accelerators, aka graphics cards, aka video cards, have many variables that can mark how powerful they are. Generally the most popular are Core Speeds, Memory Speeds, and Pixel Pipelines. These control how fast the card can operate, how fast it can exchange memory, and how fast it can fire pixels to the screen (use higher resolutions without dampening speed).
Another large variable, particularly with recent cards, is Pixel Shader technology, which is required in newer cards, to power more advanced graphics. Simply having the power behind a card, isn't enough to make it the best anymore.

PSS: Now days, people actually link 2 relatively powerful graphics accelerators such as the one I'm using, to get twice the performance, and even some of these people are still experiencing lag in much newer games.

Sorry, I hope this helps.