Dorset plays ok with this PC and settings.Can it be improved

[jetgriff]

I have Compaq Presario S3120AN 2 years old
AMD Athlon XP Processor 2600 + (2.13Ghz)
512 Mb Ram

I added G-Force 5500 card.

now this plays all routes including Dorset and Mersey/Thames if the MSTS 'options' > 'display' is set 2 lines down (about 60%)

if I up it to max quality, Dorset will start to fail to load getting near Clapham Jct.

How to correct it??

Any ideas?? chicken and egg sydrome

do I up to 1 gig RAM keep my 5500 card

or do I up my card to g-force 6600 and keep 512 Ram?

or neither and get a 3300+ processor

cheaper I think to go to 1 gig RAM first and try.

o

[jporter]

to be honest. The CD team have found that once you get to a certain spec level, then it does not make a difference. I think that to be honest, you will get some problems the higher the spec.

Put it this way: I have:

3.2ghz intel pentium 4 HT
1024MB (1GB) RAM
Soundcard
256MB ATI Radeon X600 card

At full settings my PC does not work on dorset, in the Clapham to Stewarts Lane area.

I think if you wanted to upgrade, then your RAM would be first bet, however, you still need a good graphiocs card to cope with the RAM level, if you get what I mean?

Regards

James.

[jbilton]

Hi
As James says...currently RAM is the cheapest upgrade...and certainly stops msts crashing so often.
If you can live without the ambient sounds, turn them down.
You'll then be able to increase graphic settings.
Cheers
Jon

[jporter]

if you are going to up to 1GB, the cheapest option, if you have 2x256 currently is to buy two the same again, so you use all four slots, instead of buying 2x512mb.

Hope that makes sense

regards

James.