Mario Kart Slow - Investing in Hardware

[Noelen]

Hi!
I am glad to join this great forum.

I am using 1964 with my favourite games like Mario Kart. This game behaves quite slow (sound is jerky, graphics are ok). Other games (Diddy Kong Racing just works perfect).

After trying different types of plugins I come to the conclusion that my PC is not fast enough. Question: I what hardware should I invest? Better Mobo with faster processor or better graphics card?

1964 0.8.5
Jabo Direct3D 1.5.1
AziSound 0.20 (Driver Revision 1.1)
NRage Input plugin

Thanks for your help!

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Maybe you should stop using the on board audio, because you said that the graphics are fast enough, but the audio is stuttering. Maybe you should get a new sound card like a SoundBlaster Live or later.

 

[Noelen]

Maybe you should stop using the on board audio, because you said that the graphics are fast enough, but the audio is stuttering. Maybe you should get a new sound card like a SoundBlaster Live or later.

Good idea, but it seems that the stress on graphical emulation brings the audio down.

 

[Acorn]

Good idea, but it seems that the stress on graphical emulation brings the audio down.

True, its most likely not sound card. With normal directx sound, quality can be improved with a better card but not smoothness in emulators.

Well, your video card is fine for emulation. Heh, even my old Tnt 2 can still run these flawlessly. Anything above that isn't going to help in anything besides AA and other purtyifying features. CPU is fine really.., are you syncing the audio to the game? As much as the audio processor slowing the rest of the system down is bad in principle, its the only way I can get smooth sound even on the system I just got.

 

[Noelen]

True, its most likely not sound card. With normal directx sound, quality can be improved with a better card but not smoothness in emulators.

Well, your video card is fine for emulation. Heh, even my old Tnt 2 can still run these flawlessly. Anything above that isn't going to help in anything besides AA and other purtyifying features. CPU is fine really.., are you syncing the audio to the game? As much as the audio processor slowing the rest of the system down is bad in principle, its the only way I can get smooth sound even on the system I just got.

First of all: Thanks for these fast replies!

Yes I am synching sound to the game. It is quite interesting, that DKR works (and graphics are by far better than Mario Kart) and this old Mario Kart is the only game that does not run smooth when there are many objects.

So? No investment?

 

[Clements]

-A cheap option: Use Azi's 0.30 or 0.40 Beta 2 and sync gameplay to audio.

-Expensive option: Buy an Athlon/Pentium 4 Processor and the sound quality will improve a lot. Audio cards don't matter in N64 emulation (my AC'97 is flawless). You need to hit high framerates to get good sound, and N64 emulation is primarily CPU intensive. Graphics cards count much more at high resolutions.

 

[Noelen]

-A cheap option: Use Azi's 0.30 or 0.40 Beta 2 and sync gameplay to audio.

-Expensive option: Buy an Athlon/Pentium 4 Processor and the sound quality will improve a lot. Audio cards don't matter in N64 emulation (my AC'97 is flawless). You need to hit high framerates to get good sound, and N64 emulation is primarily CPU intensive. Graphics cards count much more at high resolutions.

Thanks. These plugins are already tested and made no better results.

I do now really agree that emulation is primary a matter of Mhz - if you have a fast PC (i.e. 2 GHz) it is nearly unimportant which plugins you use - all of them will be fast enough.

You all helped me much. I will go out next days and invest in a new MB and Processor (Athlon XP).

I will inform you about the results!

 

[The Khan Artist]

-Expensive option: Buy an Athlon/Pentium 4 Processor and the sound quality will improve a lot. Audio cards don't matter in N64 emulation (my AC'97 is flawless). You need to hit high framerates to get good sound, and N64 emulation is primarily CPU intensive. Graphics cards count much more at high resolutions.

Well, actually, AC97 is just an audio chip standard, sort of like VESA is a graphics card standard. Some chips don't have full DSPs, and require sound processing to be done on the main CPU, which can really slow things down.

Not that it will matter much if you upgrade, but what motherboard do you have, Noelen?

 

[Noelen]

Well, actually, AC97 is just an audio chip standard, sort of like VESA is a graphics card standard. Some chips don't have full DSPs, and require sound processing to be done on the main CPU, which can really slow things down.

Not that it will matter much if you upgrade, but what motherboard do you have, Noelen?

Hi again,

well, the mothrboard is quite new but also an all-in-one solution with an onboard processor. The mobo is called Elitegroup K7SEM with SiS730S Chipset - not that bad but I never thought that N64 emulation can be so amazing, so I thought it would be enough for some little gaming...

 

[Hyper19s]

is it possible to put a athlon xp2000 or 1800
in there... mabey not... but if you
could then you would be pretty much

good with n64 emulation

 

[Noelen]

is it possible to put a athlon xp2000 or 1800
in there... mabey not... but if you
could then you would be pretty much

good with n64 emulation

No, I would have to change the hole mobo + CPU :-(
Should be around EUR 150,- and some screwing...

 

[Martin]

No, I would have to change the hole mobo + CPU :-(
Should be around EUR 150,- and some screwing...

If you're real good at screwing you might get even a better deal

On a serious remark though, upgrading from a Duron 1.16 to XP 1800 or similar will make a difference but not worth the extra cash. I recommend getting an nforce2 board (Abit NF7-S 2.0) and a Barton 2500+ (clock it to 3200+) with PC3200 or faster RAM. Put a Coolermaster Aero 7 Lite on the CPU. That's what I have, and it's really amazingly quick.

Cheap and fast, especially if you can sell your old parts.

 

[Noelen]

If you're real good at screwing you might get even a better deal

On a serious remark though, upgrading from a Duron 1.16 to XP 1800 or similar will make a difference but not worth the extra cash. I recommend getting an nforce2 board (Abit NF7-S 2.0) and a Barton 2500+ (clock it to 3200+) with PC3200 or faster RAM. Put a Coolermaster Aero 7 Lite on the CPU. That's what I have, and it's really amazingly quick.

Cheap and fast, especially if you can sell your old parts.

It is really amazing what a community like this can do for each other. This morning I could not ask a friend or search the internet so I joined. And this evening I have the full stuff of information I need on this matter! nForce 2 was on my list already.

Question: Do I really have to change the RAM? And is the graphics card not too slow for that kind of machine?

 

[Trotterwatch]

Question: Do I really have to change the RAM? And is the graphics card not too slow for that kind of machine?

Not sure if you could use the ram that you have at all (Edit, no you can't... see below post, hehe), but one thing is for certain - it will be a major bottleneck for your system. Luckily ram is pretty cheap nowadays, still costs money just not as much as it did back in the bad old days

The graphics card would also be a bottleneck, but would suffice for the time being - espcecially for N64 emulation, where after a certain level CPU power becomes more important than graphics card. In due time though a new graphics card would become essential for PC games etc.

 

[Martin]

It's our pleasure to help out.

Yes you must switch the RAM. You're using SDRAM, which won't even fit on the nforce2, it's an older standard. The Nforce2 requires DDR-RAM, and as mentioned in my post above, I recommend getting PC3200 (DDR-RAM) or faster.

 

[Noelen]

It's our pleasure to help out.

Yes you must switch the RAM. You're using SDRAM, which won't even fit on the nforce2, it's an older standard. The Nforce2 requires DDR-RAM, and as mentioned in my post above, I recommend getting PC3200 (DDR-RAM) or faster.

So I come to the conclusion that I have
1. Buy new nForce2 motherboard
2. Buy new Barton Athlon XP
3. Buy new PC 3200 DDR-RAM (512 MB)
4. Stick with my graphics card for now until Half Life 2 ;-)
5. Debug my wife (she will not understand)

I will check my german stores right now...!!!

 

[Martin]

rofl, that sums it up nicely.

1. get an Abit NF7-S 2.0 = 100€
2. get an barton 2500+ = €85
3. get 2x256 MB PC3200 or faster = €100, (important...get 2x256, not 1x512! because it will be faster if it runs in dual mode, i don't know all the details)
4. get a coolermaster aero 7 lite = 25€
5. convince your wife your old parts fried because your cat puked in your case while you cleaned it from dust = priceless

 

[The Khan Artist]

The A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 is almost the same price as the NF7-S 2.0, and has more features (6x USB2 vs. 4x USB2, 2x Ethernet vs. 1x Ethernet, and AGP Pro).

I also find it slightly disturbing that NewEgg's product page for the NF7-S is a link to A-Bit's online RMA form, instead of the actual product page.

 

[gandalf]

OR wait a little more,and buy an AMD Athlon 64 FX!

 

[Noelen]

OR wait a little more,and buy an AMD Athlon 64 FX!

Good morning!

An Athlon XP seems sufficient I guess. Anyway, we are going for the details now. The prices mentioned are nearly the same as here.

So, there is only one thing missing: Where will I get a ....ing cat?