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#11921
Nvidia Suggestions - BOOST your old Nvidia
DAY : 2005-11-13 20:04:49
Game Title: Pro Evolution Soccer 5
Game Console: PC
Game Genere: Sports
Game Title: Konami
Would you like to play PES 5 with Vsyc, Antisotropic filtering, Antialiasing and Image Quality set to High Quality in your "old" Nvidia 128 MB video card? This post is the PART II of the NVIDIA suggestions for PES 5 please continue reading as it contains important information that I've found out about optimizing Nvidia video cards for WinXP/Win98.
I have a GeForce FX 5200 and was considering to update it this Xmas, since I'll be travelling to the US and here in Ecuador most people sell ATI cards that (according to Ariel) aren't any better than my current card... I really wanted to play PES 5, with stadium effects, rain, snow... at a 1024x728, medium detail level, without feeling that the game was "slow", or "dumb", since Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is by far the most intelligent game I've ever played.
I want to be honest with you. I've used the following operating system during this week: - WinXP - Win98 - (K)Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger - Win98 (emulated, VMware, run this OS from Linux) - WinXP (emulated, VMware, run this OS from Linux)
Therefore, you could tell that OS is one thing that I like testing, debugging, and collaborating when I can. However, what that this has to do with your Nvidia? Well, I am not "obligated" to use WinXP since Microsoft encourages people to use WinXP instead of Win98. Since I know Linux, there are great boot loaders (Lilo, and Grub) that will allow me to install Windows 98 after installing WinXP, and then I can just add the entries in Grub or Lilo and I'm done. Anyway, installing Win98 was pretty difficult, since it looked for a C: drive, where WinXP was installed. So, I took down WinXP, and installed Win98.
I was able to play PES 5, like if my card will be a 256 MB card or something similar!!! Felt as fast as nintendo, all the effects were on, and I didn't tweaked any setting at all! As soon as I started thinking about my article about Nvidia, I noticed that WinXP does has some goodies. For instance, Google Earth only runs on WinXP, as well as Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Microsoft Office 2003. So I thought that writing an article encouraging people to use Win98, uninstall WinXP, only to install WinXP later (if they want to have both OS) wasn't very practical. HOWEVER, IF YOU'RE OUT OF BUDGET, INSTALLING WIN98 IS DEFINITIVELY A SOLUTION FOR YOUR SLOW PERFORMANCE IN PES 5!!!
Since I had a bit of problems with Win98 (I think that my disc was scratched, but I'm sure that people will be able to play PES 5 in Win98), I decided that my only solution was to upgrade. But wait, why will I need to upgrade my video card, since I was able to play PES 5, at medium detail, 1024x768, without any feeling that the game was "slow"?. I thought about the main difference between WinXP and Win98, RESOURCES. I found out that a good Nvidia GeForce 6600 card would cost me around $130-$150, but the 512 MB PC-333 RAM upgrade was only $45. I will definitively try the RAM upgrade first, and so I did.
I called an office here in Quito, whose owners happen to be close friends of my family. They sent a salesman, and he was going to test the memory, so that I can test the performance. If I liked it, I'll keep it, if not, I wasn't obligated to buy the memory. I already had 2x256 MB (512 Total RAM) on my motherboard, so reading the manual I found out that I could have a 256 MB chip with a 512 MB chip without any problems. So I installed the 256 MB chip, for a total of 768 MB of total ram. Apart from that, I bought a $10 PCI fan that took all the hot air outside the case (I installed just below my video card), since I thought that people that overclocked cards (I don't) may want this feature as well. I honestly don't think that the fan had anything to do, but it's something extra that could be essential for an overclocker. Anyway, I am now happy to tell you that I can play PES 5, at Nintendo speed (meaning it feels like playing a soccer game in a console, smoooth playability), by buying a $45 512 MB upgrade, rather than spending $130-$150 on a new Nvidia card this Xmas (and I don't have to wait till xmas neither)! ;)