BleepingComputer.com: system good enough?

does anyone know if my system specs are good enough to run Half life 2 or Black and White 2 or Doom 3?

Dell Dimension 8400
Intell Pentium 4 cpu 3.20 GHz
3.19 GHz, 1 GB of Ram (1024 mb of ram)
Radeon X300 Series(128 mb)
Creative SB Live! 24 bit Sound card
Direct X9 or newest one
CD 48x speed drive
44 Gb hard drive space

thank you.

abd how can you see your Fps? framnes per second.

it will run everything fine except maybe doom 3 which may have to be on a lower setting but everything else will run on high

people have said that my graphics card sucks?
is it good or does it suck?
i don't want to upgrade unless its good enough to play Black and White 2/Half life 2/ or Doom 3.

radeon x300 series (128 mb)

it should be good enough but its still worth upgrading if you want the most from you games

Your graphics card fall into the cheap category, but it will run those games. Maybe with a minimum of graphical goodies but it will run. You can always download run 3DMark05 and with the score we might be able tell you more precisly what you can run how good.

i did but i got a sucky score i think.
i got an 825.
the thing i don't get is that i compared my score with other
computers that have my same graphics card but they have
like scores of 2000?
they have the same specs as mine too so i don't understand it.

One very obvious place to start to improve game performance (without changing graphic settings) is to kill unneeded applications/programs running in the background. Many applications like to start themselves on boot, so when you launch them they pop up immediately; this can save users time, but the price paid is that each of these takes some RAM and some processing while standing around waiting, and booting takes takes longer.
Regards,
John

[QUOTE]
One very obvious place to start to improve game performance (without changing graphic settings) is to kill unneeded applications/programs running in the background. Many applications like to start themselves on boot, so when you launch them they pop up immediately; this can save users time, but the price paid is that each of these takes some RAM and some processing while standing around waiting, and booting takes takes longer.

how do i do that?
what do u mean by "price paid"?
what are other ways to improve game performance?

I use Spybot S&D to manage my start up applications. Using one of its advanced mode tools, I review the start up list, compare each programme to the BC startup database, and make a decision about what to kill.

The "price paid" is in CPU usage compare to the time to launch an application. For example, if you are in and out of MS Office all day, it makes sense to save time launching it by allowing it to partially run in the background. If, however, you use it once every other day, then the few seconds it takes to open it to use it is better in the long run than having it waiting for you.

Other things to keep in mind. Unless you are playing on line, disconnect from the internet while playing and close all the connexion programmes.

Also, most games have options to adjust some of the graphics and sounds; lowering these can improve frame rate (sometimes you have to experiment with these until you get a balance between high graphics and good gameplay).

Lastly, something as simple as defragging your computer can also help.

Regards,
John

thank you i will keep it in mind, John.

how do you use spy bot search aand destroy to delete the start up applications?

1. Go to "mode" and check "advanced."
2. This results in new tabs down the left side of the screen after you click on the accept box.
3. Down at the bottom is a "tools" tab which you can expand.
4. Find "system startup" and put a checkmark in its box. Then double click on the icon/line.
5. You will find a list of everything that can start up when you boot your computer. The checked items actually do this.
6. There are boxes beside the Key that you can uncheck AFTER making sure that killing them will NOT interfere with Windows operating correctly.
The "value" column will give you a hint about what application or program is associated with it. The "command line" colum will give you the path to the launcher. If you check on "show more information" in the centre of the screen, a short explanation of what you see will appear.
Note that each line is colour coded (click on "help" for what each colour means), as yet another guide to help you, but remember this is just a GUIDE.

Unless something is obvious, remember to ALWAYS check against the BC startup database before making any changes!!!!!!!!

Managing startups can take some time at first, but will result in an overall increase in performance every day, and will put YOU in control of your computer.

Regards,
John